cabel.name: WiiDay

WiiDay

Thursday, September 14, 2006

What a week for things! Today, the Nintendo Wii details were finally announced, after much anticipation, and the system looks more awesome and amazing than even I had hoped. For posterity, I thought I'd gather up all of today's exciting Nintendo Wii news in one place, in super compressed bullet point form. I'm sure you've read all of this already, but hey, here it is, a day that will live in hotness!

November 19th - Very slightly after Sony's theoretical launch

$250 bucks - Given that I just bought a TiVo for $800, it's like they're giving me money

25 games at launch - Some of which I'll probably actually buy.

Wii Sports Packed-In - Which is awesome, even though all pack-in games are doomed to forever Wise From Your Gwave

"Nunchuk" Controller Included - Extra 'chucks are $19, remotes are $40, and the Classic Controller is $15

Zelda at Launch - Do I need to say anything else? Widescreen to boot. Instant get!

4 million planned to ship - Versus Sony's estimated 2.6 million. (Personally, I doubt they'll ship 1 million.) Will be an interesting holiday...

Mario in 2007 - Razzle frazzle. Be patient, Sasser.

30 Virtual Console Games - At $5 to $10 each, with ten or so added each month. Hot companies on board!

Innovative "Wii Channel" Menu System - You've got to see this. Using a TV guide-like metaphor that theoretically anyone can understand. Includes Photos. Weather. News. Sirs and madams, this is fascinating stuff. Watch these movies, many pages! Read more at IGN!

Opera Browser Included - Free download. Supports Flash! But only free until June 2007? See it in motion here.

Mii Channel Customizable Avatars - Another very interesting idea for a highly customizable, but still cute, online identity

Region Free - By default. Guaranteed with first party titles. Strongly encouraged for all. This is huge news. MPAA, are you seeing this?

Metroid Prime with PC-like "Expert Mode" - Very exciting. You must read this IGN article about it.

Wario Ware Wii - Makes me tear up with joy to look at these screenshots.

Big Brain Academy Wii - A welcome, but obvious, surprise. See a video

Finally, a little photo gallery of the final hardware, to whet your virtual whistle, or "V-WHISTLE":

So, did I miss anything good? What do you guys think about today's news? Good? Bad? And are you as excited as I am?

(And who's getting a HOT HOT MICROSOFT ZUNE? Wa-wa-wee-wah! It comes in brown!)

50 Comments:

You're joking about the Zune right?

Right? :(

Paul 9/14/2006 3:59 PM

Yes. :)

Cabel 9/14/2006 4:00 PM

I thought extra Wiimotes are gonna be $40 and extra 'chuks $20? Which is a tad too high for my likings... But all in all, Im still really excited about this thing!

Vance 9/14/2006 4:06 PM

I'm super excited about the news today. Only things I haven't liked are that I have to wait 2 months and that EB isn't taking pre-sales until October. I want to at least order it now if I can't have it yet. =)

BTW, have you seen for sure that Opera is free? The first report I saw said that it was included, then later on I saw something that said it wasn't.

Brad Miller 9/14/2006 4:07 PM

Cabel- you are officialy my best friend. :D :D

I'm just slightly
disspointed because you didn't
write a report on the new
ipod nano and shuffle.
That's ok- you prolly
dont have that much time on
your hands anyway :D

Aerodyna 9/14/2006 4:09 PM

Oh yeah- and the zune sounds
good! I don't know what it
looks like yet, though XD lol...

Aerodyna 9/14/2006 4:10 PM

Pricing updated -- you're right, 'chucks are $20!

As for the Opera browser, IGN says "Free until June 2007". Well, actually they said 2006, but they messed up. Source is here!

Cabel 9/14/2006 4:13 PM

Cool, thanks for the Opera news. It being free for a limited time is probably the cause of the conflicting reports I saw.

Brad Miller 9/14/2006 4:27 PM

This is exciting, and I'm not even a gamer! I grew up with the original Nintendo. Amost thou persuadest me to buy one.

Aaron Jensen 9/14/2006 4:37 PM

http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-17-71-1g-74-170-49-en.html

"Nintendo has announced the first official Nintendo™ Wii launch details in their press conference today. Exactly two years after the launch of the Nintendo DS™ in Japan, the first Japanese Nintendo™ Wii consoles will hit Japanese stores on Saturday, December 2nd 2006."
Huh?

Aerodyna 9/14/2006 4:38 PM

lol, zune coming in brown... teehee.

I was just being sarcastic with the zune- you know that, right? lol... I think I'm posting too much. I will stop unless tempted.

Aerodyna 9/14/2006 4:44 PM

Aerodyna: It's true. The machine comes out later in Japan! I was only stating the USA release date...

Cabel 9/14/2006 4:45 PM

Well said: "Hot Sh*t Included!"
November 19th can't come soon enough! O_O

Anonymous 9/14/2006 5:00 PM

I was thinking about getting a japanese version of the Wii to help my son with his japanese. Does the reagion-free goodness mean we'll be able to buy games in the states that will work on it?

Marshall 9/14/2006 5:03 PM

Region-free means it's like the DS -- it has no region encoding, and the US units are the same as the Japanese units. I can set my DS to a variety of languages, including Japanese.

Nintendo rocks. :)

Colin Barrett 9/14/2006 5:11 PM

I wonder how well that classic controller will work with N64 games…

Anonymous 9/14/2006 5:27 PM

I think we sould start calling Mii avatars "Wiibles"

They do bear some resemblance :)

Nathan 9/14/2006 5:40 PM

I'll be very surprised if Nintendo doesn't eat Sony's lunch this Christmas.

Scott 9/14/2006 5:49 PM

Well, I guess this is a first for Nintendo for bringing consoles out in the US first..

Aerodyna 9/14/2006 6:34 PM

I swear, if I had to wait one more day to hear anything about the Wii, I was going to cry. But it's coming!!! I was hoping it would be out earlier, but eh.. I'm not going to complain.. I've been waiting on this since last years' TGS. I saw the Wiimote and was hooked. I didn't care what it did, I just knew I wanted it. And it is a bummer about not being able to have a new Mario game or the new Meteroid, but I've been a very patient woman so far.. I can control my urges...... Well, maybe.. I love that it's going to be out in North and South America before Japan and the rest of the world... For once, we can be the importers! Ahh, my Wii... I can't wait until I get you and bring you home to bathe in your glow... In closing, WII-HA!

WmistEressB 9/14/2006 8:51 PM

I reallyreallyreallyreally want one. Do we know the UK launch date yet?

Olly Hodgson 9/15/2006 2:43 AM

Hey Cabel,

Do you know if the Wii will be HD capable? I'm totally new in the field...

I like your tie, btw.

Alexandre

Alexandre 9/15/2006 2:55 AM

Great summary! It was hard for me to find a good condensed form of all the information floating around post-conference(s). But I cannot say I am as enthused!

It's a shame the graphics are so miserable, and the price is rather high for what you're getting. At least the games aren't $60 - I was fearing that.

I was gonna get one of these when my girlfriend comes to live with me at the end of this year but I'm a bit less enthused now I realise there's very little worth playing on it (Zelda and Metroid do nothing for me and I'm sick of paying Nintendo for re-releases of old stuff), the price is a bit too much and the only neat gimmick seems to be a fairly silly Opera port. So an old Gamecube on eBay it is, at least until there's decent games for these next-gen consoles.

SuitCase 9/15/2006 3:17 AM

1. Zelda.
2. Downloadable NES, SNES and N64 games for real cheap.
3. Zelda.
4. Zelda.
5. Zelda.
6. That controller thing could be fun.

I want it real bad.

pauldwaite 9/15/2006 5:33 AM

$800 for a TiVo? You must have gone for their series 3 HD/dual-tuner beast. If you went that far, then maybe you paid the extra $200 to transfer your lifetime subscription over. Now if only we could see a combination of these things… TiiVopple?

pedro 9/15/2006 6:59 AM

Holy &%$#ing $#!+, Wario Ware for the Wii? How did I miss that until now? You have made my entire day, dude.

Chris 9/15/2006 8:30 AM

@ Olly Hodgson: Wii will arrive in Europe on December 8th.

@ Alexandre: no HD support for the Wii. Nintendo doesn't care about it.

@cabel: Unfortunately Nintendo UK just told Eurogamer/Gamesindustrybiz that Wii won't be region free: the US manager who said that got it wrong (I wonder how is it possible)

And Zune really, really sucks. Bad design, horrible colors, ugly UI. The only good thing is the radio: I really don't understand why Apple doesn't put it in the iPod!

Mattia 9/15/2006 11:58 AM

Off topic: There is a radio accessory for the iPod.

Anonymous 9/15/2006 2:31 PM

Could it be possible that Wii is region-free in the US but region-locked in the EU? But then everybody would want to import from the US. Right?

That makes no sense.

Anonymous 9/15/2006 2:49 PM

OK, we can know their ideas again...
http://wii.nintendo.com/iwata_asks_vol1_p1.html

Noby 9/15/2006 11:44 PM

Is it me or am I the only one who will wait for the black Wii to come out before buying the system ? This sure is going to be painful!

paco 9/16/2006 8:28 AM

I'm waiting for a black one aswell, to go with my ds light. Hopefully it won't be too long

Mike 9/16/2006 11:47 AM

I'm in the UK, my b/day is 7 Dec so that's my present sorted (a Wii for your 36th birthday is OK, right?)

Also the 3 weeks or so delay between US and UK release means I get to see your video review before making my final decision. You will do a video review, won't you? I bought a ds lite on the strength of your video review :)

Dave 9/16/2006 12:57 PM

While the Wii doesn't support HD, it does support 480p, which wikipedia users consider Enchanced-Definition with 16:9 widescreen support.

Nintendo representatives earlier in the year reported that for right now, 480p was the most widely available format used and that their next console in 5 or so years would most likely support high-definition.

Take a look at some of the newer screenshots released on 14 September.

http://media.wii.ign.com/media/825/825377/imgs_1.html

Anonymous 9/16/2006 7:38 PM

does anyone know if web messesnger (msn) will work for the wii internet

Datatribe 9/16/2006 10:34 PM

it should, at least the web version of msn, that works on any browser, but i highly doubt an actually msn program will work on it

I could be wrong but I dont think Nintendo wants to go that way

empfeix 9/17/2006 11:01 AM

"4 million planned to ship - Versus Sony's estimated 2.6 million. (Personally, I doubt they'll ship 1 million.) Will be an interesting holiday..."

Sony is only shipping 400,000 to North America for release. I'm not sure if you mean Sony's estimated to ship 2.6 million by the end of the year? But they can't even do that. They estimate 1-1.2 million by the end of the year in North America.

Nintendo better keep their promise of 4 million!

(source: http://ps3.ign.com/articles/731/731032p1.html )

Anonymous 9/17/2006 11:14 AM

Anyone know how long the cord is connecting the remote to the nunchuk?

Datatribe 9/17/2006 9:57 PM

Nice Altered Beast reference. One small thing: I believe Reggie said Nintendo planned to sell 4 million units, not ship. That may not happen, but it is important to note what his actual claim was.

chungkaishek 9/18/2006 6:50 AM

hey they have colors for the wii controler and the hardware thingy they have white (of course), lime green ( =) ), red, and black cant wait im gonna get one when it comes out i like the ds lite tho

Anonymous 9/18/2006 8:38 AM

So does anybody have any good suggestions on where to pre-order all this goodness? I usually pre-order my stuff on egames.com but I read they're not doing anything until October.

mumbles 9/18/2006 8:47 AM

what's with the nintendo monitor in those wii channel vids? if it has a built in sensor bar, could be kinda cool

Automaton Overlord, Esq. 9/18/2006 9:17 PM

Nintendo: Wii is Not Region Free
Company confirms that the console will be region locked.
by Luke Smith, 09/19/2006

OK, we were wrong.

Contrary to previous reports, the Wii will not be region free.

Representatives from Nintendo of America confirmed to 1UP this morning that the "Wii will be region encoded by territory."

Mistakes happen, just don't make the mistake of importing a Wii to your territory thinking that it is region-free -- because it's not.

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3153746

Console Network 9/20/2006 12:14 AM

Definately sounds good. Looks forward to the launch very much, but I think its delayed a little bit longer over here in the UK.

You get used to it after this happening to every other console thats ever been released. Hehe.

Malakym 9/25/2006 12:26 AM

Awww, I was hoping it would be region free. We always get things later in the UK... Does anyone know which colours will be available at launch?

Anonymous 9/29/2006 6:38 AM

I think we all should consider the dumb name to stand for Wireless Interactive Interface (Wii) then to we all it would make perfect sense!!

Anonymous 9/30/2006 12:45 PM

WIIIIIIIII!!!.... I mean... WHEEEEEEE!

I am SO glad that they are selling for under $300. I just got enough to buy a nintendo ds lite today, and now have to look foreward to the Wii. :-)

(The DS Lite Review is what led me here, and I watched stating "Man! That looks like Portland....Wunderland(I think...), Sushi Land, The Mall..... What do ya know. Portland it is! Howdy from SE!)

Bonnie 10/07/2006 8:58 AM

lol, that's how i found here too! I was learning about the DS (reg) and I stumbled on this review! I fell in love with the lite which I had never heard of until then. I saw this on March 3. Three months later, the lite was mine....
:D
I can't wait for the Wii. I tried going to my local Gamestop but they didn't have the kiosk!! Grr.

Anonymous 11/13/2006 2:32 PM

wow, the wii is amizing!! ^^
but here in germany, i have to wait for a longer time for it. -.-"
my friend will get it after christmas

@cabel: i had written an e-mail. have a look on it!

Anonymous 11/27/2006 9:22 AM

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Anonymous 5/09/2008 11:36 PM

WiiDay

Thursday, September 14, 2006

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