Wii Are Getting to Know You

The Wii may look like child’s play to a hardcore gamer, but it’s hardly the case as Nintendo’s President Iwata Satoru talked about the Wii’s development and his hopes for the console’s future. He delved deep on these during the Wii presentation shown to the Japanese press during the conference.

He said that Nintendo’s goal is to expand the gaming population, so they thought of creating a machine that would not be daunting for “the regular folks” to try and buy. Thus the birth of the Nintendo DS. Strategically, they included games that are “non-games,” categorized as having a low difficulty level; this, they claim, has broadened the age spectrum of gamers. Statistics also shows that since the handheld’s release, more females are coming in in the male-dominated world of gaming.

The same game plan was critical to the Wii’s development. Nintendo built the Wii, hinged on the DS’ Touch Generations to increase the number of console users per household. It may put off traditional gamers since what the Wii demands is for them to stand up and jump around instead of sitting in the couch for hours. But as the old saying goes, we shouldn’t judge the book by its cover, a better way is to turn to the most interesting chapter and start from there.

The full article awaits after the jump!

The Wii may look like child’s play to a hardcore gamer, but it’s hardly the case as Nintendo’s President Iwata Satoru talked about the Wii’s development and his hopes for the console’s future. He delved deep on these during the Wii presentation shown to the Japanese press during the conference.

He said that Nintendo’s goal is to expand the gaming population, so they thought of creating a machine that would not be daunting for “the regular folks” to try and buy. Thus the birth of the Nintendo DS. Strategically, they included games that are “non-games,” categorized as having a low difficulty level; this, they claim, has broadened the age spectrum of gamers. Statistics also shows that since the handheld’s release, more females are coming in in the male-dominated world of gaming.

The same game plan was critical to the Wii’s development. Nintendo built the Wii, hinged on the DS’ Touch Generations to increase the number of console users per household. It may put off traditional gamers since what the Wii demands is for them to stand up and jump around instead of sitting in the couch for hours. But as the old saying goes, we shouldn’t judge the book by its cover, a better way is to turn to the most interesting chapter and start from there.

Virtual Console

Games can be downloaded using Wii Points via Wii Points Cards purchased at retail to add points to their account. No need to worry about a game being out of stock anymore as there are over 30 titles in their starting line up plus 60 more from Sega and Hudson. There’ll also be 10 additional game titles each month.

Prices are dependent to the type of platform. Family Computer games are worth Â¥500 ($4.26 USD), for SNES it’s Â¥800 ($6.81 USD) while it’s Â¥1000 ($8.51 USD) for the Nintendo 64. Sega Mega Drive and PC games could be in the same price range.

Wii Channels

The Wii Channel Menu will be the first screen shown on the television when you boot up your console. You can choose from an array of entertainment, information and communication channels like the Mii Channel, where you can have your very own 3D caricature portrait or Mii. Several Miis can be created, stored in the Wii remote, and taken to a friendÂ’s house to play on another Wii console.

There’s also the Photo Channel which allows users to retrieve and edit digital pictures from an SD memory card inserted into the Wii console, and display them on their television screen. Users can even add an MP3 tune and turn it in into a full pledged slide show. When you want to download games, all you have to do is click on the Wii Shop Channel and everything you’ve downloaded will reflect in the Virtual Console channel as separate menus in that particular channel. Other channels include the Forecast, News, Internet, Wii Message Board and Disc Channel.

The console will be launched in Japan on December 2 for ¥25,000 ($210 USD), while in North America D-Day will be on November 19, with the console priced at $250 USD.

Via cubed3