Next week will see the formal debut of the long-awaited Wii entry in Nintendo's unique Animal Crossing series, according to a now-edited blog entry from an Official Nintendo Magazine UK editor.

"Animal Crossing Wii will be unveiled at the [Nintendo E3 press] conference," ONM UK online editor Tom East's blog entry formerly read, according to Kotaku. Now, it simply states that "everyone is hoping that Animal Crossing Wii will be there."

Heavily rumored to be an MMO, Animal Crossing Wii was officially confirmed back in January, though the only known detail is a vague 2008 Japanese release date.

The open-village series, which tasks players with repaying an ever-increasing house loan, debuted on the Nintendo 64, followed by entries on the GameCube and Nintendo DS. Only the latter two were released outside of Japan.

Nintendo's E3 press conference begins at 9:00 AM PDT next Tuesday, July 15. Shacknews will be providing live coverage from the event.

The long-rumored Wii edition of Animal Crossing will hit Japan this year, according to financial documents released by Nintendo of Japan.

Other Wii titles listed in the document for a Japanese 2008 release include Wii Music, a new Kirby title, Disaster: Day of Crisis, Super Mario Stadium Family Baseball, and Minna no Joushikiryoku Terebi, which is roughly translated as Everyone's Common Knowledge Television.

While the document did not specify anything in the way of North American and European releases of the above titles, it did reaffirm Nintendo's plans for a worldwide spring release of Mario Kart Wii.

However, given that both the North American and European lists contained little in the way of titles expected within the general 2008 timeframe, it is still quite possible that the games may arrive in those territories before the year's end.