Dear Reader:
The final Wii event
Here we are, having already blogged the Japanese and US Wii events, which brought forth a ton of info concerning launch, price point, and Wii Channels. I don’t expect much new info to come of this event, other then the important information of Euro price point/release date.
I really don’t think we will be needing the blogs this time around, but just incase (haha) I will provide the links below. If the site does start acting up, I will start posting at the blogs. For now, I am just going to do live updates on GoNintendo.
News will appear below this sentence. We have just a little over an hour until the event (should) begin
Eurogamer has a live blog feed (their page will update automatically)
06:55.56 - The waiting game starts. Hello to everybody, make yourselves comfortable.
07:00.56 - We’re in, but things aren’t looking too sunny. Security are clamping down on reporting devices of all kind, so we may be shut down. Fingers crossed.
07:05.57 - After an hour of waiting around the halls of ExCel the press and trade are filing into the conference. Running time should be an hour.
07:07.02 - There’s a podium and a lot of Wii logos up on stage, with a huge screen playing monochromatic videos of Wii software. Iwata’s here apparently.
07:09.27 - Nintendo’s adamant about not using laptops, mobiles, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth devices, so we may get cut short. Didn’t happen at E3, mind. Can’t stop the signal.
07:12.35 - There’s still scores of people left to come in, so it may be a little while.
07:14.44 - Nintendo UK boss David Yanton’s taking his place in the audience. Nintendo UK staff make up about a third of the row behind me.
These images just popped up on Nintendo of Australia’s website
Aussie press release thanks to Vooks!
Aussie Wii Date Dec 7th $399.95
Australia, Melbourne, Sept. 15, 2006 – Nintendo will reshape the home entertainment and video game landscape with the launch of its heralded Wii™ home video game console. As part of a global launch period, Wii will arrive in Australia on December 7th. Wii will be sold as an affordable, mass-consumer product at an SRP of just $399.95. The price includes one wireless Wii Remote controller, one Nunchuk™ controller and the groundbreaking collection of five different Wii Sports games on one disc, which anyone can play using simple movements, experienced or not.
Every Wii console includes another distinctive feature: a series of on-screen “channels” that make up the Wii Channel Menu, which makes the console approachable and customisable for everyone, from the most avid gamer to people who have never played before. The Wii Channel Menu is the starting point for all of the console’s functions. The “channels” offer a gateway to a rich variety of entertainment options. When connected to a TV, the Wii Channel Menu offers a simple interface, letting users pick games to play, get news or weather, view and send photos or even create playable caricatures of themselves to use in actual games. Additional functions allow users to redeem Wii Points and download classic games to Wii’s Virtual Console™. The variety of options available through the Wii Channel Menu motivates both gamers and non-gamers to turn on Wii’s power every day.
Wii is creating worldwide excitement with its unique control system, an inventive, first-of-its-kind controller whose position can be detected in a 3-D space. The new controller allows users to pinpoint targets in games or move through the Wii Channel Menu with precision and ease. This intuitive control system will be understood immediately by everyone, regardless of their previous experience with video games. With this one small controller, Wii makes games both easier and more intense than anything previously experienced. For example, in the Wii Sports tennis game, players swing the Wii Remote like a racquet to hit the ball, as in real life. They can add topspin or slice the ball just by angling their hands and wrist like they would in a real match.
“Wii is a product for all to enjoy. Whether you’re young or old, an experienced gamer or complete novice, Wii has something unique to offer us all,” says Rose Lappin, Director of Sales and Marketing. “At such an affordable price, we see Wii as being a true product of everybody.”
Between launch day and Dec. 31, Wii owners will enjoy a robust lineup of around 20 software titles, with selections for everyone from video game veterans to newcomers. Some top Nintendo launch titles include Wii Sports, a compilation of tennis, baseball, golf, bowling and boxing and The Legend of Zelda®: Twilight Princess. Wii’s self-loading media bay also can play the entire library of hundreds of Nintendo GameCube™ titles from day one.
Third-party developers around the world have lined up to provide unprecedented support for Wii.
Additional information about the list of Virtual Console games and the pricing structure will be revealed in the coming weeks.
7:21.17 - Still sod all happening. Lanyard commentary: elegant, simple, nice font, while the strap bears the “Wii Play Together” slogan. Decent clip mechanism. 7/10.
7:24:24 - I’d estimate about a third of the seats are still waiting to be filled. Give it time. /impatient
me: glad you still are getting updates!
07:30.01 - Nothing’s happening…
07:31.47 - It’s filling up a bit now. Snore.
07:36.09 - Apparently it’s going to start “in a few minutes”. “Please take your seats,” the PA asks hopefully.
07:36.51 - “Please switch off all electronic devices.” “No.”
07:42.25 - Fan request #1: “Totty commentary”. Well, there are lots of women in Wii t-shirts. There is nothing yet to rival Germany’s magnificent pink-dress DS creature.
07:46.07 - The last few stragglers are taking their seats. There’s a danger it might actually start soon.
07:47.40 - Almost forgot: one of our spies who got here at about 10am claims that Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski (tennis players) and were wandering around.
07:52.45 - Aaaaaaaaaany minute now.
07:55.22 - “Introducing Wii”. Quotes flying up from various sources. Magazines, CEOs, old women. Video of people playing with it.
07:55.56 - I Don’t Feel Like Dancing is playing. Gerhard Florin from EA has a quote up: apparently Wii is ace!
12:53 - It’s started! WE’re kicking off with that Wii trailer featuring those exuberant ii’s. Okay, so we’ve got a fact video thing going on now with some peeps prancing with the remote and some lovely quotes about the Wii. Also the Scissor Sisters are on the soundtrack. We HEART the Scissor Sisters.
12:55 - An old lady just announced that it’s “A lot easier, if you haven’t got any balls”. She might have said, “because it doesn’t have any buttons”. But, hey. Scissor Sisters, right?
12:56 - Bloody hell. This video’s going on a bit. Oh… it’s done! Gabby Logan has just appeared on the stage. “Many of you here are BIG gaming fans!” - but she’s not apparently. Anyway, “She’s not alone” and apparently loads of non-gamers are here. Who’dathought?
12:57 - Laurent Fischer, European marketing director is talking about how much of a challenge it is to reach out to non-gamers. Logan is badgering him quite aggressively about why she should care about the Wii. And they’re talking about sports - are we about to see Wii Tennis? (last updates from IGN UK)
12:58 - Logan has gone and Fischer is talking about traditional audiences. Apparently Nintendo is steadily drawing closer to a 50/50 gender split in Europe - redefining gaming audiences, you see?
12:59 - The catalyst for this change is the Nintendo DS, he says. It’s a massive leap in gaming because - it’s easy to use, ‘cos it doesn’t have too many buttons, yeah? This is all very fascinating but where’s the Wii price and release date?!!!
13:01 - Aha! Satoru Shibata, president of Nintendo Europe has just jumped on stage. Not literally. He’s talking about the DS and expansion still. Just in case we hadn’t already got the message. WII WII WII WII. Please.
13:02 - We’re still on the subject of the DS, just in case you thought something might have changed in the last minute. Brain Training, Nintendogs, Animal Crossing - all expanding and redefining audiences. Do you even need me to keep typing about this? I might put my feet up for a bit. Or make up something about the Wii price and date. Actually no, I’d be lynched.
13:05 - We’re now onto the subject of sales. How Nintendo is going again the norm with game launches with games like Brain Training showing incredible logetivity on shelves, rather than peaking at launch. Something blah blah blah, Brain Training. I wish I hadn’t drunk so much juice before this thing started.
08:09.20 -
Nintendogs: 4 million in Europe alone. 60, 000 sold a week even now. Responsible for the upsurge in women gamers on the DS he says.
Brain Training: half of the owners are over 26 years old, he says, which is very unusual.
In Japan, the series sold over 5 million copies since May 2005. In nine weeks it’s sold 500k in Europe, which took 17 weeks in Japan, he says.
In Germany, Brain Training is on top of the charts two months after launch, he tells us. DS software has dominated European charts in July and August.
He’s showing Nintendo’s favourite graph: the one that shows sales spiking in later weeks, and not just big sales in the first week that tail off. (Eurogamer)
08:10.59 - “Our strategy is paying off.”
Graph: DS sales account for 70% of handheld sales accross Europe.
More than 100k were consistently sold every week, he says. DS has now reached over 6 million people in Europe alone.
10 million sales predicted by the end of 2006. Says to look forward to Sudoku, English Training, Starfox, Yoshi Island 2, and Pokemon Dungeon.
13:10 - Aha! We’re onto the Wii now! Oh, well I thought we were. Shibata just left the stage. Ah! Logan is back and we’re about to see Wii Boxing in Wii Sport for the first time. Literally, my knickers just went damp. Apparently, Shibata is going to take on Iwata! One round in the ring!
Oooh this is quite good. You punch and jab with the Wiimote and guard by holding the nunchuck and remote close to you. AAAAAND Satoru Iwata has just come on stage to tell Shibata off - it was all big comedy ruse! (IGN UK)
14:14.18 - Aha! And Satoru Iwata’s walked on behind him. “And this is what goes on when you think I’m away.”
“I woke up many hours ago and many thousands of miles away, so I assure you I won’t take any more time than necessary to share my thoughts.”
14:14.40 - He’s talking about the very-old days of working out what to do after the NES. The same questions have continued ever since, he says.
He says we’ve been focused on tech up to now. I think I’ve typed him saying that at about 15 different conferences now.
08:15.35 - He points to four significant moments of introducing products that changed things. 1) DS. 2) Touch! Generations games
08:16.25 - He loves him some Touch! Generations. Because they’re not just escapism. Right. 3) Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection.
08:19.51 - 4) Most dramatic: the hands-on with the Wii control in LA at E3 2006. “For us, that was a huge week.”
Each moment represents a bridge to the majority of people who don’t play games, he says. Today introduces a fifth step.
13:16 - Today, says Iwata, it’s time to introduce the fifth mileston in Nintendo’s strategy - the Wii Channel. And the offers a much tougher sell for Nintendo. Games consoles don’t travel see! So generally, they’re only seen by the people who live under that roof. Iwata says, to expand console audience, Nintendo started by increasing the number of gamers playing in one household.
When the Wii is first turned on, they’ll see the Wii channel page. First up is the Disc Channel, used to access either Wii or GameCube titles. Now he’s going through things like the photo software designed to offer “simple organisation and manipulation of photos”. (IGN UK came back to life!)
08:21:19 - Another channel “became a must after its reception in LA”. The character creation stuff.
Same sort of stuff you can watch on Eurogamer TV - the caricature software “Mii”. (Eurogamer)
13:20 - Onto the Mii Channel - and idea that came about after the E3 Wii Tennis demo where everyone wanted to know of they’d be able to put their own faces into the game, as with Iwata’s character.
Now onto the message board system, calender, weather channels and of course, the Internet Channel. Provided by Opera. Virtual Console now. Offering an “instant library” of games - 15 VC games available during launch period. Roughly 5-10 titles will be added per month. When purchased, always accessible and will become a new channel on the main screen.
WiiConnect 24 - constantly updated information while we sleep. (IGN UK)
13:24 - Iwata’s stating again that Wii is for everyone, not just gamers. Wii will have its own range of Touch Generation software too. Although he’s just buggered off the stage, so who knows what they’ll be.
13:25 - Ah! Logan’s back and she’s showing us Tennis. She’s bandying around the names ‘Tim Henman’ and ‘Greg Rezetski’ - a name I’ve never needed to spell before. Logan’s just spend a good five minutes hunting around for a bunch of avatars bearing likenesses to them. And now the curtains have just whizzed open and there’s a fake tennis court on stage! Guess who’s there! Yup, REAL LIVE TENNIS STARS! (IGN UK)
8:31.13 -
Calendar, househould bulletin board and family message centre for organising family scheduling, he says. Leave post-its for your friends and family. Or Tom Nook.
Online access to international weather forecasts. Constantly updated worldwide headlines, too. Plus seperate net channels powered by Opera.
Virtual Console. Mario World, Zelda Link to the Past, Mario 64 flash up. 15 in launch period in Europe. With 5-10 titles a month.
Donkey Kong shows up too. Now we’re on WiiConnect24 - offering Nintendo news or “other features”, “even while you sleep”.
He points out that you can do this without Wii, but argues not everyone has the same advantage. For many it’ll be the first time they’re comfortable doing it.
Channels will be good for people who aren’t as technically able, baisically.
With Touch! Generations software coming to Wii, Iwata believes everyone in the family will give Wii a go. And now he’s off. Gabby’s back.
Wii Sports tennis now. And it’s Tim Henman and Greg Rusedksi. She’s not pointing out they’re here yet. BUT WE KNOW THEY ARE.
And the curtains have gone infront of the stage for some reason. Aha. Big reveal: Tim and Greg playing real tennis on a court behind the stage.
Shibata’s back, and he’s going to challenge them both to Wii tennis. (Now Eurogamer came back to life!)
13:29 - My fingers are starting to hurt now. ANYWAY, there’s a game of - ohmygodyou’dneverhaveguessed - Wii Tennis going on now against Tim and Greg and Fischer and Shibata. It’s all a RIGHT LARK. Incidentally, hilARIous incident earlier - one of Tim Henman’s balls flew off the stage and nearly gave the person behind me concussion just after I posted the last update. Back to the game though: Tim and Greg are losing with 30-15. 30-30 now. Tell you what, I’ll just post again when we have a clear winner. (IGN UK)
14:33.05 - 30-30. Tim’s serving. Decent rally this time, and Greg wins it. Game point. “Nintendo’s gone mad,” my friend says (Eurogamer)
Laurent Fischer’s back. Wii launch Europe details coming now, he says.
Launch titles: Wii Sports, Wii Play (the mini-games package with bundled Wii remote). Zelda…
WarioWare: Smooth Moves (just after launch).
Third-party: around 15-20 games from launch. Red Steel. Rayman. Need for Speed Carbon. Tony Hawk. Super Monkey Ball.
Date: 2006.
December 8th 2006.
EUR 249 / GBP 179
Bundles is white console, one Wii remote, one Nunchuck, Wii Sports.
Between 49 and 59 Euros for software. 34 for 39 pounds.
Between 49 and 59 Euros for software. 34 for 39 pounds.
13:44 - Right, with that bit of frenzied excitement out the way, we’ve moved onto that Wii games trailer that was doing the rounds on the Japanese website yesterday. Incidentally, it looks a bit more impressive when it’s blown up slightly bigger than the size of a postage stamp.
12:47 - And with one last crescendo of music, Iwata has reappeared on stage. The words “Wii move you” are dangling provocatively over his head. He’s inviting us to go try the damn thing out for ourselves. And - gasp - a huge gaping chasm has opened in the wall behind him and everyone’s being sucked through, like huge electronically-obsessed sheep. Or something. You know, if we’d thought about it, we would have said ‘Iwata is inviting us to play with his Wii’. AHAHAHAHAHahhahahahaha. God, I kill me sometimes.
Conference over
Nintendo’s Official Wii site has been updated with Australian and European links. The Wii page is finally complete!
And here is the official press release from Nintendo of Europe, just to sum it all up.
15th September 2006 - Today at a press conference held in London’s Docklands, Mr Iwata, Global President of Nintendo Co., Ltd. unveiled a new dimension in home entertainment. Nintendo announced ways to involve every member of the family in gaming via the new Wii console, as well as the much-anticipated price, date and software line-up for the console’s European launch.
Wii is set to revolutionise the face of gaming when it launches in Europe on 8th December 2006 at an estimated retail price of £179 (249 Euros), bundled with Wii Sports. Accompanying the console launch will be around 20 software titles including Wii Play and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and from third party publishers launch games include: Ubisoft’s RED STEEL, EA’s Need for Speed: Carbon, Activision’s Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam, THQ’s Disney/ Pixar’s Cars and Sega’s Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz.
Included with every Wii console is one wireless Wii Remote, one Nunchuk, and the groundbreaking collection of five different Wii Sports games on one disk which anyone can play using simple physical movements.
Nintendo today set a new direction for the video games industry by using state of the art technology not just for enhancing graphics and processing power but to introduce new people to the world of video games by creating brand new entertainment that is fresh and accessible to everyone.
Mr Iwata, Nintendo’s President, outlined how the Wii would build on Nintendo’s learnings and existing success with DS and continue this expansion of the gaming audience in unique and unprecedented ways.
With Wii, Nintendo aims to create a console that can be enjoyed by every member of the family. Every Wii console will include a series of on-screen “channels” that make up the Wii Channel Menu. The Wii Channel Menu is the starting point for all of the console’s functions. The “channels” offer a gateway to a rich variety of entertainment options. When connected to a TV, the Wii Channel Menu offers a simple interface letting users pick games to play, get news or weather, view and send photos or even create playable caricatures of themselves to use in actual games. Additional functions allow users to download classic games to Wii’s Virtual Console.
Nintendo believe that encouraging users to pick up the controller to access the internet quickly, check the news or see tomorrow’s weather is one way of ensuring that everyone in the household can use, interact and ultimately engage with Wii. And once users have picked up the controller to perform these basic functions, it’s a small step to get involved in some more fun game play action.
Wii launches across Europe on 8th December 2006 at the estimated retail price of 249 Euros (£179 in the UK). Nintendo first party games will retail at the estimated retail price of between 49 Euros and 59 Euros (£34 to £39 in the UK).
Additional controllers will also be available from launch at the estimated retail prices of: Wii Remote - 39 Euros (£29 in UK), Nunchuk – 19 Euros (£14 in UK) and the Classic Controller – 19 Euros (£14 in UK)
Man, that is DEFINITELY it for me! Now I finally get to go to bed for more then 10 minutes! It has been a crazy couple of days guys…and I loved every minute of it, no matter how sleep deprived I have been. Now it is time for the thank yous!
Thank you to every reader who has been sending in emails
Thank you to every reader who kept me up to date on the Euro/Japanese press conference
Thank you to every reader who used our blogger pages, held back on commenting, and went to our IRC Chat to keep GoNintendo up and running
Thank you to everyone who emailed me to tell me that I was doing an awesome job
Thank you to everyone that visits GoNintendo…no matter who you are. You help make our community/site what it is…and I couldn’t ask for anything more.
We finally made it guys…we have all the launch info we could want. Now we let it sink in, and discuss! I’ll be back around 12-1 p.m. EST to try and keep up with the news! Of course, feel free to email me with anything interesting you find.