According to The Official Nintendo Magazine, the tweaked Wii will be released in the UK this holiday season (no word about a US release).
The change is that this Wii is designed to lay flat and has a slighted refigured design. The original Wii was supposed to sit vertically.
The redesigned console comes packed with a Wii Remote Plus, a Nunchuk and, according to this photo from Eurogamer, copies of Wii Sports and Wii Party.
Expect more details like pricing and non-UK availability.
New Wii Console [ONM via NeoGAF]
Top photo: Nintendo/Eurogamer
Sam
Wednesday, August 17, 2011 at 8:38 PMHoly crap Nintendo is back in the game! I’ll defs be getting this launch day!!!!!111111!1!
Tyris
Wednesday, August 17, 2011 at 10:55 PMHoly crap! This ^
Yeaaaaaaaah!
Riley
Wednesday, August 17, 2011 at 8:48 PMLooks….quite stupid. The vertical version is much nicer.
oggob
Wednesday, August 17, 2011 at 8:51 PMThere is a significant change, Gamecube support is being removed, so no more GC controllers or memory cards can be plugged into it.
oggob
Wednesday, August 17, 2011 at 8:53 PMExtra link – http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-08-17-new-wii-loses-back-compatibility
So yeah, if you want to play GC games, buy one now!
Cody
Wednesday, August 17, 2011 at 9:31 PMWow, that’s a fucking kick in the head! Lots of Wii games (DDR, etc) use the GC controller ports.
NinjaDude
Wednesday, August 17, 2011 at 11:53 PMThat sucks! :(
AerintheADEQUATE
Thursday, August 18, 2011 at 12:26 AMHoly crap. So it’s even more idiotic than I had imagined.
Kizaru
Wednesday, August 17, 2011 at 8:51 PMSo first they muddled up the image of their next console by not using a different name, and now they’re muddling it up even more by making the Wii look like their next console?
Rey Castillo
Wednesday, August 17, 2011 at 9:05 PMso by using ambiguous naming and riding the back of the vague knowledge some people have that a new Nintendo console is coming out, Nintendo are hopping on the ‘try to sell hardware to clueless grandmothers at xmas’ bandwagon, for years the exclusive territory of the vii and polystation 3
Shay
Wednesday, August 17, 2011 at 9:39 PMSo true! This is pathetic, an obvious money grab for those parents, and like you mentioned, grandparents clueless of the game industry and what’s coming.
Good marketing strategy though, lmao
Mic
Wednesday, August 17, 2011 at 10:04 PMAnd the Xberk 300
Steve
Wednesday, August 17, 2011 at 8:55 PMNo nunchuk?
Clancy
Wednesday, August 17, 2011 at 9:17 PMand just when you think the planking craze is over…
Stevorooni
Wednesday, August 17, 2011 at 10:07 PMI love how it’s called Family Edition yet only has 1 remote.
Braaains
Thursday, August 18, 2011 at 1:03 AMHaving everybody share the 1 remote will bring the family together. Or something.
Martini
Wednesday, August 17, 2011 at 10:16 PMHmm.. not sure what this will achieve..
Hans Wannop
Wednesday, August 17, 2011 at 11:16 PMAn open letter to Nintendo regarding the Wii Family Edition and 3DS:
You know what Nintendo, we get the logic you’re working with here. The Wii U is more than a year away. Wii sales are faltering now that almost everyone owns one. The 3DS wasn’t selling as amazingly as you’d hoped and now that it is your losing money on every unit sold. You need something to keep investors happy for the next few quarters and you’ve had the ability to move to a lower cost production pipeline for the Wii for some time. Hell, you’ve done a bit of a revision to it’s guts once already with no issues. GameCube support cost a few bucks an parts , and since thise games run natively you can make some money on the virtual console and on classic controllers. Let marketing give it a new badge and a new price point and consumers will jump onboard…. right? Right! And that’s the darned problem.
Many consumers know that there is a new Wii coming and many are too stupid to realize this isn’t really it. You’re confusing your customers and they wont be happy with the result, more importantly they certainly won’t buy the Wii U.
Some sensible advice:
1. Drop the badge, the only difference you want your customers to notice this Christmas is the the price.
2. Advertise the hell out of the 3DS. Many people still don’t understand what the difference is between it and a DSi, the answer to that question should *not* be ‘it does 3D’. It’ll undoubtably beat the Vita on price point and provides considerable value to customers given its relative power and features other than the 3D.
3. Roll out 3DS games as quick as your quality standards allow and advertise them. There are some high profile releases out this year that could help establish the platform leading to long term profits and subsidizing losses on the hardware.
You’re the last major solely focused on gaming and we don’t want you going anywhere. In short, take the hard road, stop listening to your short sighted marketing department, stop confusing customers and start looking to the future.
Please repost this on other sites if you agree as I’d really like it if some people at Nintendo to actually read it.
TechaNinja
Thursday, August 18, 2011 at 2:12 AMI like how you pretend to know what you’re talking about. Go back to your Modern Warfare…
AerintheADEQUATE
Thursday, August 18, 2011 at 12:22 AMso… basically… they’re just not including the gray plastic ‘stand’/'tray’ thing that held it up on its’ end?
My Wii lays flat just fine… I don’t think it really needs any special design to accomplish that beyond just “taking away the plastic footer” :-P
Marek
Thursday, August 18, 2011 at 4:28 AMExactly, this is what confuses me about everyone saying that this is specially designed to sit on its side… the original Wii already can!
So basically all the family edition is, is a cheaper wii with no GC capabilities. It doesn’t even look any smaller! :/
Though business-wise, I get where they’re coming from: A chance to sell a few more systems (possibly catch out people who’ve heard there’s a new Wii on the way, put GC games in the VC, and make people buy more classic controllers.
TSH
Friday, August 19, 2011 at 9:24 AMDo people actually have their Wii standing up on its edge? Mine has been lying flat since day 1. It’s not as though the SD slot or controller sync button get used on a daily basis!
I was really hoping that Nintendo would rework the retail package to include two Wiimotes + Nunchucks at some point. Doing that would be a fair compromise for losing the GCN ports (IMHO) and it would be good strategy: Wiimotes/accessories will be useful for Wii U; nobody else packages two controllers with their console as standard; and I don’t imagine that the actual parts can possibly be that expensive by this point in time – it’s a cheap way to add value for the consumer.
djmcbell
Thursday, August 18, 2011 at 4:38 PMNo GameCube capabilities?
Admittedly this is 4/5 years after the console’s launch (not 6 months as in the case of the PS3) and the GameCube didn’t have as big of a market as the PS2, and the Wii U is just around the corner, but it still seems like a stupid move.
(and yes, I do use mine from time to time – got Metroid Prime a while back and I’ve yet to start it, Godless heathen that I am)
Culturismo
Friday, August 19, 2011 at 3:25 AMSo games which worked better and were designed for the GameCube controller, like Super Smash Bros. Brawl, are screwed?
This is completely unncessary. Everyone who’s going to get a Wii has probably done so at this point.
And it’s not like the PS3, which has extra hardware like a version of the PS2 CPU, and other components. The Wii uses the same hardware, just scaled up. The real “savings” here would be the removal of the GameCube ports, and the special drive loader which lets you use either size disc.
The removal of that part probably is what requires it to lay down. The previous loading mechanism probably held the disc up, while getting rid of it leaves them with a simplier mechanism which can’t handle it.
This is an odd thing to do at the end of the system’s life. This isn’t Nintendo style to remove features from a console.
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