Nintendo held press conferences in Japan last night and issued a press release in the USA this morning. A proper press release is scheduled to start in New York City at 12:00PM EST.The Nintendo Wii will debut in the States first on November 19 at the price of US$249. Two weeks later, the Japanese Wii launches on December 2 at JPY25,000. Note that the USA Wii will include Wii Sports as a pack-in game but the Japanese Wii does away with a game pack-in.
Zelda is scheduled to be a launch title along with Excite Truck for a total of nearly 30 titles for the USA launch and 16 titles for the Japanese launch. Game prices in the USA are expected to retail at US$49.99 while prices in Japan will range between JPY4800 and JPY6800.
Nintendo expects to ship a total of 4 million Wii consoles by the end of the year. This may bode well for readily available supplies to retailers and customers. There is no information on territory lockouts but based on the ease in which Ninty's previous consoles have been modified to play USA/JPN games, we're expecting another simple jumper toggle if the Wii is territory locked. Edit at 12:30PM EST: Wii to be region-free.
Please wait for updates on preorders. USA and Japanese distributors have not started them yet but news should be forthcoming in the next few days. Despite the 4 million unit target, strange things can happen between official announcements and actual shipments...
No comments:
Post a Comment