Digital downloads seem to be the way of the future, looking at the current landscape of the gaming industry now. Even analysts say that retail will be overtaken by digital distribution in a mere three years' time. Nintendo's big boss, Satoru Iwata, begs to differ, however. To him, digital distribution will sure be a hit -- but not till 20 years later.

Japan is without a doubt the Monster Hunter capital of the world, so what happens when you release the next big Monster Hunter title there on a new console? That console sells, of course. That's what happened with the Nintendo Wii, which saw sales quadruple following the release of Monster Hunter 3. Find out how each console fared in the latest Japanese hardware sales charts after the jump.

Wedbush Morgan's exhaustive report on the effects of ancillary revenues on the console cycle contains a little nugget that suggests a Wii HD could convince consumers that it's "the last console they will ever need" and that it could seriously derail any chances of a PS3 comeback.

While the camera-based motion-sensing tech shown by Sony and Microsoft during E3 definitely impressed a lot of gamers, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata had more of a "been there, done that" attitude.

Now this be crazy! The April results from NPD show that the DS outsold all other platforms combined, thanks to its whopping one million units sold. Satoru Iwata, adopt me now.

Now, who would have thought it?

According to the German gaming site GameFront, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun has released a report about a press conference which has just been held by Nintendo. As most press conferences go, the Nintendo officials spoke about upcoming game titles, the financial gains of the company, movements and plans in general. However, one simple statement from Nintendo President Satoru Iwata made the event a whole lot more exciting.

According to the Japanese newspaper, Iwata stated that they "would love to see Kutaragi join up with Nintendo".

Now, this may generate a lot of reactions, but then again, how this will all develop would be nothing short of interesting. After all, Kutaragi's honorary position at Sony isn't exactly a very active office, and The Father of Playstation has also stated in recent interviews that his next ventures would mostly be independent from Sony, so there MAY be a good chance that he'll take Nintendo up on his offer. After all, it cannot be denied that Kutaragi has a long history with Nintendo, since he IS the guy who gave the SNES the gift of sound, via the SPC700 chip which he designed.

However, considering the fact that Kutaragi was also once badly slighted by Iwata's predecessors (think: Hiroshi Yamauchi, CES 1989, and a botched Play Station announcement... note the space in between "Play Station"), one can't really tell what Crazy Ken will do next.

We've seen lots of stuff happen during 2006. The next-gen consoles alone got the the gaming industry at the edge of its seat. The handhelds also had their own booms, bangs, and whistles, too. There were thrills and spills, exclusives and not-so-exclusives-anymore, and lots of other gory stuff to mix into the whole brew. Of course, none of this would be possible without the movers and shakers of the gaming industry themselves.

The recent edition of Japanese magazine Famitsu published the final roundup of their biggest Japanese industry presidents. They took the presidents of Japanese companies and asked the vox populi to vote on how they each gave an impact on the industry and how much influence they held sway on the market. Here's the final list:

1. Nintendo's Satoru Iwata - 201 votes
2. Sony Computer Entertainment's Ken Kutaragi - 181 votes
3. Mistwalker's Hironobu Sakaguchi - 126 votes
4. Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto - 41 votes
5. Konami's/Kojima Productions' Hideo Kojima - 33 votes

We're sure you have your own thoughts and opinions about this list. We're just reporting how things tallied up at Famitsu. It's not much surprising - these people really are the industry's biggest movers and shakers. As to the ranking of these five, yeah, you can say it's contestable. But the fact still remains that, no matter how you jumble around this party of five, you'll still end up with these guys topping the list.

GameDaily is apparently done with its selection process for person of the Year. Insomniac Games CEO Ted Price and Bethesda Softworks' Todd Howard come in at a tie for slot number 5. Cliffy B gets fourth place. WoW Wizard Rob Pardo gets number 3 Slot. Satoru Iwata comes in at second.

So who gets top honor this year? It's ESA president Douglas Lowenstein.

If you're wondering why he deserves top spot, just try to recall how many times the guy went to Capitol Hill. Too bad he's making an exit.

Anyhow, you could also check out QJ's 2006 Community Awards and let your voices be heard.

Dragon Quest is arguably the most popular series in Japan. So popular that a law was made stopping Enix (and now Square Enix) from launching the game on a weekday. Why? Well, when one of the games launched (Dragon Quest II I believe), children skipped school and adults skipped work just to buy it. Not only that, children were also mugged by teenagers for it. Dragon Quest XIII for the PS2 sold 3 million copies in the first few weeks in Japan alone. Now, it seems Dragon Quest IX is in development.

"'[Series producer] Yuji Horii is really busy at the moment on Dragon Quest IX, and I'm really looking forward to what kind of game he's making this time, as a gamer.' Perhaps Mr. Sugiyama was not authorized to say this; he is, however, 75 years old, so let's cut him a break."

Woah. What a slip! Now, in most cases people would just assume that the game would be on the PlayStation 3. However, a few little things have started to change people's faith. Firstly, Satoru Iwata (President of Nintendo) has a very good relation with Horii. So strong in fact that Horii was one of the first people to try out the WiiMote prototype. Also, check out some of his comments.

"Horii has commented that 'graphics can't get that much better' than Dragon Quest VIII, and as long as the Wii is slightly more powerful than a PlayStation 2, it would be 'enough' for Dragon Quest IX. Hopefully it will be powerful enough to render the terrain textures so that they look like Akira Toriyama's manga landscapes"

"Yes, Yuji Horii said that the graphics in VIII were very, very close to what he always dreamt they should look like."

Basically, he feels like DQVIII is how his games should look. He just wants a great way of showing off Toriyama's artwork when it comes to graphics. However, PS3-only fans shouldn't give up hope just yet. Square Enix might still be wary of putting Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest on two different systems. They are the two biggest franchises in Japan and it could cause a split in their fanbase. However, if Dragon Quest IX goes to the Wii, then expect a big shift in the Japan console market.

The Edmonton Sun had an interview with Miyamoto at E3. One of the questions they asked was about the Dual Shock 3. More specifically, it was about the Dual Shock 3's motion sensing capability. What did Miyamoto have to say?

"It's kind of what always seems to happen. But the fact that they looked at what we were doing and decided it was a good path is kind of flattering, it kind of reinforces in our minds that we're doing the right thing. What they've done is just take your standard controller and add in this motion-sensing device that's similar to what we did back on the Game Boy Color many years ago. Maybe if they were to completely copy and go with a remote and a nunchuk and two motion sensors, I might be a little more concerned. But I don't think they're anywhere close to that."

Like Satoru Iwata, he is also taking it with an "Imitation is the greatest form of flattery" type of mindset. Obviously, unlike the WiiMote, the Dual Shock 3 is no more appealing to non-gamers than the Dual Shock 2. That's also something he brought up with names. He thinks Wii is more appealing to non-gamers because it doesn't sound like a game system. It's not a "PlayStation" or a "GameCube." He also had something interesting to say about learning curves. He thinks that the WiiMote will have a deeper learning curve for regular gamers than non-gamers because we have to re-learn our controls. When you think about it, he's right! However, I'm ready for the challenge!