Gaming Miscellaney
Official US Wii Launch Details
The word is out. Nintendo is finally ready to announce the launch details that it has been avoiding for months now. Read for yourselves:
Nintendo fans finally have a price and release date for the company’s new generation console, Wii. The Big N is set to officially announce that the system will hit retail in North and South America for $250 on November 19. The New York Times published with the story and seems, in fact, to have beaten Nintendo Co. Ltd with the news.
Nintendo’s Wii console will come packaged with one Wii remote, one nunchuck attachment, an AC adapter, an audio/video cable, a sensor bar, sensor bard stand, a Wii console stand and two batteries. The US package will also come bundled with a copy of Wii Sports, a compilation sports game that best shows off the mechanics of the system’s unique controller. Wii Sports features tennis, baseball, golf and previously unannounced bowling and boxing games.
Nintendo said it would provide Wii owners with more than 25 unique games this year.
Wii’s much talked-about Virtual Console download service, which enables gamers to purchase classic games, will offer a library of some 30 titles when the system launches. Titles will include entries from the Mario, Zelda and Donkey Kong franchises, Nintendo said. Virtual Console games will cost between $5 and $10 each. Specifically, Nintendo Co. Ltd. announced that Virtual Console games would cost 500 yen ($5), 800 yen ($8) or 1,000 yen ($10); we’re presuming these prices are for NES, SNES and N64 games respectively.
The Big N confirmed that it would charge $50 for its new Wii games, which is $10 cheaper than the cost of typical Xbox 360 titles. (Please note that this is First-Party games, prices have not been announced for Third-Part Wii games — publishers are free to set their own prices on Wii titles.)
Nintendo Co. Ltd. revealed that Wii’s various controllers would be available to buy separately at launch. The Wii remote will cost 3800 yen or about $40; the nunchuck 1800 yen or about $20 and the classic controller 1800 yen or about $20.
In a surprise announcement, Nintendo said that it wanted to make Wii a living room centerpiece by shipping the system with features outside of the videogame realm. Wii will include a photo channel, enabling users to display their digital photos through the console. It will also boast regularly updated news and weather channels. In addition, the system will ship with the Opera Web browser, enabling users to connect online.
One of the channels available on Wii is called the “Mii Channel.” Here, players can customize avatars by selecting from a variety of face shapes, hair styles, color schemes, and so on. The hook is that these avatars can not only be stored on the console itself, they can also be transfered to the Wii remote itself — presumably so players can easily access their personalized characters and take them with them when playing against friends.
Sony recently announced that it would ready 400,000 PS3s in North America and another 100,000 in Japan for the system’s launch. Nintendo said it plans to ship 4 million Wii units worldwide by the end of the year.
Nintendo will launch Wii in Japan on December 2 of this year for 25,000 yen, it revealed. North America will get the system first.
Expect an editorial soon…
IGN: US Wii Price, Launch Date Revealed
Wii – November 24 for £149?
According to the industry trade magazine MCV, the highly anticipated Nintendo console is set to debut in Europe on the 24th of November, with a price tag of £149. After a quick google, that appears to convert to about $282 in US dollars.
Nintendo will release the Wii in Europe by 24 November for £149, according to games industry trade magazine MCV. The paper also claims there will be enough consoles to cater for demand both at launch and during the busy Christmas period.
The news comes ahead of Nintendo’s official European announcement, which is expected to made at a London event next Friday. When asked about the possible price and release date Nintendo commented: “We know that everyone is as excited as we are about the pending launch of Wii and as a result there is a lot of speculation and rumours. We ask people to be patient as all will be revealed in due course.”
So, not totally confirmed, but I think it’s fairly plausible. I must admit, i’m far more curious about the US price and release date, myself.
IGN: Wii: November 24 for £149?
Wii Really Can Rumble!
Turns out the ‘Wiimote’ rumble story I commented on yesterday was innacurate. See for yourself.
No Wii Remote rumble? Kittsy spotted that I’d made a mess of page 15 just after we finished the mag. It was too late to correct and resend the page to the printers (apparently yelling “Hold the presses!” doesn’t actually result in boiler-suited workmen running about like mad and machinery grinding to a halt). So we forget about it, assuming the worst that might happen is that a few readers might write in to point and laugh at our mistake. Of course, now it’s all over the internet. And we look very silly indeed. So, to clarify: the Wiimote does have a rumble. And a speaker. Shigsy isn’t going to kick out either feature (as far as we know). DON’T PANIC.
It’s actually refreshing to see a major publication such as NGamer admit to making a mistake and take it so light-heartedly.
Wii Rumble Not Dead After All – Kotaku
Interesting Revolution Tidbits
According to Joystiq, NGamer magazine was privy to some interesting tidbits regarding Nintendo’s upcoming console.
NGamer also reports that the Wii sensor bar is now “50% smaller … a little bigger than a couple of pencils glued together” and tosses in a few tidbits about the Wiimote, including its 30–60 hour battery life (with AAs) and ability to store a small amount of data, roughly 6KB, internally. One sour detail reveals that Virtual Console’s DRM will prevent gamers from playing their downloaded titles on a friend’s Wii.
I am still disappointed somewhat that the ‘Wiimotes’ won’t, or are unlikely to, ship with built-in rechargable batteries. It would be great to pop your controller into a charge dock when you aren’t playing. C’est la vie. The mention of Nintendo’s DRM has me curious. So far, Nintendo is limiting your ability to try out downloaded games on a friends console.
On the one hand, Nintendo doesn’t want players to just share the games left and right so that gamers don’t have to buy games from them. That’s fair. What sucks is that taking games over to play on a friend’s system at a friend’s house is one of the cornerstones of the very industry. Since when was showing off games a bad thing? I always thought it meant new players would get to try out new games, and if they happen to like it, they would buy the games.
I’m disturbed by it, frankly, but not surprised in the least.
Wii-DS link-play confirmed for Spore, plus new Wii info in latest NGamer – Joystiq
Sega Makes Hard Top-Heavy Toys Soft – Kotaku
I think the image says it all. For the record, the action figures are from Neon Genesis Evangelion. And notice that Sega is the company behind this one.
I think the next step is making fully anatomically correct action figures. How’s that for a disturbing concept?
Sega Makes Hard Top-Heavy Toys Soft – Kotaku
Wii Can’t Rumble?
I caught this one on Kotaku, and the concept disturbs me greatly.
Nevertheless, according to this scan from the UK magazine NGame, Rumble is entirely out in the Wii. The much tiny speaker has replaced it in the design and they even quote Shigeru Miyamoto.
Assuming this is true, it means that we get a speaker instead of force feedback? Are you kidding? Screw that. Given the choice between a speaker and a rumble pak, I’d choose rumble. Games like Resident Evil 4 show that good force feedback really does add to the atmosphere. With game possibilities on the Revolution, it’s a crying shame if rumble is out. What fun is playing a light-gun game if the gun doesn’t rumble when you shoot it? I can understand why the NES Zapper didn’t have one, but this is just rediculous. Follow the link for further info.
NRA the Video Game
It seems that the NRA has a new video game coming out. I have to admit, this one was way out of left field.
NRA Gun Club, a target shooter for the Playstation 2, will include more than 100 firearms, 12 settings, 15 challenges and competitive play for up to eight gamers.
“In keeping with the NRA mission, this game tests marksmanship in a sporting environment and emphasizes responsible use of firearms. This is a fun and exciting game, challenging all ages and all levels of firearms proficiency” says Mike Marcellin, Managing Director of the National Rifle Association.
Is it just me, or does the thought of playing a target shooting game on the PS2 sound downright moronic? Accurate shooting and analog sticks have never been in the same sentence before, in any PS2 games, and I doubt it will change for this game. Given the nature of the Revolution, I can’t help but think that, conceptually speaking, this NRA target shooting game would work out far better on Nintendo’s console.
The GP2x Review is Live
“As it stands, the GP2x is a great piece of hardware, a unit that I feel is fully worth the $200 dollars if only for all of the cool functionality it provides. It is hindered by an atrocious joystick, but one that CAN be adjusted to with time and replacement joystick caps. With a standard D-Pad, I could fully recommend the GP2x to just about anybody, but as is, I recommend some caution and some research.”
The review can be found here, and be sure to leave some feedback either in the comments form or on our forums.
-Ricky
A Small Phantasy
When Sega released the Dreamcast back in 1999, it was the first console in history to debut with everything necessary to connect to the internet, short of an ISP, with every console bundled with a 56k modem on the expansion port. Obviously, this made history, given that it was the first. However, the online scene for the Dreamcast was riddled with software that merely ‘tacked-on’ the internet support, such as Sonic Adventure’s “Internet” function which, if I am not mistaken, merely took the user to a Sega hosted Sonic Adventure website, and perhaps had online rankings. Not a breathtaking usage of internet capability, to say the least.
Sony’s Supposed Supercomputer
As has been mentioned repeatedly in interviews released in various media formats, Sony execs have been touting that the PlayStation 3, the soon-to-be-released successor to the wildly popular PS2, is more than a gaming machine: it’s a computer. Some execs have even gone so far as to claim that the PS3 is a supercomputer. It will include several USB 2.0 ports, wireless controllers with optional USB connectors(for charging as well as wired play), both models will come with a hard drive(20 Gigabytes for the low end version, 60 Gigabytes for the high end version), both have WiFi built in, as well as an ethernet connector, and, at least on the development kits, there are slots for various flash memory cards, including Compact Flash and Secure Digital cards as well as Sony’s own proprietary Memory Stick Pro format.