Nintendo Confirms Wii Successor, Will Reveal It at E3

After a huge amount of speculation and rumors that appeared in the last couple of weeks, Nintendo has confirmed in an official statement that it will be announcing a successor for its Wii home console at this year's E3 conference.

Nintendo has been rumored to be preparing a Wii 2 or Wii HD console that will take the place of the Wii and boast a wide array of features, ranging from high-definition capability to upgraded hardware and even an all-new controller with a built-in screen.

Now, after all this speculation concerning the successor to the Wii, Nintendo has officially admitted that it will be showing off a new console at this year's E3 conference.

"Nintendo Co. Ltd has decided to launch in 2012 a system to succeed Wii, which the company has sold 86.01 million units on a consolidated shipment basis between its launch in 2006 and the end of March 2011," revealed the company in an update released to investors.

"We will show a playable model of the new system and announced more specifications at the E3 Expo, which will be held June 7-9 2011 in Los Angeles."

Such an announcement was rumored for quite a few weeks, with analysts and third-party publishers saying that a reveal of the Wii successor at E3 is very likely.

Up until now, we've heard quite a lot of things about the new device, which could be called Stream, including rumored hardware specifications that will put it slightly ahead of rivals like the PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360, as well as plenty of details about an all-new controller.

According to them, while it won't replace the Wii Remote altogether, the new controller will be a cross between the old one from the Nintendo 64 and a Nintendo DS handheld, with controls on either side of a small, possibly touch-sensitive, screen.

Nintendo confirmed that it would be releasing the device in 2012, but declined to commit to any concrete time frame.