Nintendo has blasted out a list confirming the 32 Wii and 30 Virtual Console games (spanning five consoles) that will be available in the five weeks between the system's November 19th launch and the end of 2006. We're not sure exactly which games may not make that November 19th launch date, but it seems reasonable to presume the VC games will be there on launch day, previously dated titles like Zelda, and the 530 GameCube titles they're eager to remind us will work from the get go.

Nintendo does remind us that "The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess emerges [Ed. will emerge?] as this season's video game masterpiece." Hey, way to throw that third party trash to the curb! We agree it stands head and shoulders above some of the more forgettable entries filling up this list (we're sure Happy Feet will be a slightly less impressive masterpiece), but it's nice to see them being so candid about it. Check out the entire list after the break, and let us know if there's anything missing that we thought would be there. We'll start: Ubisoft's forgettable WWII dogfighter, Blazing Angels. It came out for the Xbox 360 in March, was confirmed by Ubisoft to be a launch window game in August, was again confirmed by Nintendo to be a launch title in September, and now it's evidently missing. What's up?

See also:
PlayStation 3 launch window titles announced

[Thanks for all the tips, everyone!]

The words of CNN Money's Chris Morris, which suggest a Wii launch in late September or early October, are certainly tantalizing and not entirely unrealistic. Getting the machine onto store shelves and into our loving, embarrassingly weak arms would give Nintendo a healthy lead on the PS3 and Microsoft's glut of holiday titles, not to mention the joy it would grant fans of intergalactic bounty hunters and pointy-eared archers. Morris cites an earlier analyst report by P.J. McNealy of American Technology Research which notes that Nintendo already began manufacturing final retail consoles on 21 June, providing ample time until a prospective September launch.

Further evidence comes in the less sturdy form of past release dates of Nintendo consoles, with only the Gamecube missing an October or September release window. Of course, if the Wii launches worldwide immediately, one would expect a strategy similar to that of the DS launch -- that one happened in November as well. While it's not entirely unfeasible, Morris' suggestion is still swathed in speculation. With no details available on manufacturing, Nintendo may have simply started up the production line early (if they did so at all) to avoid launch shortages which plagued the Xbox 360 and are sure to plague Sony's machine.

Unfortunately, it looks like the only words we can fully trust right now are the ones from official (and sober) Nintendo men and women.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

[Update 1: Nintendo has (predictably) put the kibosh on this one, with a spokesperson stating, "There's no change in our plan to release the console in the last quarter of this year."]

There's a list of Wii launch games traveling through the myriad computers, routers, cables and robotic gnomes that comprise the Internet, though it mostly amounts to a bunch of good guesses as opposed to official confirmations. No doubt obtained from retailers and not publishers, the list suggests that the following games will be available when Nintendo unleashes their Wii:

• The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
  
• Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
  
• Wii Sports
  
• Red Steel
  
• Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam
  
• Madden NFL 2007
  
• Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors
  
• Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz
  
• Metal Slug Anthology
  
• Trauma Center: Second Opinion
  
• Elebits
  
• Marvel: Ultimate Alliance
  
• Blitz: The League
  
• Rayman Raving Rabbids
  
• SpongeBob SquarePants: Creature from the Krusty Krab
  
• Disney/Pixar's Cars

Since most of these games were playable at E3, it's not too much of a stretch to think that they'd fall within the system's launch. However, this could be another case of that mysterious launch window marketing nonsense messing with our calendars and drawing a distinction between games that launch on day one and games that release shortly afterwards. Atlus told us specifically that Trauma Center: Second Opinion was a "launch window" game and if Activision is serious about Tony Hawk, Downhill Jam will be one too (because people, that game still needs a lot of work).

Gamefront.de is reporting that Nintendo's Senior Vice President of Marketing and Elaborate Pie Charts, George Harrison, has stated (via an upcoming issue of Game Informer) that the Revolution will launch later this year with 20 games, a third of which will be Nintendo first-party titles. While that doesn't seem like an unlikely number, there are several reasons to be cautious about this somewhat vacuous information.

Nintendo, much like Microsoft, has made a distinction in the past between launch day and launch window, a sneaky marketing move which often renders gamers unsure as to whether or not a game will be available on the day of the console launch or within the first few weeks of the new machine hitting stores. The difference between getting 20 games on launch day and getting 20 within the launch window (however long that is) is a fairly large one.

The other point of interest revolves around the Virtual Console. If one considers a selection of Nintendo classics to be launch games (and why shouldn't you when the Xbox 360 launched with a bunch of current-gen ports?), surely the launch tally would be much, much higher than 20. A likely explanation is that Harrison was only referring to brand new Revolution titles (excluding Twilight Princess, of course), in which case 20 is more than enough to make us forget the Gamecube's meager launch selection.

And no, Luigi's Mansion 2: Even More Sucking has not been confirmed as a Revolution launch title.

[Via GamersReports]