ANN is reporting that after teasing it in a press conference in September, Nintendo's Hiroshi Yamauchi announced that Nintendo will be opening an anime studio by 2006, producing videogame tie-in animations.

In a statement earlier, Yamauchi was quoted as saying, "Videogames are very similar to films." Despite the fact that anyone who has done art for both digital film and the game industry would tell you that's a crock of monkey snot, I'm interested to see what Nintendo wants to make. Will they be taking over future Pokemon cartoons? Some sort of Super Mario Bros. series? Donkey Kong?

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for Metroid. Ghost In the Shell meets Aliens with music by Yoko Kanno. Oh yes.