One of the most eagerly anticipated games, Animal Crossing Wii, will be released by the end of the year, Nintendo announced today at the company's E3 press conference.

Besides a bigger world to explore, and new ways of interaction with other players, such as letter sending and e-mail, the game, dubbed "Animal Crossing: City Folk," comes with a new microphone peripheral for the Wii. The device called Wii Speak is not a head set, but rather a microphone in which more people around the room will be able to speak.

The peripheral will allow players to chat online and undertake activities inside the game. In one of the examples presented at the conference, players used the Wii Speak to talk to one another while having a meal in a restaurant in the game.

Players will also be able to create their own world and share this world with other players and friends. Animal Crossing features an academy, fashion designers, stores and beauty salons.

Creator of Animal Crossing, Katsuya Eguchi, said in his onscreen presentation that he "wanted to create software where players could feel like they are playing together even if they were playing at different times." Wii Speak will ship separately at a $29.99 price point sometime around the winter holidays.