During Nintendo's Nintendo Direct live-stream, the company has finally announced the launch details for their upcoming next-gen hardware, the Wii U.
First off, remember this is for the Japanese launch, so the release date, pricing and more are exclusive to that region. Also of note, converting the Yen price to US dollars won't work. Nintendo has never priced their hardware via a straight conversion. For the US launch details, I suggest waiting for the Nintendo of America press event happening later within the day.
Bundles
Basic Set: White Wii U Hardware, AC Adapter, Wii U GamePad, Game Pad AC Adapter, and HDMI Cable, 8GB internal storage
Price: 26,250 Yen ($337 when converted to US currency)
Premium Set: Black Wii U Hardware, AC Adapter, Wii U GamePad, Game Pad AC Adapter, and HDMI Cable, Stand for System, Stand for GamePad, 32 GB internal storage
*Also includes Nintendo Network Premium loyalty program, where you get 10% back as points on your digital purchases.
Price: 31,500 Yen ($405 when converted to US currency)
The launch date for Japan is on December 8, 2012.
Wii U Accessories Price
Wii U GamePad: 13,440 Yen (about $170 when converted to US currency)
Wii U Pro Controller (comes in black and white variants) 5040 Yen
Wii U GamePad Charging Stand 1870 Yen
Here's an image of the Japanese Wii U sets.
Regarding the Premium Set, when you buy this, you will be part of the Nintendo Network Premium club. This is not an equivalent of Xbox LIVE, but instead, will offer buyers of the premium set a 10 percent rebate on points when they buy accessories and digital content through Nintendo directly. The points can be redeemed for shop credit in 500-Yen chunks.
Wii U Official System Specs and Disc Storage Info:
The Wii U system measures 1.8 in x 6.8 in x 10.6 inches, and is rated for 75 watts but hovers around 40 in standard operation. It will also come with 2GB of RAM but 1GB of this will be reserved for the "Miiverse" OS in order to shorten load times; thus leaving 1GB for the games themselves.
For the Wii U's disc format, games are stored on a proprietary disc format based around 5 times (180mbps, 2.5 times faster than the PS3) Blu-ray drive. Additionally, as revealed by Nintendo months ago, each Wii U unit can accomodate two Wii U GamePad controllers at once.
Launch Games:
Nintendo has confirmed that New Super Mario Bros. U (5,985 Yen) and NintendoLand (4,935) will both be launch titles for the Wii U. However, no other games have been confirmed yet, but Nintendo will have an additional presentation on September 13, 11p.m. in Japan covering the first and third-party Wii U software launch lineup (hosted by Satoru Iwata).
Other Details:
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Wii U supports 1080p HD, uses a "GPGPU" with 2GB of memory (1GB is for Miiverse)
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Game disc is 25GB in total, which processes data at 22.5MB/s
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Wii U consumes 75 watts of electricity, typical power usage is at 45 watts. Wii U accessories and Wii U games can be used at this wattage.
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You will be able to import your Virtual Console and Wii Ware games from the Wii to the Wii U.
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The headphone jack on the GamePad is on the top. Players will also be able to watch videos, play games on the GamePad with low latency as well. On the controller screen: menus, maps, communication interface. Play without the TV possible. Miiverse is the system-level social network interface. You aren't the only one playing.
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New Super Mario Bros. U is the first Mario game to launch with a Nintendo console since the Nintendo 64,
That's it for now. Stay tuned later when Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime takes the stage in New York to announce the official Wii U launch details for the US.
Again, the prices listed here are for Japan only. Doing a straight-up currency conversion will most likely not work. For that, I suggest waiting for the official prices before being mightily pissed off that they're too expensive.
What do you think of the info we have so far? Good enough or is Nintendo dead out of the water?
