Wii launched, dissected and... serenaded?

Author: Ryan Garside
Published: 20th November 2006
Comments (12) Stumble
Wii launched, dissected and... serenaded?

It would be too easy to say 'Wii covers America', so I won't.

If the last seven days were Playstation 3 orientated then this week looks set to have Nintendo written all over it. Below is news on the release of the console, the dissection and the songs by a gaming jew that went with it.

First up then, the launch of the Nintendo Wii was a resounding success. DailyTech reports that everyone who attended the New York release (roughly 4,000 gamers) was able to walk away happy. Rather than the shootings that took place with the PS3 launch, the Wii launch went off without a hitch. Instead of bullets firing you had GameJew singing happy videogame related songs to a queue of people waiting for their Nintendo Wii. This how consoles should be released.

As with the Playstation 3, some people can't help but be destructive and the guys over at Popsci have opened up the Nintendo Wii and had a look at what makes it tick. They kindly took a lot of photos of the disassembling process so if that's what floats your boat then give it a look.

The final piece of Wii related news could see the first Wii related lawsuit. This forum thread documents an unfortunate TV breakage, where one sweaty handed gamer let go of the Wii remote, the wrist strap snapped and ended up with his 60" rear projection TV smashed. Did the guy really have the wrist strap on? Is this just an attempt to bag a new TV from Nintendo? We'll probably never know.

The Wii will be arriving on British shores come December 8th, but until then, you can check our hands on Wiiview to pass the time.

Got an opinion on the Wii launch? Tell us about it in the forums.
Quote mikeuk2004 20th November 2006, 12:47
LOL, so funny he broke his TV.

Now thats what I can fun. :) It really is a fun console after all.

Even though Ive been disapointed in the Game Cube I may still buy a Wii for the novelty it is and add it to my colection of consoles. But there isnt any titles that interest me at the moment so will have to wait a while.
Quote Springs 20th November 2006, 13:04
lol they broke it straight away... reading the main page on that site... they couldnt be bothered to get a nintendo screw bit.. so they just brute forced it apart...
Quote Drexial 20th November 2006, 15:14
Quote:
one sweaty handed gamer let go of the Wii remote, the wrist strap snapped and ended up with his 60" rear projection TV smashed.


this guy is full of crap. rear projection TVs have a flexible plastic front. and i dont know how much they Wiimote weights but i dont imagine its enough to break the front of a screen without him throwing it straight at the TV.
Quote:
The Wiimote flies across the room impaling my 60" rear projection TV square in the upper left corner.

Be warned: Sweaty hands + faulty Wiimote wrist strap = broken ass TV.

I don't know much of the details about rear projection TVs. That might just be the outer glass. You can see a small white smudge from where part of the Wiimote hit the screen.



he even goes from saying it impaled his TV to saying there is a smudge in the corner.
Quote rupbert 20th November 2006, 16:48
I'm interested to see how much the hardware would cost to manufacture as $249 seems rather expensive for a slightly upgraded Gamecube, if this system arrived at $149-199 it would have destroyed the PS3 launch ten fold...
Quote unrealhippie 20th November 2006, 17:15
Quote:
Originally Posted by rupbert
I'm interested to see how much the hardware would cost to manufacture as $249 seems rather expensive for a slightly upgraded Gamecube, if this system arrived at $149-199 it would have destroyed the PS3 launch ten fold...

Ninty have a policy of not loosing money on hardware :). Also the price point is supposedly to avoid them being allocated 'bargain bin' position.

Hardware specs are pretty disappointing, but I suppose they are showcasing game play, not game graphics.
Quote rupbert 20th November 2006, 17:19
Quote:
Originally Posted by unrealhippie
Ninty have a policy of not loosing money on hardware :). Also the price point is supposedly to avoid them being allocated 'bargain bin' position.

Hardware specs are pretty disappointing, but I suppose they are showcasing game play, not game graphics.

For me though it seems the price of the actual controllers shows where most of the development cost would have went, the cpu and gpu are very commonly produced...

I understand the 'no lose on hardware' policy, but even if they sold it at manufactured cost, they could make the money back on the controllers.

I guess my point though is that if the Wii was released at say $179 / £99 many, many more people (including myself as an Xbox 360 owner) would have picked one up as a 'companion'...
Quote Neogumbercules 20th November 2006, 17:27
It's definitely more than a slightly upgraded GC. From what I understand the CPU is supposed to be twice as powerful, and the GPU is much faster than what the GC had. Going by what Resident Evil 4 looks like, I can't wait to see what they can come up with for the Wii.

EDIT: Apparently the GPU on the Wii is said to be 1.5x faster than the GC. I thought it was closer to 2x...oh well.

As for the TV thing...I've held those controllers. They weigh about half a pound WITH batteries. I can not imagine how it could smash a 60 inch rear-projection television unless the guy took it by one end and threw it like a Randy Johnson fast ball from 4 feet away. I was also thinking about the plastic covering the TVs have. I'd imagine it would just bounce off.
Quote DXR_13KE 20th November 2006, 22:55
for the tv guy: you got PWZRD

for the insides of the wii: that was it? the cpu is smaller than the gpu..... that was it? (comparing with the ps3).

lets see which one will die first......
Quote Icecoldbagey 20th November 2006, 23:03
http://www.smashmywii.com/ Not long till the vid haha.

Ice
Quote offroadracer789 20th November 2006, 23:42
That controller strap is pretty well secured. I think that person probably broke their tv some other way and are trying to get nintendo to replace it.

Despite having "worse" graphics then ps3, i think that it has extremely good graphics. I find that the learning curve for the remote is relatively fast despite it seeming very ackward at first.
Quote Furymouse 21st November 2006, 00:44
Actually the wrist strap is fairly fragile. A friend and I were at the launch party for the Wii on saturday night, and his first time playing tennis he stepped up to smash my serve, the cord broke and the wiimote flew a good 20 feet into the window. It was quite shocking but utterly awesome. He may have been swinging to hard.
I thoroughly enjoy the Wii. I did play a Ps3, and though the graphics are awesome, I just wasnt having as much fun as I did on Wii sports. I just have to say that the graphics will get better with time and better games.
Quote overdosedelusion 21st November 2006, 15:16
Quote:
Originally Posted by offroadracer789
That controller strap is pretty well secured. I think that person probably broke their tv some other way and are trying to get nintendo to replace it.

i think its the typical angry gamer syndrome.. an infuriating level of whatever game he happened to be playing sent him into a fiery temper and he launched his wii remote at the tv.. of course he had to come up with some sort of excuse
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