E3 2006 - Nintendo Edition

[The Amstor Computer]

The more hints about price I read, the more I'm sure Nintendo are going to stick with their pricepoint from the past two generations: US$199 on day one.

The tech in the controller might be fairly expensive - accelerometers, gyros, IR receivers, Bluetooth, speaker, rumoured microphone, flash memory - but the console hardware itself shouldn't be a great deal pricier than the GameCube, even taking the 512Mb of flash memory, wi-fi and other odds & ends into account. Also, pricing it much higher than $200 takes it too close to Xbox 360 territory, and too far away from the "non-gamer" market Nintendo want to reach out to.

My hope is that they take offer a basic package that looks like:

Console
Two remote controllers
One nunchuk attachment
One light-gun shell
Wii Sports - Baseball, Tennis, Golf, Table Tennis, Duck Hunt etc.

Packing in two remotes & Wii Sports would seem to be a very good move, especially when trying to attract a wider audience. The nunchuk attachment is a must, as it's going to be used in most of the launch titles.

BTW - more interesting news on the controller front. The remote is now rumoured to have a microphone in addition to the speaker, and tying in to this Nintendo have recently registered a whole slew of domain names - including wiikaraoke.com. I believe it's also been confirmed that the remote will have a small amount of onboard memory, and there are rumours that this could be used to "customise" your controller, letting you save a kind of user profile on it. It's a very cool idea.

[Wils]

Wii Sports

Must...resist... ;)

[The Amstor Computer]

Heh, I know ;-)

I think the "Wii" branding on a line of games like that could be quite effective (Wii/we is an absolute gift for a smart marketer - "Wii play together" etc.) but there are going to be some situations when it just doesn't work. Asking someone if they're interested in Wii Sports is sure to attract a few odd looks, and maybe an initiation into some interesting adult activities...

[Wils]

Especially if they adopt slogans along the lines of:

"Parents: enjoy Wii with your children, thanks to Nintendo!"

"Witness exciting Wii action in the comfort of your own sitting room!"

"With Nintendo's revolutionary new controller, it can be used confortably by left handed people as well as righties. You could easily even have Wii in your mouth!"