With Nintendo announcing its official pricing and launch information for its Wii console, the next generation gaming battle is now joined. Or is it? Keep reading to find out why Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has forbidden talk about a “next-generation console” at his company.
Okay, let's start with the basic information. The Wii console will go on sale in the U.S. on November 19 for $250. That's actually a couple of weeks sooner than the Japanese launch (December 2), quite unusual for the Kyoto-based company. European gamers won't have to wait too much longer; the Wii will launch there on December 8, which they're sure to appreciate, considering that the European launch of Nintendo's previous console happened several months after the U.S. and Japan launches.
The price point is pretty sweet, too, when you compare it with the other consoles. Sony's PlayStation 3 will be launching in the U.S. about two days sooner, but the low-end 20 GB version will cost twice as much as the Wii. The 60 GB PS3 will set you back about $600. Microsoft's Xbox 360 also comes in two versions, one for about $300 and one for $400. The real question, though, is what are you getting for your money?
And that's where the heated arguments begin. Nintendo is taking a different approach from Sony and Microsoft, and it's not just about creating one version of the console and pricing it lower than the competition. "The media likes to refer to this as the 'war of next-generation consoles,'" says Shigeru Miyamoto, a senior managing director at Nintendo. "But that implies that we have the same strategy as the others."
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