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Fils-Aime
with Triforce |
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Mario
cosplayer got Wii |
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Photos
courtesy of AP |
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Wii Retail
Packaging |
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Wii out of the
box |
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No more couch
potatoes |
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NEWS
Wii Launches in North America |
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NCS
wanders into the N.Y. launch
«©NCSX»
The Wii launched
in North America on Sunday morning and the flagship
Toys R' Us megastore in Manhattan allowed twilight
shoppers to purchase the consoles in orderly lines.
Crowds were relatively subdued although there was a
buzz in the air and a number of jokesters. As dawn
broke, NCS crew drove up to Rockefeller Center and the lines in front of Nintendo World were apparent
and stretched for a few blocks as patrons waited in a civil manner for the store
to open up. Once opened, the buyers shuffled forward patiently and slowly filled
the store. Inside, the background sound was
basically a dull murmur as purchasers paid and picked up their systems.
News crews were flitting about and interviewing
early purchasers and getting their impressions.
Concentration of Wii in some stores
There didn't appear to be any shortage of stock at the Toys R' Us
or Nintendo World in New York
and the Wii was readily available in contrast to the Playstation 3 a few days
ago. When an NCS staffer mentioned to a few people waiting on line at Nintendo
World that the Wii
was available at other stores in Manhattan without having to wait, no one budged. It
was either distrust, disdain, or they had waited for so long that they required
the satisfaction of grabbing the Wii only at
Nintendo World. Despite the abundance of inventory
at stores in NYC, shops in the outer boroughs
(Brooklyn, Queens, Long Island) were less fortunate
with many customers writing in to NCS and reporting
lack of availability at big box retailers as well as
specialty shops such as EB/GS. Did Nintendo
concentrate all of their inventory at flagship
stores which were covered heavily by media and
camera crews? Looks like it.... The situation around
the country was mixed with reports of shortages but
many of the customers who wrote in over the weekend
were able to purchase their Wiis on Sunday
morning.
NCS First Impressions
When our staffer picked up his Wii
at the main Toys R' Us (yes, we paid retail plus
tax), he remarked that the box was heavy. Not PS3
heavy but hefty nonetheless. This was surprising
since the console itself is light. When setting up
the Wii, a sensor bar must be positioned above or
underneath the television screen so that the Wii-mote
is detected. Kudos to Nintendo for making the sensor
bar cable lengthy which allowed for freedom of
installation in our dedicated gaming room. Software
discs slide into the Wii through a motorized slot
which follows the design used in the PS3 and Macs.
The free pack-in, Wii Sports, is an enjoyable
collection of games that shows off the capabilities
of the Wii-mote.
Wii Bowling is a blast and requires that you swing your
arm (while holding the Wii controller) in an arc just like real bowling. As an
added bonus, the Wii plays Gamecube games - we
tested USA DBZ (edit: Naruto was a typo -
sleepy) as our guinea pig and
it booted up without issue. NCS will be able to
peddle our abundance of GC software inventory for
another generation.
NCS Stock Situation
Please note that hardware supplies are scarce but we expect to
receive some Wii hardware inventory in the next few
days. NCS will
contact customers on our e-mail reservation list in
the order that we received their preorder requests.
NCS is supplying the USA version of the Wii at ~US$275 per console but we cannot
accept new orders at this time as we have to fill
preorders first. Please wait for news on upcoming
shipments which should take place in the next 1-2
weeks. If you don't receive an email from NCS today,
rest assured that we will contact you once we have
news on further shipments from our USA distributors.
Wii Software Availability
All of the Wii launch games are available from NCS including
small quantities of Zelda Twilight Princess that are
allocated to customers already. Please
note however that accessories are in short supply
and we don't have extra nunchuks or remote
controllers at this time.
Closing Thoughts
The Wii launch felt more comfortable and relaxed than the
charged atmosphere of the PS3 debut. Similar to the
situation in Japan, speculators snapped up PS3
consoles in the United States and hoarded inventory
to resell at hefty profits. There doesn't appear to
be as many speculators capitalizing on the Wii due
to the larger supplies of inventory released to the
market. Nintendo's last couple of consoles (N64 and
Gamecube) haven't set the world on fire but the Wii
may change Nintendo's standing in the gaming market.
The games are fun and the control scheme is
innovative. It's up to third party publishers to
support the console and develop games that fully
utilize the capabilities of the Wiimote. Nintendo
can't do it alone and needs staunch allies in order
to challenge the reign of Playstation.
Links of interest
New York City launch
http://news.com.com/Its+all+fun+a...nch/2100-1043_3-6137020.html
Los Angeles launch
http://news.com.com/2061-10801_3-6137016.html
Smooth Midnight Proceedings
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/TECH/fun.games/11/19/nintendo.wii.ap/
Reggie Fils-Aime signs first Wii sale at Toys R' Us
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?...NINTENDO-WII.xml
Man adds "Triforce" to name, kids expected to be named Ocarina and Majora
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,230561,00.html
Not much Ebay Mania
http://news.com.com/2061-10797_3-6137010.html
Weighing the pros and cons of the Wii
http://www.cbsnews.com/gamecore/main2198343.shtml
We don't want PS3, We want Wii
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer...3972154&t=TS_Home
Wii controller survives throw
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1545619/index.jh...5619/index.jhtml
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