Iwata has revealed a few more details about the Nintendo Revolution, as well as information regarding the DS' online services and the much-loved Nintendogs.

At a recent press conference Nintendo's president Satoru Iwata revealed a few more details regarding several key aspects of Nintendo's future. The main focus was on the Revolution, but he also discussed Nintendogs and the DS' Wi-Fi features that will be launched shortly.

Iwata stressed that the Revolution is thin, small and will not get in your way. It will also be quiet and not use much power, perfect for those all night gaming sessions.

The much discussed games-downloading is bought up again, but unfortunately there’s some bad news. Nintendo will be charging you to download games from Nintendo's prior consoles. There will be several service types, such as free downloads which expire after a limited period. Iwata suggested that games may be downloadable for free as a reward for buying games, similar to the Stars Catalogue but much, well better to be honest. The downloads will be stored on the console's inbuilt 512MB memory, but if you fill that you can insert an SD memory card and load the games onto your computer. However file sharing will be unavailable, to prevent the games being pirated.

Iwata stated that the flash memory was chosen over a hard drive for longitivity and cost. As well as downloading old games the flash memory will be used for firmware updates, saving games and downloading demos. Good news all around it seems.

Iwata confirmed that you will be able to use all forms of GameCube controllers on the Revolution, including the Wave Bird, Dance Dance dance mat, Mario Party microphone and Donkey Konga bongos.

While the controller has yet to be shown there has been a lot of interest in it. It is due to be shown before the end of the year (only another possible six months then) and Iwata stated, "I think you will be surprised by the Revolution's controller."

Iwata also reported that while the Revolution will feature grand epics such as Zelda, simple titles such as the DS' Otona no DS Training will make their way onto the console.

Nintendo's Wi-Fi plans for the DS are coming along nicely apparently. Gamers will not need to pay when they play online for the Nintendo titles Mario Kart DS and Animal Forest, but whether or not the situation will be the same for third-party developers is unknown at present.

As of the twenty-first of this month gamers in Japan will be able to walk around train stations and shops with their DS' closed and, providing their Nintendogs cart is in the system, trade dog data automatically.

Lastly, Iwata spoke about sales trends in Japan. It seems that over 40% of the copies of Nintendogs sold have been to females, which we are told is almost double what most DS games sell. Similarly, Otona no DS Training has proved popular with the females of this species, and with older gamers. This change in demographics is due to what Nintendo call their "Touch Generation" of games that aim to bring new gamers into the videogame industry.