Tech Shout!

Nintendo Wii the next generation gaming console and a direct competitor of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 is all set to make its Worldwide debut in North America on Sunday, November 19th.

Nintendo Wii console is priced at $250 for the US. It is also reported to have over 25 first and third-party games available at launch.

Nintendo America, President and Chief Operating Officer Reggie Fils-Aime said, “Our goal is to bring gaming back to the masses. You see that in our pricing, you see that in the number of units we plan to make available this year and you see that in how we are positioning the Wii to appeal to every member of the household, including but not limited to the hardcore gamer.”

Nintendo Wii will include one controller and one secondary controller (dubbed the ‘nunchuck’) for more advanced games. Nintendo Wii- Mote is priced at $39.99 and Nun-Chuck at $19.99. Nintendo Wii Games will cost $50. “Wii Sports,” a compilation of tennis, golf, bowling, baseball and boxing - will come included with the system to showcase its abilities.

All Nintendo Wii first party games will be wide-screen but there wont be online titles at launch. Also 30 “legacy” titles will be available at launch for Virtual Console.

Apparently Nintendo Wii console is going to be region-free unlike the Xbox 360 which has a region lock. Like the Nintendo DS, the Nintendo Wii will be able to play console games from other regions, such as Japan, without any restriction.

But Perrin Kaplan, Nintendo Vice President of Marketing, has revealed that the Wii has a software switch that individual developers can choose to enable if they want to activate region coding though it doesn’t look like the first-party titles from Nintendo will be restricted.

With the launch date now official it looks like Nintendo Wii will be the last of the generation next consoles to hit stores. Sony’s PlayStation 3 goes on sale Nov. 17 for $499 and $599, and Microsoft’s Xbox 360 was launched last year for $299 and $399.