This thread will be opened around 9 A.M EST (Around the same time as the conference gets underway).
Lets try to keep all conference chat in here rather than clog up the main forums with threads
not long now guys
The Conference Begins:
Looking at the stage, we see a huge Wii logo. What look like the Wii kiosks are sitting off to one side of the stage! All are turned off at this point.
9:05 am:
Attendees are just starting to filter into the conference space and the show is set to begin soon.
9:15 am:
The place is still filling up. Time to sheperd the nerd herd into their seats.
9:19 am:
VP of marketing Perrin Kaplan has taken the stage to talk about the three near-simultaneous events in Tokyo, London, and here in New York. Now she's introducing the man everyone wants to hear from: newly anointed NOA president Reggie Fils-Aime.
9:23 am:
The Regginator speaks! "The next step in gaming is bringing gaming back to the masses." Obviously it's working for them so far, if you'll notice the brain-training craze and the runaway popularity of the DS. Not surprisingly, those are exactly the products he's talking about now.
9:25 am:
Nintendo will explain today its plans to alter the controller interface and the game."
9:27 am:
Here comes the hard info--"One price, one configuration, one color." So there's only a white one (for now). The system will show up at 25,000 retail locations, so it probably won't be too hard to find one--especially since Reggie just promised 4 million units will be shipped globally by the end of calendar 2006, with the majority share going to North America.
Reggie:
"Yes, we will reveal all of the relevant information for Wii. Date, price, how many, titles, all of that information, but more importantly, today marks our next planned step in driving this industry forward. Our strategy is based on one core belief: that the next step in gaming is bringing gaming back to the masses. It literally is that simple. Appealing to those current games as well as broadening this industry to new gamers."
9:29 am:
One Wii remote, one nunchuk both included. Don't forget about Wii Sports, the first pack-in game at launch since the SNES. Speaking of which, we're now seeing a demo of bowling, one of the games included in Wii Sports.
9:32 am:
Like almost every Wii game so far, you play bowling just like you would in real life: like you're throwing the ball for real. You can purportedly put some spin on it, too. We'll have a more detailed report later today.
9:32 am:
And the final Wii Sports lineup is...tennis, golf, baseball, bowling, and boxing?!
Wii will be on sale November 19 in North America! "The worldwide debut happens right here in the Americas - the same place where we debuted the Nintendo DS. On November 19, it will be available at more than 25,000 points of distribution across the Americas. And will a manufacturer's retail price of $249.99. One price. One configuration. One color." The color is white.
9:35 am: Reggie's talking about the 25-game launch lineup, not surprisingly being led by The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Excite Truck will also be out on day one. He makes much of the fact that this is the first Nintendo console to launch with a Zelda...though, admittedly, this Zelda was originally intended for the previous console.
9:39 am:
Here's a random sampling of third-party games that will be out on day one: Call of Duty 3, Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam, Trauma Center: Second Opinion, Need for Speed: Carbon, Madden 07, Elebits, Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz, Rayman: Raving Rabbids, Splinter Cell: Double Agent.
Reggie:
"There are 40 demo kiosks here today with over two dozen games. Some are updated versions of older games, and some are brand new games we've never seen before!"
9:35 am:
Player takes the stage from Nintendo. Shows how to play Wii Sports Bowling. The ball can be given spin by tilting the controller as you release. Reggie is back on stage now. Wii Tennis, Golf, Baseball, Bowling, and Boxing are all included in the Wii Sports disc. It is a five game compilation. "This is designed to get everyone playing".
Wii Sports will be included with the Wii! "Everyone will get it when they buy a Wii."
9:41 am:
More details that we already knew: roughly 30 games by the end of the year, and all first-party games will be in at $49.99 or under. But here's somethin we haven't heard much about: "Wii Channels." Reggie says this idea is meant to expand the console's interface for all the members of the family.
Reggie mentions "Wii Channels" , Reggie says this idea is meant to expand the console's interface for all the members of the family.
9:40 am:
Excite Truck will be a launch title, as will Zelda. These combined with Wii Sports are a "fantastic trio" says Reggie. "For the first time ever we have a Zelda title on launch day". "It's a masterpiece game". 104 Wii games demonstrated at the Japan press conference not long ago. List of third party games is shown. EA's Larry Probst speaks: "A bridge to mainstream audiences", he calls the Wii. 30 games available at retail during the launch window he says. Half of those (15 games) at launch says Reggie. Games priced at US$49.99.
9:44 am:
Now we're getting slides of the Wii Channels interface, which lets you start up a Wii or GameCube disc, as well as hitting the "Wii Shop Channel" to buy older games for the Virtual Console (and look for Super Mario World and Super Mario 64 at launch). After launch, Nintendo is estimating around 10 new games a month to be available.
NES games will be available for 500 Wii points, Super NES games for 800, and Nintendo 64 for 1,000. Wait, Wii what? Looks like they're taking the same tack as Microsoft: Consumers part with fake money more easily than real money. A 2,000 Wii-point card can be had at retail for $20.
9:46 am:
Wii channels designed to "redefine who will use video games in the future". 30 Virtual Console games out by the end of this year. Starting January Nintendo will release 10 new Virtual Console games every month!
9:50 am:
The second component of the Mii concept is transporting your Miis elsewhere, since they're stored on your remote. Head to a friend's house, play tennis with your controller, and you'll see your Mii pop right up in the game.
9:53 am: Reggie again with some more channels, like weather reports and news headlines (which are updated nonstop through WiiConnect 24 so you can read them anytime). A messaging service is also in place, letting you send messages to other users on the Wii or even to their cell phones (though Reggie didn't say exactly how this will work).
Finally, there's the Internet channel, which is basically just the Opera browser--which you'll need to cash in Wii points to purchase. But the Wii remote does seem uniquely suited to surfing the Web on your couch.
Retail box art for the US version.
View attachment 680
10:02 am:
Reggie starts speaking about WiiConnect24. Mentions the news and weather channel when Wii is connected to the Internet.
9:59 am:
That's the end of today's scheduled programming.
On with the Q&A!
Additional Wii remotes will be $39.99 (£20), separate from the nunchuk, which will be an additional $19.99. (£10)
Of the 30 games promised by year's end, Kaplan says about half of those will be available at launch. Sounds like Zelda, Excite Truck, and Wii Sports are the only first-party ones, though.
Q: Will the system have its own internal memory for photos and such?
A: Kaplan says it will have some capacity for internal memory, but "most" of the storage will indeed be through SD card.
Q: What's with Zelda GameCube?
A: Zelda: Twilight Princess for the GameCube launches on December 11.
Q: Will the DS and Wii be interoperable?
A: "You'll be hearing more in the future about that," says Kaplan. Nothing today though.
It's official: Metroid Prime 3 is now a "2007" title.
Lets try to keep all conference chat in here rather than clog up the main forums with threads
not long now guys
The Conference Begins:
Looking at the stage, we see a huge Wii logo. What look like the Wii kiosks are sitting off to one side of the stage! All are turned off at this point.
9:05 am:
Attendees are just starting to filter into the conference space and the show is set to begin soon.
9:15 am:
The place is still filling up. Time to sheperd the nerd herd into their seats.
9:19 am:
VP of marketing Perrin Kaplan has taken the stage to talk about the three near-simultaneous events in Tokyo, London, and here in New York. Now she's introducing the man everyone wants to hear from: newly anointed NOA president Reggie Fils-Aime.
9:23 am:
The Regginator speaks! "The next step in gaming is bringing gaming back to the masses." Obviously it's working for them so far, if you'll notice the brain-training craze and the runaway popularity of the DS. Not surprisingly, those are exactly the products he's talking about now.
9:25 am:
Nintendo will explain today its plans to alter the controller interface and the game."
9:27 am:
Here comes the hard info--"One price, one configuration, one color." So there's only a white one (for now). The system will show up at 25,000 retail locations, so it probably won't be too hard to find one--especially since Reggie just promised 4 million units will be shipped globally by the end of calendar 2006, with the majority share going to North America.
Reggie:
"Yes, we will reveal all of the relevant information for Wii. Date, price, how many, titles, all of that information, but more importantly, today marks our next planned step in driving this industry forward. Our strategy is based on one core belief: that the next step in gaming is bringing gaming back to the masses. It literally is that simple. Appealing to those current games as well as broadening this industry to new gamers."
9:29 am:
One Wii remote, one nunchuk both included. Don't forget about Wii Sports, the first pack-in game at launch since the SNES. Speaking of which, we're now seeing a demo of bowling, one of the games included in Wii Sports.
9:32 am:
Like almost every Wii game so far, you play bowling just like you would in real life: like you're throwing the ball for real. You can purportedly put some spin on it, too. We'll have a more detailed report later today.
9:32 am:
And the final Wii Sports lineup is...tennis, golf, baseball, bowling, and boxing?!
Wii will be on sale November 19 in North America! "The worldwide debut happens right here in the Americas - the same place where we debuted the Nintendo DS. On November 19, it will be available at more than 25,000 points of distribution across the Americas. And will a manufacturer's retail price of $249.99. One price. One configuration. One color." The color is white.
9:35 am: Reggie's talking about the 25-game launch lineup, not surprisingly being led by The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Excite Truck will also be out on day one. He makes much of the fact that this is the first Nintendo console to launch with a Zelda...though, admittedly, this Zelda was originally intended for the previous console.
9:39 am:
Here's a random sampling of third-party games that will be out on day one: Call of Duty 3, Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam, Trauma Center: Second Opinion, Need for Speed: Carbon, Madden 07, Elebits, Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz, Rayman: Raving Rabbids, Splinter Cell: Double Agent.
Reggie:
"There are 40 demo kiosks here today with over two dozen games. Some are updated versions of older games, and some are brand new games we've never seen before!"
9:35 am:
Player takes the stage from Nintendo. Shows how to play Wii Sports Bowling. The ball can be given spin by tilting the controller as you release. Reggie is back on stage now. Wii Tennis, Golf, Baseball, Bowling, and Boxing are all included in the Wii Sports disc. It is a five game compilation. "This is designed to get everyone playing".
Wii Sports will be included with the Wii! "Everyone will get it when they buy a Wii."
9:41 am:
More details that we already knew: roughly 30 games by the end of the year, and all first-party games will be in at $49.99 or under. But here's somethin we haven't heard much about: "Wii Channels." Reggie says this idea is meant to expand the console's interface for all the members of the family.
Reggie mentions "Wii Channels" , Reggie says this idea is meant to expand the console's interface for all the members of the family.
9:40 am:
Excite Truck will be a launch title, as will Zelda. These combined with Wii Sports are a "fantastic trio" says Reggie. "For the first time ever we have a Zelda title on launch day". "It's a masterpiece game". 104 Wii games demonstrated at the Japan press conference not long ago. List of third party games is shown. EA's Larry Probst speaks: "A bridge to mainstream audiences", he calls the Wii. 30 games available at retail during the launch window he says. Half of those (15 games) at launch says Reggie. Games priced at US$49.99.
9:44 am:
Now we're getting slides of the Wii Channels interface, which lets you start up a Wii or GameCube disc, as well as hitting the "Wii Shop Channel" to buy older games for the Virtual Console (and look for Super Mario World and Super Mario 64 at launch). After launch, Nintendo is estimating around 10 new games a month to be available.
NES games will be available for 500 Wii points, Super NES games for 800, and Nintendo 64 for 1,000. Wait, Wii what? Looks like they're taking the same tack as Microsoft: Consumers part with fake money more easily than real money. A 2,000 Wii-point card can be had at retail for $20.
9:46 am:
Wii channels designed to "redefine who will use video games in the future". 30 Virtual Console games out by the end of this year. Starting January Nintendo will release 10 new Virtual Console games every month!
9:50 am:
The second component of the Mii concept is transporting your Miis elsewhere, since they're stored on your remote. Head to a friend's house, play tennis with your controller, and you'll see your Mii pop right up in the game.
9:53 am: Reggie again with some more channels, like weather reports and news headlines (which are updated nonstop through WiiConnect 24 so you can read them anytime). A messaging service is also in place, letting you send messages to other users on the Wii or even to their cell phones (though Reggie didn't say exactly how this will work).
Finally, there's the Internet channel, which is basically just the Opera browser--which you'll need to cash in Wii points to purchase. But the Wii remote does seem uniquely suited to surfing the Web on your couch.
Retail box art for the US version.
View attachment 680
10:02 am:
Reggie starts speaking about WiiConnect24. Mentions the news and weather channel when Wii is connected to the Internet.
9:59 am:
That's the end of today's scheduled programming.
On with the Q&A!
Additional Wii remotes will be $39.99 (£20), separate from the nunchuk, which will be an additional $19.99. (£10)
Of the 30 games promised by year's end, Kaplan says about half of those will be available at launch. Sounds like Zelda, Excite Truck, and Wii Sports are the only first-party ones, though.
Q: Will the system have its own internal memory for photos and such?
A: Kaplan says it will have some capacity for internal memory, but "most" of the storage will indeed be through SD card.
Q: What's with Zelda GameCube?
A: Zelda: Twilight Princess for the GameCube launches on December 11.
Q: Will the DS and Wii be interoperable?
A: "You'll be hearing more in the future about that," says Kaplan. Nothing today though.
It's official: Metroid Prime 3 is now a "2007" title.
