Nintendo gets Wii ready for holidays
Company plans to put console on market Nov. 19
By SETH SCHIESEL THE NEW YORK TIMES
In a move that may allow Nintendo of Japan to take advantage of stumbles by its main rival, the company plans to announce today that it will release its new Wii video-game console in North and South America on Nov. 19, just as the holiday shopping season begins, and that the machine will cost $250 in the United States.
Nintendo executives said this week that the company also would announce today that more than 25 new games would be available for its video-game machine this year, a substantial portfolio from several genres that is intended to help the company broaden the appeal of its console. The company plans to ship 4 million of the Wii consoles worldwide this year.
Nintendo also will explain today a plan to expand the video-game market beyond its core of young men.
Today's announcement comes as Nintendo's main rival, Sony, has been forced to delay and scale back the introduction of its own game machine, the PlayStation 3, at least twice amid serious troubles with that company's new Blu-ray Disc technology.
Last week, Sony said that the PlayStation 3 would not be introduced in Europe until 2007 and that it would ship millions fewer units worldwide this year than it had promised. The top version of the PlayStation 3 is expected to cost around $600.
Another competitor, Microsoft, has sold more than 5 million of the Xbox 360 game console since its introduction in 2005 and hopes to sell more than 10 million by year's end.
Nintendo's Wii (pronounced we) is less technically ambitious than Sony's PS3, which is why it will cost far less and be far more available in stores this holiday season. To market the Wii, Nintendo hopes to make up in innovation and accessibility what the machine lacks in sheer silicon horsepower.
Nintendo is No. 3 in the console video game market, behind Sony and Microsoft. But while those competitors have largely focused on appealing to hard-core gamers, Nintendo is now trying to appeal to a broader audience.
"Our goal is to bring gaming back to the masses," Reggie Fils-Aime, president and chief operating officer of Nintendo of America, said in a telephone interview. "You see that in our pricing, you see that in the number of units we plan to make available this year and you see that in how we are positioning the Wii to appeal to every member of the household, including but not limited to the hard-core gamer."
The Wii's major innovation is a wireless controller that the user can tilt and point to produce action on the screen. In a sword-fighting game, for instance, the player can simply swing the controller to thrust and parry with an on-screen blade; there is no need to master the complicated combinations of buttons and triggers that make many video games so intimidating to the reflex-challenged.
Nintendo intends to announce today that every Wii will come with a game compilation called Wii Sports -- including tennis, golf, baseball and bowling -- meant to show off the machine's intuitive controls. (Most consoles, including Nintendo's GameCube, do not come with games included.)
Nintendo plans to announce that 25 to 30 top-tier games will be available for the Wii this year. The most-anticipated game comes from Nintendo itself: an installment of the long-running "Legend of Zelda" series, "Twilight Princess."
Nintendo also will deliver a driving game called "Excite Truck" this year but will likely provide a minor disappointment to gamers in saying the next version of the popular "Mario" franchise will not arrive until 2007.
Nintendo intends to charge $50 for its Wii games, $10 less than the standard price for Xbox 360 titles and the same price generally charged for GameCube games.
Top games expected to be introduced for the Wii this year from third-party publishers include a version of "Madden NFL" from Electronic Arts, the sword-fighting game "Red Steel" from Ubisoft of France, an addition to the "Sonic" action series from Sega of Japan and a "Tony Hawk" action-sports game from Activision.
While Nintendo is certainly counting on the success of top-tier games sold at retail, many gamers may be at least as excited by the Wii's Virtual Console, which will allow players to download versions of older Nintendo games from the Internet.
Nintendo plans to announce today that about 30 classic games will be available for download when the Wii is released, including ones from the "Zelda," "Mario" and "Donkey Kong" franchises. Downloadable games will cost about $5 to $10 each.
More broadly, Nintendo hopes to make the Wii a living-room centerpiece by including various media channels meant to appeal to and draw in people who do not consider themselves gamers.
There will be a photo channel that will allow users to use the Wii to display digital photographs on television.
There also will be an easy-to-use interactive news channel and weather channel.
Perhaps most intriguing, the Wii will make it possible to browse the Web on the television. Microsoft's Xbox 360 does not permit this because that could negate the need to buy a Windows PC.
"We are including all of these capabilities as part of our overall strategy to expand the gaming market," Fils-Aime said. "Broadening the market is important because it will breathe new life into this business. Otherwise, this industry is moving down a path of being more and more limited to the hard-core gamer."
