Wii'd Off

Why is Nintendo hell bent on giving me doubts on buying the Wii? I mean seriously, as of yesterday, I was sold, no questions ask, sign me up, I’m there. Then comes the announcements from today’s press conference…

First off price: $250. I don’t have a huge problem with this given the re-friggin-diculous pricing of the other two systems. Would I have liked to have seen it cheaper? Yes. But it isn’t a deal breaker. What I absolutely hate is that they are including only one controller and that it’ll cost $60 for another one! Look, one controller has been standard for a long time now but it’s stupid as Nintendo wants to get the whole family into the game. Why not include the 2^nd controller? But 60 effing dollars for another controller!? That automatically jacks the initial price up to a minimum of $310. Suddenly, we’re not so cheap anymore.

Next the launch date: November 19^th. Why the hell would you want to launch two days AFTER the PS3?! It makes no sense. Sony has already hung themselves out with a huge shortage of units. Why would you not want to steal their buzz by launching earlier than them with plenty of units to go around? Now everyone is going to be talking about PS3. Either about how great it is or about how crappy it is that they couldn’t get one. That hype will last a lot longer than 2 days and completely overshadow the Wii launch. But no, Nintendo still doesn’t get that it’s NOT the market leader anymore.

Launch games: Yeah, Zelda, I got it. Anything else? I’m sorry, Excitetruck doesn’t really get me all warm and fuzzy and Wii Sports is pretty much an expanded demo. Metroid 3? Coming out 2007. No mention of Mario Galaxy. Come on! Give me something here! I could also just be bitter that EA decided not to make NHL ’07 for the Wii. How could you not? They adapted Madden and methinks the Wii remote is a little more suited towards say SHOOTING A PUCK?

Finally the nickel and dime BS: Completely ripping off Xbox Live, you’ll be using “Wii Points” to buy things online. And of course by points we mean cash. Why can’t anyone just up and price the damn things without having to do some stupid point system where $1 = 100 points? Also, they’re going to charge points to download the web browser? Come on, if you’ve got wi-fi in your house, odds are you’ve got a laptop to use it. So then why should I fork over cash for a web browser (not the connection mind you, just the stupid web browser which on a computer is 100% free) to surf the net on my TV when I’ve already got internet access? Also launching the Gamecube version of Zelda on December 11^th? Couldn’t you maybe give parents who don’t want to buy the Wii a little more time than having to fight each other 2 weeks before the holidays?

So there ya go. Do I feel like spending $350 on launch day? Not particularly. Will I still do it? Probably. I’m sure not shelling out for those other systems and I’m honestly excited about the Wii’s possibilities. But damn you Nintendo, you can’t just make me happy to go out and buy one so easily, can you? God forbid you make things easy.