We knew about the pricing for the Wii, and the release date, late last night. So Nintendo's press event today had a lot of the wind taken outta its sails. But the event just ended, and Kotaku just finished typing up the post powerpoint Q&A. Then homeboy, Joel "JJ" Johnson diggs deeper in a Wired blog post. That's despite some sort of accident with his zippo and meat-cigar. (No meat cigar in the post, but knowing Joel, it's safe to assume.)
Q: How much are additional remotes?
A: Wii Remote is $39.99. Nunchuck attachment is $19.99.
More on Zelda, net connectivity, Opera browser, and region controls, after the jump.
Now into Q&A time.
Q: How much are additional remotes.
A: Wii Remote is $39.99. Nunchuck attachment is $19.99.Q: Can the Wii hold the images or does it stay on the SD.
A: The majority is for SD.Q: Cost of connecting to the Internet?
A: There is no cost through our system. You need an Internet Connection at your home. If you have a wireless router you are set to go. Or you can connect through a wire.Q: How many will support wide-screen and how would you compare graphical power.
A: Most if not all are wide screen. In terms of graphical power, we have a different paradigm for what turns on the consumer.Q: Integration between DS and the Wii
A: We are not announcing any details, but in the future you will hear much more details.Q: There were rumblings about Metroid Prime as a launch title, any more details.
A: Metroid Prime is going to be a 2007 title.
From Joel:
Wired had the opportunity to sit down after with Nintendo Vice-President of Marketing & Corporate Affairs—not to mention affable conference host—Perrin Kaplan to ask a few questions that weren't addressed in the press conference.
Will the Wii be region-free? Yes. Like the Nintendo DS, the Wii will be able to play games from other regions, such as Japan, without any restriction. Kaplan implied there might be a region lock that publishers would be able to flip on, but it doesn't sound like the first-party titles from Nintendo will be restricted.
Will games downloaded from the Virtual Console store be tied to an account like Xbox Live or a one-time-only download like iTunes? Tied to an account. Kaplan discussed a scenario where a player's Wii was broken or destroyed, but would be able to re-download titles they had previously bought to a new Wii machine. Because my left leg was burning from an accidental Zippo oil spill, I neglected to ask if a user would be able to log into friends' Wiis and play their Virtual Console downloads away from their home machine.
Will Wii users be able to add storage via USB hard drives? No. The Wii's storage will be exclusively via flash memory storage, such as SD memory cards, at least at launch. Kaplan said a hard drive addition could be in the future, but that sounds more like a "Sure, why not?" response than one based in any immediate plans.
How much will Opera cost? Unknown. No price has yet been set for the download-able Opera web browser, but it sounds like it could very well be free, once Nintendo finishes discussions with Opera.
Liveblogging Nintendo's Press Event [Kotaku]
Joel's [Wired Blogs]