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According to Nintendo, the price of the Wii in the United States "will not exceed $250 in America."

I'm definitely getting my hands on this baby this fall.

I for one welcome our new turtle-jumping, pipe-warping, fireball-spitting, bowser-butt-kicking, princess-saving overlord(s)!

PS: If anyone hasn't seen the flash videos yet over at mario.nintendo.com, they are awesome!

According to this page. The warranty is only 90 days on the 360, which means that if you bought it on or around the launch day, in November, your warranty expired 3 months ago.

To be unbiased, the PS2 also had a 90 day warranty as well. The gamecube has a twelve month warranty.

2. If the controler itself has a "motion sensor" itself, ie the tilt functionality showcased in Warhawk, then having a controler that vibrated might interfere with it reporting correct user input. It isn't that the controler is delicate but the way tilt is measured is thrown off by extra forces like vibration.

Nintendo seems to have found a way around that with their controller. Perhaps Nintendo has a patent on their technology, and Sony isn't willing to pay up to both Nintendo and Immersion.

What capabilities does the Wii command that are unachievable on the GameCube today? I think nintendo is just releasing the obligatory new platform as a method to increase saturation of it's 'wiimote' controller. They should have just bundled the controller with whatever handful of games they plan to have it work with and called it a day. Consider:

Wii is hardly more powerful than gamecube. GC 1.5 indeed. Partial Wii Specs vs. GC Specs>

They are releasing AAA GC titles simultaneously with Wii anyway.

Wii has 4 GC controller ports and will accept GC discs as well as Wii ones.

What we really have here, just like GBA SP and DS Lite, is the GC Wii, with a pack-in wand controller and ethernet port.

Wow, I wonder what the video games were like in 1890.

According to Nintendo's Company History, the games produced in 1889 apparently looked a whole lot like Japanese playing cards.

(I freely admit that I initially scoffed at the '116+ years' history for exactly the same reason that you did.)

Here's the Nintendo press release about the NES Classic Series showing that games will have an MSRP of $19.99.

This press release is worth reading to see how NOT to write a press release. It is terrible!

I'm sure zelda is selling for $20 at gamestop used b/c it is in somewhat high demand and they have stopped making it. The kids, they like the zelda.

It sounds like PhysOrg's interviewer was talking to some PR rep who didn't understand how the technology actually worked. Nintendo's web page says it uses Bluetooth.

"It also will be home to new games conceived by indie developers whose creativity is larger than their budgets."

-- From http://wii.nintendo.com/hardware.html on the bit about Virtual Console.

Virtual Console ... will be home to new games conceived by indie developers whose creativity is larger than their budgets.

Virtual Console: Wii will have downloadable access to 20 years of fan-favorite titles originally released for Nintendo 64, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) and even the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The Virtual Console also will feature a "best of" selection from Sega Genesis titles and games from the TurboGrafx console (a system jointly developed by NEC and Hudson). It also will be home to new games conceived by indie developers whose creativity is larger than their budgets.

(italics mine)

I can't help but think that this means Superman 64 is all out...

Virtual Console: Wii will have downloadable access to 20 years of fan-favorite titles originally released for Nintendo 64, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) and even the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The Virtual Console also will feature a "best of" selection from Sega Genesis titles and games from the TurboGrafx console (a system jointly developed by NEC and Hudson). It also will be home to new games conceived by indie developers whose creativity is larger than their budgets.

Nintendo Wii has 4x GC controller slots and 2x GC Memory slots... it reads on http://wii.nintendo.com/

Oh and if you wonder where they are, I saw a pic where the top of the console (when its "sideways" (as in all pics)) opens and reveals the ports

The wii has plugs for existing GC controllers. http://wii.nintendo.com/hardware.html The controller is a feature. It may have limitations, but you aren't stuck with those limitationsi.

Just because the game developers found out about the motion sensing functionality within the last few weeks doesn't mean it was "hastily tacked on." To me, "hastily tacked on" means that the decision to add the feature came late in development and was then added at the last minute.

How long have we known about Nintendo's controllers? It was debuted September 15, 2005. So if Sony started working on this technology as soon as Nintendo announced the controller, they would have been working on it for over 7 months before releasing it to developers. They could have waited a while to start working on it, but from all the praise it got at E3 in Japan, I would think they would have started research right away, assuming that they weren't already working on such a feature. The recent release of the technology to developers doesn't seem like something that was "hastily tacked on", but more like something that took a while to develop and perfect before it could be implemented.

...with that said, it definitely seems like they stole the idea from Nintendo and wanted to take the hype away from the Wii.

Here is the other of the two newly discovered galaxies.

here:
http://press.nintendo.com/
User: media
Pass: E32006

Go here. Show her the video. Promise to help her with her golf swing.

Failing that, beg or promise to brownbag lunch and squirrel away the savings until it comes out.

Surely the woman is reasonable!

Meh, I'm happy with the diversity of their lineup. Zelda and Metroid are hardly "kiddie." Mario, yea, he's got that disney-esque thing going on, but the gameplay in the games featuring him is normally pretty damn good. In the N64 days, Rare, then a second party, produced Conker, Perfect Dark Zero, and Goldeneye. This generation they had Retro, and brought a lot more anime style stuff over like Fire Emblem. I almost included Silicon Knights here, for the MGS remake and Eternal Darkness but I can't recall if they were second party or third.

The kiddie image is pretty recent actually, mainly due to the Super Mario Sunshine ads and initial color of the Gamecube.

In this upcoming generation, in house they're doing Disaster: Day of Crisis and Project HAMMER in house, with retro doing another Metroid game. Plus anime style stuff like Fire Emblem, and a darker more Ocarina of Time-esque Legend of Zelda. Third party, they have Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles(the first one being the best game in that style since Secret of Mana if you could get past GBA->GCN connectivity costs), and Dragon Quest Kenshin(Swords) in the RPG/anime style. Then of course ubisoft's Red Steel, and EA's Madden 2k6. The token kiddie title is from THQ, a Spongebob game, and then there's the family friendly Mario Galaxies and the lego-styled Wii Sports. Most of the previous ones are launch titles btw(except the two more adult Nintendo first party IIRC).

And then of course we get the best-of stuff from the NES, SNES, Genesis, Turbografx-16, N64, which should be pretty extensive since a lot of that IP isn't used too much anymore(apart from square doing remakes/ports to the GBA), plus the whole gamecube library(which includes things like the Resident Evil series up to 4 anyway).

Further down the line we have stuff like Call of Duty 3. So, it's not like there's a shortage of the stuff, it's mainly image leading to reality over the course of their console lifetime.

Meh, I'm happy with the diversity of their lineup. Zelda and Metroid are hardly "kiddie." Mario, yea, he's got that disney-esque thing going on, but the gameplay in the games featuring him is normally pretty damn good. In the N64 days, Rare, then a second party, produced Conker, Perfect Dark Zero, and Goldeneye. This generation they had Retro, and brought a lot more anime style stuff over like Fire Emblem. I almost included Silicon Knights here, for the MGS remake and Eternal Darkness but I can't recall if they were second party or third.

The kiddie image is pretty recent actually, mainly due to the Super Mario Sunshine ads and initial color of the Gamecube.

In this upcoming generation, in house they're doing Disaster: Day of Crisis and Project HAMMER in house, with retro doing another Metroid game. Plus anime style stuff like Fire Emblem, and a darker more Ocarina of Time-esque Legend of Zelda. Third party, they have Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles(the first one being the best game in that style since Secret of Mana if you could get past GBA->GCN connectivity costs), and Dragon Quest Kenshin(Swords) in the RPG/anime style. Then of course ubisoft's Red Steel, and EA's Madden 2k6. The token kiddie title is from THQ, a Spongebob game, and then there's the family friendly Mario Galaxies and the lego-styled Wii Sports. Most of the previous ones are launch titles btw(except the two more adult Nintendo first party IIRC).

And then of course we get the best-of stuff from the NES, SNES, Genesis, Turbografx-16, N64, which should be pretty extensive since a lot of that IP isn't used too much anymore(apart from square doing remakes/ports to the GBA), plus the whole gamecube library(which includes things like the Resident Evil series up to 4 anyway).

Further down the line we have stuff like Call of Duty 3. So, it's not like there's a shortage of the stuff, it's mainly image leading to reality over the course of their console lifetime.

Gamespost has all 3 major conferences:

http://www.gamespot.com/e3/e3live.html

Nintendo themselves have the games trailers they showed at the conferences:

http://wii.nintendo.com/home.html

It's worth watching the conferences for the stuff that didn't make it to the Nintendo videos, especially the live play of Red Steel. But watch the Nintendo videos too for better video quality.

What was that "Disaster: Day of Disaster" thing or whatever? You could have blinked and missed that entire game. In fact I think I did.

It was Disaster: Day of Crisis.

Check out the E3 video. http://wii.nintendo.com/home.html and click on the Fresh Experiences Tab to see the video they presented. It's awesome!!

According to Nintendo's Wii pages (click on Hardware), the answer is yes, it will accept Gamecube disks. (It also appears to allow the use of Gamecube memory cards and controllers.) I didn't see any surprises, to be honest.

Read more about the games and the console at their site:

http://wii.nintendo.com/home.html

Check them all out at the official Nintendo site: http://wii.nintendo.com/home.html

with all the press info one can chew.

I may regret this, as the slashdot hoards might crash the servers, so nobody can enjoy it, but at Nintendo's E3 site, they say that they'll have live coverage of the press conference.

I am split down the middle as to whether it is a marketing ploy or not, in just the sheer sense of generating a buzz. Part of me doesn't mind the name (although, I am not fond of it, either). E3 will be interesting. The only thing preventing me from fully accepting that this is the real name for the Revolution is the fact that http://wii.nintendo.com/ does nothing, while http://revolution.nintendo.com/ still does. I would think that something so basic would have been taken care of. Also, it wouldn't have taken long for someone to slap the movie and a press release together. So the conspiracy monkey in me is still scratching a bit at it all...

I am split down the middle as to whether it is a marketing ploy or not, in just the sheer sense of generating a buzz. Part of me doesn't mind the name (although, I am not fond of it, either). E3 will be interesting. The only thing preventing me from fully accepting that this is the real name for the Revolution is the fact that http://wii.nintendo.com/ does nothing, while http://revolution.nintendo.com/ still does. I would think that something so basic would have been taken care of. Also, it wouldn't have taken long for someone to slap the movie and a press release together. So the conspiracy monkey in me is still scratching a bit at it all...

As an interesting fact, esp since the parent is about googling "wii", http://wii.nintendo.com/ DOES NOT exist.

http://revolution.nintendo.com/ is still the "main" page for the new console!

http://nintendo.com/ still has "Revolution" on it's page, and it still links to the above mentioned revolution.nintendo.com. If this was truly a rock-solid, no-fooling announcement, wouldn't they have rolled out with the new website?

Aren't new Zelda/Mario/Metroid game place-holder websites live the day of the announcement it's in production? It's been several days now and still no wii.nintendo.com! I smell a gimmick. Unless they're waiting to launch the website during E3, but that doesn't make any sense!

Just my 2 AC cents.

As an interesting fact, esp since the parent is about googling "wii", http://wii.nintendo.com/ DOES NOT exist.

http://revolution.nintendo.com/ is still the "main" page for the new console!

http://nintendo.com/ still has "Revolution" on it's page, and it still links to the above mentioned revolution.nintendo.com. If this was truly a rock-solid, no-fooling announcement, wouldn't they have rolled out with the new website?

Aren't new Zelda/Mario/Metroid game place-holder websites live the day of the announcement it's in production? It's been several days now and still no wii.nintendo.com! I smell a gimmick. Unless they're waiting to launch the website during E3, but that doesn't make any sense!

Just my 2 AC cents.

As an interesting fact, esp since the parent is about googling "wii", http://wii.nintendo.com/ DOES NOT exist.

http://revolution.nintendo.com/ is still the "main" page for the new console!

http://nintendo.com/ still has "Revolution" on it's page, and it still links to the above mentioned revolution.nintendo.com. If this was truly a rock-solid, no-fooling announcement, wouldn't they have rolled out with the new website?

Aren't new Zelda/Mario/Metroid game place-holder websites live the day of the announcement it's in production? It's been several days now and still no wii.nintendo.com! I smell a gimmick. Unless they're waiting to launch the website during E3, but that doesn't make any sense!

Just my 2 AC cents.

let's not forget that http://www.nintendo.com/wii still leads to an error page...
and the same goes for http://wii.nintendo.com/

Which I still think is weird.

let's not forget that http://www.nintendo.com/wii still leads to an error page...
and the same goes for http://wii.nintendo.com/

Which I still think is weird.

if this is indeed a hoax. When the name first came out, I was rather indifferent about it. In the end, I don't really care about the name, I'm still buying it :)

However, I did have time to think about it, since I didn't waste my day posting to message boards about how I think it's so stupid like the rest of the world did. What I came up with was rather simular.

Either I'll be made fun of for playing my Wii ... OR ... Nintendo is a brilliant. Why brilliant? Well, what if on E3, they don't unveil the Wii .. they unveil the "XXXXXX" (Whatever the REAL name is) !!!??? Yah .. that would be absolutely pure genius. Not only did they steal attention of everyone for the 2 weeks BEFORE E3 ... they'll steal the attention at E3 and for the 2 weeks following!

It wouldn't have been an expensive campaign either. 1 Press Release. 1 stupid little flash movie up on http://revolution.nintendo.com./ That's it!? And it got all this press!

Here's a little more fuel for this consipiracy fire. Why does http://wii.nintendo.com/ not work? That'd take a whole 10 seconds for someone to create that subdomain and point it to revolution.nintendo.com or even just mirror that page from it. Hmmmmmm? Maybe it isn't the name after all?!??!

Indeed, things that make you go Hmmmmmm.

if this is indeed a hoax. When the name first came out, I was rather indifferent about it. In the end, I don't really care about the name, I'm still buying it :)

However, I did have time to think about it, since I didn't waste my day posting to message boards about how I think it's so stupid like the rest of the world did. What I came up with was rather simular.

Either I'll be made fun of for playing my Wii ... OR ... Nintendo is a brilliant. Why brilliant? Well, what if on E3, they don't unveil the Wii .. they unveil the "XXXXXX" (Whatever the REAL name is) !!!??? Yah .. that would be absolutely pure genius. Not only did they steal attention of everyone for the 2 weeks BEFORE E3 ... they'll steal the attention at E3 and for the 2 weeks following!

It wouldn't have been an expensive campaign either. 1 Press Release. 1 stupid little flash movie up on http://revolution.nintendo.com./ That's it!? And it got all this press!

Here's a little more fuel for this consipiracy fire. Why does http://wii.nintendo.com/ not work? That'd take a whole 10 seconds for someone to create that subdomain and point it to revolution.nintendo.com or even just mirror that page from it. Hmmmmmm? Maybe it isn't the name after all?!??!

Indeed, things that make you go Hmmmmmm.

A logical analysis of the story would also indicate its unlikelihood: It strains credibility to believe that a company as large as General Motors, with marketing executives and other employees and contacts throughout the world, wouldn't be aware of a negative meaning of a product name. In fact, according to one marketing analyst (Cecelia Bouleau, quoted in Business Mexico magazine), GM marketers discussed the possibility of confusion with the name, but "they kept the name and it sold very well. ... I think that the word is sufficiently incorporated into the language as meaning 'new' as in 'bossa nova' that the criticism isn't valid."

Introducing ... Wii.
As in "we."
While the code-name "Revolution" expressed our direction, Wii represents the answer.
Wii will break down that wall that separates video game players from everybody else.
Wii will put people more in touch with their games ... and each other. But you're probably asking: What does the name mean?
Wii sounds like "we," which emphasizes this console is for everyone.
Wii can easily be remembered by people around the world, no matter what language they speak. No confusion. No need to abbreviate. Just Wii.
Wii has a distinctive "ii" spelling that symbolizes both the unique controllers and the image of people gathering to play.
And Wii, as a name and console, brings something revolutionary to the world of video games that sets it apart from the crowd.
So that's Wii. But now Nintendo needs you.
Because, it's really not about you or me.
It's about Wii.
And together, Wii will change everything.

just go here: http://revolution.nintendo.com/ for the explanation.

though the explanation is good, i don't seem to like the name.

honestly, i wouldn't want to buy the product anymore as it sounds bad. there is no more coolness from the "revolution." it's like buying a device that is small, crappy, puny, unreliable, cheap, and underpowered. maybe they associate it with "weeeeeeee" where at the end, the product crashes to the wall as there is no brakes.

they could have named it like family entertainment or universal entertainment but not as cheesy as wii. i'd rather buy the ps3 and xbox 360 where there is a coolness factor to the name. i couldn't really keep the scenario out of my mind where kids who have wii will get teased and bullied by those with ps and xbox.

The codename which we have used for development, "Revolution", has come to express our objective [of the project]. This name, "Wii", is the answer.

Based on the English word "We", "Wii" expresses the concept that anyone in the family can enjoy it. Also, the double "i" in "Wii" symbolizes both the unique controller and the likeness of people gathering together to play.

Interestingly, the Japanese version isn't nearly as verbose as the English one. I guess they probably didn't feel much need to justify the oddball faux-English to the reader, since most Japanese products (and all of Nintendo's game consoles) use English-derived names.

There's none of the cockamamy rationale that "the whole world will understand the name" which is present in the English or French versions. However, there is a focus on the "family gaming" concept (and by association casual gaming -- games that even your mom or grandpa would play) which is missing from the English version. With Nintendo's recent incredible success in casual gaming with the DS, this marketing angle shouldn't come as much of a surprise. One could say that the Wii is basically the extension of the DS's pen-like interface into 3-d space: the living room.

One other interesting cultural reference is the way that the "ii" bows to the viewer at the end of the animation. That would be the standard body language to use in Japan, after introducing yourself to an audience.

I can't believe the idiots on here rattling on like they know better than the good folks at Nintendo when it comes to deciding what the damn console is called. Yes, I was shocked, but the name screams future.

Even the logo movie is cool - just using the two little i's with basic audio to convey a general idea of 'play'. The message is - on this console, we're going to get back to the essence of games.

I'm in.

http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/webform.jsp

Give them some negetive feedback, maybe, just maybe, we wont be able to get revolution back, but Maybe they will try to get another.. less absolutely horid name.

(hell, we got farscape back on the air)

It's the only way I can justify their explanation:

http://revolution.nintendo.com/

It's like a goofy choice for english wording in the middle of japanese anime, except in the real world.

(warning, Sage over on NSider myself)

Most of them are probably completely unaware that Slashdot even exists, much less that this discussion is going on. They're doing a great job of complaining about the name without the outside influence. Just take a look at the Revolution/Wii board. And I don't think you have to worry about having the forums be affected by Slashdot linking to nintendo.com, either. The forums aren't hosted on a Nintendo server - they're hosted on servers run by Lithium Technologies.

Introducing... Wii.
As in "we."

Any way, I for one can't wait to see what the big E3 announcements will be... Maybe the last secret of the controller will be force feedback? That would be SWEET, but INCREDIBLY unlikely...

Clearly this wasn't well thought out and may just be a hoax since the web address is still revolution.nintendo.com and wii.nintendo.com doesn't even resolve. Isn't that like the first thing that people do with a new product? Get the domain set up?

Clearly this wasn't well thought out and may just be a hoax since the web address is still revolution.nintendo.com and wii.nintendo.com doesn't even resolve. Isn't that like the first thing that people do with a new product? Get the domain set up?

2005 Nintendo list 86 Games shipped for the Cube.
11 were from Nintendo.

2006 lists 13 games so far 2 from Nintendo.

Overal they list 548 Cube titles.
52 are Nintendo First Party games.

Source http://www.nintendo.com/gamelist?start=21&oord=asc &osort=pub&sort=&cmd=&toggle=true&query=&tf=&cf=&s f=NINTENDO+GAMECUBE&ef=&rf=&pf=&af=&vf=&nf=

Just for a minute forget about the franchise games Mario/Zelda /Kirby
Splinter Cell, Prince of Persia, Sonic, Resident Evil, Madden, Lord of the Rings, Gun, Tony Hawk, DDR, Metal Gear Solid, NEED for Speed, Lego Star Wars

What do you think is missing? I have these games some of them on two or three systems the cube holds its own. GUN is a 360 game for crying out loud. Looks Great on that purple box. Sure ain't no $349 difference in graphics to my peepers.

Fair enough, though I can't say I remember ever hearing or seeing anyone use AGB in normal use (friends, Slashdot, gaming websites, stores, packaging, Nintendo Powe, etc.) before today.

And two can play at the example game - Nintendo's own website uses the term GBA.

I'm just curious...Am I the only one that sees a 3rd party manufacturer if not Nintendo themselves releasing a wireless standard controller?

The revolution standard controller is wireless, let's just hope it's not as heavy as the GC wavebird...