The European Wii Launch Reviewed

Last Thursday saw the launch of the Wii across Europe.

As we'd detected after we saw the demand to play it at the Game On exhibition, the Wii proved to be a pretty popular launch with Nintendo reporting that they sold 50,000 units in 12 hours, providing them with the satisfactory statistic that they were sell over 1 per second.

Just to prove the depth of devotion of the Wii and an overwhelming desire to have one to have and to hold, the first person in the queue in the UK was Marwan Elgamal, who created the line 60 hours before the doors were going to open.

Judging from the official Nintendo pictures, the launch in the other European countries also raised a considerable degree of interest, but perhaps not quite to the frantic UK levels.

The double-edged sword of publicity was also evident when the Metropolitan Police issued a warning to purchasers of Wii's to ensure that they covered the boxes as they travelled home with them. Their logic - the Wii currently combines high desirability with a lack of supply, a combination to great for some people whose approach is to just walk up to someone who has one and grab it from them.

Nintendo used well-known sports figures from each of the European countries to add to the excitement of the launch - a pretty obvious call as the Wii arrives with five sports games.

We contacted a few shops around the UK to find out that they had all sold out their allocation by today. Game in Newport, Isle of Wight told us they'd sold out their 70 consoles in two days - so not exactly a rabid take up, but healthy all the same. They had no idea when stock would be coming in again.

David Yarnton, General Manager, Nintendo UK comment on this was, "We are doing everything we can do to meet demand throughout Christmas and the New Year period."

Not just new games
The Wii doesn't just play new games, it has an emulator allowing some of the games from Nintendo's long gaming history to also be played on it. Titles like Super Mario 64 (Nintendo 64), F-Zero (Super Nintendo); The Legend of Zelda (NES); Sonic the Hedgehog and Golden Axe (SEGA MEGA DRIVE) will bring a leap in the heart of many older game players.

Beyond gaming, one of the most interesting ideas is Channel Surf which lets the console owner receive news and weather updates, view, edit and send photos and send messages to other Wii consoles, computers and mobile phones using the console's message board function. Users can browser from the comfort of their couch with the Internet Channel.

The Opera Browser-powered Internet Channel will be available in December. The Forecast Channel goes live on the 20th December and the News Channel starting on 27th January 2007.

Click here to read complete article, (Source: wii - Google News)