Wii U Price & Date Coming 9/13 7AM PT

[Eric]

*taps foot on Seeker for details*

[Eric]

Here's the Japan stuff, extra controller = half the price of the console :o

4:02 - 2GB MEMORY - The Wii U will have 2GB of memory. 1GB for games, 1GB for system memory.

4:03 - 25GB DISCS - Wii U game discs will have a 25GB capacity.

4:08 - WII COMPATIBILITY - While we knew the system was backwards compatible with the Wii, Nintendo says all Wii accessories, like the balance board, will also work out of the box with the Wii U.

4:10 - CLUTTER - Nintendo says a big plus for the Wii U's controller is that the smaller, second screen frees up more space on your TV, making things less cluttered.

4:12 - NEVER ALONE - With the Wii U's Mii Universe, you're never really playing alone.

4:13 - LAUNCH GAMES - New Super Mario Bros and Nintendoland will be launch titles.

4:14 - PRO PAD - The Xbox 360-a-like Pro controller will retail for ¥5040

4:15 - Wii U Pad - The Wii U's controller will retail for ¥13440

4:15 - Launch Bundles - The Wii U will launch in two bundles. The "basic", a white console, will sell with the Wii U, a controller and an 8GB HDD. A "premium" bundle, the black console will sell with HDMI cable, power cradles for your Wii U pad and a 32GB HDD.

4:19 - LAUNCH - The Wii U will launch in Japan on December 8. The basic model is priced at ¥26250, while the premium model is ¥31,500.

[Julius Seeker]

I was asleep! And the New York press event is not for another 4 hours!

Anyway, why in the hell is an additional GB of memory required as "system memory"??? That's what I am interested in. I am guessing that's for multi-tasking OS related applications for the gamepad - maybe some Miiverse thing.

On a North American launch date; I think a safe assumption is the system launches here first thanks to Bloody Friday over in the US. They did that with the Wii as well.


On the topic of the Premium bundle; it looks like sites are reporting 10% discounts on digital titles for buyers of this sku; I think this is a mistranslation, and that what was really announced was 10% bonus club Nintendo points.

[Lox]

Ok, so based on what they've shown so far I am actually impressed. Nintendo TVii sounds awesome and is something actually useful and marketable.

[Eric]

Nintendo announced the follow up to the hugely successful Wii console will be available on Sunday, November 18th for $300

It's a good price, has Nintendo games, and will have I'd guesstimate a 2 year head start over Sony and Microsoft's new consoles even if it'll be weaker hardware-wise.

[Flip]

Hmmmmm... I'll love to watch and see how this goes, but i dont think i'll be picking one up in 2012.

[Zeus]

Nintendo announced the follow up to the hugely successful Wii console will be available on Sunday, November 18th for $300

It's a good price, has Nintendo games, and will have I'd guesstimate a 2 year head start over Sony and Microsoft's new consoles even if it'll be weaker hardware-wise.

1 year. The others will almost certainly come in 2013, 90% certainty IMO. A good headstart and I'm sure come the week of November 12, we'll start getting some details about them to try to take the wind out of Nintendo's sails the way Sony did when the Dreamcast came out.

The price point is fine (and expected). I always said the $300 price point is magical and considering it's only slightly more powerful than the current gen, it couldn't be more than that with $200 options available for those. The $50 for the extra stuff and NintendoLand really makes it a no-brainer for most but gives the CoD kids of the option of saying "fuck that Nintendo shit, just give me the system to play the only game that matters". You don't wanna play Nintendo games (looks at Sine and Don), you don't have to.

Why isn't anyone bitching about the lack of discussion re: the online strategy? This is VITAL for Nintendo to get a good chunk of the North American market. They keep talking about this Miiverse shit and how it's gonna "change the social landscape" (I'm paraphrasing) of the online console world. But we don't even know anything about it, how their online is gonna work, if it's going to be even close to the incumbents, etc. Is Black Ops 2 online going to be just as good on the Wii U as it is on the PS3/360 or will it be dumbed down like the Wii versions? What about headsets? Bullshit friends codes are gone, right? Can I download my profile a la XBLA? These are important questions to answer

Here's another observation: they never discussed any additional controllers that you can buy. In Japan, we know the extra Gamepad is gonna be in the $110 range. But what about North America? Are we going to be able to buy additional ones? Will the system work well with two of them or is it gonna take the hit to 30fps or less that's been rumoured for a while? How much is the (Xbox) Controller Pad Pro gonna be? If you can only have 2 Gamepads, can you have an additional 2 Xbox controllers or is it only Wiimotes that are beyond two at once? At Comic Con, we were playing Mario Wii U with one Gamepad and 3 Wiimotes, we know that works...but that's it. These aren't minor questions, they affect the way the system will be used.

As has been their strategy recently, they have given us way to little information. Too much very important stuff left unanswered to make a real decision right now. Right now, I'm likely not gonna get one, I really don't have much of a reason to...yet

[Eric]

I think most of us has begrudgingly accepted Nintendo's lack of an online strategy.

[Eric]

Speaking to Polygon today, Nintendo product marketing manager Bill Trinen said that the stand-alone Wii U GamePad, being released in Japan at half the cost of the full console, won't be priced or released in North America until there's content that requires doubling up.

Games for Nintendo's new system will cost $59.99, the Mario creators have confirmed to us. This is an increase from last generation: the standard retail price for Wii games was $49.99.

[Julius Seeker]

Just some other scraps of information:

* Text, audio, and video chat using the Wii U controller

* TVii (Lox mentioned above) - will organize online video services, Wii U Entertainment, traditional cable and satellite services, Tivo, and other video sources into one single media service which accesses everything. Seems like an advanced media-server of sorts.

* Miiverse is Nintendo's social network - it can be looked at like Nintendo Facebook. Some features are also accessible on PC and cell phones. All games will feature some sort of integration into the Miiverse.

* Monster Hunter games will allow communication between Wii U and 3DS so you can play your characters on either system.

* Nintendo is delving into the M-rated games market and is publishing at least two titles (an updated version of Ninja Gaiden 3 called Razor's Edge, and the Wii U exclusive Bayonetta 2) on their release schedule.

* There are over 50 releases for the launch window ending March 31st. Here is a trailer briefly detailing the initial batch of those:

[Zeus]

I think most of us has begrudgingly accepted Nintendo's lack of an online strategy.

You shouldn't. They gotta wake up and realize it needs to be usable

[SineSwiper]

I think most of us has begrudgingly accepted Nintendo's lack of an online strategy.

This generation? I mean, I could excuse it with the Wii, but pretending now that the Internet doesn't exist is pure folly. Same for HD capabilities, which I certainly hope they've fixed.

[Julius Seeker]

For online stuff, there's been plenty of announcements in regards to that since E3; full retail games will be available via digital distribution, demos and large amounts of other marketing material, online multiplayer, network IDs and accounts, a social network (kind of like facebook with Miis and integration with games and other applications like TVii), text chat, audio chat, and video chat available through the Wii U gamepad; all of that stuff has been announced or already available on other Nintendo platforms... In addition, the online environment is available at all times on the Gamepad, even with offline games.

Anyway, this latest announcement is a very aggressive move by Nintendo in Japan.

In Japan they're releasing a Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate bundle in Japan. Anyone who purchases the Monster Hunter or Premium bundle will get free Beta access into the Wii U's Dragon Quest X.

All Beta progress will carry over to the main game when it is officially released.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/31685?

[Julius Seeker]

Jet a note; tue console may be hard to come by this holiday season; the EB Games here expected to run out of preorders today.