Nintendo Wii launch detailed in New York press event.
At this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo, Nintendo’s pre-show press conference answered a lot of questions about the Wii’s upcoming games, the Wii Remote and left the majority of the gaming public very satisfied, but a few crucial bits of information were left out. These being the launch date, and price. Well after months of speculation about both, Nintendo has finally revealed the information they have kept such a tight lid on in a recent press event.
The price was among the first details to be released. On the November 19th release date, the Wii will retail for $249.95 in the US. The box will contain the Nintendo Wii console, one Wii remote controller, one nunchuck attachment and the sensor bar, which you place in front of the television screen and detects the movements of the Wii remote and the nunchuck. In addition, Nintendo, for the first time in over a decade, has announced that they are bringing back the pack in game. Every Wii console will come with the game Wii Sports, which was demoed on stage at this year’s E3 to show off the motion sensing functions of the Wii remote.
With game prices jumping ten dollars, to round out at $59.99 for third party titles on the Xbox 360 and possibly more on the upcoming Playstation 3 (although rumors have been swirling that Sony will adopt a similar pricing strategy to Microsoft’s), the gaming community has been wondering whether or not Nintendo will also make the jump in pricing. These rumors were shot down as Nintendo announced game pricing for both Wii games, and the legacy Virtual console titles. The price for Wii games will remain consistent with Gamecube game pricing last generation of $49.99. Virtual console game pricing is as follows, $5 for NES titles, $8 for SNES titles, and $10 for Nintendo 64 titles and will be purchased using Wii points, which can be obtained through pre-paid cards.
The Virtual console has been a point of interest for a long while since it was announced, but until now, nothing much had been said about it. Nintendo blew the doors off the virtual console, announcing both pricing, as mentioned above and titles available at launch. Nintendo announced that beginning on launch day and through the end of the calendar year, over 30 legacy titles will be available for download, including classics such as The Legend of Zelda, and Super Mario World. Beginning in January, the Virtual console library will grow by approximately 10 titles per month.
During the press conference, Nintendo spoke at length about the Wii’s interface, now known as “Wii Channels”. This interface is designed to make the Wii simple to use and very user friendly, another nod to their vision of expanding the market to include non gamers. The Wii shop channel will be the home of the virtual console games and will allow users to purchase and download other software, including the Opera web browser using Wii points, which can be purchased through pre paid cards. One channel they demonstrated at length for the audience was the “Mii” channel. This channel allows you to create custom avatars for use in upcoming games, including the aforementioned Wii Sports. You can create as many Mii’s as you wish and can even transfer them to the Wii remote itself and take them to a friend’s house. Two more channels of interest were the Weather channel and the News channel. When the console is connected to the internet, the user can browse recent news stories. The weather channel allows players to check the weather forecast for not only the region in which they live, but around the globe.
Rounding out the new push towards the internet Nintendo expects to revolutionize online play with what they calls WiiConnect24. This service is always on, and allows your console to receive updates such as new game news and content, even when the console is turned off.
This conference did what it promised. It answered the majority of the big questions surrounding the Wii, and left gamers with a lot to look forward to come launch day.
At this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo, Nintendo’s pre-show press conference answered a lot of questions about the Wii’s upcoming games, the Wii Remote and left the majority of the gaming public very satisfied, but a few crucial bits of information were left out. These being the launch date, and price. Well after months of speculation about both, Nintendo has finally revealed the information they have kept such a tight lid on in a recent press event.
The price was among the first details to be released. On the November 19th release date, the Wii will retail for $249.95 in the US. The box will contain the Nintendo Wii console, one Wii remote controller, one nunchuck attachment and the sensor bar, which you place in front of the television screen and detects the movements of the Wii remote and the nunchuck. In addition, Nintendo, for the first time in over a decade, has announced that they are bringing back the pack in game. Every Wii console will come with the game Wii Sports, which was demoed on stage at this year’s E3 to show off the motion sensing functions of the Wii remote.
With game prices jumping ten dollars, to round out at $59.99 for third party titles on the Xbox 360 and possibly more on the upcoming Playstation 3 (although rumors have been swirling that Sony will adopt a similar pricing strategy to Microsoft’s), the gaming community has been wondering whether or not Nintendo will also make the jump in pricing. These rumors were shot down as Nintendo announced game pricing for both Wii games, and the legacy Virtual console titles. The price for Wii games will remain consistent with Gamecube game pricing last generation of $49.99. Virtual console game pricing is as follows, $5 for NES titles, $8 for SNES titles, and $10 for Nintendo 64 titles and will be purchased using Wii points, which can be obtained through pre-paid cards.
The Virtual console has been a point of interest for a long while since it was announced, but until now, nothing much had been said about it. Nintendo blew the doors off the virtual console, announcing both pricing, as mentioned above and titles available at launch. Nintendo announced that beginning on launch day and through the end of the calendar year, over 30 legacy titles will be available for download, including classics such as The Legend of Zelda, and Super Mario World. Beginning in January, the Virtual console library will grow by approximately 10 titles per month.
During the press conference, Nintendo spoke at length about the Wii’s interface, now known as “Wii Channels”. This interface is designed to make the Wii simple to use and very user friendly, another nod to their vision of expanding the market to include non gamers. The Wii shop channel will be the home of the virtual console games and will allow users to purchase and download other software, including the Opera web browser using Wii points, which can be purchased through pre paid cards. One channel they demonstrated at length for the audience was the “Mii” channel. This channel allows you to create custom avatars for use in upcoming games, including the aforementioned Wii Sports. You can create as many Mii’s as you wish and can even transfer them to the Wii remote itself and take them to a friend’s house. Two more channels of interest were the Weather channel and the News channel. When the console is connected to the internet, the user can browse recent news stories. The weather channel allows players to check the weather forecast for not only the region in which they live, but around the globe.
Rounding out the new push towards the internet Nintendo expects to revolutionize online play with what they calls WiiConnect24. This service is always on, and allows your console to receive updates such as new game news and content, even when the console is turned off.
This conference did what it promised. It answered the majority of the big questions surrounding the Wii, and left gamers with a lot to look forward to come launch day.
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