Nintendo's New Video Game: Wii is $249.99

Not like we didn't expect it already . . .

Last night [Tuesday, September 13th], I was up until the wee hours of the morning (along with hundreds of thousands of others), simply waiting for the information to come pouring in. First, the Japanese press conference was delayed. Then, all the main news sites reporting on the conference realized they were looking at the wrong feed (quite possibly one of the funniest moments in internet history). As everyone scrambled to find out what happened, an announcement of the "real" press conference time was released.

1AM EST.

So, like any other nerd, I stayed awake. I refreshed liveblogs on Joystiq and GWN, sat in the Codename Revolution IRC Chatroom, and switched between various forums, just to see the news (and be the first one to reveal it).

Then, disaster struck. Shortly before the conference was to begin, an article from the Seattle P.I. was leaked. There was no link to it on the main page of the news site, no links to it anywhere... but there it was, plain as day, announcing the upcoming price and release date for the Wii.

November 19th, 2006... $249.99.

A New York Times article was revealed. Gamespot, IGN, and others rushed to report on the information. Loyal Nintendo fans were turning on each other, debating whether it was the truth or not. Comments poured in.

"Nintendo said it would be released before the PS3!"
"They promised it'd be under $250!"
"$5 for NES games, $8 for SNES games, and $10 for N64 games? Impossible!"

After a short time, the Seattle P.I. article was pulled. The New York Times article vanished. IGN and Gamespot began rethinking their articles, injecting lines that hinted at the "announcements" being nothing but rumors.

The press conference began. People all around the world tuned in to various gaming sites, waiting for the news.

25,000 Yen. December 2nd.

Everywhere, people were begging the question: would the North American release date be before or after the Japanese? And what would the final price be? Roughly, 25,000 is equal to $215... but would that be the final price?