Will we be seeing the Wii's gun attachment a lot sooner than first thought? Updated! Yes... but it's not from Nintendo.

At E3 2006, a gun attachment was shown off by Nintendo called the 'Zapper', an add on for the Wii Remote and Nunchuk that acted as a lightgun, except utilising the highly advanced Wii pointer. It was shown off with a demo for a Duck Hunt-like game that most likely evolved into one of the games on Wii Play, but lightgun fanatics held on to the belief that the add-on would be released officially shortly after the Wii launch. The addition of Duck Hunt to the PEGI rating system for the Virtual Console strengthens the likelihood that the Zapper will appear at some point.

Hang on a second, what's this? GameStop, notorious for listing games on their release schedules that have not been officially confirmed or given a release date, have included the latest in a long line of Wii peripherals on one of their latest posters. The Wii Blaster, penned down by GameStop for a release on June 27th 2007 for $19.99, is shown off in a picture on the poster. It is said to work with Wii Play, Nintendo Duck Hunt (presumably the forthcoming Virtual Console incarnation), Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition and more games. There's no word on whether this is the official 'Zapper' add-on, but I doubt GameStop would dedicate that much space on a poster for a third-party peripheral. Here is a scan of the poster:

Stay tuned to N-Europe for verification of the Wii Blaster rumour.

UPDATE!

It appears that the Wii Blaster is indeed a third-party peripheral. Once again, we remain in the dark about Nintendo's official Zapper attachment. Thanks to Joystiq for clarifying this.