Nintendo denies tabloid Wii date

By Tom Bramwell Published 12 July, 2006

Daily Star report is 'speculation'.

Nintendo UK has denied a report in British tabloid the Daily Star that Nintendo Wii will launch "at the end of November, priced around £170".

"It's pure speculation on the part of the newspaper - we have made no announcements regarding Wii price or software," a spokesperson told Eurogamer this morning.

The Daily Star report was based on a recent press event for Nintendo Wii hosted in London, where Nintendo showed off a number of the games featured at E3 to lifestyle and newspaper press.

Speculation as to when the Nintendo Wii will launch has been particularly rife recently, although the company has steadfastly stuck to its "Q4" estimate.

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About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (37) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Kami #1 6 years ago

    "the Daily Star"

    Do we really need to say anything more?

  • evilashchris #2 6 years ago

    NO. Which is why i'm not...

  • gizmo #3 6 years ago

    ^er...

    £170, thats more pricey than I was expecting.

  • manic_mouse #4 6 years ago

    I think about £150 is right. Remember the GC was released at £130...

  • Wrestlevania #5 6 years ago

    Kami: Do we really need to say anything more?

    Quite--except for, "Oo-ar! Daily Star! Say oo-ar Daily Star!" of course.
    Edited by 1 at 12/07/06 @ 12:16

  • Aria #6 6 years ago

    No comment

  • Darkedge #7 6 years ago

    I'm hoping september :)

  • sh0cked #8 6 years ago

    I dont know Ninty have a tendancy to lie about these things, whilst it could well be press speculation as we all know the press in this country take the truth and put their own spin on it... it could still be true

  • Carrybagma #9 6 years ago

    Oooo £50 would be good, with a release date of tomorrow, and free games and some bells on. I'd have four controllers and invite the three bears around to play.

  • Blerk #10 6 years ago

    Daily Star in 'making shit up' shocker! Tomorrow - Daily Mail declares Wii to be 'evil' and 'coveted by paedophiles'.
    Edited by 1 at 12/07/06 @ 13:27

  • rudedudejude #11 6 years ago

    I can't wait for 'Wii Sports: Golden Shower Limited Edition'

    The streaming content is supposed to be amazing!

  • peterfll #12 6 years ago

    Isn't there a special part of the fourm for Wii-related jokes these days?

    \slinks off to continue being a miserable bstard.

  • regmund #13 6 years ago

    tbh that date and price sounds quite plausible for a tabloid, so its probably wrong.
    @gizmo i agree about the price-i'm expecting GBP150 tops.

  • Blerk #14 6 years ago

    I think it will be £170. Those wands don't grow on trees, y'know.

  • JetSetWilly #15 6 years ago

    Yet no-one batted an eyelid when the Daily Torygraph said exactly the same thing.

  • peterfll #16 6 years ago

    That's because only three people buy the Daily ToryGraph, and those readers had never heard of these new-fangled electricity-based-games.

  • ShekkyBoy #17 6 years ago

    I thought Nintendo had already commented that it would sell the Wii in Europe for the currency equivalent of $250, and it had also committed itself to a price of no higher than $250. Admittedly, that last statement was in regards to North America. But still, I see no reason for the console to be priced higher than £150 here.

  • Blerk #18 6 years ago

    Basically they've confirmed sod all aside from that it will cost '$250 or less'. Which means absolutely everyone is guessing and any 'confirmed' or 'very likely' prices you have read are complete tosh.

    Wait and see is all you can do.

  • chupachups #19 6 years ago

    £170 = $311 = more than the Xbox 360 core pack launched for in America = crazy

    Either this price is incorrect, or Nintendo is planning to continue the screwing of their European fans.

    Of course it won't be $300 in America, it'll be $200 or less (they already said this) but Britain often seems to suffer from a $1 = £1 conversion rate with games and consoles.

    Microsoft is probably going to drop the price of the 360 just before the PS3 launches (yes, I know they denied it but they'd have to to stop people waiting for the price drop), and if they're already down to £209 there's no way that Nintendo would want to launch the Wii for anything like that.
    Edited by 1 at 12/07/06 @ 15:29

  • rare_uk #20 6 years ago

    It's got to be max £130 for me take make it a good buy.

  • Kami #21 6 years ago

    "Yet no-one batted an eyelid when the Daily Torygraph said exactly the same thing."

    Because no-one cares about that piece of turd either?

  • AcidSnake #22 6 years ago

    Although Nintendo isn't very kind to Europe I feel that the UK in particular is treated unfairly...
    Why can't you guys just embrace the euro?...
    That way your consoles will cost less!
    (And everything else will cost more...but hey...)

  • Carrybagma #23 6 years ago

    I reckon it will be one of the following:

    £119.99
    £129.99
    £139.99
    £149.99
    £159.99
    £169.99
    £179.99

    That should cover it.

  • Blerk #24 6 years ago

    They'll make it £189.99 now, just to spite you.

  • AcidSnake #25 6 years ago

    or £145.99

  • Psi #26 6 years ago

    i can't believe some people are "any more than £150 and no way" "170? omg £20 more what a rip off"

    i spend more on a bottle of whisky for fuck sake

    £130
    £150
    £170

    whoopy fukc hardly the end of the world. id rather it was £170 with all the extras I need etc.

    If a bare bones system was £130 and a £170 system with a game demo disk two pads and some assorted shite i'd happily get the more expensive.

  • Psi #27 6 years ago

    and i read the sport

  • JetSetWilly #28 6 years ago

    Would Nintendo not have asked to see the editorial copy before the piece went to press? Both newspapers have the same details (price,date,light saber game).

    Maybe it's just a syndicated piece with the names changed to protect the innocent?

  • smelly #29 6 years ago

    but Britain often seems to suffer from a $1 = £1 conversion rate with games and consoles.


    I think you'll find that it's not just games/consoles.. but all consumer electronics/food/clothing/etc.

  • smelly #30 6 years ago

    In terms of price, they dont want to make it too cheap.

    people are inherently stupid, and believe that more epensive must mean better.

    "hey, i dont care the ps3 has no good games, and the gfx dont seem to be much different from the 360.. it's 600 quid, so that MUST mean its good!

  • penhalion #31 6 years ago

    Actually this has a horrible ring of truth to it (I know Daily Star and truth in the same paragraph!). A September release is unlikely as September is when Nintendo plan to anounce the release date. October will be marketting and November should see the release.

    I think 170 is a bit high though but, who knows

  • #32 6 years ago

    Because no-one cares about that piece of turd either?

    The only remaining broadshit newspaper apparently.

    Pardon my language sir.

  • albundy #33 6 years ago

    £170??? Something is off here. You can get a Core Xbox 360 for £209. How could a Wii possibly be so expensive? I was expecting it to be around £130. Or less!

  • Daryoon #34 6 years ago

    Here, was it me or was the Telegrath article suggesting Twilight Princess was "a pirate game"?

  • Aria #35 6 years ago

    @albundy
    That's because by selling the Xbox 360 at such a "cheap" price [doesn't cover manufacturing costs], Microsoft is losing money on every console made, but that's not a problem for the world's richest man. Nintendo on the other hand survive mainly by producing gaming hardware and software. So expect them to want to make a small profit!
    Personally I think even £199.99 is a fair price for it...

  • smelly #36 6 years ago

    Even IF it is true.. When games cost 40 quid, I'm not gonna argue over 20 or 30 quid here or there to get to play some fun games.

    Looking at my cube game collection alone ive spent well over 600 quid on games for it.

    None of you have taken into account what it MIGHT ship with, is 170 quid too expensive if it comes with 4 controllers, 4 "standard" pads, a copy of wii sports, and the light gun case (to play duck hunt, etc?). If it cost that much for all that, i'd say it was a bit of a bargain!

    So stop yer moaning, and wait for the official announcement, to see how much it costs and what it's getting released with.

    Oh, and with regards to the release date. Remember the DS was announced and shown at e3, then it launched (in america) LESS than 2 months later..

    I'm guessing (yes and i know its a stretch of imagination) they still have a trick or two up their sleeves with the wii which they STILL havent announced yet, for fear of ideas being stolen. I reacon they will therefor make the final announcement at the TGS telling everyone ALL the final secrets, then launch VERY soon afterwards (to stop people nicking their ideas and claiming them as their own).





  • GamesProgrammer Verified Games Team Programmer, Eutechnyx Ltd. #37 6 years ago

    I think £130 max is a fair price for the Wii, they lost alot of respect with me from the mess that was the Gamecube, it wasnt a bad console but lets be fair they gave up on it themselves over 2 years ago and with only 1 mario and 1 zelda title to show for it, neither of which were a patch on there N64 incarnations.

    Its just my opinion but it feels like to me nintendo have struggled to make fantastic first party games in recent years, even some of there biggest home franchises Mario party and Metroid are not even developed by Nintendo just published by.

    And its now seems obvious Zelda Twilight Princess was only delayed so much on gamecube because they dont really care about the gamecube and they saw it as a good oppurtunity to make it a wii launch title. Which will undoubtably help make the Wii sell out mega fast for months and months, but i still feel like ill be paying £150+ to play what is technically a gamecube game just with a new controller!

    Please dont get me wrong im not bashing Nintendo cos im a sony or xbox lover i do own and play on all the consoles, but nintendo was my first real gaming love back in the days of the NES, and i hope more than anything they get back some of there former glory with the Wii, because for me the Gamecube and GBA were very much a disgrace on there once great name.

    But back on topic if there selling the Wii more as an upgrade to the gamecube, to use there words a Gamecube 1.5 rather than a next gen graphics machine, then i dont want to pay anymore for it that i did for the original Gamecube - £130.