WiiBits

Just message board talk right now, but rumors are circulating that EGM is reporting the Wii will launch at $249. Of course we’ll probably find out officially in 12 hours or so, but this is much higher than I was expecting. Most analysts had the Wii launching at a price somewhere between $150 and $200.

via Engadget

A Time Magazine reporter was able to spend some time with the Wii and had the chance to play Wario Ware and Zelda: Twilight Princess using the wii-mote. Not much news, but it’s good to get some confirmed game titles and a few morsels of information with e3 just a couple of days away. The full article should be online soon is available now.

Update: Link updated to point to the full article and added image showing old people using magical wii that doesn’t need to connect to a TV. A clue to a possibly completely wireless Wii?

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GameFeed has a few thoughts on IGN’s interview with EA Canada about Madden Wii. They cover the nunchuck accelerometers, which not only allow you to perform jukes but is a ton of fun to say. They’re also excited about the idea the Wii will support high definition:

Finally as a relief to many graphic whores out there who had a heart attack when Nintendo announced that Wii would not support high definition, John states in the interview that Madden Wii is being developed for 16×9 widescreen and 480p progressive scan. He commented, “As for graphics, we’ll be showing Madden in 480p and 16×9 widescreen mode running at 60 frames per second. I think it looks great. I think it looks really good.” We can all let out a big sigh of relief.

I’d love if that quote was confirmation of high definition gaming on the Wii but unfortunately it’s not. 480p resolution is not high definition, it’s enhanced definition or progressive scan. The GameCube had 480p. True HDTV signals must be at least 1280 × 720 (720p), it still appears that the Wii won’t be capable of these resolutions.

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1UP.com has a detailed story up covering all the details of the Wii that we already know. They cover the system itself, the games, and the speculation on what we still don’t know. Not much of it is confirmed officially by Nintendo but it’s well circulated info that should be on target.

The most interesting bit is this teaser near the end of the feature:

Miyamoto and Iwata have hinted at a final secret for Wii that has yet to be revealed. And while we don’t have all the details, we’ve heard that what’s in store is exciting indeed — secrets of a rather revolutionary nature, with some rather cool implications for gaming. Needless to say, we’re looking forward to E3.

According to users on Digg, the story originally was even more bold. 1UP originally stated that they knew what the secret was and it was “revolutionary.” Were they just talking out of their asses or do they really know something they shouldn’t? Though we don’t know everything, we seem to have most of the Wii’s details so what other big news could Nintendo reveal at E3? I guess we’ll find out in a week.

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