Wii - $250 at launch!

Written By Words of Ivory 675 days ago
News Category: Console News
Relevant Consoles: : Wii

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During their official press conferences in Tokyo and New York today, Nintendo finally released some concrete details about the approaching launch of the Wii in both regions, and officially unveiled the price of the console for American shores.

NEW YORK CONFERENCE:

Rather surprisingly, the console will launch on American shores earlier than it will in Japan - November 19th, to be exact. The machine will be officially tagged at $250, and come bundled with the Wii Sports game - Many would watch the E3 Nintendo conference this year will fondly remember the Tennis game played between the higher execs of Nintendo, which is one of the sports that makes up the game, along with baseball, golf and bowling.

25 titles will be available at launch, priced around the $50 mark, a fact which may please many who were frustrated with the high price mark set for Xbox 360 games.

Amongst the surprise inclusion of newly announced internet browsing capabilities, the machine will also sport something rather un-Nintendo, an interactive news and weather channel accessible through the Virtual Console (which will be accessible from launch). Little information is available on this at the moment, but we'll update you as soon as we find out more.

Mario Galaxy, one of the most hotly anticipated titles for the console, will unfortunately not make it the launch. The game has been put back to an early 2007 launch date.

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JAPAN CONFERENCE:

Concerning the Japanese release of the console, official facts was largely similar, but there was still some rather interesting information to be found.

The machine's price in the east will be set at 25,000 yen, the equivalent of $213, a rather large difference in cost between regions. Unfortunately, the Japanese will receive the console two weeks later than western shores, arriving on December 2nd, minus the Wii Sports game.

Rather surprisingly (especially considering the later launch date of the console) Japanese gamers will actually have less gamers to choose from at launch, with only 15 games available on day one.

Virtual Console facts are a little more solid though, with 30 games planned to be downloadable from the off, encompassing NES, SNES, N84, TurboGrafx and Mega Drive (Genesis) games. Purchases will be available through credit cards, or a "top-up card" system similar to cell-phone top-ups and the X-Box Live Arcade system.

A rather surprising decision comes in the announcement that the classic games-controller (pictured below with top-up card) will not come packaged with the machine, though anyone who purchases a 5000 point Wii-point card can nab himself one of the controllers for free.

Whether this will be the same for American shores is unknown, though it seems rather likely.

It seems amongst all the current hustle and bustle about the Wii launch, that Europe has been completely forgotten... so please, say a small prayer for them in their time of sorrow, if you get the chance.

Tags : console launch : Nintendo : prices

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Comments

By: Somasu On: 05:45 Sep 14th, 2006 Offline	With news like this, it's hard for me to keep my pants on. I've been reading all of this all night, and I'm damn excited for it. I must ask, though. There's one piece of your news that I can't seem to figure out where it was said. Twilight Princess. You say here that it won't be at Launch, but at Kotaku, IGN, and other places, it still has it as an officially confirmed Launch Title. Do you have a source of this information that you can point out? Or where did you hear that TP isn't going to be there at launch?
By: Princess Starberry On: 07:43 Sep 14th, 2006 Offline	... *joygasm* That is extremely exciting news! Still kinda sad-face about Zelda (which is one I was looking forward to) ... but I think I know what I'm getting as a birthday present this year! ^_^ Guess I should find out what games are going to be released ... *runs away to search*
By: Mobius Zero On: 08:02 Sep 14th, 2006 Online	Nintendo is holding it's own but I am more concerned about the fact that Mario Galaxy will not be an opening title. I say this because isn't this what made the Gamecube go the way of the dodo when Mario was not an opening launch title. Think about it, just about every system that Nintendo has made with Mario or Zelda (It happened that way in Japan) as a launch title, has kicked ass up till this point like the NES, SNES, N64. Since Nintendo is trying to appeal to everyone, I can't really say anything else bad about it but call me paranoid, but this sounds too good to be true for me, at least.
By: dilmanator On: 08:10 Sep 14th, 2006 Offline	the reason the gamecube slumped was because the ps2 had raped the market..... it had what the average consumer wanted and it was released like six months before hand. it had the advantage and boy did it pay off..... not having mario as a release game is not something that the average person is going to cry about i kinda realized that the class ctrl wouldnt be released with console... and at that price can you really complain ?
By: Mobius Zero On: 09:36 Sep 14th, 2006 Online	The PS2 did not even have good games till the end of 2001 and it was probably one of the cheapest DVD players at the time. I mean it's like having the star mascot not show up at any sport you can think of. Aside from that, everything else about it is good. I can't help but be a pessimist some times.
By: dilmanator On: 10:07 Sep 14th, 2006 Offline	i usually am a pessimist... its alot harder to be let then when youre expecting utter tripe :P ... its an ideology that has seemed to be useful these past few years in gaming
By: Dragonfly On: 06:16 Sep 14th, 2006 Online	Update: Twilight Princess will apparently now be a launch game for the console, with the GameCube version being the one to be delayed, now set for December 11th.
By: Somasu On: 06:48 Sep 14th, 2006 Offline	Words of Ivory;3593 Update: Twilight Princess will apparently now be a launch game for the console, with the GameCube version being the one to be delayed, now set for December 11th. Ah now that makes more sense. That said, Wii with Twilight Princess, Metroid Prime 3, and Rayman will be in my hands, November 19th at 12:01 AM. Nintendo FTW!
By: Dragonfly On: 06:57 Sep 14th, 2006 Online	Somasu;3594 That said, Wii with Twilight Princess, Metroid Prime 3, and Rayman will be in my hands, November 19th at 12:01 AM. Nintendo FTW! .... *hugs you gently, to comfort you for the shock that is about to come* Metroid Prime 3 isn't due out until 2007...
By: Somasu On: 07:23 Sep 14th, 2006 Offline	Words of Ivory;3595 .... *hugs you gently, to comfort you for the shock that is about to come* Metroid Prime 3 isn't due out until 2007... Eh, that kind of shock isn't anywhere near what I'm feeling of another type of shock. Though I do say that I'm a bit behind if I didn't see MP3 being delayed.
By: lockwood On: 09:42 Sep 15th, 2006 Offline	Who want to start a Salvation Army type donation bin to raise money for my copy of Twilight Princess? According to this information, it comes out on my birthday. You'd all be my new best friends with a gift like that...
By: Magus On: 02:19 Sep 24th, 2006 Offline	I'm definately getting the Wii as soon as possible when it turns up over here in Norway. It may even become a Christmas present. It's being released on the 8th of December, so I've got a while yet to wait for the console. As for TP, it's a must get for me. As long as they don't "pull a Microsoft" and release only 12 consoles on the release date, like MS did with the XBox 360.
By: Nesuki On: 03:59 Sep 24th, 2006 Offline	Well, in Australia, the price will be AU$400, which is not too bad, compare to Xbox360's launch price, I guess? And the expected release date is December 7th, according to the article. http://www.ausgamers.com/pressreleases/html/2468167"]Article Here[/URL] Since I am not getting the first gen of anything, by the time I get mine (either 2nd or 3rd gen), I get more choice of the games xD MWAHAHAHA

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