Nintendo Unveils Wii Party

What's next after Wii Sports, Wii Fit and Wii Music? Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata provided that answer at an investor briefing today as he detailed Wii Party.

Wii Party is, as the name might suggest, a collection of party games. Slides shown during the briefing suggested the following modes of play:

Teiban Party

Playable by one to four players. Includes "teiban," or "standard," games like Bingo, Roulette, Mii-jan, Overseas Trip Game and Sugoroku (dice).

Pair Party

Recommended for two players. Includes Compatibility Check, Balance Ship, and Mii Awase (Mii Alignment).

Living Party

Playable by more than two people. Iwata said that this area would feature new play types made possible by the Wiimote.

The game uses your Mii avatar collection for its characters. During the briefing, Iwata mentioned that over 160 million Miis have been made throughout the world.

Iwata noted that Wii Party will be Nintendo's first party game since 2007's Mario Party 8. That game sold 7.6 million copies worldwide. He told investors to expect Wii Party to be a major title from Nintendo for this fiscal year.

(Update 21:40 -- Nintendo has posted an English transcript of the investors briefing. You can read Iwata's full commentary on Wii Party here).