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Optimistic reports placed the Nintendo Revolution at a tentative March or April release date, but new word indicates that we won’t be hearing about Revolution specifics until a pre-E3 press conference in early May. While the word is that Nintendo plans to stay as hush-hush about the console as possible until just before release, a revealing in May would indicate a retail release at least a month later, if not moreso, especially if Nintendo plans to release the Revolution in Japan before it hits U.S. shores, a phenomenon typical with Nintendo’s previous releases. This means that Nintendo will square up head-to-head with the Sony PS3, which could foretell doom for Nintendo, who really needs to gain some market share, particularly after their Gamecube sales slump.

It’s not that Nintendo’s totally slacking, however. Word of Nintendo’s “virtual console” patent hit the ‘net, with a filing date going back to February, 2001, which is around when the Gamecube launched. This would suggest that despite Nintendo’s failure to include backwards-compatibility in the Gamecube, that they nonetheless envisioned backwards-compatibility as being important for the future of console gaming. The patent appears strikingly similar to the news that the Revolution will also gamers to play most all of Nintendo’s legacy titles, and more yet, play some of them with improved graphics, new characters, and other bonuses. I’m envisioning better textures for N64 titles, and new models and sprites for many games in Nintendo’s first-party lineup.

Nintendo’s looking to the future in more ways than improving on traditional backwards compatibility, however. After years of my annoyance, it seems that someone at Nintendo finally woke up, as quoted in an article about Nintendo’s implementation of wireless in the Revolution.

Add to that the decline expected in Nintendo’s core audience of boys age 8 to 14. The Census Bureau expects fewer boys in that age group in the future, Fils-Aime said. “That’s why we’re stepping back and saying more of the same is not going to drive this industry,” he said. “We have to disrupt the marketplace that we helped create 20 years ago in order to be successful moving forward.”

While the quote is followed by mention of Nintendogs, the Gameboy DS game that improves on Bandai’s Tamagotchi, I’m hoping that the quote insinuates more than just gameplay innovation. The fact is, the video game generation is all grown up now, and the people who played Legend of Zelda as kids still want to play Link’s latest adventures, but they want an appropriately grown up Link who kicks ass and takes names, not the teenage fancy-pants we know him as in the N64 and cel-shaded Gamecube game.

I’m hoping that Nintendo releases more new on the Revolution in upcoming gaming conferences, and that the pre-E3 notes are a surprising, “Guess what’s shipping in two weeks?”-type of thing. Sadly, reality will have a different story in mind, and hopefully it’s one where Nintendo’s ability to deliver on gameplay and mature titles (like the upcoming Zelda title, perchance) carves out a niche that Sony can’t overtake with a competitive release date adorned with traditional Sony hype.

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