Satoru Iwata set us up the bomb today. The Wii launch date will be announced this September, threatening to ruin my September 30th wedding ceremony. Also of note is that the DS will be able to act as a touch screen Wii control. Freaking sweet.

Update: In my feverish desire for Wii, I misread the article. The Wii is not launching in September. Rather, the launch date will be announced in September. D’oh!

—via Kotaku

In a dazzling moment, Sony Ireland executive Niall O’Hanrahan made a bold statement recently. Niall spake thus:

“We have a marketing challenge from now until launch. This is not a done deal. It will require a lot of effort from us.”

Adding,

“We would never say we cannot fail.”

Let me be the first to say, “Whaaaaa?” Adding more fuel to the crazy fire, Mr. Ohanrahan had this to say:

“Competition is now not limited to direct competition. We compete with MP3 players. We noticed at E3 that games for PCs are back.”

We noticed that PC games are back, huh? By “we”, do you mean “my buddy Phil Harrison and me,” because I think he might disagree with you. Because, you know, he said that the PS3 would replace your PC and all.

What kind of world do we live in when a Sony executive can admit the possibility of defeat?

—via Eurogamer

Look ladies and gentlemen, it’s the legendary black Wii. Most likely, this is a Wii development kit. Also of note is the Samsung LCD it’s connected to, which is also used on most 360 demo stations. Those things sure are popular.

—image from Digital Battle. Via Kotaku

Hey, internet people, remember how Xbox 360 was one of gaming’s worst kept secrets? Remember how the final design of the console was leaked months before Microsoft made it public? Remember the screens of some goofy looking kid playing 360 long before it’s release? Well, those days are upon us again! Behold!

Now hold on. Before you run off to grab LOTR:BFME2 and Lumines Live using the handy new background downloading, know this: they aren’t there.

That’s right, somebody over at Microsoft made a mistake. I’ll give you a moment to let the shock fade. And…there. There is one gleam of hope however. This false information may point to these games being released soon. I hope so, because Lumines was about the only thing worthwhile on my PSP before I sold it. Another tip about Lumines: the ladies love it.

By the way, how do you say Lumines? I just recently learned it’s pronounced like the word luminous. Before that I always said “Loo Mines”. Go figure.

—via Xboxic

I just wrote this post and it was unexpectedly nuked, so you’re missing out on some eloquent prose. I’m much too sleep-deprived to try and recapture that magic. Suffice it to say that it is a slow news day. Thus, I give you Siloconera’s dream list of non-Nintendo characters for Smash Bros. Brawl. In case you haven’t heard, it was recently revealed that there will be at least a few more third party characters involved. My choice is over there on the right.

Game Videos has a video walkthrough of the upcoming Street Fighter II Arcade game. It looks pretty sweet, if only a barebones version of Street Fighter. The video spends a lot of time discussing lag. I can’t really see it in the video. A few hitches here and there, but it looks okay to me. I’m not actually controlling it though, so it’s hard to say. Either way, I can’t wait to do some old fashioned quarter matches. Find the video here.

—via Xboxic

Unable to wait an entire work day, I turned on my 360 and downloaded the Spring Update this morning. The process took all of thirty seconds. At first glance you wouldn’t know anything was different. Visit a few blades and you’ll get the idea pretty quickly. Without reiterating what you all already know, it’s pretty nice. This feels more like what we were promised back in November. On the whole, it just makes things more seamless. Which is great, because seams really suck.

Hey, Xbox Team, for the next update, let my downloads keep running when the system is off.

I opened up my RSS Reader (a blogger’s best friend) and every post from every site was about the same thing: the upcoming Ultra-Mega-Super Xbox LIVE Update ™. So, I might as well mention it here. Long story short, when you wake up tomorrow morning, it should be available for download. So, that’s nice.

 —via everyone and their (blogging) dog. And Major Nelson.

A new report states that the PS3 will initially include the original PS2 chipset for emulation of PS2 and PS1 games. This statement goes against Ken Kutaragi’s previous statements that emulation would be handled through software a la the 360. While this will no doubt allow for smoother emulation, it’s probably also one of the factors in the PS3’s rather enormous price tag.

 The chips will apparently be removed in further iterations of the PS3 hardware once the software emulation is ironed out.

—via Evil Avatar

Some fresh new shots of Dead Rising surfaced today. I must say, these look significantly better than in the past. The lighting in particular has improved dramatically. Also, the above shot is either an amazing coincidence, or someone at Capcom really loves Pee-Wee Herman.

Find the shots at Xboxyde.