I think its november 17th in America.
I agree that the stripped down $500 is a bitch thing to do.
Did you guys see the conference live last night? I caught the stream, most of it was crap (EA's presentation was aweful), and of course they put Konami last to save their ass.
Other than that, today was Nintendo's conference on the Wii, which looks like a ton of fun. the ones that stayed in my mind were
the new Zelda: Twilight(or midnight?) Princess: freaking awesome.. I'll hunt the video later. Basically beautiful, and looks like hardcore fun with the nunchuk (the new controller).
EDIT: video: here
the new Super Mario: Galaxy. Basically you really take advantage of all 3 dimensions, upside down, etc..you have to see it to understand.
Both games seem awesome, as well as the new Metroid.
Also, the Wii's controller has a speaker on it which, for example, if u shoot in an FPS, you'll hear the gunshot from there...which gives a much more immersive feel to the game.
I'm sort of glad that the PS3 controller kept the original shape...I always loved the dual shock.. And it seems they copied Nintendo with the vertical and tilt motion detectors. oh well. I've seen the way Warhawk plays with the tilt feature, and it's amazing.