Oh! Gizmo

By Andrew Liszewski

I know this news will probably make it on every major site and publication on the planet but as I’ve mentioned in the past the big ‘N’ and I go way back and I’ve been closely following the Wii for what oddly feels like a very long time now. Well thankfully today Nintendo held a press event in New York that pretty much filled in most of the missing puzzle pieces and for anyone who missed it here’s the major news that was announced.

- The Wii will be available in North America on November 19. (Japan has to wait until December 2!!!)
- It will retail for $249.99 and come in only one configuration and color.
- The Wii Sports game compilation will come with the console making it the first bundled game to be included with a new console at launch since the SNES.
- First-party Nintendo Wii games will cost $49.99 and Nintendo is encouraging third-party developers to price their titles competitively.
- Additional Wii remotes will sell for $39.99 with the Nunchuck attachment being sold seperately at $19.99.
- Old-school Nintendo games can be purchased for the Wii’s virtual console via ‘Wii Points.’ NES games will cost 500 points ($5), SNES games will cost 800 and N64 games will cost 1000 points.

There was a lot more info announced today and if the Wii has piqued your curiosity I highly recommend reading Kotaku’s thorough coverage of the event for the complete run-down. Now I’m off to find a local game shop willing to take my money for a pre-order…

[Nintendo's NYC Wii Event VIA Kotaku]