Nintendo Report

It’s rumored that the Wii will be available for pre-order as soon as today at GameStop and EB Games. For a $50 deposit you will be able to guarantee yourself a system at launch.

Despite reports that the Wii would be region-free, Nintendo UK told GamesIndustry.biz yesterday that the Wii would in fact be region-locked. They say that Perrin Kaplan, vice president of marketing for Nintendo, was incorrect when she stated that the Wii would lack region-locking features.

According to IGN, Nintendo will be giving away the Opera browser for Wii until June of 2007. The browser wouldn’t come with the system, but would instead be an optional download. Afterward, the browser would cost $20 worth of Wii Points to download. However, there is speculation that the browser will be free once Nintendo finalizes discussions with Opera.

Nintendo has revealed that the Wii will launch in the United States on November 19th, 2006 at $249.99. The Japanese launch date is set for December 2nd, 2006 at 25,000 Yen.

Nintendo will be releasing a special edition DS Lite featuring two sparkling Pokémon characters to coincide with the release of Pokémon Diamond and Pokémon Pearl for the DS Lite. The special edition DS Lite will be available in Japan on September 28th for 16800 yen, which is approximately $145 USD.

EBgames.com has launched its Wii section. Interestingly, they have listed many of the games at $59.99, despite Nintendo’s claims that first-party games would cost no more than $50. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and Super Mario Galaxy are among the $59.99 games. There are numerous errors on the site, however, and the game pages contain the following note:

NOTE: Content based on the best available information. Price, release date, content and title are subject to change and/or cancellation by vendor.

It’s possible that these prices, along with any other information on the site, are inaccurate. Regardless, the emergence of Wii products at online retailers is a welcome sight.

See Wii at EBgames.com.

Now you can pre-order the Wii from Gameplanet Store, guaranteeing your unit on launch day. Unfortunately, the price of the Wii remains unannounced, but the pre-order price indicates that it will cost more than $50 USD.

Here are just a few of the games that will be Wii launch titles:

• Call of Duty 3
• Metroid Prime: Corruption
• Rayman: Raving Rabbids
• Super Mario Galaxy
• Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz

Ubisoft has confirmed that Rayman: Raving Rabbids will be exclusive to the Wii until May 2007. It is set to be released for the Wii in November 2006, with PS3 and Xbox 360 versions after its exclusivity expires.

In the latest issue of Game Informer magazine, Bill Trinen, Nintendo of America’s Head of Localization, discusses the upcoming Legend of Zelda game, Twilight Princess. He expects that the ESRB will give the game a rating of T due to the more realistic graphics. This, which will be a first for the series, will surely please older fans who wish for the series to take on a more “mature” feel.

Additionally, Trinen suggests that more than just the game’s visual nature may warrant a higher rating than has yet been seen in a Zelda title:

With Twilight Princess, the depth of story and its connections to past games means not only does it have twice the text as Wind Waker, but it includes a fair number of legacy terms that originate in past games, so consistency is a big focus there.

In their preview of Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam, IGN revealed that there will be no third-party games for the Wii until 2007.

Gamers hoping for an online component, however, are in for bad news, because one isn’t planned. Activision would not say why, but IGN has separately learned from multiple development sources that Nintendo will not release Wii Wi-Fi Connection libraries to third parties until early 2007, which means that no third party launch title will have an online mode.

This means that third-party launch titles such as Call of Duty 3, Red Steel, Far Cry, and Madden NFL 07 will not have online support.