Wii in America: 19 Nov, $250

Thursday 14 September 2006
Nintendo's new Wii console will launch in the US on 19 November, and will cost $250 (roughly £133), it has been announced.

Every Wii will come packaged with a copy of Wii Sports, featuring tennis, golf, baseball and bowling minigames; new games will cost $50 (£26) and Nintendo's downloadable Virtual Console titles will be priced between $5 and $10 (or roughly £2.60 and £5.30).

This comes after The New York Times posted an article online - and subsequently removed it - as Nintendo of America's big Wii event isn't scheduled to begin for another eight or so hours. However, the details are too in depth and precise to be mere speculation, and we're certain Nintendo's official announcement will echo this info.

In a surprising move, however, Japanese gamers won't get to queue up for Nintendo's new console until December. The Japanese launch date is set for 2 December, at a price of 25,000 yen (about £113). This breaking news follows Nintendo's Japanese Wii event, held over the last few hours in Tokyo.

Nintendo of Japan president Satoru Iwata also announced that Wii's Virtual Console will feature roughly 30 games at launch, including Donkey Kong, Mario and Zelda titles. This number will grow to 60 by the end of the year, with a huge 10 games a month appearing after that, including titles like R-Type.

We'll have the confirmed details for the UK launch of Wii tomorrow, and expect Nintendo to underline the leaked US information later this evening. Stick around for updates as they happen.

Ben Richardson is a former Staff Writer for Official PlayStation 2 magazine and a former Content Editor of GamesRadar+. In the years since Ben left GR, he has worked as a columnist, communications officer, charity coach, and podcast host – but we still look back to his news stories from time to time, they are a window into a different era of video games.