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Gadgets US Wii Launch Info
Brandon Hill (Blog) - September 14, 2006 9:45 AM
Print E-mail del.icio.us 60 comment(s) - last by NotAok.. on Sep 15 at 11:31 AM

Image courtesy USA Today
Wii to launch on November 19 and will be priced at $249

DailyTech brought you the details of the Wii's Japanese launch earlier today. Now, the US details for the launch have been officially announced by Nintendo. The console will launch in the United States on November 19 at a price of $249 and will be available at over 25,000 retail outlets. Also of note is that the console initially will only be available in white.

Wii Sports will be included with the console and will feature Wii Baseball, Wii Boxing, Wii Golf and Wii Tennis. Some of the launch titles that will be available include Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Exitetruck, Call of Duty 3, Madden 2007, Need for Speed: Carbon and Trauma Center. Around 30 first-party titles are expected to be available at launch priced at $49.99 each.

Legacy games will available for download and will be purchased using Wii Points -- $20 gets you 2,000 Wii points. The breakdown is as follows:

  • NES Games: 500 Wii Points
  • SNES Games: 800 Wii Points
  • N64 Games: 1,000 Wii Points

Nintendo also announced Wii Channels. There will be a number of channels available to gamers including news, weather, photo, shopping and gaming channels. Gamers will also being able to browse the Internet using -- you guessed it -- the Internet Channel.

For more information on the Wii's launch, you can check out DailyTech's original article.

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$500 by the time I walk out.
By MykC on 9/14/2006 11:51:13 AM , Rating: 5
Necessary Stuff Day 1

The Conosole Bundle - $250
An Extra Controller - $ 60
Zelda: TP - $ 50
At least 1 more game - $ 50
SD Card - $ 50
--------------------------------
Total $460

Not that cheap when you look at the big picture, but looking back at the XBOX 360.

XBOX Premium Bundle $400
Wireless Controller $ 60
Perfect Dark Zero $ 50
Project Gotham 3 $ 50
XBOX Live $ 50
------------------------
$610

In the end I spend $150.00 less and get 3 games instead of 2.

Dissapointments:

1) No large internal storage, no SD card packed in. Well, the hopes of not having to buy a memory card were shattered.

"Will the system have its own internal memory for photos and such? Kaplan says it will have some capacity for internal memory, but "most" of the storage will indeed be through SD cards." - Gamespot Article

2) I expected the pricing of the Wii games to be less than the competition, because they touted that the cost of development will be way cheaper for the Wii and the fact they haven't mentioned that they were selling the console at a loss (nor have they used that tactic before).

4) I have a bit of problem paying $5.00 for almost any NES game. I have an issue paying $8.00 for most SNES games. I will pay $10.00 for majority of N64 games though.

I would of like to see the pricing of NES games at $2.00 and SNES games $5.00. Some of the premium classics could have a higher price point.

Lets be serious though, most of people are aware of ROMs so the value of games are hurt by it.

Someone mentioned the idea of implementing a subscription service like Sega Channel. This is something I would be interested in if the cost was like $100/year.

Happy About:

1) Strong Opening lineup by the end of the year.

2) Wi-fi included

3) Wii Sports included

Questions:

So is DVD and CD playback done out of the box? Happy if yes, dissapointed if no. And I would like it play MP3s off burnt DVDs.




RE: $500 by the time I walk out.
By AmpedSilence on 9/14/2006 11:58:36 AM , Rating: 2
Isn't Wii Sports a combination of 5 games? SO wouldn't it be more like 7 games instead of 2?


RE: $500 by the time I walk out.
By MykC on 9/14/2006 12:07:30 PM , Rating: 2
Don't expect each sport to be full fledged game. Expect what you see, your basic multiplayer, a super simple single player and tutorial. Thats it. No bells or whistles, no extensive career mode, franchise modes, etc.

The games are under one title because as is... I would suspect you wouldn't pay full price for the each sport as a seperate game.

So, like I don't count Hexic HD as a game, I consider Wii Sports as one title (although I think its going to be a great showcase and fun package).


RE: $500 by the time I walk out.
By ChugokuOtaku on 9/14/2006 12:02:18 PM , Rating: 2
I wonder if we can load the NES/SNES ROMs that are downloadable onto SD cards and play them off of the Wii?


RE: $500 by the time I walk out.
By Moishe on 9/14/2006 1:40:29 PM , Rating: 2
I wonder if the downloaded games can only be downloaded once? (would you have to re-pay for each download of the same game?)

And, can you save them to and from SD cards forever? (if so, you could give them to your friends)

The only way to do this without getting ripped off is to let the download consist of the ROM + database entry that indicates that you own the ROM already. That way, if you don't have the ROM to play,it would just redownload it and run the game. You'd have to have an account with ROM purchase history though.


By ChugokuOtaku on 9/14/2006 3:20:35 PM , Rating: 2
that's an interesting thought.
With a cartridge, you can take it to your friend's house to play. If they put a limitation on the downloaded ROMs so it'll only work on your Wii, then at the current prices, I don't think they're worth it. Or are they gonna have "genuine" ROMs?


By psychobriggsy on 9/15/2006 10:32:26 AM , Rating: 2
Most likely the NES/SNES/N64 games are encrypted by a Nintendo private key, and the Wii will only run Virtual Console games that it can decode using the public key which will be in read-only memory. I expect that if this is the case, then people will try to hack this part of the system, either replacing the public key with another, so you can encrypt your own ROM files, or bypassing the check so that plain ROMs can be run. It's also entirely possible that the Virtual Console downloads will also include a launcher application which will increase the amount of work required to hack the Virtual Console functionality.


By aGreenAgent on 9/14/2006 3:27:12 PM , Rating: 3
No, you can't.

The Wii doesn't have an emulator afaik. It runs gamecube code natively, and Wii code (duh).

I belive all the games that you'll be able to download have been re-compiled to PowerPC code so that the Wii runs them natively.


RE: $500 by the time I walk out.
By MonkeyPaw on 9/14/2006 12:07:55 PM , Rating: 2
Erm, how big of an SD card are you planning on getting? I can pick up a 1GB card for $15 on the right weekend.


RE: $500 by the time I walk out.
By PrinceGaz on 9/14/2006 1:59:26 PM , Rating: 2
My thoughts exactly, SD cards are dirt cheap these days (except for the very largest capacity).


RE: $500 by the time I walk out.
By SocrPlyr on 9/14/2006 12:13:34 PM , Rating: 2
You make a good point, but fail to remember xbox live is a recurring cost and that you don't need the SD card, the Wii has 512MB of flash built in. But in general you are only talking $200 for the first year of ownership more. I don't play games much so if i did buy a console it would only make sense for me to get something like the Wii. However, you also have to look at the market right now. Xbox 360 has been around for so long there shouldn't be too much thought going on whether or not to get it. So the competition isn't the 360, but more of the PS3 which the price difference is around $250 (for the lower end one) and $350 (for the high end one), but no recurring cost and BlueRay (which can't be count as a benefit ~yet). So it is an interesting to look at, but for now I throw my hands up in the air and say get what you want and try to convince your friends to get the other ones. Thus all your bases are covered. Hopefully then you will go play with you friends instead of playing solo at home a complete loner.

Josh


By imaheadcase on 9/14/2006 1:09:07 PM , Rating: 2
Well it should be noted you can download almost every n64 game online that would work on Wii :D


RE: $500 by the time I walk out.
By bunnyfubbles on 9/14/2006 1:47:49 PM , Rating: 1
512MB of flash is built into the Wii, $50 will EASILY get you 2GB, maybe even 4GB by the time it comes out if you do your shopping right. I just spent $40 (tax and shipping included) on a 150x 2GB SD card before a $16 MIR...

However, unless you really go crazy on the N64 games you'll probably never fill up the 512MB of built in flash.


RE: $500 by the time I walk out.
By drxploder on 9/14/2006 6:27:45 PM , Rating: 2
yeah, SD cards are so cheap now that I bought a DVD burner off newegg at $30 and got a 512MB one for free. Even when I bought a 1GB one 6 months ago, I only paid $32. SD is cheap and appears to be getting cheaper.


By encryptkeeper on 9/14/2006 2:33:01 PM , Rating: 1
Here's what most people will be spending on November 19th...
1x Wii console $249.99

1x Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess $49.99

So I'll spend $299.98 before tax...but my girlfriend works at Target, so take off 29.99 for her discount, - 26.99 for Target Bonus points 10% off coupon= ~$243.00 before tax and the ability to play anything from Nintendo's home console library? Sounds like a deal to me!


RE: $500 by the time I walk out.
By Samus on 9/14/2006 9:03:32 PM , Rating: 2
controllers are $40


RE: $500 by the time I walk out.
By MrSmurf on 9/14/2006 9:24:04 PM , Rating: 1
You do realize you simply could have subtracted $250 from $400 and gotten the same results, right?

The wii is $150 cheaper, period, which is a lot.


Cool
By JazzMang on 9/14/2006 10:02:03 AM , Rating: 2
Bring it on!




RE: Cool
By hughlle on 9/14/2006 10:06:23 AM , Rating: 2
omg, i['m gonna have to buy this :)

purely because of the fact that i can download n64 games onto it as well, super smash brothers here i come!!

on a side note, it would be good if you were able to trade-in/swap your old cartriges for the download etc


RE: Cool
By desiplaya4life on 9/14/06, Rating: -1
RE: Cool
By RamarC on 9/14/2006 10:47:13 AM , Rating: 1
quote:
uhhh how the hell would u be able to trade in your old cartridge for a download? are you stupid?


you must be stupid if you can't figure out how nintendo could do a trade-in. they could offer a mail-in program for cartridges or partner with EB. i don't think they will, but it would be a customer-friendly gesture and generate some extra revenue.


RE: Cool
By ToeCutter on 9/14/2006 11:19:50 AM , Rating: 4
quote:
uhhh how the hell would u be able to trade in your old cartridge for a download? are you stupid?


Actually, your post makes less sense the original you're replying to.

You could easily trade in old carts for Wii points, and then use them to purchase downloads.

Seems pretty simple to me? Feeling "stupid" yet?