Wii Japanese Launch Details Revealed

With the main details of the U.S. press conference for the Wii apparently revealed ahead of time by the New York Times, the first official Nintendo media event of the week has taken place in Japan. The U.S. press conference takes place today, with a European event scheduled for tomorrow, but the Japanese event has already ended with the news that the Wii will sell for ¥25,000 ($213), inclusive of tax, and will launch on December 2nd, three weeks after the PlayStation 3 on November 11th. Unlike the American launch, the console will not be bundled with a copy of Wii Sports, which will be sold separated for ¥4,800 ($41). The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess though is priced at ¥6,800 ($58), with appears to represent a higher price for more complex titles. The console will, however, be bundled with the standard Wii remote, the nunchuck attachment, AC adaptor, A/V cable, console stand, sensor bar, sensor bar stand and two AA batteries. The classic controller, previously referred to as the “shell” controller, will be sold separately for ¥1,800 ($15). Additional Wii remote controllers will retail for 3,800 ($32), with the nunchuck attachment priced at ¥1,800 ($15). Equivalent pricing for the U.S. and Europe are expected to be revealed at the relevant international press conferences. Other information revealed at the press conferences includes a promise of sixteen launch titles in Japan. These are The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Nintendo), Wario Ware: Smooth Moves (Nintendo), Wii Sports (Nintendo) Hajimete no Wii (Nintendo), Kororinpa (Hudson), Wing Island (Hudson), Necro-Nesia (Spike), Red Steel (Ubisoft) SD Gundam Revolution (Namco Bandai), Tamagotchi no Pika Pika Daitouryou! (Namco Bandai), Tatsujin Festival (Namco Bandai) Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz (Sega), Swing Golf Panya (Tecmo), Trauma Center: Second Opinion (Atlus) and Elebits (Konami). Pokemon Battle Revolution also appears to be included in the list of launch titles but will not be released until later in December. The much anticipated Super Mario Galaxy was re-confirmed as a 2007 release. A number of new games were announced at the Japanese conference, many of which are likely to be featured at the U.S. press event. A promotional video featuring these games and the Wii’s multimedia features can be found at the official Japanese website. Finally, the pricing for downloadable games in Japan was given as ¥500 for NES titles ($4), ¥800 ($7) for SNES titles and ¥1,000 ($9) for Nintendo 64 titles. The games will be paid for via pre-paid point cards, with the classic controller being bundled for free with a 5,000 point card. Nintendo officials indicated that around 30 titles would be available for the virtual console at launch, with around ten more games being added every month. It was also announced that the MSX home computer, which played host to a number of highly acclaimed Konami titles, will be emulated on the virtual console.