Nintendo Reveals Wii U Price, Launch Date, Exclusives, Nintendo TVii
by Menashe
Nintendo held an event, called Nintendo Direct, in which they revealed all of the launch details for the Wii U. For in-depth coverage of all the detail visit our Nintendo wing, Nintendo Enthusiast. Here, we will briefly lay out the different points made at the event.
– The Wii U will be released in North American on November 18. It will come in two different packages. The Basic Set is $299.99 and includes the console, GamePad, HDMI cable, and sensor bar. It will come only in White and it will have 8 GB of flash memory. The Deluxe Set is $349.99 and comes with everything in the Basic package, but also includes stands for the controllers and Nintendo Land packed in (comes in Black). In addition, it will have 32 GB of flash memory and it will come with the Nintendo Premium subscription which rewards you with 10% off the Wii eShop games and other benefits.
– The Wii U system specs were finally revealed. It will benefit from 2 GB of RAM. 1 GB will go towards the games and 1 GB will go towards the OS, allowing you to surf the web and use other forms of entertainment on the GamePad while playing games on the TV. In comparison, the PS3 had 512mb of RAM, of which 50mb were allocated to the OS and the rest was for the games. Essentially, on the Wii U there will be double the amount of RAM for games and 20 times the amount for the OS. Nintendo’s optical Blu Ray discs will hold 25 GBS and the read speed will be 22.5 MB/s compared to PS3’s 9 MB/s. Finally, the 32 GB of flash memory for the hard drive is more than enough. And if you ever run out, the Wii U has expandable storage via a USB port. You can plug in a full three terabyte hard drive if you want.
– Nintendo announced a TV service called Nintendo TVii which will come as part of the Wii U. It will support all major cable and dish providers across the US and Canada. So, how will Nintendo TVii help you watch television? Besides for being used as a standard TV remote, Nintendo’s motto for TVii is Find, Watch, Engage. You can find recommendations and trends for shows or movies to watch by seeing what your friends are watching or what is currently popular in your country. While watching, you can record small scenes or highlights and share them with your friends or just comment and see how others commented, as well. You can find out more info on any show or actor, and if you’re watching sports, you can find out details about the game or watch highlights you missed. There are many more features included too. In general, Nintendo TVii is dedicated to improving the quality and enjoyment of your television experience.
– On to the games! There will be 50 launch window games. Standard retail games will cost $59.99. NintendoLand and New Super Mario Bros U will both be Nintendo launch titles, available digitally or at retail. Other titles releasing on launch day are ZombiU, Rayman Legends, Fifa 13, Darksiders 2, Mass Effect 3: Special Edition, and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. There will around 40 other titles releasing shortly after launch day. Another title to make headlines at the event was Bayonetta 2, which was revealed to be exclusive to Wii U and will be published by Nintendo.
