Wii to launch in July at $199?
For those of you who haven’t heard the Nintendo Revolution is now called the Nintendo Wii. Ok, well I’ve been digging around the rumor mill and talked to some friends in the industry to find out what we can expect from Nintendo as far as a launch date and pricing are concerned. While this might come as a shock to some people, but the Wii probably won’t launch in November. In fact it’s looking more and more like July each day.
There is a lot of evidence to point to this fact. First, Nintendo doesn’t have any major Gamecube game releases scheduled before November. Second, Nintendo is on its own schedule and doesn’t want to compete with the PS3 launch in November. Third, game developers like EA and Activision are shooting for their games to be ready in August/September and these games aren’t labeled “launch titles”.
For you naysayers out there, Nintendo never said they would launch in November. It’s just been assumed that the launch would conincide with Zelda, but I doubt that will be the case. Zelda is going to be the system seller for the Christmas season. It will act as a sort of second wind(waker) for the Wii to combat the PS3.
As far as price goes, the consensus is that it will be priced at $199. This is half the price of either the PS3 or the Xbox 360. At that price pretty much every gamer who has owned a Nintendo system in the last two decades will be more than just a little interested in buying it. Any higher and the system will be competing with the other two systems and any lower and it will be too cheap.
The only thing that might “disrupt” this rumor is if Nintendo pulls an Apple and launches at E3. That would most certainly steal the show. After all, the Wii’s hardware isn’t that much different than the Gamecube, so Nintendo won’t have to do too much to ramp up production on the Wii. As one of my sources put it: “they could have those things in a warehouse somewhere ready to roll”. I know that sounds crazy, but Apple does that a few times a year, so it’s not that crazy is it?
April 27th, 2006 at 8:09 pm
nice guess, but wrong. Nintendo representatives DID mention a release in november. According to ign.com, who quoted a nintendo spokesperson, the wii is scheduled to release the weekend before thanksgiving in november. It gives them more marketing time, and it’s perfect for the holidays. secondly, the fact that zelda is scheduled to release in november is still tentative, although it is highly likeley, especially since a nintendo person DID say that zelda will have some role on the wii, whether it’s just for mini games or actual optional gameplay. lastly, nintendo decided on the november release date before sony’s.
April 28th, 2006 at 1:17 am
About the Apple thing, yeah they release it that day, but they release it online, then in-store. If it was in a stockroom at a store people would spill the beans before Jobs tells us about it. I know, I have a Mac, and work at a retailer!
April 28th, 2006 at 1:27 am
They said it was going to be released before thanksgiving but they didn’t say when.
I heard production of son chipsets in NEC would be for august or something like that.
April 28th, 2006 at 3:00 am
You can’t call releasing a console at E3 “pulling an Apple”. It would be better called “pulling a Sega”, after they did much the same with the Saturn. They didn’t steal the show - everyone went “WTF?” and it was a total misfire. Presumably your “source” is your buddy who works in the local EB? Whoever he is, he doesn’t sound at all knowledgeable.
April 28th, 2006 at 3:47 am
i wish this was true, i really do, as i cant wait to get my hands on that console. But i also know that it is not going to happen. It happened once before with the saturn, (an unexpected launch that is) and look what happend there.
April 28th, 2006 at 4:13 am
I think he might actualy be right kintendo. I myself think that a worldwide launch would be verry unlikely so my gues would be a US (or European) lauch in November, but for Japan it might actualy be July. Thanksgiving is celebrated in the US and not in Japan (Except if you mean the labour thanksgiving on November 23, but I think the are refering to the american thanksgiving). So I would not count this rumour out.
April 28th, 2006 at 4:45 am
[...] En cuanto a las reacciones, éstas no han tardado en llegar. Unos para solicitar un cambio de nombre (se ve que Wii no ha gustado a todo el mundo), y otros para empezar a lanzar rumores y especular sobre su fecha de lanzamiento (dicen que en el mes de Julio y por 199$ ¿?). [...]
April 28th, 2006 at 6:12 am
Sweet, I would love to see Nintendo pull and Apple. Speaking of which Nintendo & Apples are quite similar in respect to their cult following and their “less is more” mentality.
April 28th, 2006 at 6:31 am
I doubt they’ll pull off what Apple does, they would needf huge stocks of the console and people would notice, someone would.
Also, the launch is crucial to have all game sready. Nintendo would never launch without at least 20 games, anything else is suicide.
You predictions just don’t make any sense.
April 28th, 2006 at 7:35 am
Actually it’s been CONFIRMED that Zelda will launch WITH the (what’s now called) Wii, and they’ve confirmed Zelda will release in November. So….Nice try. It’ll be happening in November
April 28th, 2006 at 7:45 am
Naive much? Just because Nintendo is currently saying November does not mean that this is really the case.
April 28th, 2006 at 8:56 am
[...] Nintendo has finally unveiled the real name of the Rovolution. The system is to be called Wii, and according to some is speculated to be up for potential release in July or even at E3, and even better with the low low price tag of $199. That’d be pretty sweet I must say. I’m definitely more excited about this console than either of the others and at that price it’d be almost impossible to not get one at some point, plus you’ll be able to play all the old nintendo games from back in the day. awesome, just awesome. [...]
April 28th, 2006 at 11:54 am
Wii wiii wii…but no I think November will be the prefect launch time. Parents will want something cheap to stuff in a stocking.
April 28th, 2006 at 11:57 am
[...] Next is some speculation that Nintendo may actually launch the Revolution at E3 and have them in stores as early as July for $199 - curtesy of the-mole: For those of you who haven’t heard the Nintendo Revolution is now called the Nintendo Wii. Ok, well I’ve been digging around the rumor mill and talked to some friends in the industry to find out what we can expect from Nintendo as far as a launch date and pricing are concerned. While this might come as a shock to some people, but the Wii probably won’t launch in November. In fact it’s looking more and more like July each day. [...]
April 28th, 2006 at 11:12 pm
[...] In honor of Nintendo and Intel, I’m changing my last name to Riice. [...]
April 28th, 2006 at 11:51 pm
[...] While the name is now official, the release date and selling price have not yet been announced. Most people seem to agree that the new console will likely sell for $199US (less than half that of the new Xbox and PS consoles), but the release date is still a favourite topic of discussion on many of the fansites and forums. According to the Mole, there is reason to suspect that perhaps the launch date may be much earlier than the November launch date of the next Zelda game. The mole suggests we could be seeing the Wii as soon as July. Filed under: Gaming and Interesting and Revolution Comments: [...]
April 30th, 2006 at 4:21 am
[...] 199$??!?!?!?!?!?!? in July??? Link [...]
May 1st, 2006 at 12:32 am
this would be the only time i would consider buying a wii , if wii realeses about the same time as PS3.
i will save my money and get ps3. duh.
May 8th, 2006 at 8:53 pm
Where is the confirmation of this information? I need solid proof to beleive it and I have read that one of the Nintendo officials said November around Thanksgiving so umm yeah July does not sound very correct.
June 12th, 2006 at 11:29 pm
[...] Rumors (http://www.the-mole.org/2006/04/27/wii-to-launch-in-july-at-199/) state that the Revolution could launch in July or possibly even earlier (like at E3 in May). If rumors are correct and Wii launches EARLIER than schedule beating out the PS3 which was recently pushed back to November (the Wii’s original approximate release date), then I think Nintendo will do very well against Sony this time around. Sony will be last out of the gate, with the most expensive piece of hardware (which likely won’t be much better than the 360, it just has a Blu-Ray player to get you to purchase Sony’s new media format for Hi-Def movies and help them beat out HD-DVD.) Keeping in mind that Sony’s Blu-Ray players themselves will cost $1000, whereas HD-DVD players cost $500; the PS3’s likely price point of $500 might not seem that bad for someone really wanting a BluRay player. (but it is still higher than $400 for a COMPLETE Xbox 360.) [...]
August 3rd, 2006 at 3:17 pm
Now in hindsight I can laugh at you idiots. July has come and gone and still no Wii. In fact, there never was any kind of a whiff that it was going to come out in July. Nintendo is going to pull out all the stops. Trust me on this one. When it is announced it will be a hard and fast date, and they will market it like there is no tomorrow. This is Nintendos future. They are poised to throw their hat into the ring of the Next Gen Console wars. They aren’t going to shoot their load on some two bit gimmick. They need to make a splash. The best way for them to do that is to release before “Black Friday”, get stores full of the suckers, and let the price do the talking.