Nintendo Briefing Talks Wii Games, Points Pricing

A media briefing event in Japan has seen Nintendo reveal more details of the Japanese launch of the Wii and the company’s plan for future software and hardware peripherals. The primary new software announcement was for a title currently codenamed “Health Pack”, which legendary Nintendo developer Shigeru Miyamoto described as providing physical exercise and instruction for all members of the family. Nintendo also confirmed that some Wii titles would be made available exclusively as software downloads, implied to be in a similar manner to Xbox Live Arcade games. These games were referred to as “Wii Compact Software” and will be available from next spring in Japan. As regards retro emulations on the Virtual Console, Nintendo expects around sixty titles to be available before the end of 2006 in Japan, including PC Engine and Sega Genesis games. Meanwhile, eighteen full retail titles are expected for the Wii in 2006 in Japan. Pricing was also given for Wii points in Japan, with 1,000 points being exactly equivalent to ¥1,000 ($8.37). Prepaid cards will be made available in multiples of 1,000, 3,000 and 5,000 points, with the latter coming bundled with a classic controller. Hardware prices were also given as ¥3,800 ($32) for a 512MB SD memory card and ¥2,800 ($23) for a wired LAN Adapter. Mention was also made of the GameCube version of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, which will only be sold from Nintendo’s website in Japan. Nintendo of America has previously stated the game will be available in stores as normal in the U.S., but a European launch of the GameCube version has still yet to be confirmed. Also announced for the Nintendo DS was DS Menu Collection, a follow-up to the successful cookery title Shaberu! DS Oryouri Navi and which will contain details of 1,000 recipes. Nintendo will also sell a magnet stand separately to attach the Nintendo DS to a refrigerator for ¥1,200 ($10). [Thanks to Game-Science and others for helping to translate Japanese reports of this event.]