Wii owners were previously limited to sending and receiving Miis to those who had either had exchanged Friend Codes or made a physical effort to transfer them via Wii Remote. Going by the deluge of how-to guides and videos that appeared on the internet last fall, popular Miis will likely include virtual renditions of beloved characters such as Futurama's Dr. Zoidberg and Star Wars' Chewbacca.

In related news, Nintendo of Japan confirmed that a new model of the Wii that allows for DVD playback will not arrive this year. Nintendo previously expected the DVD-enabled unit to arrive in the latter half of 2007, but decided to focus on meeting consumer demand of the current model instead of putting a more complex version in production.

A new release date was not provided, though the company points out that, due to DVD licensing fees, the cost of the eventual revision may be higher than the existing SKU.