Wii Price & Launch

America:
-Release Date - November 19th
-Package Indludes:
Console
Power Cable
A/V Cable
Wiimote
Nunchuck
Sensor Bar
Wii Sports!
-Price $249.99!

News Source (pictures):
http://blogs.ign.com/craig-ign

link to source please?

Whoa, so it's gonna be released [gasp] AFTER the PS3?! [/gasp]

Wow, just over 2 months to wait eh?
I guess that leaves 2 months of time wasting in the meantime. :)

There: http://wii.ign.com/articles/732/732669p1.html

I think it's quite interesting that the Wii is as ready to be a handy multimedia device (for stuff other than games) as a PS3 or XB360 and Nintendo rarely mentions it. Aside from a few other little restraints (and the big restraint of not using DVDs?! Who cares about that though; everyone and his granny has a DVD player), I think the smaller and less obtrusive design as well as the controller that's already like a TV remote (no extra peripherals) will make it much better for those things, too.

I will be interested to see what they do in future with the Wifi connectivity. They could write software to compete (in a way - but maybe lower quality since the hardware isn't built for it) with Apple's proposed iTV, and end up having it actually cost less than what Apple will be charging.

Considering their price, I was really hoping they'd add in a bit more, like say, a few WiiPoints, a second Wiimore w/ Nunchuk (After reading some stuff, it appears Nunchuk will be sold seperately?)

With Nintendo trying to reach to non-gamer gamers, I was expecting a lower price-tag on their software and what not, I dont really call $10 cheaper much.

That, and gaaaah, Metroid Prime3 got delayed. ><


Well, that relieves the pressure of the system coming out this October, gives me more time to save up to blow it all off this upcoming November.

Better delayed than a crap game.

@ Genexi2, nintendo said that they will package some of the add-ons with games for no extra charge

but of course they should sell them seperately also, if they give a nun-chuck add-on in every game people will end up with a crapload of them laying around gathering dust

.

Canadian price became official, $279.99, I was expectin more just because people like to rip usoff and mark it up to the nearest x49.99/x99.99....as was the case for the Xbox360 here.
(premium 360 goes for $499.99)


Hope the news for the Europe release goes smoothly, big potential for Nintendo to take over there before Sony even gets a chance to.

So, has anyone been reading about their main interface features?

Quite unlike Nintendo to do such an interface, but I think they're getting it right!

Players can create their own Miis, which are visual representations of themselves created with a simple UI similar to that of The Sims 2, which can be used as in-game characters (looks like it happens in Wii Sports for sure).
I am going to take a wild guess and assume that this is all really a friendlier global profile system that takes the boring labourious edge off of that word.

To give the Mii idea a bit more meat (seems like a soon-to-be-forgotten mini-feature so far, right?) the controllers all have built-in Flash memory so that a person's Mii can go with them wherever they take their controller.
Seems a bit weird carrying game controllers around, but I guess it works :)

What I really noticed here was that everything they've done with the interface is built to be kind of fun. Even tasks as boring as creating user profiles or displaying photographs can be made exciting!
Three surprising features in the photo/video clips channel.
-Firstly, it is possible to edit photos. I'm not sure how well this will work in the end, but it's definitely not designed for touch-ups! It is a rather amusing interface and I wish they'd shown more of it. I am worried about the preset images that can be slapped on top of things, though. Hopefully the library of presets is ever-expanding in a few ways so that it remains a fun thing integrated with games and the like instead of just a silly 5 minute feature.
-Viewing images, there are a few "fun" things that you can do. (Placed in the Fun menu, of course!). They showed two of these: One is some little effects that can appear over the image as you move the controller. Not really wonderfully exciting, but I guess it could amuse someone. The other one they showed is, in my opinion, pretty cool: An option which turns the image or live video into a jigsaw puzzle which must be solved. (And they even have a high-score list there!).

Something tells me SD was a bad choice for removable storage, since digital cameras seem to much more often be using CF and Transflash is undeniably the best.
They should really have offered a choice of either, or gone with the biggest since there are SD->CF converters.

Then there's the other little features which I haven't really seen much of like the web browser (yay, Flash support!), weather and news. A funny local message board thing as well, which is a lot like putting notes on a refrigerator. (Though pointless, since everyone has a refrigerator?). Games seem to talk to it as well (they showed an example with Animal Crossing), and it works over the Internet.
Looking at the images, I think they are still teasing us. There seem to be a few possibilities here which have yet to be addressed, and I may need to discover for myself...


Thanks for the Canadian price, Genexi!
It surprises me that they went with the actual US->CAN exchange rates of today!
Lots of companies still seem to go with the 75 cents per dollar.


Edit:
I'm also amazed that wii.nintendo.com finally steps away from Nintendo's obsession with Flash content!
The Flash links bar seems to have no alt text, but the links below it on the side of the main page content do the same thing anyway.
Unsurprisingly, the page looks better than it would with Flash.
Even Wii.com appears to be doing sort of proper Alt text.

Sounds good, but I don't like the following from the website:



So are they expecting us to pay to use the Opera browser by collecting points? Now why would I do that when I can easily use the Mac version of Opera for free... hmmm...

Apparently they'll be offering it for free for a good while after launch.
But yes, quite botherly since it's sort of a notable system feature... Though that does make me wonder what stuff like that they plan to release in the future.

I hope they will release a lot from the old nes and snes games for a few points each. But I wonder how many points one get for a dollar/euro/whatever.

Well, at least I can trade in the Game Cube hardware for the Wii when I pick it up on launch date, but still be able to keep the Game Cube software, since the Wii can still play those. I know that Nintendo's promising perhaps the largest game title launch library out of the three next-gens, but it's still best to keep the Game Cube titles around until the REAL GOOD Wii titles are released next year.

yeah, not a lot of online or multiplayer games will be out at launch. too bad Res Steel or Metroid Prime 3 are not multiplayer

Well, believe it or not, there was breaking news about that Metroid game, Link, it won't be until next year that it's released. At least Zelda is, and that's one good game to add to your launch library AS WELL AS Wii Sports, may be an additional $50 to do so, but it should be well worth the extra dough to get the Wii rolling.

However, I STILL want to know if EB/GameStop's gonna do anything to save you on the Wii by trading in your GameCube console for the Wii (you can basically keep the GameCube software, yet still play them on the Wii (the launch library won't be all THAT enormous, I mean, good enough, but the GOOD games won't be until next year)). I'm sort of wondering how trading in the GC for the Wii'll work at EB or GameStop, if they'll let you do that on top of the preorder, and save you more for it.

where is your source, everywhere i have checked there is no news about the release date of Metroid Prime 3 being pushed back and i checked in my magazines, it clearly says that Metroid will be at launch

@Link1426 - It's true. Metroid was pushed back until 2007. Reggie Fil-Aims said so. I'll see if I can find you a source.

Metroid Prime3 pushed back. That and I never recalled it being an actual confirmed launch title, just word that it'll launch within the launch window, sad that aint happening now though.


I'll be grabbin me the browser for the sake of easily viewing my bookmarked sites (news, webcomics, etc) on a system that doesn't take 2min to boot, and 3-4min to load apps after it boots up.

Long as it has a good zoom function so I can easily read the text on the sites using a standard-def TV.


NES are $5 US worth of points, SNES is $8, N64 for $10, which are a bit on the high side, but I guess it's to prevent people going on a impulse buying rush with them if they were less.
(no idea of the price for TG16/Genesis titles, if there's even any on Wii launch-date to buy)


According to what I've read, it's $1 USD currency per 100 points, which imo, is freaking superior to the math you need to do for Microsoft's Xbox Marketplace points....no clue how they're going to handle it in other currencies though.


Yep, I was extremely surprised as well, was really expecting Nintendo to jip us Canucks like Microsoft did and add another good $75'ish onto the price tag for the hell of it.


I like the idea of the interface, "channels", pretty clever if you think of the fact the controller itself is your next generation remote controller......TV remote...TV channels......bit of a subtle pun if you ask me.

Just hope the stuff like the News/Weather Network are easily configured, I recall reading something like being able to hook your actual TV stations to it or something? Would be nice to swap to the Weather Network on my Wii without having to change the actual TVs channel/shut-off the Wii.

i will definately get the web browser, as long as load time is not too long and i can use a keyboard with it.

It's Opera, I'd doubt surfing the net via Wii will be slow with its modest system specs....

Regarding keyboard, well, I'll be first in line to kill Nintendo if it doesn't support keyboard via its USB ports.
(more-so since I have this wireless keyboard sitting around doing nothing, which I only use on my PS2 for FFXI)

Yeah, I have Opera on my desktop (my notebook runs Mozilla through and through, Firefox AND Thunderbird). So, knowing how Opera can be on a desktop, I can't imagine that you can't use your motion sensor as a mouse on that browser, and maybe using the buttons to push keys on screen. That may be a pain in the butt, but if it works, and it's strong enough to work with a broadband, wireless connection, I may be okay. Somehow WebTV and such may probably be replaced with a game console. Then why didn't the X360 come with a special version of IE to compete with Nintendo?!

I dont think the target audience for the 360 would even bother with a web browser, that kinda crew imo would be more interested in playing their games online via the excellent Live!.

Regarding the actual browser for the Wii, it does infact use the pointer on the Wiimote, the setup should be familiar to tablet users, 'cept you're pointing in thin-air to the actual screen, rather then on a plastic pad which mimics the corner layout.


Also regardin a special version of IE.....would suck to surf the net with a joystick. It's already bad enough as is on the PSP.


(geez I feel like such a nerd with regards to WiiKnowledge)

Hmm, speaking of websites, it seems like Amazon has trouble keeping the preorder bundles in their warehouses. Can't wait to see if EB/GameStop'll get themselves going. Well, here's the link regarding Amazon's selling out:

http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/13971

Some Vids:

Briefing New York:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7F2MRzYQ9AA&mode=related&search=

Briefing London:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvnULQaN97M&mode=related&search=

Fishing WII:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdgA5U7SA3U

So is Nintendo planning on having a larger stock of available Wii's during launch as compared to the Xbox360?

I read 400K units for the US and 100K for Japan. I must have read that wrong too, I can't believe Japan would actually have fewer units available. (and the numbers sound too low)

WTF Happened to my NEW post. the one i posted about 3 hours ago?

Forums going berzerk again!

yup, something funny going on.

Server issues as already mentioned, looked like they did a roll-back on the forum in the last 24hrs or something...


Much, much larger....XBox360 had what, half a million systems at launch, just for North America? As already mentioned, Nintendo is aiming for 4 million world-wide during the launch window.

Yeah I knew of the problems, A double rollback must have happened or something :) (actually, since it was a tool update, it probrably did happen again when they moved things back to the original server :) )

[edit]

Actually, I found my post, in the other Wii thread :)

I'll just repost my old "I sure hope the get the 4 million out!, this is the system I'm getting the kids and me for christmas"

Now back to our regularly scheduled thread.