It seems the recent drop in price for the Nintendo Wii game consoles from $199.99 to $169.99 may have been a sign, as Nintendo has just confirmed it will release the successor for the popular gaming device in 2012.

It’s about time, as the Japanese gaming company revealed its yearly financial results for 2010, which showed a significant plunge in net profit – a meager $825 million, 66 percent less than the previous year. Since 2006, when the premier device was launched, an approximate 86.01 million units have been sold, with only 15.1 million of the devices purchased in 2010 – a 25 percent decline from 2009, when 20.1 million devices were sold globally.

Consumers will have to wait a little bit to learn more about the specs and features of the second-generation console, which will be revealed at the E3 Expo being held June 7 to 9 in Los Angeles.

With this announcement, rumors for the next-generation console are certainly beginning to swirl. According to DigitalTrends.com, the system is expected to be designed to compete with the offerings of the Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360 – both champions in the gaming realm, and both which boast of high-definition output and the capacity to run identical multi-platform releases.

Of course, what set the Wii apart from other gaming units was its revolutionary motion controls, which set the standard and trend for thumbs-free gaming. However, Nintendo has confirmed that the Wii motion controls will return with the Wii 2, but will come paired with a more traditional gamepad packed with several new innovations including a camera and a 6.2-inch touchscreen, and twin analog thumbsticks with eight buttons – certainly a move to promote family-friendly and inclusionary gaming.

As of late 2010, 65.3 million Wii remote controllers had been sold since the console was introduced in 2006. This means that Nintendo has sold an average of 46,000 remotes each day for the last four years, as reported by TMCnet. In November, around the same time motion control console Kinect hit the market, Nintendo halted all sales of the first-generation Wii controller for the replacement of the Wii Remote Plus, which features MotionPlus technology that provides more accurate movement control.

Tammy Wolf is a TMCnet web editor. She covers a wide range of topics, including IP communications and information technology. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Jennifer Russell