Early Edition: US Wii Conference

So Nintendo came and had their big US press conference out of the Nintendo World Store over in New York. Wish I could’ve gone, but what can you do?

Well, you can dig around for information at various sites online(or just come here, where it’s been compiled).

IGN was pretty well on top of things, perhaps faster than anyone else. GameSpot did alright as well, though their “live” video was anything but. And somewhere, Luke Smith seems to be hunting and pecking at his keyboard while everyone else runs off to play.

Anyway, if you want a step-by-step of the entire thing, check either of those first two links above. Here are the high points:

1. Reggie basically reiterates a little of what we know- November 19th, $249.99. 25,000 points of distribution across the Americas.“One price. One configuration. One color.” Which is, for the record, white.”
2. America, as with the DS, will be getting the Wii first, with 4 million units being shipped by 12/31, and America getting the lion’s share of the stock.
3. The box will contain the Wii, the cables, a sensor bar, one remote, and one nunchuck, and Wii Sports, which features golf, boxing, baseball, bowling, and of course, tennis. Additional Wii remotes will go for $39.99, $19.99 for a nunchuck.(OUCH. I know it does a lot more than your standard run-of-the-mill controller here, but that’s still a tough sell.)

   Reggie invites someone from NOA to show off the bowling:

   To play the game, the controller is swung backward and then pushed forward — almost like you’d hit a golf ball. It’s as simple as that. You can give the ball spin by tilting the controller as you release.

   “This is designed to get everyone involved playing.” Game will be packed with Wii. Everyone’ll get it when they buy the system.”

4. “With Wii sports, these titles(including Excite Truck and Zelda) represent a fantastic trio…” “First time we have a Zelda title available on launch day. It gives us a huge boost and huge momentum right out of the box. It’s a masterpiece game. We will continue to make those big masterpiece titles for the core gamer, as well as new games to drive market expansion.”

   “If you were to play Zelda all day to day for six hours, you’d only be scratching the surface…”

   I love how big this game is sounding. Oh, by the way– Link is no longer a lefty.

   I think he should be ambidexterous, myself…

5. Japan showed off 104 titles yesterday, and America will see 30 available in the launch window, with about half at launch itself, first-party games being priced at $49.99. Third-parties are encouraged to “price appropriately.”
6. Some games due out on Day 1 are: Call of Duty 3, Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam, Trauma Center: Second Opinion, Need for Speed: Carbon, Madden 07, Elebits, Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz, Rayman: Raving Rabbids, and Splinter Cell: Double Agent.
7. They talk about Wii channels, which includes the Virual Console with 30 games by year’s end(including Super Mario World and Super Mario 64), and 10 more per month after that. NES games will be available for 500 Wii points, Super NES games for 800, and Nintendo 64 for 1,000 via a “Wii Points” card available at retail, which goes for about 2,000 points for $20($24 Canadian).“Looks like they’re taking the same tack as Microsoft: Consumers part with fake money more easily than real money.”

   Reportedly, Nintendo’s rates are better(Microsoft’s 5000 = $62.50).

8. Bill Trinen shows off the Wii Channels, which “will make non-gamers want to pick up the Wii.” The “Mii” Channel allows for custom user images such as we saw at E3, presumably. Saying he wants to create Samuel L. Jackson, Bill modifies many aspects of a 3-D modeled head, including eyes, nose, lips, mustache, clothing, and name, all by pointing and clicking the remote. After finishing the Mii, he’s got it running around with pretty accurate Mii versions of Iwata and Miyamoto.The second component of the Mii concept is transporting your Miis elsewhere, since they’re stored on your remote. Head to a friend’s house, play tennis with your controller, and you’ll see your Mii pop right up in the game.

   The Internet channel requires Opera, which takes Wii Points to purchase.

   The Photo channel is next. “For the first time ever, photo viewing is not a time-consuming thing.” Take SD Card out of your digital camera, insert into the front flap on Wii and “boom — you’re looking at digital photos.” The interface is smooth, fast and easy. He then shows off an iPhoto-like slideshow feature, complete with Ken Burns-style zooms and pans, and a movie playback mode, where you seem to be able to transfer home-brewed movies to the Wii, where you can then modify and view them in real-time.

   “We want consumers to come to rely on their Wii channels every day. Because then it’s a short hop from using the Wii remote to playing their first game.”

   The channels will come up immediately, with no lengthy boot-up process.

9. Reggie talks up the free Wi-Fi internet(still requires an internet connection within the house): “When connected to the Internet, users have access to news and weather channels.” News is constantly updated via WiiConnect24. Also a Wii message board where users can send messages and photos to other Wii owners; or to PC owners or cell phone. You can also leave messages on a calendar-based note system.
10. Reggie recaps. First, a revolutionary new way to play game. Second, the ability to time travel to the best of legacy content. Third, the biggest combined software launch in history. Fourth, the unique channel system acting as a “pied piper” for new gamers. And finally, a price point that says “mass market,” ready from day one.
11. Some other Q&A are tackled:Will the system have its own internal memory for photos and such? Kaplan says it will have some capacity for internal memory, but “most” of the storage will indeed be through SD card.

    GameCube Zelda has been pushed back to December 11th. While there’s bound to be complaints, it’s probably the smartest move from a marketing standpoint. As for Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, that’s now a ’07 title, with Zelda, Excite Truck, and Wii Sports seeming to be Nintendo’s only first-party launch titles.

    Regarding widescreen TVs, “all first-party games and most (if not all) other Wii content will be capable of the 16:9 aspect ratio used by HDTVs, but will not be in high definition.”

    And finally, Pokemon Battle will be the first online title, with Japan getting that one at launch, and the US shortly after.

And that’s pretty much the sum of what’s been covered. More is bound to come throughout the day, but I’ll get to that stuff tonight.

LBD “Nytetrayn”

David Oxford

David Oxford, or “LBD ‘Nytetrayn’,” as he is sometimes also known, is a freelance writer of many varied interests who resides in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. If you’re interested in hiring him, please drop him a line at david.oxford (at) nyteworks.net.

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