Nintendo Wii U

[baad bwoy]

Have placed a preorder for WiiU, as local Gamestation are now taking them. With there being a world wide release just before Christmas I would expect these will be in extremely short supply.

[mugetsu]

release date october 25th is my guess

[baad bwoy]

not far off at all, just couple of months. What launch games are folk on here going to be picking up

[Guts]

I don't think the release date has been confirmed? October 25th is just speculation.

[Kit]

Rumoured launch date:

Report: Wii U to launch November 18, claims peripheral manufacturer

Peripheral manufacturer PDP may have accidentally outed the release date of the Wii U. According to reports, a representative from the company told attendees of the GameStop Expo that the Wii U will be available November 18. The date would fall in line with Nintendo's history of releasing new hardware and big software titles prior to Black Friday, the busiest shopping day before the holidays.

The PDP rep was trying to make a point that the company's accessories for Wii U would be ready in time for the console's launch, a source told Kotaku. After he mentioned the date he quickly changed the subject. A poster on NeoGAF reported the same story.

Nintendo launched the original Wii on November 19th and the Gamecube on November 18th. The Nintendo 64 launched on August 20th.

The company is planning a Wii U event on September 13 in New York, where we expect to hear an official date then. We have reached out to Nintendo for comment, and will report if they actually confirm or deny anything.

http://www.shacknews.com/article/75474/report-wii-u-to-launch-november-18

[parkinho]

It seems to be panning out exactly like the Wii launch did back in '06. I can see it launching in the US on 18th November and over here on 7th December. Price wise I reckon it will be ?279.99 with Nintendoland as a pack-in.

[Neon Ignition]

Does seem a likely date but PDP has since denied it.

I can't see it costing over ?249.99. Nintendo consoles never go above that point and 250 itself represents a big jump on the Cube and Wii launch prices (especially considering the age of the tech). In fact I'm going to make my official stab at price guessing to be ?229.99 (not that Nintendo will set a fixed rrp)

[Neon Ignition]

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/364953/devs-wii-u-specs-offer-no-unexpected-challenges/

Another report saying the WiiU's memory makes it easy to work with

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/364558/previews/new-super-mario-bros-u-fresh-new-thrills/

Preview of NSMBWiiU which makes it sound pretty dull again by Mario standards though there's hints again it's a launch title.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/364505/previews/nintendo-land-a-wii-u-classic-in-the-making/

Pretty positive preview of Nintendoland

[Adam]

I want a black one. Always thought the white Wii's my poor friends have look like rubbish.

[Neon Ignition]

I've got the black one preordered, glad to see it's actually being produced and I don't need to faff with my preorder

[originalbadboy]

JAP Pricing and release date has been announced:

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/368008/wii-u-release-date-december-8-in-japan-price-announced/

December 8th:

(?252/$405) for a Premium model and 26,250 yen (?210/$338) for a Basic model.

Premium:

The Premium model will come with a built-in flash memory capacity of 32GB, a Wii U GamePad, a Wii U GamePad stylus, a Wii U GamePad charging stand, a Wii U GamePad playing stand, a Wii U stand, an HDMI cable, and AC adapters for the system and controller.

Basic:

The Basic model will offer a built-in flash memory capacity of 8GB, and the same contents as above minus the Wii U GamePad charging stand, Wii U GamePad playing stand and Wii U stand.

No games will be bundled with console.

2013 for the UK is looking increasingly more likely now.

[briareos_kerensky]

2013 for the UK is looking increasingly more likely now.

And missing Christmas? Hard to believe. Still, I'm surprised they are going for two SKUs with different content and colour, I thought they would have settled for just the basic model in one colour for the time being and with pad charger and control stand.
Anyway, the European event is during the afternoon, I hope they confirm the 250? price for the premium package...but I think I'll still go for an US console.

[mr_sockochris]

Hopefully that equates to ?229/?279 at the most, any more and I shall be waiting for a price drop.

[Family Fry]

They also announced pricing of extras and the WiiU main controller is 13,000yen, that's like ?100 eek.

[_SD_]

I reckon it'll be ?279.99 on release. However, I didn't expect the extra Upads to be quite as expensive. ?13,440/$173 is probably going to end up being at least 150 quid (?107 plus VAT is already about 130), a lot more than the ?80-90 I was expecting.