1. Early designs had the Wii intentionally looking very similar to the DS. (Nintendo ultimately rejected the similar design for fear of confusing gamers, and possibility of collateral damage if the DS failed.)
2. Did you know you can “mod” your Wii? sites like “wii-modchips.com” will sell you a modchip that you can solder onto your Wii’s motherboard (if you’re brave enough) and allow you to play free ROMs of classic Nintendo games on the Virtual Console, watch DVDs, and more.
3. TV commercials for the launch campaign (”Wii love to play”) were directed by Stephen Gaghan, who won an Oscar for screenwriting Traffic.
4. While most of us have only seen the Wii in white, it has been also been shown off in black, silver, lime green, and red
5. Interlink Electronics has filed a lawsuit against Nintendo claiming it infringed on its patents for pointing functionality.
6. A bureoning “homebrew” community is creating independent software playable on the Wii through the Opera browser, utilizing the Wiimote through use of Java or AJAX scripting
7. The Wii sold nearly 6 million consoles worldwide in its first 3.5 months in release, while the XBOX 360 sold just over 3 million in its first 3.5 months. The PS3? Barely worth mentioning at approx. 2 million.
8. Nintendo recently made the Wii the centerpiece of its Fun Centers it donates to children’s hospitals through the Starlight Starbright Children’s Foundation. In 2006 Ninteno donated its 5,000th gaming center to the foundation.
9. The DS and Wii will interact. So far just one Wii title — Pokemon Battle Revolution — has been announced that involves DS integration via the handheld’s wireless capabilities. The move suggests more integration could be on the way, or it could be dropped just as quickly as Nintendo gave up on Gamecube and Game Boy Advance integration after including the feature in just a few titles.
10. A number of sites have reported that the Wii costs just $158 to produce, making it the only “next-gen” console to be earning its maker a profit on each unit sold. The breakdown: Graphics chip: $29.60, CPU: $13.00, DRAM: $7.80, Optical disk drive: $31.00, Power supply: $11.30, Manufacturing cost: $19.50, Cost total: $158.30 (Wholesale price: $195.99).
Damian G. said on Tuesday, April 10, 2007, 2:29
Actually, the Wii has passed the 4 million mark and Nintendo’s goal was to have 6 million sold by March 31.
What is your source for these sales figures? Nexgenwars and Videogame Charts are not exactly reliable sources.
That having been said, I am a total Wii fanboy. I just want our side to be accurate.