Wii to Hit Shelves in November

By Colleen Taylor -- Electronic News, 9/14/2006

Nintendo has set the date for the launch of its hotly anticipated Wii gaming console, shipping to North American stores on Nov. 19—two days after Sony's slated Playstation 3 North American launch and just in time for the holiday shopping rush.

Nintendo also announced the Wii's pocketbook damage, a relatively affordable $249.99 compared to the PS3's $500 starting price point.  The package will include one wireless Wii remote controller, one nunchuk controller and a disc with five different Wii sports games.

Nintendo will include a feature called the Wii Channel Menu, a series of on-screen "channels" that let users pick games to play, get news or weather, view and send photos or 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.

Wii's big draw is its controller. The controller's position can be detected in a 3-D space. Rather than pressing buttons or jiggling a joystick, the player points the controller at the screen or swings it to make something happen in the game. Acting as an extension of the arm, it resembles a TV remote control.

The controller, Nintendo said, is easy for anyone to intuitively understand—in effect, democratizing gaming for the entire market. "We believe the next leap is games for the masses – young and old, gamer or non, alone, with a friend or with the whole family," Nintendo of America's President Reggie Fils-Aime said in a statement.

The release date was announced on the heels of last week's news that IBM had begun shipping Power-architecture chips for the Wii. The Wii is set to launch in Japan on Dec. 2.