Wii Launch Details
From the New York Times, via the Seattle-Post Intelligencer, details of the Nintendo Wii launch here:In a move that may allow Nintendo of Japan to take advantage of stumbles by its main rival, the company plans to announce today that it will release its new Wii video-game console in North and South America on Nov. 19, just as the holiday shopping season begins, and that the machine will cost $250 in the United States.
Nintendo will start selling its new console on Dec. 2 in Japan, President Satoru Iwata announced today at a news conference in Chiba prefecture, next to Tokyo.
...Nintendo intends to announce today that every Wii will come with a game compilation called Wii Sports -- including tennis, golf, baseball and bowling -- meant to show off the machine's intuitive controls.
So there you go--$249 with a pack-in game. Games are going to retail for $49.99.
Well, that's a slam-dunk ass kicking, pretty much. If the games were $39.99, I'd replace "pretty much" with "total," but otherwise, it's flawless.
The Wii is the console that people will be talking about ten years from now, not the 360 (although I'll remember it fondly) or the PS3. The Wii isn't even competing with the 360 or the PS3. If anything, it's competing with the PSP.
Same price (for now). Which one would you rather have?
I'm sure Sony didn't expect Nintendo's new console to undercut their portable, but that's what's going to to happen. Watch the PSP "suddenly" become $199.
I've taken Nintendo to task many, many times for being either strange or downright stupid, but they've handled everything here pretty masterfully. For one, they've carved out an entirely new market tier in which they don't need to compete with Sony or Microsoft. Yes, they tried that with the Gamecube, but there was nothing to distinguish the Gamecube as a console, and no reason for developers to support it.
The Wii is clearly very, very different. Developers are stampeding to support it and running away from the PS3 as fast as they can. Look at this way--if you can create a game for 1/4 the development costs that sells to 4X the installed base, why would you NOT support that console?
Would any of us have thought six months ago that Nintendo would launch the Wii in the U.S. two days AFTER the PS3 launch? That would have been suicide, a massive tactical gaffe.
Now, though, it's a non-issue. The PS3 launch is a non-issue. Just wait--all the PS3 launch coverage will be about how expensive they are. So half the story will be trying to explain why it's so expensive (talking about Blu-Ray, and HD-DVD, and the format wars, and Sony's strategy), and the other half will be about how almost no one can get one, anyway.
Here's the important thing, though: do you know what will barely even get mentioned in those stories?
Fun.
What will the Wii launch coverage be like? It will be non-stop videos of children using the controller and laughing their asses off. Instantly, that becomes the must-have toy for Christmas.
It's a public-relations coup for Nintendo and an absolute nightmare for Sony.
So what could go wrong for Nintendo? Two things, primarily. First, the tilt sensor could work poorly in the controllers. I don't expect that, based on the games I tried at E3, but it could happen. Second, the games could just not be that much fun. I doubt that, too, but it's certainly possible.
Otherwise, though, it's clear sailing.
And I bet it really, really sucks to be working at Sony right now.
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