During an investor call, Nintendo revealed that their earnings, for the quarter, were down from what they had previously expected. If you're interested in that, you can read more about it here. There's something about yen, a bunch of number signs, and some arrows pointing all sorts of different directions. Really, it's distracting.

More important, however, is the announcement of an announcement. In an interview with Bloomberg, the company said that they would be revealing the release date for their upcoming handheld, the 3DS, on September 29th. That's right, Nintendo just dropped a release date for a release date. That's right, friends, we're really at that point in this industry. Then again, it's not that hard to figure out when Nintendo is going to release the device. BLIND SPECULATION BELOW!

If they're announcing the date in September, there's very little chance of a release before the end of the year. Like, zero chance. Instead, it will likely see a shelves in both America and Japan mid-way through 2011, allowing them a chance to make sure they're able to get the cost down. This also gives them time to show it off at E3 2011 in full form before actually pushing it into stores. While it was shown off this year, everything being shown was a tech demo, and it would be surprising for the console maker to ship a product before showing it off.

That is, of course, blind speculation. If you have some better algorithm for figuring this sort of thing out, be sure to post it in the comments below. Seriously, I'd appreciate it.