Rumour has it that Nintendo is to officially announce WiiWare later today, a new Wii channel for original downloadable games – a similar concept to the proven genius that is Xbox Live Arcade and the newer PlayStation Network.

System 3’s CEO, Mark Cale, kicked off the excited debate amongst Nintendo fans recently when he revealed that Impossible Mission would be one of the first games to be made available via WiiWare.

It seems that Cale was bang on when he estimated that the Wii’s new downloadable service for new games would be launching sooner rather than later.

Newsweek also reports that Nintendo wants games from small indie developers as well as the bigger, well-established games publishers, which is really exciting news. We await further details on how WiiWare will work to encourage small, creative, indie teams of game designers.

President and Chief Operating Officer of Nintendo of America, Reggie Fils-Aime, says that Nintendo will determine the appropriate pricing for each game but that, surprisingly, the games themselves will not be checked by Nintendo, other than for basic bug testing.

Now, this begs the questions: "Who is going to submit these to PEGI or the ESRB or the BBFC or any of the other ratings boards? Is it the developer (small chaps sitting in bedrooms?) or the publisher? Could this lead to Adult Only games slipping out?"

SPOnG expects to hear ‘the official’ announcement on WiiWare any time now, so stay tuned for a full update later today.