DVD-Wii To See American Release
Nintendo of America have announced that the DVD-Wii won’t just be exclusive to Japan, but it will also be released in America later next year. It is unclear yet whether or not it will see a release in Europe.
According to the release, Nintendo plans to launch this version of Wii some time in the latter half of 2007. What wasn’t clear, however, was if this announcement had been confirmed by Nintendo, and if the DVD-enabled Wii would be released outside of Japan. That said, GameDaily BIZ has now received confirmation from Nintendo that the release in the latter half of 2007 is for North America as well.
Nintendo of America’s Public Relations Manager Matt Atwood said that a price has not yet been determined, but that the DVD-enabled Wii would come at a higher price than the standard Wii console ($249) because of the “extra cost required to implement DVD playback.” Keep in mind that Nintendo had originally announced the Wii with DVD playback, but later removed the feature because of cost and because most people have separate DVD players nowadays anyway.
We asked Nintendo if gamers who purchase the Wii at launch might be able to upgrade their consoles through a firmware update via the WiiConnect network, and while Atwood told us that it is a software solution, it “requires more than a firmware upgrade.”
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