Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata has apologized for the approach the company took at this year's E3 press conference and the perception that it has abandoned the "core gamers." He tells Forbes that the feelings of neglect Nintendo fans might be feeling is a "misunderstanding" and the company wants to "get rid of that misunderstanding by any means." Iwata explains "big titles" require time and Nintendo didn't think this was the year to announce any.

The other thing Iwata's conversation with Forbes covers is the continuing Wii supply shortage in the US. The CEO expresses that Nintendo is 100% committed to having Wii be available this holiday, but can't make any guarantee. He believes the best he can do right now is say the company is doing its best to supply the States with consoles.

Famous for groundbreaking science fiction novels such as Schizmatrix and Heavy Weather, author Bruce Sterling is also regarded as one of the world's leading futurists. That is, he's really good at predicting where everything from media to industry to consumer technology will be at in the near future. Now he's going to do the same with video games ... and what they will be like in the year 2043.

Sterling will deliver his keynote address, "Computer Entertainment 35 Years from Today," at the upcoming Austin Game Developers Conference being held September 15-17. It will certainly be intriguing to hear what one of the founders of the cyberpunk movement has to say about the future of our shared hobby, especially given the recent introduction of technology such as Wii MotionPlus. We also have to wonder if he's seen Sony's famous "PS9" commercial.

"I do not think Pong, bless its little square boxes, was ever featured in Rolling Stone."
- ESA CEO Mike Gallagher highlights the growing public acceptance of games at his E3 "State of the Industry" keynote. While he might be right, the venerable pop culture magazine did do a story about SpaceWar way back in 1972.

"We're in a new era of acceptance for video and computer games."

So did ESA CEO Mike Gallagher kick off his "State of the Industry" E3 keynote speech this afternoon. "When we look back, we'll see now is the time that our industry became an accepted part of our cultural landscape," he added.

The signs of this change are all around us, according to Gallagher, such as the prominent participation of Texas Governor Rick Perry in another keynote speech this morning. "In my predecessor's time, we were fighting government officials, not working with them," he said. While there are still problems with the game industry's image, he said, projects like Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's planned civics education game show that "those who write about the industry in narrow demographic terms are behind the times."

If we had to summarize thismorning's E keynote speech by Texas Governor Rick Perry in three words, it would be "Texas is awesome." If we had a few more words, we'd say "Texas is awesome, and so is the game industry."

After a short introductory video featuring a few Texan developers (including Warren Spector), Perry launched into a laundry list of the business virtues for the Lone Star state, including a legal system low on frivolous lawsuits, an income-tax free revenue structure that "lets workers keep their wages" and a "sensible regulatory environment," whatever that means. Texas also has more Fortune 500 companies than any other state, making it an economic powerhouse.

"The weather is hot, the barbecue is hot, the music is hot, and we want to see the game industry even hotter," Perry said, gushing about the 2,800 new jobs created by 22 Texas game development companies (the third highest concentration in America, but Perry is "gunning for No. 1"). The governor lost us a bit when he said the industry average salary of $63,000 a year "may seem like pocket change to those of you here from California or Washington," Personally, we'd love to make that kind of scratch.

10:23 am PT: We're en route to Sony now, stay tuned! In the meantime, have you prepped your bingo card? We haven't won yet this week.

11:11: We're waiting outside the entrance. Tons of people in front of the entrance to the show. Veronica Belmont is getting tons of fan response for Qore. People are taking pictures with her.

11:25: We've just taken our seats at Sony's conference in front of what could only be described as a wall of screens: 7 main screens and roughly 64 smaller screens. OMG, Vaio LCD's everywhere. You'd think this was a Sony event.

If you're looking for the unabridged version in all its glory, look no further than our liveblog with our fine friends at Engadget. If you're afflicted with crippling bouts of ADHD like we are and just want the meaty (beating, bloody) heart of the announcement highlights, please direct your eyeballs further down this post and after the break:

• Fallout 3: will feature exclusive DLC on Xbox 360, Games for Windows.
• Resident Evil 5: they showed the world's first playable demo; online co-op mode was confirmed; the release date for North America and Europe will be March 13th 2009.
• Fable II is finished and will be out in October.
• Gears of War 2: A new mode was announced called "Horde," a five-player co-op mode taking on waves and waves of locust. GOW2 release date will be November 7, 2008.

We know you're all dying to find out Engadget and Joystiq's annual joint-live coverage schedule for the Big Three keynotes, so here's what you need to know. It all starts later this morning with Microsoft's Xbox 360 press conference -- but you'll be waiting until Tuesday for the big N and Sony to kick off. Links and approximate times we'll get started are listed below, we'll see you back shortly live from E3!

P.S. -Don't forget your press conference bingo cards.

Monday, July 14th
~10:30AM PT / 1:30PM ET - Live from Microsoft's E3 2008 keynote

Tuesday, July 15th
~9:00AM PT / 11:30AM ET - Live from Nintendo's E3 2008 keynote
~11:30AM PT / 2:30PM ET - Live from Sony's E3 2008 keynote

Following Sega's Super Monkey Ball iPhone demo during today's WWDC Apple keynote, Pangea Software's Brian Greenstone took the stage to show two games they have been working on, Enigmo and Cro-Mag Rally, both games that date back to at least 2003 for the developer. Said Grenstone, both games took "three days to get each game up and running -- totally playable."

No other news is available. Monkey Ball notwithstanding, it's kind of disappointing we haven't seen anything from known iPhone devs Ubisoft, Electronic Arts, id Software or Gameloft. Pictures of Cro-Mag Rally for iPhone after the break.

Now this is what we're talking about. Digital Legends Entertainment was the last of three game developers presenting at today's Apple keynote (the other two being Sega and Pangea), and they showed off an action-adventure title due out for the iPhone in September.

Our friends at Engadget had this to say about the game: "Looks a little like God of War, graphics somewhere between DS and PSP. Pretty friggin' impressive. N-GAGE has been after games that look this good for years." We don't know the title, although our best guess is Nightfall Dragons (found on the developer's website). More pictures after the break.

10:22 am PT -- We've taken our seats at Microsoft's GDC keynote -- they're very nice, but we're not sure where to take them yet. The pawn shop seems too far, so we guess we'll just push them to the front row.

10:23 am PT -- A friendly announcer asks us turn off all cellphones and electronic devices. Hmm, yeah, we're not convinced that's something you want to say to an army of laptop-wielding nerds.

10:26 am PT -- Loud James Bond music blasts us from the stage. Obviously, we now expect John Schappert to descend from the ceiling.

10:27 am PT -- It will be "greatly appreciated" if we turn off our electronic devices. Somehow, we suspect our readers won't share that sentiment if we comply.

10:29 am PT -- Jamil Moledina steps onto the stage and welcomes us (he's polite!) "Change is the heart of opportunity in the games industry," he says. "The old boundaries of gamer, developer, technology and social technology are starting to shimmer."

Next week, the Joystiq crew will pack their precious belongings (a laptop, some clothes, and a towel) before flying off to the 2008 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. So now seems about as good a time as any to reflect back on last year's GDC for a taste of what's to come. Sure, there's a dearth of playable demos when compared to E3 or TGS, but what other trade show can say they redefined the role of adhesive in internet conversations?

Keep reading for our remembrances of the keynotes (what's Game 3.0 again?), last year's big news (Harmonix and EA are doing what?), the sessions and interviews (the Wii is how many Gamecubes duct-taped together?), and the whole culture of GDC (Miyamoto made quite a splash).

In a keynote entitled "A Future Wide Open: Unleashing the Creative Community," Microsoft will either discuss the implications of chasing Sound Blaster owners from their homes... or the "Xbox 360 platform's next step in democratizing game development," which is what it says here in the press release. The same informative block of text notes that Microsoft's keynote at this year's Game Developers Conference -- its first since 2005 -- will be delivered by John Schappert, otherwise known as "Corporate Vice President of LIVE, Software and Services for the Interactive Entertainment Business" since leaving EA in August 2007.

Schappert's schpeech will delve into the Xbox 360's schtrategy for 2008, touching on topics such as online gaming, digital distribution and support of smaller developers. Top developers are also part of the talk, with some of their plans for the Xbox 360 expected to be unfurled and plastered across colorful pie charts. Joystiq will provide a full report during the keynote on February 22nd, taking special care to describe a future wide open. We suspect it'll be obnoxiously bright and smell vaguely of gasoline.