Nintendo Wii Fanboy

And statements don't get much vaguer than that, do they? Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian has published an investor note concerning the next round of consoles, full of words such as "may" and "could." According to Sebastian, new hardware is most likely to appear from the industry's major players in 2012, though he thinks Nintendo's next home console may release sooner, and could be an upgraded Wii with increased processing power, greater storage for moaning geeks and otaku, and DVD playback capabilities.

Our problem with this? Sebastian seems to automatically assume that Nintendo will simply produce a box stuffed with superior technology. Anybody who has followed Nintendo over the last five years will know that that is probably the last thing the company is likely to do.

Not long ago, we posted about Nintendo's newest trademarks (in Japan), and today, we'd like to focus on one: Mii Audition. What could it be? We have a few (off-the-wall) ideas, and we'd like to hear yours as well. The first is an idea we've been kicking around for a while: the idea of a dedicated karaoke channel featuring performing Miis and downloadable songs. We just can't help but think this would be a blast, though the Wii's small hard drive may be a detriment. On the one hand, that could be a way to get people not interested in the Virtual Console to get into downloadable content. On the other hand, it could be a really good argument in favor of a hard drive, and with the increasing popularity of flash drives (we're even required to have them for college classes these days), the idea of an external hard drive may not be as complicated as some people make it out to be. But 512 mb isn't an unreasonable size for downloading enough songs for a decent karaoke mix; after all, the first iPod Shuffle was that size in the low end model, and it held over one hundred songs. So, say, twenty-five or so, priced at maybe two bucks per song? Seems reasonable. And the content available could be region-specific.

We'd love to see something like this. We're not the first people to line up to buy karaoke games, usually due to the selection of songs. But if we were allowed to choose songs that appealed to us? That's a whole new ballgame, and one that would really make us want to whip the Wii out to tempt even the most staunchly opposed nongamers.

But that's just us dreaming. Our second notion is probably much more likely: perhaps this could be an expanded form of Stage Debut, the application that was demoed every now and then, but never came to light. Stage Debut incorporated the GBA camera for face-mapping your likeness onto a character you could then personalize through a quiz. Replace the GBA camera and face-mapping portion of Stage Debut with your own Miis, but keep the other elements, which feature your character doing a bunch of random things. This has the benefit of being already designed and would need only to be adapted, and could even link in with the Check Mii Out/Mii Contest Channel.

Enough about our ideas -- what do you see coming with this intriguing trademark?

This one really should have been a no-brainer. Nintendo announced that the Wii would weigh in at less than $250 come release date. They didn't waffle or hint, but instead stared us in the eyes like women men discerning individuals and declared their intentions. We like that.

But a certain convenience store contest got everyone all lathered up over a little line in the rules declaring that the Wii prizes were worth $299. That fine print birthed a seed of doubt. Had the price changed? According to the prize rules for Nintendo's Camp Hyrule, the answer is a world of no. Camp Hyrule's fine print lists the value of their Wii prize as the familiar and comfortable $250. Our staff magic 8-ball is leaning towards the original $250 pricetag, but we'll keep you posted on all the sudden speculation.

[Via Joystiq]

Nintendo as a company is traditionally tight-lipped when it comes to critical information. Frequently, as they are now, Nintendo fans are left in months-long droughts of any meaningful news. It's painful. It hurts. So what do they do? They speculate. Each has starry-eyed visions of launch day in excrutiating detail: available games, pricing, date, location, what they're going to wear...well, we do, anyway.

Nintendo, however, will have none of it! Earlier, they (partially) debunked a CNN story that predicted an earlier than expected launch window, sticking to their ever-stubborn "Fourth Quarter" guns. And now? They shoot down our other possible launch date, stating that the Sports Illustrated for Kids article was purely theoretical. When then, can we expect it? Oh. Fourth quarter. Okay, we saw it coming, but still. Why not let us have our fun?

It appears that Iwata and the gang are dead-set on being the only information providers out there...and we're going to have to wait till September to hear it.

Chris Morris' famed "Game Over" column over at CNN Money depicts a tantalizing future...well, a closer one, anyway. Morris states that industry insiders and other various information dealers, lurking in the dark alleys of Kyoto, all point to an early Wii launch in October...or possibly even late September. The biggest shred of proof?

"Indeed, the company appears to be already manufacturing final retail units of the Wii, according to a June 21st analyst's note from P.J. McNealy of American Technology Research."

If true, this is good news indeed. Not only would allow the Wii this possibly early launch, but supply will certainly be more prolific then the generally bungled Xbox 360 launch. In addition, it would allow Nintendo a heck of a jump start on rival-who-isn't-really-a-rival-but-who-are-you-trying-to-kid Sony, launching in the US on November 17th. Still, can we really expect this? Many assume that Nintendo is going to release final launch information at the Tokyo Game Show, which takes place from September 22nd-24th. Such a short window may not be enough time to build a large marketing campaign and momentum going into the launch. Take it with a grain of salt.

[Thanks, Eric!]