Most of the rumours dealing with the release date and price of the Wii have turned out to be quite exact. Nintendo's latest console will be sold starting November 19 for $249.99. "one price, one configuration, one color." Wii Sports included.

More information was made available on the games as well:


The user interface was branded "Wii Channels". It will be the central access point for games, tv and the Internet. By default, it is devided into 12 channels, of which the first accesses the inserted game. The second channel, Wii shop, lets you shop for gadgets and retro games for the virtual console. These are the announced prices:


The other channels include a Mii channel, which allows for the creation of an avatar. It will represent you and can be copied to your Wiimote. If you take it to friends, your profile will be loaded on their console. The Photo channel will read your SD-cards and display your pictures.

But there's more: weather forecast, a news channel, a calendar and a message board. And if you're still bored, then why not use the system's included opera-based webbrowser. A service called WiiConnect24 will activate when the console is turned 'off'. It will surprise you with patches, fresh demos or a couple of trailers.

There's just one more thing: the first game to make use of the console's online multiplayer capabilities will be Pokémon. It will be available in the US (and the rest of the world) shortly after the game hits Japan.

In other news: