30th August 2006, 9:52 PM
The price, the date, the finalized games, the last secrets revealed.
Here's the info.
We all know about the NOA event taking place on September 14th. Now, there will be a Nintendo of Europe event in London the very next day, on September 15th. GoNintendo reported about it first, I believe. And I have also received the invitation since.
Also, I have made some enquiries and it seems that there will not be such an event in Japan. Consequently, I am forced to change my mind about when the launch details will be announced. I now believe that the two events by NOA and NOE will break the news, after all. I do wonder, though, when the Japanese launch details will be announced. NOA might have Miyamoto and Iwata participate via videoconference.
So watch that countdown at the top. That is when we will find out. Also, Nintendo really do have another surprise in store for us, which will be revealed at these events. Just how big that surprise will be, I do not yet know. But stick with this blog and I might be able give you some indication soon.
Finally, Makerofdust on the NSider forums alerted me to a Swiss online store that started its Wii pre-orders today. When I called them this afternoon, the consoles had already been sold. Their entire first batch was sold out within four hours. Just how many they had been allocated they wouldn´t say. But they said it was quite a number. By the way: their asking price was 399 Swiss Francs, which converts to $320 or €250. Just thought I should give you some positive news to counterbalance the rumours of production line problems.
-----
The production line rumor is just that, for now. IGN says it's bogus, so it's a wait and see.
But to be realistic, what could the last secret be? Kaplan had a video interview with IGN who said that by september when we start to get demo units in stores, we'll reveal the last secret 'Hardcore gamers stay tuned'. What could it be? What do 'hardcore gamers' want?
We know the system has wireless LAN, online support, purdy, though standard res graphics, gigantic third party support... wait a minute. Graphics, what's the one thing that the Wii doesn't excel in? I'm not going to say 3-D glasses, but graphics are the weaker of the buying points of Wii. If Nintendo offered something that enhanced the way the games look somehow, it could be huge.
If you think about it, what have we heard? Red Steel was shown at E3 and was said to be the Gamecube version (the first dev kits) Zelda: TP looks exactly like the GC version sans widescreen. Metroid Prime 3 was also built on the gamecube dev kits, with some effects thrown in that the GC could easily handle such as blooming and bump mapping, all things we've seen before. What if... just what if...
-----
Nintendo will announce news regarding the Wii through magazines Nintendo Power (United States) and Nintendo Official Magazine (UK) on September 1st.
Normally, the two official magazines are not released on the same date, but for once they will to ensure the news is announced everywhere at the same time.
“On this ocassion subscribers will not recieve their issues any earlier than the proper on-sale date (01 Sept) due to our cover game being embargoed until that date. Rest assured this wouldn’t happen normally and it’s because it’s a BIG exclusive.”
So, until Friday, it’s speculation time. Could it have anything to do with Resident Evil Wii (read our recent news story regarding this here)? Or maybe it’s an entirely new game. Perhaps a new IP sprung from the mind of master designer Shigeru Miyamoto?
----
I.... I mean, it could be..... that....
-----
The endless Wii rumour mill continues to grind apace, with the latest gossip around the emerging home platform claiming Nintendo has, to date, shown only games that mask its true graphical potential.
The reason Nintendo did this? According to the French source citing 'secret Nintendo leakers', Nintendo wants to surprise everyone. That's right. The latest Nintendo rumour is that the final press showing of the Wii will see massively uprated graphics across the Wii range.
"Nintendo has been playing us the fool all along. They have been showing us trailers for games that have deliberately downgraded graphics compared to what the Wii can actually do. This is to create an element of surprise for the press during Nintendo's next media event," claims the Actu JV section of Jeux France.
Of course, this is an auto-fulfilling prophecy. It's not as though Wii software with almost six months' additional development time is going to look any worse than it did during its E3 debut...
-----
Force companies to show only the GC dev kit content, giving them the finalized Wii devkits just months ago? I.... I....
I'm calling it now: Resident Evil for Wii shown September 1st, and in 14 days from now, Nintendo shows off their finalized graphics.
I have hope in one hand, shit in the other, but mark my words: Something will happen at some point that might interest you.
Here's the info.
We all know about the NOA event taking place on September 14th. Now, there will be a Nintendo of Europe event in London the very next day, on September 15th. GoNintendo reported about it first, I believe. And I have also received the invitation since.
Also, I have made some enquiries and it seems that there will not be such an event in Japan. Consequently, I am forced to change my mind about when the launch details will be announced. I now believe that the two events by NOA and NOE will break the news, after all. I do wonder, though, when the Japanese launch details will be announced. NOA might have Miyamoto and Iwata participate via videoconference.
So watch that countdown at the top. That is when we will find out. Also, Nintendo really do have another surprise in store for us, which will be revealed at these events. Just how big that surprise will be, I do not yet know. But stick with this blog and I might be able give you some indication soon.
Finally, Makerofdust on the NSider forums alerted me to a Swiss online store that started its Wii pre-orders today. When I called them this afternoon, the consoles had already been sold. Their entire first batch was sold out within four hours. Just how many they had been allocated they wouldn´t say. But they said it was quite a number. By the way: their asking price was 399 Swiss Francs, which converts to $320 or €250. Just thought I should give you some positive news to counterbalance the rumours of production line problems.
-----
The production line rumor is just that, for now. IGN says it's bogus, so it's a wait and see.
But to be realistic, what could the last secret be? Kaplan had a video interview with IGN who said that by september when we start to get demo units in stores, we'll reveal the last secret 'Hardcore gamers stay tuned'. What could it be? What do 'hardcore gamers' want?
We know the system has wireless LAN, online support, purdy, though standard res graphics, gigantic third party support... wait a minute. Graphics, what's the one thing that the Wii doesn't excel in? I'm not going to say 3-D glasses, but graphics are the weaker of the buying points of Wii. If Nintendo offered something that enhanced the way the games look somehow, it could be huge.
If you think about it, what have we heard? Red Steel was shown at E3 and was said to be the Gamecube version (the first dev kits) Zelda: TP looks exactly like the GC version sans widescreen. Metroid Prime 3 was also built on the gamecube dev kits, with some effects thrown in that the GC could easily handle such as blooming and bump mapping, all things we've seen before. What if... just what if...
-----
Nintendo will announce news regarding the Wii through magazines Nintendo Power (United States) and Nintendo Official Magazine (UK) on September 1st.
Normally, the two official magazines are not released on the same date, but for once they will to ensure the news is announced everywhere at the same time.
“On this ocassion subscribers will not recieve their issues any earlier than the proper on-sale date (01 Sept) due to our cover game being embargoed until that date. Rest assured this wouldn’t happen normally and it’s because it’s a BIG exclusive.”
So, until Friday, it’s speculation time. Could it have anything to do with Resident Evil Wii (read our recent news story regarding this here)? Or maybe it’s an entirely new game. Perhaps a new IP sprung from the mind of master designer Shigeru Miyamoto?
----
I.... I mean, it could be..... that....
-----
The endless Wii rumour mill continues to grind apace, with the latest gossip around the emerging home platform claiming Nintendo has, to date, shown only games that mask its true graphical potential.
The reason Nintendo did this? According to the French source citing 'secret Nintendo leakers', Nintendo wants to surprise everyone. That's right. The latest Nintendo rumour is that the final press showing of the Wii will see massively uprated graphics across the Wii range.
"Nintendo has been playing us the fool all along. They have been showing us trailers for games that have deliberately downgraded graphics compared to what the Wii can actually do. This is to create an element of surprise for the press during Nintendo's next media event," claims the Actu JV section of Jeux France.
Of course, this is an auto-fulfilling prophecy. It's not as though Wii software with almost six months' additional development time is going to look any worse than it did during its E3 debut...
-----
Force companies to show only the GC dev kit content, giving them the finalized Wii devkits just months ago? I.... I....
I'm calling it now: Resident Evil for Wii shown September 1st, and in 14 days from now, Nintendo shows off their finalized graphics.
I have hope in one hand, shit in the other, but mark my words: Something will happen at some point that might interest you.