Wii Launch Details By September

The wait is still pending, but now we have a better idea with the second piece of Nintendo’s marketing puzzle.

Nintendo will officially announce the release date and price for its upcoming video-game console Wii by September, the company’s president, Satoru Iwata, said Wednesday morning in a media briefing.

The Kyoto-based game company has said that it expects to sell 6 million Wii consoles in the year to next March, and 17 million units of Wii software. This includes a projection for shipping 4 million systems by the end of the calendar year worldwide. Iwata also stated that even if the company meets those specific targets, it expects little contribution to profit.

Iwata further continued to say that Nintendo plans to supply 2 to 2.2 million Nintendo DS handhelds per month worldwide. The news of the company boosting its DS production comes with the recently tallied sales numbers of 1.6 million as of May. The president then clarified that the highly popular system continues to sell at a faster pace in Japan than any other gaming device ever. With this, Nintendo expects to sell another 16 million DS systems in the fiscal year through March 2007.

Touching back on the Wii, Iwata said that the main DS-Wii connectivity would include features utilizing a “touch-screen” controller, using the Wii as a DS station, and even having DS games being expanded with Wii.

It was only recently that Nintendo stated that Wii wouldn’t sell for more than 25,000 yen in Japan or $250 in the United States.

Also revealed was the indication that new games on the Wii’s Virtual Console could also be around the price range of 500-1000 yen ($5-10).

Finally shown was an apparent in-game screenshot of the upcoming Pokemon title that is slated for Wii.

Image courtesy of Famitsu

Tentatively titled Pokemon Battle Revolution, the battle-heavy title will be out a few months after Pokemon Pearl and Pokemon Diamond (DS). Iwata also added that the Wii title would link in some way with the DS games, marking the first-announced title with Wii/DS connectivity.

Stay tuned right here on AMN for further breaking updates on the Wii.