On March 25, 2009, the president and CEO of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata, took the time out his busy schedule to travel all the way from Japan to grace the attendees of the 2009 Game Developer’s Conference (held in San Francisco, California) with a highly anticipated keynote.

Held in the Moscone South Esplanade Ballroom, interested attendees entered an impressive sized room capable of holding 1000s of people. Three huge screens graced the front stage amidst a blue and indigo light scheme. Contemporary music tracks played in the background to entertain the audience until the main attraction begun.

The momentous keynote was titled “Discovering New Development Opportunities” and included several interesting topics:

Square Enix has combined an expected announcement with two unexpected ones. We all knew that the Final Fantasy IV cell phone game sequel, Final Fantasy IV: The After Years was headed to Wiiware. We’ve now learned it won’t be alone. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King’s sequel, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a Darklord will be joining it on Wiiware and the original NES Final Fantasy will be released on Virtual Console. I guess somebody’s going to have to start charging up Wii Points. All three games currently have a 2009 release window, with no exact release dates or prices mentioned.

Gone are the boats and ponies of yesteryear – Link has officially upgraded to riding on trains (like MIA, no?) for his latest DS adventure, The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks. Announced today (March 25, 2009) at the Game Developer’s Conference by Nintendo bigwig Satoru Iwata (at the tail end of his keynote speech, for full dramatic effect), the game is slated to hit the Nintendo DS later this year.