Nintendo have confirmed that the Wii is to retail for just €149 from May 20, just weeks ahead of the E3 unveiling of the console’s follow-up.
After weeks of speculation, the Japanese giants have decided to knock around €75 off the price of their once revered but now dusty and forgotten console’s Wii Sports Resort pack.
The pack had been retailing for an RRP of €225 and included a black Wii console, black Nunchuck, black Wii MotionPlus controller and a copy of Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort. The new €149 pack will include a Wii console, a Wii wheel racing accessory, a white Wii MotionPlus controller, white Nunchuck and Mario Kart Wii.
The May 20 price cut coincides with what Nintendo is describing as its ‘Nintendo Selects’ budget range of titles. WarioWare: Smooth Moves, Mario Strikers Charged Football, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Animal Crossing: Let’s Go to the City and Wii Sports will comprise the Selects range. Personally, we’d plump for Twilight Princess out of that lot.
Nintendo’s move marks the first time that Wii Sports has not been a Wii launch pack-in title, as the game has been removed from its original bundle and will instead retail alongside the Nintendo Selects for an expected €25. This marks the title’s first boxed appearence on shelves in Europe and North America, as the game was not bundled with Japanese Wiis at launch.
The follow-up to the Wii, dubbed Project Cafe by Nintendo, is to be formally unveiled at the company press conference at E3, the video game industry’s largest media event. Rumours suggest a console with greater visuals than the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, while more outlandish whispers have suggested that the follow-up’s controller will even feature a HD screen.
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