The Wii Comes to Town

Nintendo is planning a big push into the mainstream with a UK tour kicking off in December.

There are just weeks to go now until Nintendo rolls out its new Wii console. As the company itself has said, to truly know what the Wii is about, people need to play it, and that's exactly what Nintendo is going to make happen.

Starting in the days after the launch of the console on 8 December, Nintendo is kicking off a tour of the UK and Ireland, bringing the Wii and its all-inclusive message to the masses. Fittingly, the sampling will be hitting key shopping areas around the country and also major events.

A core of the experience is the Nintendo house. This is, just as it sounds, a recreation of the living rooms and bedrooms of the type that people will be putting the Wii into, giving them a chance to play the new console in a natural setting.

There will also be demo kiosks placed in stores across the country in the weeks before the launch.

And that launch? It's going to be a big one, or so Nintendo says.

"Because our product has got such broad mainstream appeal," Nintendo's Dawn Paine told GamesIndustry.biz, "we're sure that we're going to sell through all of our Christmas stock. We know that retail are so enthused about Wii that we're pretty much going to be taking over retail at Christmas. We're just really confident that Wii's going to be the huge hit."

The tour kicks off on 18 December in at the Centre MK in Milton Keynes before heading off to Glasgow until the end of the year. You can find out more about the Wii tour and when it will be coming to your town at wii.nintendo.co.uk/.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo