Wii Launches in North America

NCS wanders into the N.Y. launch
«©NCSX» The Wii launched in North America on Sunday morning and the flagship Toys R' Us megastore in Manhattan allowed twilight shoppers to purchase the consoles in orderly lines. Crowds were relatively subdued although there was a buzz in the air and a number of jokesters. As dawn broke, NCS crew drove up to Rockefeller Center and the lines in front of Nintendo World were apparent and stretched for a few blocks as patrons waited in a civil manner for the store to open up. Once opened, the buyers shuffled forward patiently and slowly filled the store. Inside, the background sound was basically a dull murmur as purchasers paid and picked up their systems. News crews were flitting about and interviewing early purchasers and getting their impressions.

Concentration of Wii in some stores
There didn't appear to be any shortage of stock at the Toys R' Us or Nintendo World in New York and the Wii was readily available in contrast to the Playstation 3 a few days ago. When an NCS staffer mentioned to a few people waiting on line at Nintendo World that the Wii was available at other stores in Manhattan without having to wait, no one budged. It was either distrust, disdain, or they had waited for so long that they required the satisfaction of grabbing the Wii only at Nintendo World. Despite the abundance of inventory at stores in NYC, shops in the outer boroughs (Brooklyn, Queens, Long Island) were less fortunate with many customers writing in to NCS and reporting lack of availability at big box retailers as well as specialty shops such as EB/GS. Did Nintendo concentrate all of their inventory at flagship stores which were covered heavily by media and camera crews? Looks like it.... The situation around the country was mixed with reports of shortages but many of the customers who wrote in over the weekend were able to purchase their Wiis on Sunday morning.

NCS First Impressions
When our staffer picked up his Wii at the main Toys R' Us (yes, we paid retail plus tax), he remarked that the box was heavy. Not PS3 heavy but hefty nonetheless. This was surprising since the console itself is light. When setting up the Wii, a sensor bar must be positioned above or underneath the television screen so that the Wii-mote is detected. Kudos to Nintendo for making the sensor bar cable lengthy which allowed for freedom of installation in our dedicated gaming room. Software discs slide into the Wii through a motorized slot which follows the design used in the PS3 and Macs. The free pack-in, Wii Sports, is an enjoyable collection of games that shows off the capabilities of the Wii-mote. Wii Bowling is a blast and requires that you swing your arm (while holding the Wii controller) in an arc just like real bowling. As an added bonus, the Wii plays Gamecube games - we tested USA DBZ as our guinea pig and it booted up without issue. NCS will be able to peddle our abundance of GC software inventory for another generation.

NCS Stock Situation
Please note that hardware supplies are scarce but we expect to receive some Wii hardware inventory in the next few days. NCS will contact customers on our e-mail reservation list in the order that we received their preorder requests. NCS is supplying the USA version of the Wii at ~US$275 per console but we cannot accept new orders at this time as we have to fill preorders first. Please wait for news on upcoming shipments which should take place in the next 1-2 weeks. If you don't receive an email from NCS today, rest assured that we will contact you once we have news on further shipments from our USA distributors.

Wii Software Availability
All of the Wii launch games are available from NCS including small quantities of Zelda Twilight Princess that are allocated to customers already. Please note however that accessories are in short supply and we don't have extra nunchuks or remote controllers at this time.

Closing Thoughts
The Wii launch felt more comfortable and relaxed than the charged atmosphere of the PS3 debut. Similar to the situation in Japan, speculators snapped up PS3 consoles in the United States and hoarded inventory to resell at hefty profits. There doesn't appear to be as many speculators capitalizing on the Wii due to the larger supplies of inventory released to the market. Nintendo's last couple of consoles (N64 and Gamecube) haven't set the world on fire but the Wii may change Nintendo's standing in the gaming market. The games are fun and the control scheme is innovative. It's up to third party publishers to support the console and develop games that fully utilize the capabilities of the Wiimote. Nintendo can't do it alone and needs staunch allies in order to challenge the reign of Playstation.

Links of interest
New York City launch
http://news.com.com/Its+all+fun+a...nch/2100-1043_3-6137020.html
Los Angeles launch
http://news.com.com/2061-10801_3-6137016.html
Smooth Midnight Proceedings
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/TECH/fun.games/11/19/nintendo.wii.ap/
Reggie Fils-Aime signs first Wii sale at Toys R' Us
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?...NINTENDO-WII.xml
Man adds "Triforce" to name, kids expected to be named Ocarina and Majora
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,230561,00.html
Not much Ebay Mania
http://news.com.com/2061-10797_3-6137010.html
Weighing the pros and cons of the Wii
http://www.cbsnews.com/gamecore/main2198343.shtml
We don't want PS3, We want Wii
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer...3972154&t=TS_Home
Wii controller survives throw
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1545619/index.jh...5619/index.jhtml