Games Dated and Awarded at GDC

The annual Game Developers Conference (where the industry gathers to party and discuss the development of games…but mostly to party) is currently underway in San Francisco and, as usual, Nintendo has a presence at the event. With that presence comes some interesting news tidbits.

Nintendo announced yesterday that they have officially set release dates for the North American launch of two items. Wii Fit, the game/exercise program that is already making record sales in Japan, will be released May 19; just in time for players to start getting in shape for the summer.

Also announced was that WiiWare will be available beginning May 12. The service, which allows Wii owners to purchase and download original gaming content, is expected to provide competition to Sony’s Playstation Store and Microsoft’s Xbox Live Arcade. Nintendo is supporting their service with two announced games so far: Dr. Mario and Pokemon Farm. The former is an update to their classic NES puzzler and the latter is a virtual training space for Pokemon fans to raise their favorite critters. Both games are expected to launch simultaneously with the service, or soon after.

Nintendo’s presence in the gaming market was also present during the Game Developers Choice Awards. The industry voted The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass as the best handheld game of the year. Nintendo was also honored with nominations for Super Mario Galaxy in the Best Game of the Year and Best Game Design categories.

Nintendo Awesomeness will be sure to be updated with any other news that may be announced during the rest of the conference.