Wii Connect 24 Features Not Avaliable At Launch

Every console has it’s glitches at launch. With the Xbox 360, it was a sheer lack of systems and the ‘Ring of Death’, for the PS3 it’s the backwards compatibility problems and the sheer lack of systems. For the Wii, it’s the fact that several of the main selling points will not be available until mid-December.

In a press release dedicated to hyping up the imminent launch and promoting the features of the Wii, Nintendo quietly announced that the Wii Forecast channel and the News Channel would not launch until the 20th of December and the 27th of January respectively.

The release does, however, note that 12 Virtual Console games will still be available for download on the 19th. These include Donkey
Kong (NES), SimCity (SNES) Super Mario 64, Sonic the Hedgehog (Genesis/MegaDrive) and Bomberman ‘93(TurboGrafx). The release goes on to say that further games will be released every Monday with a total of ‘at least’ 30 by the end of 2006. Hopefully European and Japanese gamers will be able to access the games already released in America on their launch dates.

It is not made clear when the Opera Browsing software and full Internet access will be available.

Hopefully, the reason that these services are being held back is to enable a global launch, but it is disappointing that they will not be available initially.

Nintendo has yet to comment further on the press release.

Countdown to US PS3 Launch – Updated

No this isn’t a group of refugees from the latest natural disater. This is the queue waiting for PS3s at the Union Square (NYC) branch of Circuit City.

This was filmed 35 hours prior to the launch, so it’s probably still growing. All I can say is that they’re braver men and women then I. In Scotland it’s currently pissing down with rain and freezing cold. I wouldn’t queue for 35 hours for anything in this weather.

Update: Apparently a crowd queuing for the PS3 in Kentucky have been shot at with air rifles firing ball bareings. Some people are just jerks. Story from Engadget.

Update 2: The Sony Network is now live in the states as well. Hopefully we’ll be getting some reports and videos of it soon. I’ll be interested to see a camparison between the Sony Network and the Xbox Live service.

Update 3: Everything about this Joystiq post is slightly bizarre, from the report it’s-self to the write up about it. Colour me confused.

Hands On With The Wii

Finally, after months of US based game sites getting to play with the Wii and reports of just how good the Wii is from people who got tickets to the Nintendo Fusion Tour, I managed to get my hands on a Wii. Briefly.

Starting last week, a series of small Nintendo exhibits are touring the UK, demoing the Wii and generally letting the public get their grubby mitts on the Wii-mote. It’s first visit to Glasgow saw a miniature lounge in white and beige plonked in the middle of the city’s Buchanan Galleries shopping centre. Unfortunately, Europe once more gets the short straw, with only one Wii system and two DS Games (Star Fox DS and Big Brain Academy) on display.