Wii rains down on the US

As noted in the INQUIRER this morning, Wii demand outstripped supply, ensuring Nintendo had a sell-out product on its launch day.

Considering the huge numbers Nintendo have suggested that were shipped to the US - around five to ten times the paltry 400,000 allocation of the PS3 from Sony - the sell-out must come as a huge boon to Nintendo executives. So far they seem to be on a winner, albeit it's early days.

In further good news for gaming aficionados, the Wii's hottest launch title 'The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess' has received much praise and many good reviews, with 1up giving it 10/10 and IGN 9.5

Again Joystiq have a brilliant line-up of feeds from the Wii launch parties scattered around the US, here's one in LA and another in Times Square, New York. Dubiously constructed costumes seem to be the highlight of the day.

The Wii launch seems to have come and gone successfully, with the minimum fuss, compared to the PS3's infighting and BB gun drive-by shootings. Most people waiting for a Wii got to take one home, but due to the sell-out a few were still left wanting.

Many more units are expected to ship before Christmas.

It's been noted in the gaming press that the Wii launch has been somewhat overshadowed in the mainstream media by the PS3 launch, which was covered in some interest by US hacks. They're probably sick of console news a week later after a previous launch, and the lack of any fuss or fighting within queues probably kept them uninterested.

Fortunately, US Wii adverts have been well received and you can catch a preview over on Youtube.

One other thing to note concerns connectivity to HD screens. People have been bemoaning the lack of the bundled component cable, which allows the Wii to output at 480p - a decent upgrade over the standard 480i. You can buy this separately but at an additional cost, analogous to the PS3's component/HDMI cable situation.

The cable can be bought online via Nintendo's store, but it costs an additional 30 bucks. Console companies really must get their act together - stop bundling the antiquated connections on their own and give us some quality cabling.

It seems the cables are much easier to obtain in the UK - we pre-ordered ours via Gameplay when ordering our Wii. It doesn't mean we're happy with the cable-tax though.

The December 8th launch can't come to soon for us in the UK. Like Eric Cartman, Wii can't wait any longer. µ

See also
Playstation 3 dissected and analysed
XBox HD-DVD comes at a heavy price
Microsoft pulls Xbox HD movies from the ether
Sony admits to importing grey market PSPs