Squid of Man

A day that began innocently, with expectations running high in anticipation of tangible Wii launch details (at least for the Japanese market), sank into farce, sank lower into "high" farce, emerged comedic and ultimately ended with some actual news.

10:00am: If you were anywhere near the Penny Arcade Forums this morning, it was a sight to behold. Sixty pages came and went before the conference even started...and then it didn't start at all, because the entire western world couldn't get their time zone differences right.

2:30pm: The Seattle Post-Intelligencer (awesome name) apparantly breaks a news embargo and posts US launch information. November 19, USD$250, Wii Sports included.

3:30pm: Five and a half hours later, the conference actually begins. For all the millions of Nintendo fan sites in existence, none of them can speak Japanese, so only a trickle of info from the Japanese Wii conference spills out thanks to Joystiq. Included are Virtual Console prices (approx AUD $6.50 for NES games, $10.50 for SNES and $13 for N64), console price (approx AUD$285) and Japanese launch date (December 2).

My personal highlights for the day were the entire Penny Arcade forums watching a "live feed" of a Japanese press event from June, the utterly unsubstantiated rumours of Twilight Princess being delayed until 2007 and the shockingly greedy "OMFG ITS EXPENSIVVZZ" outcry.

I am intrigued by the apparant discrepancy between the Japanese and American launch date. No doubt the American conference tonight will shed more light on this, but for now...I am intrigued.