Wii Launch Details in Japan and America

[Doctor Oak]

The details for the Wii launch in America and Japan have finally been revealed and it's all looking very promising.

The Wii will launch first in America on November 19th, priced $250 (About £130) and comes bundled with Wii Sports as well as a single Wiimote and Nunchuck Attatchment.

The Wii comes out in Japan 2 weeks later on December 2nd and costs about £20 less by not including a copy of Wii Sports.

Games will cost 4800 to 6800 Yen (£22-£31) in Japan, with 16 titles (see full story) available from launch. Though unconfirmed, 25 titles will be available for the US launch and will cost around $50 (£27).

The Virtual Console games will cost 500 Yen (£2) for NES games, 800 Yen (£4) for SNES and 1000 Yen (£5) for N64 games. Around 30 titles will be on the Virtual Console from day one including Mario, Zelda and Donkey Kong games and you can pay either by credit card or prepaid points - the same system as the 360 uses. Nintendo hopes to expand the Virtual Console by 10 games every month .

It appears that you have to buy the Nunchuck Attatchment seperately for additional controllers, at a price of about £8 - the Wiimote itself costing £17. The Classic Controller will cost £8 to buy seperately and only comes bundled with the console in a limited offer in Japan for launch along with a 5,000 point pre-paid card.

Zelda will NOT be a launch title in America, but will be available soon after "before the end of 2006". In Japan you can buy both the Cube and Wii versions from day one.

The Wii's online functions, as well as online gaming and downloads - and the WiiConnect 24 system - also includes a range of media functions, including access to news and weather channels, web browsing and digital photos.

The UK and European details are announced tommorow, and if you're near the Oxford Street GAME tommorow, make sure you head down from between 12pm-4pm to meet Charles "Mario" Martinet as they celebrate the announcement, due to be relayed there at 1.30pm.

I unfortunately will not be here, so I'm hoping that someone else will be able to post the update in my place but if not, I'll have the full details up - if for posteirity alone - by dinner time tommorow.

£130-£150 is exactly what I estimated and am happy that it's what we're getting. The deals for both America and Japan are pretty cool - but I'm holding out hope that tommorow's announcement will give us a sly extra bonus.

The fact that Japan's date is 2 weeks after America's is intriguing. The same thing happened with the original DS of course, but we know for certain we wont be waiting until March for the Wii. Is it possible we could be the week in between? And therefore getting the system BEFORE Japan? ....

I hope Zelda's going to be a launch title here too but I guess that if it can't make the American launch, it's unlikely to make ours. Even if it's meant to be out there for the end of the year.

Japanese launch line up:

Elebits (Konami)

Hajimete no Wii (Nintendo)

Kororinpa (Hudson)

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Nintendo)

Necro-Nesia (Spike)

Red Steel (Ubisoft)

SD Gundam Revolution (Namco Bandai)

Super Monkey Ball: Uki Uki Party Daishuugou (Sega)

Swing Golf Panya (Tecmo)

Tamagotchi no Pika Pika Daitouryou! (Namco Bandai)

Tatsujin Festival (Namco Bandai)

Trauma Center: Second Opinion (Atlus)

Wario Ware: Smooth Moves (Nintendo)

Wii Sports (Nintendo)

Wing Island (Hudson)

 

[bell02+]

I kind of excited about it, but slightly disappointed that some games got delayed (though, its a good thing because I wouldn't be able to afford it all anyways)

I should add this video to this topic, It has a short clip of Battle Revolution in the game montauge that shows Dairuga fighting Parukia, both using new moves. Its about a 1/4th of the way through