RPGamer was lucky enough to attend Nintendo's press conference this morning, where among the details discussed were the release dates of the system and information on the peripherals and Nintendo's philosophy about the system and its games. The Japanese GameCube will launch as previously expected on September 14, 2001. The audience showed much more suprised as the North American release date was formally announced to be November 5, 2001. The system will arrive in Europe sometime in 2002.

In addition to the release information, a demonstration of Nintendo's official wireless controller, the Wavebird, was given, proving the responsiveness and effectiveness of the GameCube controller. The Wavebird will utilize an RF system to allow players to play GameCube games from up to 30 feet away. Nintendo also announced in their press release that though only a 56kbps modem adapter is expected at launch, a broadband adapter will be available in the future.

During the breaks in the game footage and promotional videos, Nintendo was given a chance to outline their business philosopy. This philosophy was related through four main concepts: Innovation, Quality, Characters, and Heritage. Nintendo successfully showed through the games displayed today that these concepts will be an inseperable part of Nintendo's software for years to come.

Images from this conference will soon be available in RPGamer's E3 2001 gallery.