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Wii Details Revealed

Wii

Well, the news that everyone has been waiting for has finally arrived: the launch date and price. IGN have revealed that the Wii console is set to launch on November 19th 2006 in North and South America with a price of $250. This converts to (roughly) $330 AUD. Very not bad. Whether this will be our price or not (we can probably expect it to rise to about $400) remains to be seen.

Nintendo have also stated that gamers would be able to get their hands on 25 unique games sometime this year, which is also very good news. The Wii will ship with a copy of Wii Sports, which is essentially a tech demo for the new controller. Games for the Wii will sell at $50 US (or around $66 after a straight conversion).

A couple of new features for the Wii have also been unveiled, which attempt to establish the Wii as a central media hub. As well as the inclusion of the Opera web browser, the Wii will also feature news and weather features, as well as the ability to view digital photos.

EDIT: It seems that we spoke a little prematurely: the article appeared originally in The New York Times, and, at the moment, hasn't been officially confirmed by Nintendo. Despite this, I think we can expect that this news will be readily confirmed by Nintendo soon, so we'll keep you updated with more news as we have it.

EDIT 2: Well, news is flying all over the place: gaming blog Famitsu has stated that the Wii will launch on the 2nd of December 2006 with a price of 25000 Yen (about $283 AUD). You may also want to check out this image, which, according to the file name, was taken today.

EDIT 3: Well, the above edit has been confirmed, thanks to the official site for Nintendo Japan. Clicky for a translated page.

EDIT 4: Wii.com has gone live! There isn't a great deal of info on there, but still. A page on the site confirms the media hub idea that was mentioned in the US statement. We also have news that there will some sort of an Australia specific press conference tomorrow, which will be captured by the Seven network and broadcast on TV.

EDIT 5: A feature called "Mii" has been revealed. You can design an avatar of sorts, with Wii Sports-style clothes and body and customise it pretty extensively. It seems as if you can make lots of these little people, which then wander around inside a part of your Wii's menu. These characters are then integrated into games, so you can play with them in Wii Sports or WarioWare!

EDIT 6: The virtual console games will cost US$5-10, apparently, which roughly equals AUD$6.50-$13. Confusingly, there also seems to be Wii Point cards, so maybe you pay $6 for 5000 points, say, which buys one N64 or two SNES games or something. We'll have to wait and see.

EDIT 7: Rumour has it that a "Nintendo related" news item will be aired tomorrow night (so, Saturday the 16th of September) on the Channel 7 News. Apparently, the news item is centered in Victoria, which is the home of Nintendo's Australian branch.

Visit the official Japanese site for amazing videos showing off the Wii GUI, and a huge trailer reel showcasing fresh footage of old and new titles alike! Unmissable.


Sliced Comment: Well, that was a wild couple of minutes, but we finally have confirmation of a release date and a price point, thanks to the Japanese press release. At the moment, we can disregard the US news (including any ideas of price, packages, etc) and focus solely on the Japanese news: 2nd of December, 2006 will be the release date of the Wii in Japan. Hopefully, by tomorrow, we'll get more news regarding the Wii out here in the West (and possibly a confirmation of rumours that it will be a worldwide launch). Stay tuned!

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