Mielke Nails It

The Nintendo Wii on November 19 in the US for $249 with Wii sports as a pack in. How do I feel about that?

Well, Ziff Davis Media’s James Mielke nails it.

At Long Last, the News?

Things have been quiet here lately for two reasons: one, I have been tending to personal issues, and two, there still isn’t a lot of new news that needs editorializing in Nintendo’s world these days. Furthermore, any time I sit down at the computer and think that I could probably bang out another entry for the site, I instead end up planning upcoming vacation in Japan which starts with Tokyo Game Show on September 23. Nintendo won’t have a presence there, but it may be interesting at the very least to see what Sony plans to lie about.

With Leipzig behind us and Nintendo pulling an expected no-show at TGS this year, all eyes are focused on Nintendo’s forthcoming press events around September 14th for Wii news. Could this finally be the event that details the Wii bundle, final list of launch titles, release date, and price? At this point, I think there is hardly any room for doubt. Nintendo is going to come clean with all of that information and likely a number of other unexpected announcements including (but probably not limited to) new IPs. Why do I believe this? Nintendo has been watching Apple very closely lately, and this is the Apple way. Nintendo is keeping their cards close to their chest, and I’d be a little surprised if they weren’t ready to launch a month after the press event. And as long as I’m making wild-ass guesses, let me add that the launch will be large enough that early adopters will be satisfied within the first month of release, even the ones without pre-orders.

I don’t make these predictions because I have any inside knowledge of Nintendo. I make these predictions because they are the right things to do.

If the Wii launches on October 15th, Nintendo has enough time to satisfy early adopter demand and ramp up production for the holidays. I would even say that it is imperative for Nintendo to have the Wii in plentiful supply when the PS3 is released. The Wii is going to be a hit at launch, and Nintendo can’t afford to have an empty shelf next to Sony’s empty shelf on PS3 launch day. They would miss out on too many day-after-Thanksgiving opportunities to sell a “Nintendo Playstation” to parents who don’t really know what their kids want (which may very well be a Wii anyway).

Thursday can’t come soon enough for me.