Club Nintendo coming to North America 'by the end of the year'

"Oh, and one more thing ..."

Okay, so Nintendo's Cammie Dunaway didn't quite pull a Steve Jobs but she did save some of the biggest news for last. Japan's (and Europe's ... and Australia's) envy-inspiring Club Nintendo service – a "loyalty program" which rewards your Nintendo purchase with points to be redeemed for cool swag – will be making its way to North America "by the end of the year." Is this a move to placate the dissatisfied "core" gamer, still bitter from Nintendo's mainstream E3 pitch? Or a plan decades in the making which just so happens to coincide with said dissatisfaction? We may never know, but we're anxious to see what sort of goodies Nintendo offers its too-long taken for granted fanboys and girls.