Nintendo Unveil New Mario Game, Nintendo Network

In a Nintendo investor meeting today, Satoru Iwata unveiled a number of items that were previously unknown (including this morning's news confirming that the Wii U will be coming this year).

Specifically:

A new Mario Game is coming to the 3DS. Described only as a "totally new side-scrolling action Super Mario in 2D", it's heralded as a key title and is to be released in Nintendo's next fiscal year (so sometime between March 2012 and February 2013). While the details are thin, the first thing to come to mind would seem to be "Newer Super Mario Bros." or something akin to that.

And, perhaps more significantly:

The Nintendo Network (NiN) is coming. There was a bit more detail about this one, but we're still a little unsure as to exactly what the details will translate to in practice.

"For the Wii U, we are planning to introduce a personal account system compatible with Nintendo Network", Iwata-san said. "With this, for example, the ease of using a video game system when the hardware is shared by multiple family members, which has been a challenge we needed to tackle, shall be improved".

By the sounds of it, content distributed via the Nintendo Network will be tied back to a user (similar to the way PlayStation Network and Xbox Live work) - not a device (the way Nintendo's systems currently work).

The system will allegedly support both the Wii U and the 3DS, although again - until we have an English announcement, it's probably not a great idea to get too hung up on the details.

Source: Nintendo, via NeoGAF - Nintendo Network and New Mario Game Coming