Wii Mini Announced for Dec. 7 (Canada only) - $99, no online, no GCN support

[Vampyr]

Personally I think this is kind of crazy. I feel like it was already a misstep by Nintendo name the Wii U the "Wii U"...I believe it confuses less tech savvy people who think it's just a new controller for the Wii, or who go to the store and buy a regular Wii thinking it's a Wii U.

Now you're releasing something else, another console with "Wii" in the title, right at the holiday season.

http://www.nintendo.com/whatsnew/detail/ONIEEqvK1pbPyTbW2lWO6QnPUiqqvuuI

With a New Look, $99.99 Wii Mini Offers an Amazing Value for the Holidays

After nearly 100 million sold worldwide, Nintendo’s Wii console is getting a new look and a new price. On Dec. 7, the new Wii Mini home console launches in Canada at a suggested retail price of just $99.99 and puts the focus squarely on Wii games. The system can play more than 1,400 disc-based Wii games. Wii Mini is smaller than the original Wii system, and comes in matte black with a red border. The system comes with a red Wii Remote Plus, a red Nunchuk controller and works with most Wii accessories.

“There are games in the Wii library for every type of player,” said Ron Bertram, Nintendo of Canada’s vice president and general manager. “Wii Mini is a great gift for the holidays that brings everyone in the family together to play. Wii Mini has a mini price, but it’s all about big fun.”

Wii Mini is designed exclusively to play Wii games. Its family-friendly design has no Internet capabilities and does not play Nintendo GameCube games. It’s a great value for first-time Wii owners who just want to jump in and experience all the great Wii games that helped usher in a revolution in motion-controlled gaming. Wii games are available at a variety of price points for every kind of shopper. Some top Wii games during the past six years include:

• A whole range of value-priced Nintendo Selects games, including some of the top-selling and best-reviewed Wii games of all time, at a suggested retail price of $19.99

• Super Smash Bros. Brawl (suggested retail price of $29.99)

• Donkey Kong Country Returns (suggested retail price of $29.99)

• Mario Kart Wii (suggested retail price of $39.99)

• Wii Sports Resort (suggested retail price of $39.99)

• New Super Mario Bros. Wii (suggested retail price of $59.99)

• Wii Fit Plus with the Wii Balance Board (suggested retail price of $99.99)

Wii Mini is available exclusively in Canada during the holiday season. No information is available about its potential availability in other territories in the future. Remember that Wii Mini features parental controls that let adults manage the content their children can access. For more information about this and other features, visit nintendo.com/wiimini.

[BreakABone]

I think the timing is off
It's either too early or too late.

Should have come in the last 2-3 years to help prop up falling Wii sales.
Or come next year as a cheap alternative.

But as you mentioned launching right around the Wii U is a baffling decisions.

That said, it isn't a BAD decision. Just a poorly timed one. And I think Mini is kind of a known quantity.

I don't see people getting the Mini and the U confused, but we shall see. Also curious that Canada seems to be the test market for this thing

[Angrist]

Since when is New Super Mario Bros. Wii $60? I'm pretty sure it was around $45 when it launched.

Anyway, I don't see how this will sell well. With the Wii U coming out, there will be tons of people trying to sell their Wii. And the old Wii is much better than this new one.

[Vampyr]

I think the timing is off
It's either too early or too late.

Should have come in the last 2-3 years to help prop up falling Wii sales.
Or come next year as a cheap alternative.

But as you mentioned launching right around the Wii U is a baffling decisions.

That said, it isn't a BAD decision. Just a poorly timed one. And I think Mini is kind of a known quantity.

I don't see people getting the Mini and the U confused, but we shall see. Also curious that Canada seems to be the test market for this thing

The thing I was imagining is kids telling their parents they want "the new Wii", but not "that new wii."

Parent goes into store, tells store person they want "the new Wii," store person has to try to explain the difference.

[BreakABone]

Since when is New Super Mario Bros. Wii $60? I'm pretty sure it was around $45 when it launched.

Anyway, I don't see how this will sell well. With the Wii U coming out, there will be tons of people trying to sell their Wii. And the old Wii is much better than this new one.
This is Canadian prices.. so could be a bit of jacking up going on
But it is a strange one

The thing I was imagining is kids telling their parents they want "the new Wii", but not "that new wii."

Parent goes into store, tells store person they want "the new Wii," store person has to try to explain the difference.

Yeah that's probably true.
But I think asking the store clerks.. who I pray are informed should alleviate some of that

[Typhoid]

This is Canadian prices.. so could be a bit of jacking up going on
But it is a strange one

What is this? The 90's? There should be no jacking up with parity.
Why, I think I'll march down to my local government establishment during the proper hours of operation and queue up in order to ask for permission to have a form in order to fill out another form to ask for consent to complain about this to my proper MLA.


Anyways, we have 30 million people, a lot of which are old and not tech savvy - so I think it boils down almost exactly to:

The thing I was imagining is kids telling their parents they want "the new Wii", but not "that new wii."

I forsee a lot of disappointed children leading to disappointed parents/grandparents, leading to complaining to stores, leading to a lot of returns. Realistically if you don't take that shit out of the box you could just return it for the other one anyways.

But I think asking the store clerks.. who I pray are informed should alleviate some of that

Most of them are pretty good about that, from what I've noticed.

[ZebraRampage]

Most of them are pretty good about that, from what I've noticed.

They don't deserve that credit.

[Fox 6]

Canada welcomes the anemic Wii!

[TheSlyMoogle]

Canada welcomes the anemic Wii!

Going to pick one up now huh?

[Fox 6]

Going to pick one up now huh?

Maybe several dozen.

[Blix]

It's ok that they removed the GCN backwards compatibility... but I doubt removing online is going to save them much. And it's not small enough to call a mini. I would have expected it to be a lot smaller than that. I think they can shrink all of those components a lot by now.

[Angrist]

If they really wanted to make it small, they should have removed the disc and go online-only. But I guess the Wii wouldn't be ready for that...