Report: Wii Pricing, Launch Window Details Discussed

Consumer website IGN has published, removed, and then republished with removed information a new rumor column which claims to reveal both the launch pricing and window for the Nintendo Wii in North America, debuting alongside new pricing information for the South American Wii launch. According to the column at IGN, Wii sources presumably at third-party publishers have suggested a release date of either November 2nd or 12th in North America for the console, with a price of $229. It also claimed that the Wii would be available in both black and white colors at launch, and that Nintendo now expects a total of "more than 5 million" units to be available by the end of the year, worldwide. Interestingly, the IGN column was removed shortly after posting, apparently due to legal reasons. When reposted a few hours later, several specifics were missing, including a more exact figure for amount of Wii launch shipments and details on the exact IBM chipset used in the Wii. As for an official comment on the matter, Nintendo has stated that the final details of the console's release date and price will not be given until September. In an odd pricing aside, Brazilian tech site WNews is reporting that the price of Nintendo’s Wii console is likely to cost between 1,400 and 1,500 real ($640 to $690) in Brazil. According to WNews, the Brazilian price indications were made over the weekend at a games convention in São Paulo, by an executive of Nintendo’s Latin American distributor Lamatel. The only launch title confirmed for Brazil was apparently The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. However, high import taxes and a rampant piracy problem mean that Brazilian hardware prices are often greatly in excess of that elsewhere in the world, with the DS Lite costing 800 real ($367), accounting for the particularly high pricing compared to the rest of the world.