Wii Release Details

After a long wait from the first sniff of the new Nintendo console, the Wii’s official price’s and release date’s for around the world have been released.

As with most of Nintendo’s recent offerings, the US get the console first on November 19th. Two weeks later it’s Japan’s turn and then Europe are last on December 8th. Australia are set to receive it one day before Europe on December 7th.

With regards to pricing, Japan have the lowest price at just 25,000 YEN ($215 USD) but while the US console’s are a little more at $249, they, and all other console’s excluding Japan’s will include Wii Sports. Europe will receive the console at 249 EUR ($317 USD) while the UK get the raw deal at £179 ($340). Australian packs will be priced at $400 AUD which is $300 USD, a slightly better deal than Europe.

So you already know Wii Sports is included, but what else is in the launch package? Well, a little disappointingly, only one Wii remote will be included but it will come with the nunchuck add-on. Nintendo revealed however that addition remotes are $39.99 so you can get whoever wants to play with you on the Wii to buy their own!

Although several colours were rumoured for the Wii, only the pearl white colour seen on the DS Lite will be available at launch. While there are no details about other colours, we expect it’s only a matter of time until there are some other colours around.

There are also a few other functionalities to mention. The Wii will connect with the DS, but it has yet to be revealed just how. Virtual console games will be purchased with Wii Points (100 points is equivalent to $1 USD): NES games - 500 points, SNES games - 800 points, and N64 games - 1000 points. We hope the points system means that points can be earned playing games, as we exclusively rumoured at Wii Lounge. It’s also just recently been revealed that the console will include Dolby Pro Logic II surround sound support to create a truly immersive gamer experience.

With all these details, and still more to be revealed, the Wii looks set to be a real winner. I also know one other thing; i’m jealous of people in the US.