Nintendo has, without warning, released a black Wii bundle in America. The $199 bundle includes everything the white bundle has plus Wii Sports Resort, and a Wii Motion Plus adapter. They’re already showing up in stores, so if you want one hit up your local Walmart.
From Walmart.com we find out EXCITEBots will feature 6 player online play in EXCITE Race, and Poker Race modes, and players will be able to exchange Ghost Data over WiiConnect24. Stars will act as a sort of in game currency, which you can use to unlock new bots, and bet in online races.
You must watch it:
Holy shit! Real sword controls, real light saber battles, real beating people to death with blunt objects! Every fantasy you ever had about the Wiimote finally coming true?
Nintendo’s upcoming Wii MotionPlus accessory for the revolutionary Wii Remote controller again redefines game control, by more quickly and accurately reflecting motions in a 3-D space. The Wii MotionPlus accessory attaches to the end of the Wii Remote and, combined with the accelerometer and the sensor bar, allows for more comprehensive tracking of a player’s arm position and orientation, providing players with an unmatched level of precision and immersion. Every slight movement players make with their wrist or arm is rendered identically in real time on the screen, providing a true 1:1 response in their game play. The Wii MotionPlus accessory reconfirms Nintendo’s commitment to making games intuitive and accessible for everyone. Nintendo will reveal more details about the Wii MotionPlus accessory and other topics Tuesday morning at its E3 media briefing.
From Reuters…
Nintendo, which is striving to meet Wii demand more than a year after the machine first went on sale, was also trying to discourage the practice of bundling the consoles with extra games or accessories and selling it for a higher price.
A Wii by itself sells for $250 — cheaper than Microsoft Corp’s (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) Xbox 360 and Sony Corp’s (6758.T: Quote, Profile, Research) PlayStation 3 — but some retailers have offered bundles priced for double that price.
“Retailers have already been given feedback that we are not big fans of that. We think it masks some of the price advantage we have versus our competition and, frankly, the consumer should decide what they want,” Fils-Aime said.
Asked if Nintendo had threatened such retailers with fewer Wii shipments, Fils-Aime said only that the company carried a lot of weight as maker of one of the most highly sought items this holiday season.
“We don’t have to remind retailers of the strength we have right now. We are simply making an observation and that reinforces our point quite nicely with retailers,” Fils-Aime said.
Nintendo’s top priority was to satisfy Wii demand because the issue was an obstacle to future plans, Fils-Aime said.
Unable to accurately forecast how many Wiis will be sold in the coming months, Nintendo is finding it difficult to plan for new games, such as “Wii Fit,” an upcoming physical exercise game that uses a pressure-sensitive board.
“We at Nintendo America are focused on getting to the point when any consumer can walk into any of our retailers and find a Wii. Then we can plan, on an ongoing basis, the rest of the business,” Fils-Aime said.
