Wii Hardware Discussion

[system_error]

400,000 Wii's for Japanese Launch!

 

I wonder how many Europe are getting? 250,000?

 

 

I think EU gets around 400k aswell - after all a lot more people live in the EU countries and since the price is a bit higher Nintendo makes more money with a console sold in the EU than in Japan.

[Kaxxx]

Channel 4 report:

 

http://www.channel4.com/news/special-reports/special-reports-storypage.jsp?id=3906

[conzer16]

ROFL Ok, maybe I was wrong I suppose I did find it off some weird site, and to think, I was starting to get worried for old people

 

Lance

 

I think EU gets around 400k aswell - after all a lot more people live in the EU countries and since the price is a bit higher Nintendo makes more money with a console sold in the EU than in Japan.

 

Have Nintendo announced they're launch unit numbers?

 

I presume North America will get the majority of unite. So...what....600,000 for NA, 400,000 for Japan and 500,000 for Europe? Makes a nice 1.5million available at launch....

[fatnickc]

good thing i dont have a pacemaker... yet

If I were you I'd be very worried about the fact that I didn't have a pacemaker. You probably don't have an artificial one, though.

[Cube]

http://www.gamepro.com/news.cfm?article_id=86488

 

Full manual.

[Gaijin von Snikbah]

Hrm, a couple of interesting IGN Wii videos.

 

http://media.wii.ign.com/articles/745/745202/vid_1741052.html

[ShadowV7]

Nice links to the manual and games.I'll watch the report later on.

I think EU will get 400,000-500,000 for launch.

[Guest Stefkov]

Nice links to the manual and games.I'll watch the report later on.

I think EU will get 400,000-500,000 for launch.

 

Sounds Ok-ish. I wonder how many preorders there are intotal though. Must be well over that many. Come to think of it, that figure is for al of Europe...damn the Uk must be getting a tiny amount of that......

[Cube]

Sounds Ok-ish. I wonder how many preorders there are intotal though. Must be well over that many. Come to think of it, that figure is for al of Europe...damn the Uk must be getting a tiny amount of that......

 

UK will probably get the largest amount of those.

[Guest Stefkov]

UK will probably get the largest amount of those.

 

But still a high amount of 4/500,000.... in my mind doesn't seem a lot.

I dont think a lot of peope will be happy come 8th December.

[ShadowV7]

Wonder how many more shipments there will be if Nintendo are sending 4 million by the end of the year.

[DCK]

The intended division was, as announced:

 

Launch day:

Europe:400 000

Japan: 400 000

USA: 1 200 000

 

New year's day:

Europe:700 000

Japan: 800 000

USA: 2 000 000

 

Let's keep our fingers crossed this works out well. Maybe Nintendo can ship more than this.

[pedrocasilva]

The intended division was, as announced:

 

Launch day:

Europe:400 000

Japan: 400 000

USA: 1 200 000

 

New year's day:

Europe:700 000

Japan: 800 000

USA: 2 000 000

 

Let's keep our fingers crossed this works out well. Maybe Nintendo can ship more than this.

let's hope so... because I think that's still too little for the demand.

 

But perhaps that's their strategy, if the console is kinda scarse (although not a paper launch like PS3) kinda like DS, it sold out of systems a few times due to demand, but of course they weren't making 2 million consoles available per week.

[yogi_bear]

I just watched a video on nintendo's website, something to do with the zelda TP start up, and i didn't notice the little blue light comming from the disk drive, is there no blue light? or can you turn it on and off?

[Dante]

BusinessWeek Interview

 

The Big Ideas Behind Nintendo's Wii

Two members of the development team take us behind the scenes of the creation of the new console.

 

When Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata offered the gaming public a glimpse of the company's next-generation home-entertainment system during the Tokyo Game Show in September, 2005, he was hardly prepared for the stunned silence that followed. "It was as though the audience didn't know how to react," he recalls. But now, as Nintendo prepares for the Nov. 19 launch of its console, dubbed Wii (pronounced "we"), many of the early reviews have been glowing.

 

The reason: Nintendo's new controller. The device resembles a TV remote but with fewer buttons. It relies on wireless technology with built-in motion sensors to translate movement directly onto a TV screen. Wii can be swung like a tennis racket, twirled like a steering wheel, or pointed at the screen like a gun. BusinessWeek Tokyo correspondent Kenji Hall recently talked with two members of the development team, Shigeru Miyamoto and veteran designer Ken'ichiro Ashida, about developing the Wii and getting inspiration from cell phones, earlier consoles—and moms. Edited excerpts from their conversation follow.

 

How did you approach the redesign of the controller?

 

Miyamoto: We started work on the Wii around the time the GameCube went on sale in 2001. [internally, the Wii had the codename "Revolution."] We started with the idea that we wanted to come up with a unique game interface. The consensus was that power isn't everything for a console. Too many powerful consoles can't coexist. It's like having only ferocious dinosaurs. They might fight and hasten their own extinction.

 

Ultimately, it came down to whether power should be a key element of the console or not. We didn't think it was possible to build a powerful machine for less than 50,000 yen ($450). Not only would it use a lot of electricity, it would need a fan, which meant it would be noisy. Moms would rise up against it. Plus, it would take too long to boot up, like a PC, which isn't an ideal toy.

 

Can you recount the scene at one of those early meetings?

 

Miyamoto: It was 2003. We got game designers and engineers together to discuss the future of video games. We talked about what specs and features a console should have. But we knew we would get nowhere if we didn't get moms' approval. So we thought about what might convince moms to buy this for their kids. When that happened, we talked about basic concepts and goals, not about the technical specifications of the console. This was the Wii's first major step.

 

We decided on the basic technology for the console in late 2004, early 2005. By then, we had come up with the remote controller's wand shape and the nunchuk analog controller attachment. We also decided on the motion sensor, infrared pointer, and the layout of buttons.

 

We tested all kinds of technologies for the controller. We made working prototypes and tested them on games to see how they might be used. We actually were ready to show off the controller at E3 [Electronic Entertainment Expo, the annual video game conference in Los Angeles] in 2005, but we had some troubleshooting to do. So we decided not to reveal the controller and instead we displayed just the console.

 

Was making a console that would cost $250 or less the goal from the start?

 

Miyamoto: Originally, I wanted a machine that would cost $100. My idea was to spend nothing on the console technology so all the money could be spent on improving the interface and software. If we hadn't used NAND flash memory [to store data such as games and photos] and other pricey parts, we might have succeeded.

 

To answer your questions, yes, we set out to design a console that would sell for less than 25,000 yen ($211). It was a tall hurdle. But unless you start off with a target, you can't control costs and you'll inevitably lose money. Also, we thought a low-cost console would make moms happy.

So moms were a key target audience for this console?

 

Miyamoto: Our goal was to come up with a machine that moms would want—easy to use, quick to start up, not a huge energy drain, and quiet while it was running.

 

Rather than just picking new technology, we thought seriously about what a game console should be. [CEO Satoru] Iwata wanted a console that would play every Nintendo game ever made. Moms would hate it if they had to have several consoles lying around.

 

Ashida: We didn't want wires all over the place, which might anger moms because of the mess.

 

Did you ever worry about the Wii's inability to match the realistic graphics and high-speed processing power of rivals' machines?

 

Miyamoto: We had to compromise on graphics and give up on a powerful chip. Many of our employees initially wanted high-definition graphics. But they agreed with us that graphics wouldn't matter if the games weren't fun to play. That said, the Wii is much faster than the GameCube.

 

As new chip technology becomes available, we'll consider less power-hungry varieties that don't cost too much. And once high-definition TVs take off, we'll consider the merits of better graphics and more power.

 

Were there any nongame controllers that you looked to for inspiration?

 

Ashida: Miyamoto brought in cell phones and car navigation remote controllers and tried them, too. We made one that resembled a cell phone. Another one had an analog stick on top and digital interface on bottom.

 

The DS handheld gaming console, released in 2004, is now the hottest-selling portable video game machine. Did the success of the DS influence your design decisions?

 

Ashida: The DS had a huge impact on the Wii's design. We had the DS on our minds as we worked on the Wii. We thought about copying the DS's touch-panel interface and even came up with a prototype. But then we rejected the idea, since the portable console and the living-room console would have been exactly the same.

 

Miyamoto: The DS prepared the way for the Wii. The DS's unique interface had traction with nongamers. That made us think we had a shot at reaching a broader audience. But if the DS had flopped, we might have taken the Wii back to the drawing board.

 

Game controllers haven't changed radically for more than two decades. How has that affected the industry?

 

Miyamoto: The classic controller was something we had become fond of and gamers had become comfortable with. It had many important elements. But it also had come to dictate a lot of what went into games—the way graphics were made, the way battles were fought in role-playing games, the arc of in-game stories. They were all being made to fit one standard. Creativity was being stifled, and the range of games was narrowing.

 

There are examples of controllers that were made for specific games such as Konami's Dance Revolution. And for a long time, we thought that changing the interface would broaden game design and loosen creative constraints on programmers. We found that to be true when we released the DS. Around that time, we were also agreeing that we would start from the drawing board with something entirely unlike anything we had made before.

 

What were the biggest technical challenges in the controller redesign?

 

Ashida: The controller's wireless technology. It took two years.

 

Miyamoto: Getting the infrared pointer to work took more than a year. It worked just fine in the ideal environment. But bright lights and sunlight interfered with its accuracy. And we had to test it in rooms of all sizes. The final version wasn't finished until this summer.

 

We also had reservations about adding a sensor bar to boost the pointer's precision, since we wanted to make the setup as simple as possible. Combining the different technologies to mimic 3D space recognition took time. By the end of 2005, it was ready for mass production. But we were making adjustments up to the last minute.

 

Did you ask consumer focus groups to try out the Wii?

 

Miyamoto: We don't use consumer focus groups. We got a lot of feedback from developers in the industry, and we invited family members of employees to test the prototypes. We took lots of precautions to prevent leaks.

 

Ashida: My family was among those that tested the Wii. My son is a second grader. He loved it. After playing, he was completely drenched in sweat.

 

www.businessweek.com

[Lance]

Sorry if it's been posted already but.....

 

Order Wii Component Cables by Phone

Nintendo makes graphic whores happy.

 

 

November 14, 2006 - Eager Nintendo fans worried about the availability of component cables in stores at launch now have a new option available to them. It was previously believed that these cables would only be sold at Nintendo, Circuit City, GameStop, and Best Buy online stores, and only after launch; however, it has now been divulged that the cables can in fact be purchased before the launch of the Wii, but not online.

 

In fact, the only way to secure component cables at this point in time is to call 1-800-255-3700 and order them by phone. The cost of the cables themselves is $29.95 plus tax and shipping fees. Standard shipping is only an additional $5, but it may not be the most reliable way to ensure that you will get the cables at launch. Two levels of expedited shipping are available: 3-5 business days costs $7 and 2 days costs $13. Prior to writing this, we called and ordered the cables for ourselves, so we can verify that this is, in fact, quite true and quite convenient.

 

While this may not be a viable option for everyone -- many gamers out there may prefer to save money by picking up third-party cables in stores -- at least gamers who want to make sure that they can play Wii games in 480p at launch have a surefire alternative.

 

Lance

[Dilli Gee]

"Graphic whores"? Really, those should be standard.

 

Microsoft packaged it free, alongside the normal red-white-yellow plug (they're actually stuck together), so you can choose to upscale if your TV has it, or you ever decide to get a new TV.

 

Well Sunday's approaching. Should be fun. SonyStyle NYC is making national news, lets hope Nintendo will too.

[Phube]

"Graphic whores"? Really, those should be standard.

 

Microsoft packaged it free, alongside the normal red-white-yellow plug (they're actually stuck together), so you can choose to upscale if your TV has it, or you ever decide to get a new TV.

 

Well Sunday's approaching. Should be fun. SonyStyle NYC is making national news, lets hope Nintendo will too.

 

Why would I want component cables?? there'd be nowhere to put um... If you want them, buy them! Don't expect me to supliment your HD TV habit!!

[Dilli Gee]

It's nothing to do with HD. My CRT TV has the sockets, as do most modern chunky TVs too.

 

It's the only way to get progressive scan on a Wii (you know, the 480p thing) and most TVs are capable of it. It means a sharper image (and it's not HD).

[The Lillster]

It's nothing to do with HD. My CRT TV has the sockets, as do most modern chunky TVs too.

 

It's the only way to get progressive scan on a Wii (you know, the 480p thing) and most TVs are capable of it. It means a sharper image (and it's not HD).

 

Yes but by including the component cable, wouldn't that up the Wii price even more?

 

The price of the Wii is ment to 'look' affordable.

 

By adding component cables it will cost around £18 - £20 extra.

 

And not everyone has a TV capable of proggressive scan, at least my friends don't.

 

At least Nintendo is giving you a choice and not just adding them in with the Wii so they can earn an even bigger profit.

 

Maybe in the future the C-cables will be standard.

 

To make people like you happy.

 

I will be getting the component cables though, through play.com

[Dilli Gee]

£18 to £20 extra? Dude, these things are so cheap to produce!

[...]

And not everyone has a TV capable of proggressive scan, at least my friends don't.

 

At least Nintendo is giving you a choice and not just adding them in with the Wii so they can earn an even bigger profit.

 

 

Err... no. Consoles that come out of tha package with component cables, ALSO include the standard composite. They don't force you with the component, because not all TVs have component. I read somewhere that x360 includes both cables in the box. Or maybe it's PS3 I don't know. Either way, Nintendo is not giving you a choice, they're just giving you the composite. A choice would be giving you both.

 

All that said, my TV does not have component plugs.

[Cube]

Or maybe it's PS3 I don't know

 

PS3 - Composite only. So PS3 is not HD-ready straight out of the box.

[Dilli Gee]

PS3 - Composite only. So PS3 is not HD-ready straight out of the box.

HDMI, duh.

[Colin]

HDMI, duh.

It doesn't include the HDMI cable in the box either.