Neal Steffek
09-14-2006, 12:50 PM
Wii $249 on November 19
Nintendo has officially revealed the North and South American release date and retail price for its upcoming Wii console. The machine will launch November 19, two days after Sony's PlayStation 3 hits stores, for a suggested retail price of $249.99. Included in the package are a Remote and Nunchuk controller combination and the accessible sports game collection Wii Sports. Since its initial showing at E3, Wii Sports has had two additions beyond the core tennis, baseball and golf games; it now includes bowling and boxing as well.
Thirty titles will be available for Wii between its launch and the end of calendar 2006; a specific launch lineup was not announced, and may not be yet finalized, but approximately half of that number is expected to be available on launch day. Nintendo will be keeping its per-game price point at the traditional $49.99; other publishers are of course able to set their own prices, but are likely to follow Nintendo's lead. The system will launch with 30 virtual console titles across the various legacy systems supported by the service. Much like Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade service, users will buy points that can be spent to purchase these games online. However, Nintendo seems to be using a direct cents-to-points ratio; for example, a 2000 point point card will be available for $20. NES games will run 500 Wii points ($5), SNES games 800 ($8), and Nintendo 64 games 1000 ($10). Price schemes for SEGA Genesis and TurboGrafx-16 games were not announced.
Wii will feature a variety of entertainment and communication features by way of its "Wii Channel" features. These includes a news channel, a global weather forecast channel, the previously announced Opera web browser, and a photo channel used to organize, display, and edit digital photos. Details regarding these channels are available at Nintendo's newly launched Wii official site. The Japanese site also contains numerous videos of the channels in action.
Former launch title Metroid Prime 3: Corruption from Retro Studios has now been officially moved to 2007. While The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess remains a Wii launch title, the GameCube version of the game has been pushed back to December 2006. Nintendo also announced a Wii version of Big Brain Academy, which first came to Nintendo DS.
Nintendo has officially revealed the North and South American release date and retail price for its upcoming Wii console. The machine will launch November 19, two days after Sony's PlayStation 3 hits stores, for a suggested retail price of $249.99. Included in the package are a Remote and Nunchuk controller combination and the accessible sports game collection Wii Sports. Since its initial showing at E3, Wii Sports has had two additions beyond the core tennis, baseball and golf games; it now includes bowling and boxing as well.
Thirty titles will be available for Wii between its launch and the end of calendar 2006; a specific launch lineup was not announced, and may not be yet finalized, but approximately half of that number is expected to be available on launch day. Nintendo will be keeping its per-game price point at the traditional $49.99; other publishers are of course able to set their own prices, but are likely to follow Nintendo's lead. The system will launch with 30 virtual console titles across the various legacy systems supported by the service. Much like Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade service, users will buy points that can be spent to purchase these games online. However, Nintendo seems to be using a direct cents-to-points ratio; for example, a 2000 point point card will be available for $20. NES games will run 500 Wii points ($5), SNES games 800 ($8), and Nintendo 64 games 1000 ($10). Price schemes for SEGA Genesis and TurboGrafx-16 games were not announced.
Wii will feature a variety of entertainment and communication features by way of its "Wii Channel" features. These includes a news channel, a global weather forecast channel, the previously announced Opera web browser, and a photo channel used to organize, display, and edit digital photos. Details regarding these channels are available at Nintendo's newly launched Wii official site. The Japanese site also contains numerous videos of the channels in action.
Former launch title Metroid Prime 3: Corruption from Retro Studios has now been officially moved to 2007. While The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess remains a Wii launch title, the GameCube version of the game has been pushed back to December 2006. Nintendo also announced a Wii version of Big Brain Academy, which first came to Nintendo DS.