Nintendo's 2010 plans unveil Mistwalker's The Last Story, Monolithsoft's Xenoblade, and more

Nintendo held a investor briefing today following the release of the third quarter financial report yesterday, detailing the last quarter of 2009 and the effects it had on the publisher's Wii and DS systems.  Towards the end of the briefing (which can be seen here), Nintendo Co., Ltd President and CEO Satoru Iwata detailed the company's plans for the coming year.  Although he deferred multiple announcements for this year's E3 Expo to be held in June in Los Angeles, Iwata touched on multiple titles that will be releasing in 2010, as well as a couple games that will be making an appearance at E3.

Iwata reconfirmed that Pokémon Heart Gold Version and Soul Silver Version will be seeing overseas releases in March, after selling 3.74 million units in Japan since its release last September 12th.  Following that, he reiterated what The Pokémon Company had announced yesterday: Pokémon developer GameFreak is working on a new Pokémon title for the DS, due later this year.  Unlike Heart Gold and Soul Silver, however, these games will represent a new generation for the series, with a new world to explore and new Pokémon to catch.  Additionally, Iwata revealed that Golden Sun DS, first announced at last year's E3, will release in 2010.

Moving onto the Wii, Iwata announced the Wii RPG Xenoblade, which was unveiled at last year's E3 as Monado: Beginning of the World.  It is being made by Xenosaga and Baten Kaitos developers Monolithsoft and will release this Spring in Japan.  According to Iwata, Nintendo decided to change the game's name to Xenoblade to honor Monolith head and Xenogears and Xenosaga Episode I director Tetsuya Takahashi who "poured his soul into making this and has been making the Xeno series".  A teaser site for the game is also now available.  Also shown at last year's E3 was Metroid: Other M, the collaboration between Nintendo and Team Ninja, which Iwata has announced that it will be releasing this Summer in Japan.  A teaser site for that title is also available.

An actual new game announcement came in the form of The Last Story, a full-fledged RPG for the Wii.  This is the latest project from the father of Final Fantasy, Hironobu Sakaguchi's design studio Mistwalker.  The game is due for a 2010 release, and will tackle an overall theme of human emotion.  Not much else is known about the title, including gameplay systems or even the studio that will do the coding.  A teaser site for the game can be found here, with a developer's blog becoming available in March.  Also on track for a 2010 release is the next 3D Mario adventure, Super Mario Galaxy 2.

Finishing off his 2010 glimpse, Nintendo's present laid a couple hints of what's to come at this year's E3.  The Wii Vitality Sensor, the accessory first shown towards the tail end of their media briefing last June, will appear once again this year, accompanied by software this time around.  The newest game in the Legend of Zelda series, this time originally developed for the Wii, will also make its first official appearance in Los Angeles.