Topic: Reduced-Price Wii Console Bundle and Nintendo Selects Officially Announced

[the_dan_x]

Mario Kart Wii console bundles and Nintendo Selects titles coming to North America May 15 and to Europe May 20.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/26225

New, cheaper Wii console bundles as well as a new line of discount Wii titles called “Nintendo Selects” will be arriving in stores in the next few weeks, both Nintendo of America and Nintendo of Europe confirmed.

The new bundles will include a black or white Wii console, a copy of Mario Kart Wii, a Wii Remote Plus, a Nunchuk controller, and a Wii Wheel that will match the color of the hardware. The new Mario Kart bundle will retail for $149.99 in North America, while in Europe, the existing Wii Sports Resort Pack will see a price reduction.

The Nintendo Selects titles are budget titles that will retail for $19.99 in America and in Europe at a reduced price. The North American titles include The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Animal Crossing: City Folk, Mario Super Sluggers, and Wii Sports. In Europe, Wii Sports, Wario Ware: Smooth Moves, Mario Strikers Charged Football and Animal Crossing: Let's Go To The City will be available under the new discounted line of software. The new console bundles and Nintendo Selects titles will launch on May 15 in North America and on May 20 in Europe.

[Ceric]

"Let's Go to the City."  That's just...hmmm...

[Jonnyboy117]

Wonder why the games are different between regions?

[Ceric]

I be surprised if they weren't.  Different regions different games sold better.

[Shaymin]

The European line includes... Wario Ware: Smooth Moves

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[Killer_Man_Jaro]

Wonder why the games are different between regions?

The change in sports titles make senses. Football/soccer is popular in Europe, but not in America. Baseball is popular in America, but not in Europe (and I'm not even sure if Super Sluggers was released here anyway).

Otherwise, it is a little perplexing. I'm surprised that there aren't more titles for the initial line-up. I'm also surprised that Wii Sports is offered on this line despite being a bundled game in both continents.

[Retro Deckades]

Wii Sports is being offered for all of those whose first Wii is the Mario Kart bundle. So in that case, its for almost nobody.

[marty]

removing the game that's synonymous with the system makes little sense to me.

[ShyGuy]

I would like to find a decently priced copy of Excite Truck...

[Ceric]

I would like to find a decently priced copy of Excite Truck...

Excitebot   Seriously if you liked Excite Truck.  Do yourself a favor and get Excite Bot.  Its great.  I should pick up Excite Truck one day.

[Mop it up]

Nintendo Selects sounds so formal, what was wrong with Player's Choice?

[ShyGuy]

YOU NO CHOOSE. NINTENDO CHOOSE.

[SilverQuilava]

ugh. is it too much to ask for Mario Kart Wii to be in the Nintendo Select titles? come on.

[Plugabugz]

ugh. is it too much to ask for Mario Kart Wii to be in the Nintendo Select titles? come on.

Yes. It still selling like unclebob's homemade hotcakes.

[Chozo Ghost]

Nintendo Selects sounds so formal, what was wrong with Player's Choice?

Because in many cases the games on the GC that were called "Player's Choice" weren't really games that Player's had "Chosen". That was why they were added to the budget release, because they weren't selling at full price. Some games that got put on the "Player's Choice" lineup were a joke, because they weren't well received by either consumers or critics.

So calling them "Nintendo Select" is very accurate and appropriate, because these are games Nintendo Selects for budget release. They aren't necessarily the Greatest Hits of the Wii library. There are different reasons why they are added to this Budget line. Maybe its because they sold poorly and Nintendo wanted to give them another chance? Maybe they sold great at one time but have since slacked off the charts? Maybe its a game made by a 3rd party that Nintendo Selects because that 3rd party asks them to? There's no one single reason why a game might get put in this lineup, but in all cases its because Nintendo Selected it... so, ergo... Nintendo Select.

[Ceric]

Still sounds like Cheese or Cereal.

[Stogi]

But good cheese and good cereal.

[BeautifulShy]

Chozo I seem to recall the Player's choice games had to have a certain amount of the games sold for it to be eligible for the Players Choice line.  So in essence the players did chose them since they did make them sell a certain amount.

[Mop it up]

Well, what he says is somewhat true. During the GameCube era, Nintendo lowered the amount of copies a game needed to sell to be eligible for Player's Choice status, it was 400k down from one million. So the games still had to sell decently enough, but much less than on previous systems. They also allowed third-party titles in on the line, where I believe previously only Nintendo-published titles could reach the status.

[Chozo Ghost]

There probably was some bar in order for a game to be eligible for Player's Choice. The problem was that bar wasn't very high.... The GC era was a sad time for Nintendo because the GC sold poorly and there weren't a lot of million sellers. Even among 1st party titles the sales were disappointing most of the time... So the bar had to be lowered, because otherwise there wasn't much that could be considered Player's Choice if they continued to go by the standard used for the SNES and N64.

[leahsdad]

removing the game that's synonymous with the system makes little sense to me.

Actually, it makes perfect sense.  A lot of casual gamers who picked up the Wii played Wii Sports and absolutely nothing else, so they never felt the need to actually go out and buy any other game.  I'm sure Nintendo was really frustrated at that, because on one hand they made a really great entertainment package that consumers saw a lot of value in, but on the other, it was a little too complete, because the casual gamers had all that they wanted.


With Mario Kart, they're going to get a lot of people who buy that, play Mario Kart, and then say "Well, what about that sports thing everyone was going on about?" 


The danger, of course, is the possibility that because Wii Sports isn't included, people won't buy the system.   Once again, this is casual gamers we're talking about.  When my 2nd daughter was being born, we had to send our oldest to my parents for 3 or 4 days.  So they wouldn't get bored, I also took over my Wii and about 10 games, all the casual games I had (Just Dance, Wii Party, etc..).  The only games that were played were Just Dance Kids (my daughter) and Wii Sports (my parents and my kid).  My parents even asked to keep the Wii for another week so they could play more Wii Sports.