Well here we are, in Studio C of Pier 59. I'd be excited about the news, but since we already know most of what they are going to say, not so much. I do suspect that there will still be something new. So stay tuned to the site for the blow-by-blow.

Ooh, they're throwing around a Mario ball. I just caught it from Robert Summa, who's sitting like three rows back. I threw it behind me, fire and forget style, sure hope I didn't break anyone's laptop.

We're sitting ina studio filled with tall-backed white chairs facing a faux brickwall and a huge digital screen showing a window's view of downtown NYC and the World Trade Center site. There are two Wii sitting on what looks like black pedestals on the stage. There's also a big long white couch and other fake living room furniture. The word Wii is being projected onto the wall above a smaller flat panel.

There's a huge area to the right of the stage filled with a bunch of Wii and flat panels, used for gameplay.

Ah Perrin is on the stage introducing the event. She just mentioned the Tokyo announcment, which she said went very well.

"Today we are going to share many of the exciting details of the Wii."

She said the NYT story was just the "tip of the iceberg" Presentation is expected to be about an hour, followed by an afternoon of gaming.

Reggie just took the stage.

"Welcome to a significant day. Not only for Nintendo and the Wii but the future of the video gaming industry."

"We will reveal all of the information about the Wii: Day, price, titles."

"Our strategy is based on one core belief, the next step in gaming is bring gaming back to the masses."

"Appealing to core gamers as well as broadening the audience for gaming."

Hit the jump for more. Brian Crecente

Reggie is walking through Nintendo's history of innovation.

First, he says, was the DS. Next was the Touch Generation of games.

He says Touch Generation games are different than most, rather than taking you away from your life it looks to connect you more to it.

"DS supplements your life."

Now he's talking about New Super Mario Bros. That game represents about 35 percent of all first part games sold. Touch Generation games, combined, make up 39 percent of all DS sales.

"Third important moment in our list of new products came with the debut of the Nintendo WiFi Connection."

"Fourth, about this time last year, the unveiling of the Wii."

"The fifth step is today."

On to the hard news.

Wii goes on sale Nov. 19, that means worldwide debut happens right here in the U.S.

That day, it will be available at more than 25,000 retails stores for $249.99.

"One price, one configuration, one color."

OOOh, that's a dig at Msoft and Sony, I believe.

He says the shipment goal worldwide is 4 million by the end of the year.

The "Americas will receive the largest share of that number."

He says the flow will be even, to minimize shortages.

Inside the box, you will get the console hardware, cables, the sensor bar, all of the accoutrements to get started, one Wii remote and one nunchuk controller. No mention of any included games.

Ah, he's just announced that Wii Bowling will be part of Wii Sports.

Eric is showing off Wii Sports Bowling.

You hold the Wii close to your chest, swing your arm back and then forward, just like real bowling.

By twisting the control in the swing down you can put a spin on the ball.

The game supports up to four players in a game.

Wii sports will also have boxing. So that's Wii Tennis, Golf, Baseball, Bowling and Boxing.

Bummer, no Duck Hunt.

Ahhh, now Reggie is saying that the game disc will be included in the console pack.

This is the first console pack since the SNES, he says.

OK, now he's talking about the launch titles.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Excite Truck and Wii Sports are the first party titles, he says, all available on launch day.

Reggie's singing the praises of the Zelda game, he says it's the "best gotta have it title since the days of the NES and Super NES." Wow, high praise.

At the event in Tokyo there were 104 titles showcased. Wow.

Activision will have five here. Atari, Atlus, Electronic Arts, Konami, Midway, Sega, SNK, THQ, Ubisoft and Vivendi all have games here today. Sounds like I'm in for some fun.

Publishers and developers are on hand to talk to the media as well. Reggie is showing off some choice quotes about the Wii from people like Larry Probst from EA and Robert Kotick from Activision.

About 30 Wii games will be available this year, with about half of them available at launch. Wii games will be $49.99, for first party stuff.

Fifth bit of innovation is called Wii Channels.That's the official name for the Virtual Console and he's about to dish the details.

Reggie says they needed to come up with a sort of Touch Generations for the Wii.

They're showing the GUI now. Looks kinda cool. It shows the weather in a box, a box with a ton of little avatar faces,

Initially there will be 12 Wii channels.

The first channel lets you play a Wii game or one of 530 GameCube discs. Next is the Wii shopping channel where you can buy old games to play on the console.

At least three games will be online on launch day. By the end of the year there will be at least 30 legacy titles. Beginning in January that will grow 10 a month through the year. Price will be 500 Wii Points (or $5) for NES, 800 for SNES and 1,000 for N64.

You can buy a 2,000 Wii Points card at a store for $20. They will also be selling a Wii classic controller for playing the games.

Once a game is downloaded it shows up as a channel in the menu.

Bill Trinen is taking the stage to showing a weird Touch Generationish channel.

One is called the Mii channel. A Mii is a digital 3D avatar of whoever, including yourself.

You can create a Mii by finding a look-a-like or start from scratch. Bill is showing us how to do this, by creating a Mii Samuel L. Jackson. Oooooh, maybe he's in the mother-fucking building.

First you pick a head, then eyebrows, then the eyes, then the nose, the mouth and accessories. You basically scroll through pages of choices which can be tweaked.

Save and quit and enter the name and you're done. He just pops up on the screen. The Mii's sorta roam around on the screen.

Next you can transfer your Mii's to your Wii Remote and take them with you.

You can take them to a friend's house and let them populate your friend's Wii. You can also let them populate your Wii games. So you can put the little Mii's in your game like Wii Tennis. Kinda cool.

Now they're showing us the photo channel. The menu shows eight images at a time, in two rows of four images. You can scroll through them like a slot machine. The front of the Wii has a SD reader and once you pop in the card it quickly pulls up the images.

You can also zoom out to see all of the images in a bunch of super tiny thumbnails.

Now they're showing us a bunch of images from working at Nintendo. Very silly.

You can also view movies and alter them instantly with little fun games. Like turning it into a moving puzzle.

Reggie is back on the stage to talk about some other Wii Channels that will launch with the Wii.

There will be a news channel and the weather channel, as I mentioned earlier.

There's also a message board where users can send messages or photos to other Wii owners or to a PC or Cell phone. You can also send messages to other members of the family on a calendar like feature.

Now he's talking about Always-On 24 and how you can get updates while you sleep.

Oh, there's also an Internet channel. You will have to buy the Opera Browser separately, though he didn't mention a price.

Wii Channel system is available instantly, since the console remains on all of the time, so no boot-up.

The concept is that people will get used to using the console daily and often and begin to become gamers because it's so accessible.

"We our intent on changing the way players connect to their games and the way any TV owner can connect to their system."

To summarize:
Revolutionary Play
Best of the past
Biggest Launch library in history
Wii Channels
Affordable Price.

Now into Q&A time.

Q: How much are additional remotes.
A: Wii Remote is $39.99. Nunchuck attachment is $19.99.

Q: Can the Wii hold the images or does it stay on the SD.
A: The majority is for SD.

Q: What's up with Zelda for GameCube.
A: It launches Dec 11

Q: When are you specifying which are launch day and which are launch window.
A: We are going to leave that for third-party, but about half will be launch day.

Q: Cost of connecting to the Internet?
A: There is no cost through our system. You need an Internet Connection at your home. If you have a wireless router you are set to go. Or you can connect through a wire.

Q: Why charge Wii Points.
A: We think Wii Points is the most straight forward way for consumers.

Q: What about third Party game prices.
A: We encourage our third-party partners to price their games at a competitive price.

Q: 4 million world wide.
A: by Dec. 31

Q: How many will support wide-screen and how would you compare graphical power.
A: Most if not all are wide screen. In terms of graphical power, we have a different paradigm for what turns on the consumer.

Q: Integration between DS and the Wii
A: We are not announcing any details, but in the future you will hear much more details.

Q: There were rumblings about Metroid Prime as a launch title, any more details.
A: Metroid Prime is going to be a 2007 title.

Q: How will Wii points be converted for other countries?
A: 2000 Wii points will be about $24 Canadian. Similar strategy in Mexico and other markets.

Q: In-Gaming advertising and branded channels.
A: In terms of in-game advertising in terms of first-party it is something we are looking at. But our strategy is different. We see in game branding as a way of making the game more real, as opposed to a revenue stream.

Right now we don't have plans for branded channels, but that's right now. Who's to say what the future will bring.

And that's it for the Q&A. Time to play some games.

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