Looks like the rumors were spot on at this point. Fresh out of Nintendo’s briefing in Japan, Iwata has lifted the sheet off of the newest Nintendo hardware. Dubbed the DSi, the new unit drops the GBA slot, gets 12 percent thinner, adds larger screens, and two cameras (one of which is VGA resolution). Click over for all the juicy details.

[Update: The DSi will only use the bottom screen as a touch screen. Some sites were reporting dual touchable goodness, but it looks like it was just wishful thinking.]

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It’s no secret that Nintendo has been making a few extra bucks these days, but it may be a surprising to hear that each of their employees (in a way) are more valuable than their counterparts at Google or investment firm Goldman Sachs.

With less than 3,000 permanent employees, it’s projected by the Financial Times that each individual will be responsible for $1.6 million in profit. Goldman Sachs comes across the line at a mere $1.24 million. Salary for the two companies is a different story, Nintendo averaging about $90,000 and GS coming in with 7 times that amount at $660,000.

GameDaily

Nintendo showed up at AARP’s annual Life@50+ Expo event at Washington, D.C. this past weekend, bringing along “senior- and baby boomer-friendly” games such as Wii Sports, Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes A Day, and the brand new Mystery Case Files: MillionHeir for the Nintendo DS.

That’s right, granny got to try out Nintendo’s latest DS game before you did! You can see some of Nintendo’s photos of the event after the break.

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Seeing as how Nintendo’s Wi-Fi USB Connector is currently discontinued pending a lawsuit against Buffalo, it would make sense that Nintendo come up with a way to get wireless-less Wii and DS owners online in some manner.

Enter the Wi-Fi network adapter you see above. From the looks of it, you simply plug in the power, plug into your LAN or directly to the Internet, and you’re good to go. It supports 802.11g/b, and will be available for ¥5800. It’s a safe bet that it only allows connections for Wii and DS systems, and it’s also a safe bet that this will only be heavily supported in Japan. Maybe a limited release via the Nintendo Online Store for the rest of the world?

More pics after the break!

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Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars has hit the European Virtual Console. What makes this release especially newsworthy is the fact that this game was never released in Europe on the SNES back in 1996. European gamers finally can figure out who this strange “Geno” character was, and have flashbacks of other games created when Square and Nintendo used to be tight like this *crosses fingers*.

You lucky European folks! You are blessed with one of my favorite titles growing up. It is only a matter of time before this hits the U.S., and you can guarantee that once it does, various gamers from the 80’s and 90’s will ignore their children, jobs, and lives, just to complete this adventure one more time.

Siliconera

Remember Captain Rainbow? We saw that trailer of him in action a little while ago, but we haven’t heard from him in a little while. Up until now that is. 1UP dug up some interesting tidbits explaining what the game is all about. Turns out, Captain Rainbow can be compared to a wacky mix of Animal Crossing and Mario.

Gamers at one point in the game will travel around Mimin Island (the game’s setting), conversing with the locals, figuring out what ails them, and gathering crystals called kirarin. The other half of the game is enjoyed by spending 20 of your kirarin to unlock a side-scrolling action event. The point of each action sequence is to collect a star that will help a single resident in achieving their dreams.

Sounds interesting, but will it make it ever make it to the new world and other parts of the old? Stay tuned to find out more!

1UP

Here’s a video straight from yours truly, with a little Nintendo flavor thrown in for good measure. If anyone is looking for a place to live in Montana, I suggest changing your mind. It’s not worth it.

Reported earlier this week, Nintendo (as well as many other developers) are taking a stand against DS piracy. Not surprisingly, gamers everywhere have been buying the little cartridge that could at record paces since the legal announcement. Stores all over Japan are sold out, with one retail worker adding:

The rush in demand has been amazing. These devices always sell well. But this weekend should be staggering, don’t you think?

Reminds me a little of Y2K.

Kotaku

I’m sure that most of us are still shocked to see that our small white box has surpassed all consoles this generation, so it’s no surprise that 3rd parties are and trying to play catch-up. EA’s CEO John Riccitiello, has also shared his regret for focusing his resources on early bets this generation:

…we typically figured out who the market leader was going to be before the start of the cycle and bet with our development resources on that platform. We made the wrong call there (by betting on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360), which made this transition harder than it would otherwise be. But now we’re catching up, and I think we’re fine. We’ve got some incredibly innovative Wii titles, incredibly innovative DS titles coming. And so I think that issue’s sort of behind us.

Who would have figured that a small sleek console with a magical controller would be shaking industry giants at this moment? Considering Capcom has also shared their opinion about providing more resources to Wii development, I assume that there are others doing the same. It’s only a matter of time before we should see the fruits of this labor.

San Jose Mercury News

…And by seas, I really mean “C”s which, of course, is referring to the courts. Nintendo, and a handful of other developers, have started fighting back against imported “R4 Revolution” for DS” cartridges that allow for easy uploading from the Internet. According to Nintendo the device is:

causing severe damage to our company and software makers, and this is something that we cannot possibly overlook.

It’s nice to see companies actively fighting back against products like this, unless you use one of course. A list of other companies joining Nintendo in the battle after the break.

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