September 14th

[Dark Jaguar]

http://www.skepticalgaming.com/2006/09/1...s-wrap-up/

Here's the info. Dreams of a $150 dollar system and $10 contollers and a launch before the PS3 are now officially dead. Oh well.

- The Wii launches November 19th, 2006 here in the United States. It's only available in the White color scheme, to help maintain a single unique product image.

- Wii will be available for purchase in over 25,000 retail locations. Over four million units will be available by December 31st of this year, with at least 4 million of those actually sold. The United States will receive the heaviest amount of that initial system allotment. 6 million units will be available by March of '07.

- There's a $249 price tag. That includes the Wii unit, a Wiimote with nunchuck attachment, A/V cables (most likely composite), the stand for the unit, the sensor bar, two AA batteries, and a copy of Wii Sports. Wii Sports includes Tennis, Golf, Boxing, Bowling, and Baseball.

- Additional Wiimotes will cost you $39.99. Additional nunchuck attachments for the Wiimote cost $19.99.

- First party games maintain the $49.99 price point. Third parties are being strongly advised to stick to that, but final pricing decisions are left in the hands of the third party developer.

- Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and Excite Truck are both confirmed as launch titles for the Wii. The GameCube version of Zelda: Twilight Princess will be delayed until December 11th. Third party games that will be available by the end of the year include: Trauma Center, Madden 07, Need for Speed: Carbon, Elebits, Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz, Metal Slug Anthology, Rayman: Raving Rabids, Red Steel, Barnyard, Cars, Avatar, Blazing Angels, Far Cry: Vengeance.

- Virtual Console points run $20 for every 2,000 points. Each NES game will run 500 points, SNES games run 800 points, N64 games run 1,000 points. Launch titles include: Super Mario 64, Super Mario World, Donkey Kong and The Legend of Zelda. Nintendo guarantees 30 titles available for download before the end of the year, with at least 10 legacy titles each month in 2007.

- To help diversify the Wii's performance, the Wii will offer a variety of "Channels". The Photo channel will offer the ability to upload photos and videos, manipulate/edit them, and then send them to friends via WiiConnect. The internet channel will offer web browsing via the Opera browser, which is not included out of the box. The Mii channel will allow gamers to create a 2D or 3D avatar of themselves. The 3D version will be transferrable into certain games and allow the game to replace the default character with the player's avatar.

- Most first party titles will support Widescreen functionality.

- DS/Wii game integration is planned, but details won't be announced for a while.