Nintendo recently had a media briefing in Japan and has detailed some of their plans for Wii hardware and software.
Nintendo announced 'Health Pack' which is a 'game' by Nintendo developer Shigeru Miyamoto. This piece of software is being made to help encourage physical activity and exercise for all members of the family.
Also announced was something called Wii Compact Software. These are games for Wii that are designed for digital distribution which will be accessed through the Wii dashboard. These are similar to Virtual Console games except they're not ports of old games, they're new designed for Wii games. To compare them to something we have now, they're like Xbox Live Arcade games that are unique games (like Cloning Clyde), not ports of old games like Dig Dug.
On the Virtual Console front, Nintendo expects to have 60 retro titles available by the end of 2006. Virtual Console games will be from Nintendo, PC Engine and Sega Genesis with more to be announced later. There should also be around 18 retail games for the Wii by the end of 2006 as well. Keep in mind this is a Japanese announcement, that may not all be accurate for USA.
Nintendo also talked about their Wii Points system. 1000 Wii Points will cost 1000 Yen which is around $8.37 US. So probably that'll get rounded up to $10 US. Pre-paid cards will be available at resellers and will come in multiples of 1000, 3000 and 5000 Wii Points. The 5000 point card will come bundled with the Wii Classic controller which is a new age looking NES controller built for playing Virtual Console classic games.
The prices for two Wii accessories were also announced. The 512mb SD card will be around $30 US which if you shop around you can find a 1GB one for that much now. The wired LAN adapter which is a USB to Ethernet adapter will go for around $25 US.
All in all the Wii lineup sounds very promising. Unlike the Xbox360 and Playstation 3, the Wii actually will not only be available to buy but it will have a vast selection of retail and digital download games to play right from the gate.
Nintendo announced 'Health Pack' which is a 'game' by Nintendo developer Shigeru Miyamoto. This piece of software is being made to help encourage physical activity and exercise for all members of the family.
Also announced was something called Wii Compact Software. These are games for Wii that are designed for digital distribution which will be accessed through the Wii dashboard. These are similar to Virtual Console games except they're not ports of old games, they're new designed for Wii games. To compare them to something we have now, they're like Xbox Live Arcade games that are unique games (like Cloning Clyde), not ports of old games like Dig Dug.
On the Virtual Console front, Nintendo expects to have 60 retro titles available by the end of 2006. Virtual Console games will be from Nintendo, PC Engine and Sega Genesis with more to be announced later. There should also be around 18 retail games for the Wii by the end of 2006 as well. Keep in mind this is a Japanese announcement, that may not all be accurate for USA.Nintendo also talked about their Wii Points system. 1000 Wii Points will cost 1000 Yen which is around $8.37 US. So probably that'll get rounded up to $10 US. Pre-paid cards will be available at resellers and will come in multiples of 1000, 3000 and 5000 Wii Points. The 5000 point card will come bundled with the Wii Classic controller which is a new age looking NES controller built for playing Virtual Console classic games.
The prices for two Wii accessories were also announced. The 512mb SD card will be around $30 US which if you shop around you can find a 1GB one for that much now. The wired LAN adapter which is a USB to Ethernet adapter will go for around $25 US.
All in all the Wii lineup sounds very promising. Unlike the Xbox360 and Playstation 3, the Wii actually will not only be available to buy but it will have a vast selection of retail and digital download games to play right from the gate.
