Wii European launch date and price revealed
Nintendo has announced its official plans for the Wii debut Iin Europe – we’ll be getting our first shipments in time for a launch on December 8th and will be selling at £179 (249 Euros). Around 20 titles are expected to accompany the launch including Wii Play (which apparently comes packed with another Wii Remote) and Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess from Nintendo. Third party games will include RED STEEL, Need For Speed: Carbon, Tony Hawk’s Down Hill Jam, Cars and Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz.
The £179 price tag is interesting because it’s a good thirty quid higher than most of us were expecting. Nintendo did reveal yesterday that its new console will be profitable from the moment it leaves store shelves
so there has been no need for the usual hardware subsidising à la Sony and Microsoft. Am I wrong to feel just a little bit bitter about that? The cynic in me also wonders if Nintendo is merely bumping the price up so that the console feels more like a premium purchase than just a poor-man’s Xbox alternative…
Pack Contents and the price of accessories on the turn.
The European pack doesn’t contain many surprises for those of you who caught the US announcement yesterday – with the Nintendo Wii you get:
- The console
One Wii Remote (with strap)
- One Nunchuk attachment
- Wii Stand
- Wii Sensor Bar
- Wii Sports Game (a refreshing return for games pack-ins)
The price of accessories is as follows – it will be £29 (39 Euros) for Wii Remote and an additional £14 (19 Euros) for the Nunchuk attachment. Classic controllers are weighing in £14 as well.
This has raised some concerns across the pond because it’s going to cost you almost £90 extra to kit out the rest of your family with controllers, and more if they want all the Nunchuk action as well. But, perhaps due to the exchange rate differences and the fact we live in rip-off Britain anyway, I don’t think these prices are that unreasonable.
More on this an all the latest gaming news over at sister blog Games Digest.
