Slashdot Mirror
Wii to Launch Nov. 19th for $250
PygmySurfer writes "According to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Nintendo is going to announce today that the Wii will go on sale on November 19th in North and South America, at a cost of $250. It will come bundled with Wii Sports and channels for such things as viewing photos, as well as news and weather. Finally, Wii will also make it possible to browse the web on your television. Nintendo will also announce that 25-30 games will be published this year, as well as about 30 classic games available on the virtual console, costing about $5-10."
Since the original link seems to be dead - http://wii.ign.com/articles/732/732669p1.html
The New York Times apparently broke an embargo and released the date and price early. Personally, I was still hoping for $150. Their mistake.
A Good Troll is better than a Bad Human.
I don't think its a mistake. Its 2-3 times the power of a gamecube, which still goes for $100. It comes with a game. ANd its still priced 150 under its nerest competitor, 350 below the PS3. 250 with a game is just about right- discount the $50 game and its the $200 unbundled that everyone expected.
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
The Article has been pulled. Whether that adds to the credibility of the info or not should all be clear later today when the Japan press conference is over or after the press conference in the US tomorrow.
1:55 p.m. [update 8]: And the other shoe drops. Famitsu is reporting a December 2 launch and 25,000 yen price for Japan. $215 USD
is now live!!!
www.wii.com
AirSpeak - http://itunes.com/apps/AirSpeak
SNES US release date: Aug 21, 1991 Exchange rate: 1991-08-01 136.82 yen/USD
N64 US relase date: Sept 29, 1996 Exchange rate: 1996-10-01 112.41 yen/USD
Gamecube US release date: Nov 18, 2001 Exchange rate: 2001-12-01 127.59 yen/USD
Wii US release date: Nov 19, 2006 Exchange rate: 2006-09-13 117.47 yen/USD
So, yes a good guess for the launch price would be 200 USD.
However, various sources disagree.
IANA*
According to this press release, no game is included.
-Tony
My Greasemonkey scripts for Digg &
Now lets look at the Wii: It doesn't have a hard drive, just like the core, it doesn't come with HD video cables, just like the core, it doesn't include a headset, just like the core, so the only thing left is the wired/wireless controller and we don't know for sure yet what the Wii will include (however if E3 is any indication they do make both versions and I wouldn't put it past them including the wired version).
Yeah, but it comes with 512MB built-in flash, and will take bog standard SD cards for expansion. Add an extra $40 there just to get a 64MB card so you can save games (cursing under your breath that if it used standard flash you could get 1GB for the same price).
Wii also does wireless networking out of the box. Add another $100 for the adapter on the core.
Noone's been speculating they won't include the Wii Remote. It's the centerpiece of the new system. Whether they'll include the wired "classic" controller is the only thing in the air. So, add another $50 for a wireless controller to bring the Core system up to par.
Then there's the bundled game. Add another $20 to get even a budget title on the XBox side.
That brings up to a grand total of an extra $210 to rectify the most glaring ommisions in the Core system. Of course, since we're talking two systems it's impossible to make them perfectly equivilent; the 360 is still pretty certainly the more powerful system and supports HD output, while the Wii has it's unique controller features and hints of some interesting console features (the "channels" whatever they are, built-in browser, etc).