Nintendo USA conference summary

Wii News | Full event recap.

It was a big day in Gaming Land - it's not every day Nintendo decides to hold a big press conference, you know. Anticipation was high - people wanted a firm launch date for the Wii, as well as a solid price. The conference is all done and dusted now, and you can catch up on all the big announcements below.

Nintendo confirmed the Wii will be released in the United States first on November 19th for US$249.99. There will be more than 25,000 places to pick the console up. There will be one price, one configuration and one colour.
The plan is to ship 4 million consoles by the end of December. America will receive the largest shipment.
Wii Sports will be bundled with the console and includes 5 mini games: Wii Tennis, , Wii Golf, Wii Baseball, Wii Bowling and Wii Boxing.
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess will be a launch title for America, as will Excitetruck.
During the 'launch window' there will be approximately thirty games to choose from. The Nintendo titles will be priced at US$49.95, although publishers can set their own prices.
There will be thirty Virtual Console titles by the end of the year and Nintendo will deliver ten a month.
Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America bigwig, made mention of Wii channels, which are set to "redefine videogames". Apparently you can enter different 'channels' and do different things - for example, the Mii channel lets you customise a virtual character.
Nintendo will be going the way of Xbox Live and games will be bought with points. NES games will be 500 points, Super NES games will be 800 points and Nintendo 64 games will be 1,000 points. A 2,000 point card can be purchased at retail for $20USD.
One of the other channels is the photo channel. You'll be able to insert an SD card into the Wii and view photos without hassle. It will also be possible to encode your own videos and play them in real time with the Wii.
Reggie talked briefly about WiiConnect24. There will be a Wii message board where you can post photos and the Opera Browser will be available, though you'll need to pay for it using Wii points.
Metroid Prime 3 won't be released until 2007.

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19 Comments

DancesInUnderwear

5 years ago

Quote

there will be a Wii message board where you can post photos

Yay, I'll be able to see 8 million pages of retarded emo photos and penis pictures!

Quote

the Opera Browser will be available, though you'll need to pay for it using Wii points.

Lose. Try again, Nintendo.

Jellyfish

5 years ago

Quote

More information is provided about Wii channels, where you can enter different "channels" and do different things for example the Mii channel lets you customise a virtual character.

Dead or Alive 4 Lobby System anyone?

LeonJ

5 years ago

I think that means, you'll have to pay to unlock the browser, which is fair enough.

Cool, looking good. Fingers crossed for an Aussie release date in 2006 tomorrow.

$250 US is great value considering it comes with Wii sports.

The Brett

5 years ago

$120 games and $100 for an extra controller (using current America--> Australia game conversions) is a killer though.

ZNMS

5 years ago

There will be one price, one configuration and importantly, one colour.
One color? I am so getting sick of having to choose between the red and the red.

Wii sports will be bundled with the console and includes 5 mini games including Wii Tennis, Wii Golf, Wii Baseball, Wii Bowling and Wii Boxing.
Joy!

There will be thirty Virtual Console titles by the end of the year and Nintendo will deliver 10 a month.
That's 120 games a year. The companies will run out of games to release in a few years. Though, I'm sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

Nintendo will be going the way of Xbox Live and games will be bought with points, NES games will be 500 points, Super NES games will be 800 points and Nintendo 64 games will be 1000 points, a 2000 point card can be purchased at retail for $20USD.
I can live with that.

One of the other channels is the photo channel, you're able to insert an SD card into the Wii and view photos without hassle, it will also be possible to encode your own videos and play them in real time with the Nintendo Wii.
A video game console from Nintendo that plays games and does other things as well. It's about time.

The Opera Browser will be available, though you'll need to pay for it using Wii points.
The amount of Wii points required better not be too high.

Metroid Prime 3 is a 2007 title.
I don't care. Just give me Red Steel.

NismoR34

5 years ago

Metroid Prime 3 for next year then? Well, no Wii at launch for me then (assuming the same applies for us). After Christmas it is then.

Although on the actual delay of the game, that does kinda suck. But again, if Retro need the time to make it awesome then so be it.

Gtpod

5 years ago

^ Agreed.

As for the message board comment, after seeing IGN's videos, it doesn't look like it's a message in the traditional online sense, more a personal "message board" as can be seen in Animal Crossing. You can sent mail to other Wii consoles and attach photos/videos. I may be wrong, but that's how I interpreted it.

wobbler

5 years ago

Luke, but from the other thread wrote

The price includes one wireless Wii Remote controller, one Nunchuk™ controller and the groundbreaking collection of five different Wii Sports games on one disc

Is the "wireless Wii Remote controller" a traditional controller or the Wii mote? How would people be expected to play game cube games or even the VC games without a traditional controller? Sounds like another grab for cash by nintendo to me.

I was actually hopeing that this system was going to be affordable as Nintendo has continually promised, but all this new info suggests that the console is going to be a little cheaper than a core 360, the games are only a little cheaper than 360 games, you will probably have to buy a traditional controller to play any non Wiimote games, and to top it off Nintendo will allow you to repurchase old games that you probably already own.

I hope that this is the last console that nintendo makes and they start to develop for other platforms because their only strong point is the games but you have to buy all of their hardware just to play them.

realitybites

5 years ago

Ermmm whats a launch window (one year)? New marketing spin

.

What are the names of the "launch window" titles? Does Wii sports count as 5 or 1?

slapshakle

5 years ago

realitybites wrote

Does Wii sports count as 5 or 1?

It counts as 1

EvilHayama

5 years ago

DancesInUnderwear wrote

Quote

there will be a Wii message board where you can post photos

Yay, I'll be able to see 8 million pages of retarded emo photos and penis pictures!

Quote

the Opera Browser will be available, though you'll need to pay for it using Wii points.

Lose. Try again, Nintendo.

You can only post emo penis photos to your friends, if you're into that

I can't really see how having the option to pay for a feature no other console has is a bad thing. I'm just happy it supports Java and flash this time.

$250 with Wii sports is good enough for me, not soopercheap but about as expected. I'll be getting one at launch with Zelda. Confirmed Region free is awesome, if anyone's not happy with the oz pricing, just import!

renegadesx

5 years ago

Well I guess the times were right. Ah well. I was wrong, my apologies

No Metroid Prime Corruption at launch does piss me off. But hey, Im more focused on Red Steel and Twilight Princess. I still intend to have 10 games by Christmas, my list is revised to include Splinter Cell Double Agent as before when I made my list (and bugeted to make sure I could afford it) I thought that was going to only be Gamecube.

Twilight Princess
Red Steel
Downhill Jam
Wii Sports
Excite Truck
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz
Splinter Cell 4
Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2
Trauma Center: Second Opinion
Elebits

chriharr

5 years ago

Still No Aus release date IM STILL PISSED

Chris-Leigh

5 years ago

chriharr wrote

Still No Aus release date IM STILL PISSED

Still another eight hours or so before we get that, matey, barring a leak beforehand.

Echo

5 years ago

The Brett wrote

$120 games and $100 for an extra controller (using current America--> Australia game conversions) is a killer though.

?

I thought it said $50 US for games. Which is something like 66 Aus $

renegadesx

5 years ago

Yeah but dont forget about the world famous words "australian markup"

Using a currency converter doesnt do you justice. The criminals that sell us these games markup the prices somthing redicilous. It works around to be about $70 for games. But that wont stop our friends at the game stores charging at least $100

Jellyfish

5 years ago

^ It's not their fault, pricing is set by the publishers who the stores have to buy the games from. Sure some places will sell for under the recommended retail price and others won't, it's just the way things work.

EvilHayama

5 years ago

So import all your games, and you will pay the $US50

Bitchacho

5 years ago

EvilHayama wrote

So import all your games, and you will pay the $US50

Ex-freaking-actly. If one more person complains about unfair markup in Australia, I'm going to flip. Region free means exactly that. Don't be a stinge, pay the few dollars it costs to import a few games from the USA.

God. So many people complain that there are slow/no Aus releases for DS games. WTF?! Just import it, newbs.

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