Nintendo has announced release date details for Wii Sports Resort - that’ll be June in Japan and July in North America and Europe, as Reuters reports.

Why is this significant? Well, apart from being a direct sequel to Wii Sports and comprising at least 10 family-friendly activities (jetski, fencing and, er, dog-frisbee confirmed so far), Sports Resort is also Nintendo’s first title to utilise the accuracy-enhancing MotionPlus accessory. Nintendo must be hoping that Wii Sports Resort can help put the brakes on slipping hardware sales too.

There does seem to be a little confusion whether Sports Resort will be the first game to use the technology, though. Readers may recall that EA is planning to launch MotionPlus-enabled Grand Slam Tennis mid-June in the US. It seems rather unlikely that Nintendo would let a third-party publisher be the first to bring its new kit to market. But, you never know.

Elsewhere in the same statement, Nintendo prez Satoru Iwata confirms that he has no plans to cut hardware prices, suggesting instead that innovative software is the way forward:

"Wii (demand) is not vigorous at the moment in Japan. In fact, it is in the most unhealthy situation since its launch in Japan."

"If our products are not much different from competitors', price cuts would generate significant fresh demand. But video games are just not that kind of product," he said.