Nintendo Circles European Wii Launch Date

And there's a not-too-surprising price attached to the console now too.

Thirty hours ago Nintendo president Satoru Iwata was in Tokyo, helping set the stage for the arrival of the Wii in Japan. This afternoon, he did likewise in London.

Iwata's presence in Europe, a rare event, was a fitting example of how serious Nintendo is starting to take the region, a fact emphasised by the launch date for the new console. The Wii will be in stores across Europe in time for Christmas, arriving just a week after the Japanese launch, on 8 December, and costing £180 (€250 on the continent).

This is on the upper end of Nintendo's self-imposed price range but it does put it below any of the new consoles from Sony and Microsoft - if only just.

Which tie does Iwata have on today?

Adding controllers, however, is going to be an expensive affair. The Wii is built around the idea of getting people playing together in new ways, and to do that you'll want to buy new controllers. Wii Remotes will run £29 while the attached Nunchuck will set you back another £14.

As in the US, the Wii will come packed with Wii Sports, a compilation that includes baseball, bowling, boxing, golf and, as racquet stars Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski demonstrated at the event, a tennis minigame too. Nintendo is also putting out Wii Play - another compilation pack designed to bring newbies up to speed.

But Nintendo hasn't forgotten its core fanbase. Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess will be out on launch day for the Wii - leaving GameCube owners to agonise over buying a Wii or waiting for the game on Nintendo's current machine.

All told, there will be around 20 games available at the launch in mid December. Nintendo confirmed that games for the Wii will be considerably cheaper than those on the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360 - between £34 and £39.

Iwata emerged on-stage in a 'surprise' appearance to give NOE president Shibata a telling off, before his presentation

Classic games will cost a lot less than that. Wii's Virtual Console will launch with around 15 games, and Nintendo is planning to have 5-10 new games coming out for the system per month. This is lower than the 30 games Japan will see at the Wii launch - a suggestion that perhaps Virtual Console content is still regionally tethered.

Iwata took attendees at London's ExCel conference centre through one of the Wii's new features - Wii Channels. This is a user interface to the Wii built around the idea of integrating TV-style program guides and internet access.

Laurent Fischer unveiled the launch details for Wii for the territory, and Nintendo continues to push Wii Sports, which will be bundled with Wii, in demos for Tennis with Rusedski and Henman, as well as Boxing, all viewable for the first time here.

Some channels, such as the news and weather channels, lets anyone, gamer and non-gamer alike, get something out of the machine. There's a channel called Mii where you'll be able to create caricatures to use in games. And Nintendo has also added an impressive yet simple photo browser and editor.

To find out more about some of the specifics of the Wii's new interface, check out Nintendo's official Wii site at www.wii.com.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games