The Wii Takes NYC

The news came in late from Japan, with details on the North American launch. This morning, Nintendo's New York press conference expanded our understanding of what's going to be happening on November 19th. 1up has coverage of the event, as well as Japan's virtual console pricing, the opening lineup details for Japan, and news that the ex-FFXII director is excited about the Wii. Hopefully this will mean innovative support of the platform by Square/Enix. Over at Gamespot, they have their own conference coverage, as well as a rundown on the system's media functionality and first-hand comments from the engineers that built it. Finally, for a bit of analysis, Next Generation explores what the return of the pack-in (the inclusion of Wii Sports with the console) means for the industry at large.

Re:before people complain

[Lectoid]

Another way to look at the $250 price. The extra 50 dollars is a lifetime of free "Live" service for the Wii, instead of just a year. Oh, and the North America part of www.wii.com is up now.

wii.com updated

[oscartheduck]

Just to make sure everyone noticed, wii.com [wii.com] just updated to English too.

Re:before people complain

[ImaNumber]

Wii (w/game and controller) - $250
3 Extra Wiimotes - $120
1 Extra Nunchuk - $20
2 Retro Controllers - $40
Rayman - $50
Excite Truck - $50
Zelda - $50
2000 points for the VC - $20


Total $600, the same price as the PS3 with nothing extra.

Pricing summary for the lazy:

[oneiros27]

Of the multitude of links, there wasn't one to Next Gen's summary [next-gen.biz]. Here's a further condensed report:

$250 : main system, 1 Wii-mote, 1 nunchucks, Wii Sports

$40 : extra Wii-motes
$20 : extra nunchucks

$50 or less : new Nintendo made games (no cap on third-party games)
$5 : downloadable NES games
$8 : downloadable SNES games
$10 : downloadable N64 games
$?? : Opera browser ...

and the gamecube version of Zelda:TS will come out ~3 weeks after the Wii version; Metroid Prime 3, not 'till 2007.

Re:excited

[MindStalker]

There is no "Wired" version of the Wiimote. The Wiimote always has the OPTION of being wired incase of signal problems or there being a lot of wiimotes in the same room (as was the case at the game conferences).

Whoa! Wii to be Region-Free!

[Optic7]

I think this will be huge. Supposedly developers will have the ability to make their games have a region lock if they want, but it seems like it won't be used by Nintendo themselves.

Wii to be region-free [1up.com]

This thing is starting to look like it has all the ingredients to be a big success.

Re: Compared to the Core system ?

[trdrstv]

If you compare it to the Wii (games aside), the controller is (more or less) all that the 360 doesn't have

The 360 Core is the closest competition to the Wii in terms of price. The 360 has more power going for it (and can play DVD movies), but let's compare what you don't get with the core, and you DO get with the Wii.

The Unique controler you touched on.

Wi-fi built in. No adapter needed.

Free online multiplayer.

Save games (the Wii has internal flash memory for the Saves, with the core you need to buy an additional memory card or HDD)

SD-Slot for slideshows/ video.

A game included (with 5 casual games in the package)

Hardware Based Backwords compatibility (100% BC with GC games, controllers and Memory cards)

The Wii has everything you need 'out of the box' to start playing (for $250). The 360 Core, does not. It may look cheaper on the shelf, but once you add it together you're over $400 to play a game anyway.