$249.99 on November 19th - only available in white - comes with one controller and nunchuk attachment and Wii Sports game

Extra remotes:  $39.99
Extra nunchuks:  $19.99
Games (1st party):  $49.99  (urges 3rd parties to do the same)
30 games within launch window; 14 at launch (poor Ubi):

Activision  Call of Duty 3
Activision  Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam
Atlus        Trauma Center:  Second Opinion
EA            Madden Wii
EA            Need For Speed Carbon
Konami     Elebits
Nintendo   ExciteTruck
Nintendo   Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Nintendo   Wii Sports (Baseball, Tennis, Golf, Bowling, Boxing)
Sega        Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz
SNK          Metal Slug Anthology
Ubisoft      Rayman Raving Rabbids
Ubisoft      Red Steel
Ubisoft      Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Double Agent

Possibly within launch window (was previously claimed to be launch):

Activision  Marvel Ultimate Alliance
Atari         Dragon Ball Z Tenkaichi 2
Midway     Ant Bully
Midway     Blitz: The League
Midway     Happy Feet
Squinex    Dragon Quest Swords:  The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors
Squinex    Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Crystal Bearers
THQ          Avatar: The Last Airbender
THQ          Barnyard
THQ          Disney/Pixar's Cars
THQ          SpongeBob SquarePants: Creature from the Krusty Krab
Ubisoft      Blazing Angels:  Squadron of WWII
Ubisoft      Far Cry
Ubisoft      GT Pro Series (w/ wheel attachment)
Ubisoft      Monster 4x4 World Circuit (w/ wheel attachment)
Ubisoft      Open Season

Within six months after launch:

Nintendo   Super Mario Galaxy

2007:

Majesco    Bust a Move Revolution
Nintendo   Metroid Prime 3
Nintendo   Super Smash Bros Brawl
Sega        Sonic Wild Fire

Virtual Console:  30 games by year's end; 10 a month starting in January

-NES games will cost 5,000 points (~$5)
-SNES games will cost 8,000 points (~$8)
-N64 games will cost 10,000 points (~$10)

A 20,000 point card will cost $20.

In Japan at least, MSX games were added to the retro capabilities (so Genesis, MSX, NES, SNES, N64, and TG16)

VC definite launch:

Nintendo  Legend of Zelda (NES)
Nintendo  Super Mario 64  (N64)
Nintendo  Super Mario World (SNES)

For comparison reasons or to look at the rest of the info not transcribed over:  http://altpop.com/stc/forums/viewtopic.php?id=664

Speaking of that thread, to answer your question using the actual announced info, Idolores, I'd say:  Call of Duty 3 (just to test FPS using the remote), Elebits, ExciteTruck, Metal Slug Anthology, Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Red Steel, Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam, Trauma Center: Second Opinion (which I heard is a remake of the first?), and Wii Sports.

It's a good thing I've got a Gamefly account or I'd otherwise be a lot more picky.

As for the VC, I'll get all three announced, but I'm really hoping for Punch Out, Earthbound, and Super Mario RPG.

November 19th is really disappointing; nice to know that the US is getting heavily favored by Nintendo, just like Sony is heavily favoring us.  Kinda odd that it is so late here and really so late in Japan.  I'm curious what their plan is for Europe now.

I'm a little disappointed that MP3 isn't going to be out at launch, but who am I to bitch? A new Nintendo console launching with a new Zelda and a few other games that I'm pretty pumped about (Red Steel, Metal Slug, Trauma Center...) means a good holiday season. Finally.

And, yeah. I'll bite on the VC games as well. Why not?

The virtual console games are massively overpriced. I'll stick with emulation.

Not sure if Ryu mentioned this or not, but let me add that the Wii, like the PS3, will not have a mandatory region lock system for games.  In other words, publishers can decide whether or not they want their games to be region exclusive or not.  Nintendo has already said that its titles will be region free.  Also note that, as expected, the DVD player is officially out.

Concerning the overall announcement, I'm annoyed with the $250 price, not just because it proved me wrong, but also because it smells of opportunism.  I don't think the Wii Sports pack-in justifies an extra $50 though I do think packing it in is a good decision.

The 11/19 date is Nintendo's usual pre-Thanksgiving Sunday launch date (NGC and DS launched in the U.S. on this day as well), but I'm really surprised by how immensely wrong every gaming site was about this.  All of the pre-announcement rumors pointed to an earlier, pre-PS3 launch.

I also think it's odd that Nintendo is launching in Japan so much later than PS3.  Sure, the PS3 will be impossible to find, but Nintendo is doing so incredibly well in Japan with the DS right now that I can't imagine it'd want to do anything to take away from that momentum.

For the accessories, notice that to get another Wiimote + Nunchuck set, that's a $60 hit.  Not exactly cheap...

For games, I'm not too concerned about the MP3 delay.  Sure, it would have been amazing to have a brand new Zelda and Metroid on the same day, but I can wait, especially if it gives Retro more time to perfect the controls (which IGN says have improved immensely with the new option for "expert" controls that make turning a snap).

More interesting is the delay of the Cube version of Zelda to December.  I can't help but wonder if this has been done solely to increase Wii sales and force hardcore fans to give the new control scheme a chance.

Nintendo also quiety announced that three former NGC titles are now official for Wii: Super Paper Mario, Donkey Kong Barrel Jets, and Kirby.  I haven't seen official confirmation that the Cube versions are toast, but I would assume that's the case.

The online plan is kind of interesting in just how absolutely non-gamer and casually oriented it is (not counting the VC of course).  While I think it's pretty clear that hardcore gamers and tech savvy hipsters will be disappointed with this aspect of the console, perhaps it will be able to pass the mom test (if your mom thinks it's easy to use).

Also, IGN posted a list of companies already signed on to produce VC games and a new system has been added (MSX): http://wii.ign.com/articles/732/732802p1.html

.

Perrin addressed this.

I personally liked my $190 Zelda pack in idea better...

Still, I'm planning on buying one, but not ASAP...Everything I really want to play later this year is either PS2, DS or Super Paper Mario. There's no sense in hurrying right now, so I'll be looking at either a spring or early-summer purchase, once the big names start flying out. That'll give me some time to see it in action and try it out over the next couple months. The price doesn't bother me a great deal, but a drop around the next E3 would be welcome (as different as it may be).

As for VC...I still have my NES/SNES and all the games I want for either one. I sincerely hope Nintendo goes back and localizes some of the Japanese-only games that never made it out here (what's that? Did someone say Fire Emblem games? As in, FIVE we never got on NES/SNES?) Still, I skipped the N64, so I might pick up a game or two from that. So much potential, how much can Nintendo get out of VC...

Super Paper Mario is now 2007 on Wii, so you'll have to make do with those PS2 and DS games. :-)

I don't check the release list since the game's announced and shit like this just bites me in the ass...

But at least I KNOW Valkyrie Profile 2 and Yoshi's Island 2 aren't going to change systems and years on me! And especially Megaman ZX (since it's sitting right here next to me...then again, I better keep an eye on it before it pulls some stupid shit).

Eh...All things considered, wise move. GC is dead, might as well boost the Wii's sales a bit more. It'll make an easy early purchase.

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The only thing I worry about with the shift for Super Paper Mario is that it might come out relatively close to Super Mario Galaxy and have all of its thunder stolen.

Oh, and on the region free thing - I'm very curious to know what that means for the backwards compatibility of the system.  Will Gamecube games from any region run on it?  If so, what's the deal with memory cards?  Japanese and American systems format their memory cards differently.  And will we be able to download games from the Japanese VC?

I seem to be out of the loop (been gone a few days), so toss me a bone...or at least a URL so I can see what's up with the VC! 

Personally, I think $250 is fine.  If you want to blame any company for trying to rake in the money, let's not forget that the PS3 is $600!!  Why complain if the Wii is not DVD compatible?  Seriously, who here does not have a DVD player?  I'd rather Nintendo spent it's time producing a good system and good games than trying to make sure the system supports DVD playback.  I think for $250 it's a winner

cheers,

-avatar!

avatar, he was referring to post #7 that explains what happens to your VC purchases if your Wii was destroyed by a meteor.

See!? There's no way they'd release Zelda and Metroid Prime both at launch, that would just be silly.

I'd say having a Zelda game ready at launch might make this one of the best release lists ever. God knows Sony has nothing to put up against it.
And I'm still interested in FarCry even though it's already a bit old.

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True, but Metal Slug anthology sounds so sweet...
and the game was rabid rabbits might be fun too

cheers,

-avatar!

If there's any game I'd pick up at launch, it'd definitely be Elebits.  Looks neat, fun, innovative.....  good stuff.

I'll lay down money that if Sony had either Gran Turismo 5 or Socom 3 or God of War 3 (or something vaguely resembling a killer app), Prime 3 would be there with bells and whistles.

Edited God of War due to comment below. X_X

Luckily for me God of War 2 is PS2-bound.

All very good questions with no answers so far.  And to confuse the situation even more, one of the Nintendo of Europe guys contraticted NoA's Perrin Kaplan on the region free bit (http://wii.ign.com/articles/732/732982p1.html).  I would think NOA would be the more reliable source in this regard, but who knows.

Regarding region-free, that's annoying because I had wanted to import the Wii Play for at least the Duck Hunt-ish game included.  I wish Nintendo would announce that same deal for the US, the game bundled with a remote---why must we be punished?

We get the system first.  I think that's plenty good.

Yeah, I think an earlier launch combined with a pack-in game (Japan has to pay 4800 yen for their Wii Sports) can hardly be considered punishment.  That said, is that Hajimete no Wii/Wii Play game that's coming out in Japan and Europe coming out at ALL in America?  Japan is also getting Wario Ware for launch, which SHOULD be happening in America. I don't understand why Nintendo hasn't gotten that one ready; it seems like the perfect way to show people all the stuff the wii controller can do all in one package.

So far Wii Play has no US release information.  From what I've read it is being released in both Japan and the EU bundled with a remote for around $40---so basically it is free with the remote there, if I recall correctly.  Perhaps Nintendo of America is unsure what to do with it?  They could do as they did with the Zelda GCN collection disc and release it for free when one registers on their website.

Nintendo of America has recognized Wario Ware since E3, so it is coming, see wii.nintendo.com ---most likely it will release post-launch, but within the launch window.

My guess is that Nintendo will save it for a slower period just like it did with the DS Wario Ware.