Load of Nintendo Wii info!

[tomato]

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6157575.html
"NOA president Reggie Fils-Aime confirms $249.99 price, November 19 launch, 25-game day-one lineup; Twilight Princess available immediately for Wii only, Metroid 3 pushed to 2007.

...Surprisingly, full pricing details are here. NES games will be available for 500 Wii points, Super NES games for 800, and Nintendo 64 for 1,000. Wait, Wii what? Looks like they're taking the same tack as Microsoft: Consumers part with fake money more easily than real money. A 2000 Wii points card can be had at retail for $20."

$249.99 for the US/Canada, launching on Nov.19/06... a mere 3 days after PS3 launches... interesting. Not a fan of the "points" system, but they gotta make their $ where the can I suppose... and no pricing for any Sega or Turbografx games?!

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6157573.html
"Nintendo: $213 Wii hitting Japan on December 2.
The price difference is partially explainable by the fact that the Japanese Wii is not being bundled with Wii Sports, as the Wii is in the US"

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6157572.html
"$250 Wii coming to America November 19"

Hmmm... Zelda delayed for Gamecube, Metroid delayed til 2007 :(

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6157574.html
"Nintendo details Wii multimedia functionality. Relaunched Wii.com demonstrates next-gen console's "Wii Channels": photo editing, news update, Web-surfing, and "Mii" custom-avatar-creation features."

Wow, Nintendo is pulling out all the stops this time, eh? :)

[tomato]

More Wii stuff:
- List of US Wii games revealed
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6157625.html

Wow, a pretty big list for launch titles!

- Wii arrives in Europe on December 8 for £179Wii arrives in Europe on December 8 for £179
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6157699.html

AND, European gamers get screwed again :(

- RUMOUR: Wii to be region-free?
http://www.gamespot.com/news/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=24981977&sid=6157671

"The official story: Getting answers from Nintendo proved difficult during one of the company's busiest days of the year. However, after a lengthy exchange of cryptic e-mails, a rep finally confirmed that Kaplan's words regarding regionless first-party titles and potentially regionless third-party titles were indeed correct: "[The] Wii will be region-free."

- Final Wii specs lack DVD playback
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6157685.html

Surprising news... DVD playback should be considered a standard feature in today's consoles...

- Wii Sports Hands-On With Bowling
http://www.gamespot.com/events/wiilaunch/story.html?sid=6157677&pid=933010&tag=topslot;action;4

- Metroid Prime 3: Corruption Hands-On - Defending the Federation
http://www.gamespot.com/events/wiilaunch/story.html?sid=6157653&pid=928517&tag=topslot;action;3

- The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess Wii-mote Hands-On
http://www.gamespot.com/events/wiilaunch/story.html?sid=6157656&pid=928519&tag=topslot;action;2

Heh, so there's a "little bit" of Nintendo Wii news, eh? ;) :)

[Kasrkin Guard]

- Wii arrives in Europe on December 8 for £179Wii arrives in Europe on December 8 for £179
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6157699.html

AND, European gamers get screwed again :(

It could be worse and you guys have to wait months before ever getting a console into the region unlike some competition that really gives EU the shaft. ;)

[XJnine]

I'm just waiting for the pre-orders to begin. This is going to end up under my Christmas tree for my son. Maybe me too... ;-)

[DragonMaster]

At least for Europe, it's just 2 weeks later.



"The official story: Getting answers from Nintendo proved difficult during one of the company's busiest days of the year. However, after a lengthy exchange of cryptic e-mails, a rep finally confirmed that Kaplan's words regarding regionless first-party titles and potentially regionless third-party titles were indeed correct: "[The] Wii will be region-free."

Why do games have regions anyways?(Apart from release dates that are different just because of availability - yea right!)



Looks like the Wii has some interesting features -- I looked @ wii.com, it seems that you can save games in the remote to bring them somewhere else.

[Kougar]

Regions came about because movie studios found that when they sold the same US movie overseas at cheaper prices to match the respective markets, especially Asia, it would then be turned around and resold back to the US markets at a profit, but still low enough to undercut the movie studios own sales of the same movie in the US. It impacted their bottom lines, so they institured regional coding on all DVDs to try and limit this.

This is one reason why DVD-Rom players will make note of the first DVD inserted into them, they use this first disc to assign themselves their own regional coding into their firmware. The idea was after 5 changes to the regional coding (Such as person A in the US switching between US and Asian coded DVD discs), the DVD-Rom drive would lock itself at the last used regional code to prevent discs from other regions from being played... however as always this security/DRM is able to be circumvented.

[DragonMaster]

Regions came about because movie studios found that when they sold the same US movie overseas at cheaper
Same reason for games?

[Kougar]

Same reason for games?

More than likely

[tomato]

Nintendo: 1 million Wiis for NA launch
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6158589.html

"Nintendo Canada GM expects 1 million units of upcoming console in North America on November 19."

YES! This info comes from the Canadian Nintendo rep :) Looks like I'll be able to get me a Wii at launch :P

[Kougar]

Thats a sizable number! Guess they will not be having to many issues... :)

[borschtBomber[SS]]

Awesome news, now to convince my wife that the "kids" need one of these for Christmas. This thing excites me more than M$ or Sony's offerings. And not to mention that they seem to be shaping up for a smooth launch with the available titles and number of units.

[tomato]

Wii browser free for now
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6158705.html

"Opera says its Web-surfing program will be free for owners of Nintendo's next-gen system until June 2007; sold on the Wii Shop Channel after that."

Another excellent move by Nintendo ;)

[tomato]

Report: Prelaunch Wii kiosks only at GameStop
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6159176.html

"Texas paper says retailer only store for hands-on time with new system before it goes on sale; stations expected mid-November."

Exclusive kiosks?! Geez, this is getting out of hand...