Nintendo of Japan press event: pseudo-live blogging [update 29]

by Jason Wishnov { Sep 14th 2006 at 2:00AM }

Unfortunately, none of the Wii Fanboy staff reside in or speak the language of Japan. As such, we've committed ourselves to hitting the refresh key a whole crapload of times and scouring numerous chatrooms until we find out what the hell is going on over there. Check back constantly for any new developments!

For the full story of the Seattle-PI/New York Times article, see here.

Check after the break for the latest!

1:16 AM EDT: Japanese gaming mag Famitsu is posting some live coverage of the event. Thanks to Joystiq's efforts to procure a translator, we should have some news for you soon. Word!

1:26 AM EDT: Iwata-san is on-stage, talking about how the DS has shifted the market in Japan. Well, duh.

1:36 AM EDT: Virtual Console pricing revealed! 500 yen for NES games (around 4 USD), 800 yen for SNES (around 7 USD) and 1000 yen for N64 (around 8.5 USD). You can pay via credit card or a "Wii points card". Stay tuned!

1:42 AM EDT: Nintendo plans to have 30 Nintendo games and 30 Sega/TurboGrafx-16 games on the Virtual Console by year's end. Ten new VC games will be released each month!

1:54 AM EDT: It's here! Famitsu is reporting that the Wii will debut in Japan on December 2nd, 2006 for 25,000 yen (212.51 USD). Late much?

1:59 AM EDT: Nintendo will be posting a Japanese press release momentarily and will have full text of Iwata's speech in about an hour. Also, wii.com will go live in Japan in about an hour.

2:03 AM EDT: According the press release, the Wii will not come with Wii Sports. The full contents of the package are as follows: Wii console, Wii remote (w/ strap) Nunchuck attachment, Wii AC adaptor, Wii A/V cable, Wii console stand, sensor bar, sensor bar stand and two AA batteries.

2:11 AM EDT: The Wiimote will apparently sell for 3,800 yen (32.30 USD), not including the nunchuck attachment. The classic controller and the nunchuck will each retail for 1,800 yen (15.30 USD).

2:14 AM EDT: Iwata is reporting that there will be 16 games from 10 different publishers at launch. Game prices will range from 4,800 yen (40.80 USD) to 6,800 yen (57.80 USD), with Twilight Princess being at the upper-end 6,800 mark.

2:17 AM EDT: Wii Sports will be a stand-alone title, retailing at the aforementioned 4,800 yen price point. It will contain five games. Apparently, Shigeru Miyamoto just beat Japanese tennis star Sugiyama at Wii Tennis.

2:34 AM EDT: Well, that's pretty much it, folks. Wii.com is up and running, so expect a post on that soon...the contents of the site seem to verify the NYT Article posted earlier today. If so, we can expect the American launch to be quite different (and earlier) than Japan's. Stay tuned, and have a good night!

For fun: We here at the Fanboy have made this YTMND, to commemorate the occasion.

Tags: Blogging, Japan, Live, Press Event, PressEvent, Pseudo, Update

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)

Nmaster @ Sep 13th 2006 8:37PM

Maybe you should tell Joystiq that then?
http://www.joystiq.com/2006/09/13/psa-nintendos-international-press-event-schedules/

But wait, we're EDT, not EST...

And shouldn't the WiiFanboy team be handling the updates...well, unless there are DS updates too...

This conference thing has become really confusing!

ThebigL @ Sep 13th 2006 8:44PM

Thank god, I almost had a panic attack looking for some info.

Nmaster @ Sep 13th 2006 8:42PM

lol, well I see the post has moved to it's proper place now...

Keep us up-to-date guys! This conference thing is driving me nuts trying to find info for...

moofree @ Sep 13th 2006 9:13PM

I expect much from tonight's and tomorrow's conferences.
Please don't disappoint me, Nintendo.

Ben @ Sep 13th 2006 9:13PM

soooo close....yet soooo far....

Josh @ Sep 13th 2006 9:17PM

Nothing yet...Iwata we want info now plx...

Really, though, as long as I get the info in the next 24 hours, I'll be fine...^^

jerryd @ Sep 13th 2006 9:25PM

the nintendo hype machine has tortured us for too long...

Mayur @ Sep 13th 2006 9:18PM

Everywhere is going mad for this info! These guys are usually fast with info and are a quiet New Zealand site too http://forums.nzgamer.com/index.php?showtopic=5272&st=0&gopid=78315&#entry78315

Still nothing on maojor sites, looks like only the cool sites are doing stuff ;P

Paul @ Sep 13th 2006 9:44PM

Tick...tick...tick...

Covarr @ Sep 13th 2006 9:19PM

Hooray for "F5", refresher of browsers!

I think a good commercial for the Wii would end with "PS3. Hells no." It'd be kind of like the "Genesis do what NintenDon't" commercials of back in the day.

Albert @ Sep 13th 2006 9:23PM

I know Japanese. Where's the info coming from?

OldKnuckles @ Sep 13th 2006 9:22PM

Seems like there are more games up at eb and gamestop, but that may be just me.

Spuky @ Sep 13th 2006 9:26PM

well, so now we wait, so why not we make some speculation and see if some of us are right?

i think that the 3 conferences are going to reveal launch dates of every region, and prices too, so my guesses are:

Japan:
- Launch: November 5
- Price: i dont know about japanese prices, around $200 us dollars i think
- big announcement: the SD card reader under the flap is actually where you put the DS cartidges so you can play DS games in your Wii. Fire Emblem coming at end of year

America:
- Launch: October 27
- Price: Two versions: a $200 with WiiSports bundled, and a $250 with WiiSports, a classic controller, and 3 virtual console games
- big announcement: They have a team working in the translation of games for the virtual console, so in the next year we are going to be playing Mother in our Wiis, and Sin&Punishment(a N64 game, that looks very cool), and Nintendo makes another alliance, and can play neo-geo games(ok, thats my wishiful thinking, but damn i want to play KOF 98 using that classic controller!)

Europe:
-Launch: December 12
- Price: 200 Euros, or 175 in england moolah(sorry, i know that those price are very high, but you know the funky conversion sistem that all the big gaming companies use)
- Big announcement: PAL-ized versions of old games, thanks to the VC, also...err...i dont know, free slurpees or something

dsr7997 @ Sep 13th 2006 9:28PM

For the love of Pete! Somebody get some information!!!!!!!!!!!!

RevJOnathan @ Sep 13th 2006 9:27PM

I guess $229 on nov. 6

Duo @ Sep 13th 2006 9:28PM

Why would they release it in North America before Japan? Traditionally, all their consoles have been released there first. The DS broke the mould, but Nintendo didn't even know if it was going to be a success, so it was okay.

I doubt a Japanese company would do something like that with a known-to-be successful product.

Dominus @ Sep 13th 2006 9:31PM

Anyone who does speak Japanese can go translate it for us real-time! Follow the link:

http://www.irwebcasting.com/060607/03/74d18b0400/main/index_hi.htm

donutBringer @ Sep 13th 2006 9:31PM

Seriously... Some of us know Japanese... Give up the links, people!

Spuky @ Sep 13th 2006 9:32PM

i know Duo, but i want a Wii, FAST, and i live in America :P
also because i think they will sell first in america because they have bigger competition here(unlike Japan, where they compete against PS3 only), so maybe they want an "early" foothold in America

Jason Wishnov @ Sep 13th 2006 9:33PM

Note: that "streaming" video feed is fake. Reload it; it starts in the same place.

ThebigL @ Sep 13th 2006 9:34PM

Where are you guys gettting this info!!!! Crap theres a storm in the area and my internet keeps tweaking out. WHy now of all times.

donutBringer @ Sep 13th 2006 9:34PM

http://www.wiiplus.net/fullNews.php?newsId=55
Seems to be English coverage.

Iron Chef @ Sep 13th 2006 9:35PM

For you Japanese translators...

http://news19.2ch.net/test/read.cgi/gamenews/1157115629/

Josh @ Sep 13th 2006 9:34PM

Dominus, that is some management meeting or something from June, I believe.

jeremiah Monk @ Sep 13th 2006 9:34PM

awesome, they're totally using a mac to present ;-)

MegaMatt @ Sep 13th 2006 9:35PM

i'm afraid of major let-down

Ben @ Sep 13th 2006 9:36PM

me too man...but nintendo cant afford to fail.

Tom @ Sep 13th 2006 9:37PM

I just heard that http://www.little-dudes.co.nz might be running an english voice-over soon. Some web-comic site.

Duo @ Sep 13th 2006 9:38PM

Apparently, Satoru Iwata is talking about how awesome the Nintendo DS is.

Tom @ Sep 13th 2006 9:47PM

Just got another cool place that's doing some cool coverage...
http://www.nzgamer.com/news-all-1342

Ben @ Sep 13th 2006 9:43PM

annnnnnd we wait.

Archaic @ Sep 13th 2006 9:47PM

Translating this on the fly is difficult, but looking at the slides available thusfar, while waiting for the video to catchup, it looks like Iwata-sama is talking about the Japanese video game market, and how that while sales of Hardware have gone up over the past year (thanks to DS), sales of Software have remained static.

More news as it comes.

Dominus @ Sep 13th 2006 9:45PM

Yeah sorry for the bad link guys, got way too excited and since I don't speak the language, had no idea if it was right or not :(

Tequila Mockingbird @ Sep 13th 2006 9:44PM

@24, that site is nothing but a bulletin board. nothing really interesting. At least when you translate it via Google(I know it isn't perfect, but still, it's all japanese fans' speculations on things)

a1j2h5 @ Sep 13th 2006 9:46PM

wish i was there�.. and japaneese speaking�
SSBB Screen Mock Ups:
http://www.sheezyart.com/view/912310/
http://www.sheezyart.com/view/912826/

Tom @ Sep 13th 2006 9:47PM

Sorry this is the URL: http://www.nzgamer.com/news-all-1342

Shawn @ Sep 13th 2006 9:51PM

Wiiplus site has just been shut down. Looks like they may have exceeded their bandwidth.

Kyle Fisher @ Sep 13th 2006 9:53PM

PLEASE PLEASE get rid of that ad in the top right corner! its driving me nuts! its all on the main and sister sites to engadget!

Archaic @ Sep 13th 2006 9:52PM

After going on and comparing the figures he'd just gone over for the Japanese market to the figures for the American and European markets, he goes on to mention a few new games. I don't know if these have been mentioned elsewhere before, but I don't recall hearing about a Super Robot Taisen or Dynasty Warriors for DS before. The video hasn't caught up to that yet, so I don't know what's said, but the slides after it imply that they may be using the DS Wi-Fo connection.

Twigge @ Sep 13th 2006 9:55PM

Yeah, seriously.

Looks like a lot of site are being taken down by the hordes of fanboys.

Tequila Mockingbird @ Sep 13th 2006 9:55PM

Hey guys, if you have AIM join the chatroom "Wii" there is some goodness in there.

Archaic @ Sep 13th 2006 9:55PM

Following that, he goes on to talk about the Wii and it's concept. After a few things about Wii to DS connection, and a preview of the DS stations (which I assume we'll be using to download game previews and so forth), that's the end of the slides. Doesn't look like Iwata-sama's giving us any real news. This is more information for shareholders.