Wii U Will Ship in North America Nov. 18 In $300, $350 Bundles

The Wii U, announced at the Nintendo Press Conference at E3 in June. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired

Nintendo will sell Wii U in the United States starting November 18 for $350 and $300, it said Thursday morning.

As with the Japanese launch of the system on December 8, Wii U will make its North American debut in two configurations. The $300 package will include just the Wii U and the GamePad controller with 8 GB of onboard storage. The $350 “Deluxe Set” will include 32 GB of storage, plastic stands for the console and controller, and the NintendoLand game.

At $350, the hardware-game bundle is $100 pricier than Wii, which launched with Wii Sports packed in in 2006 for $250.

The pricing move by the Kyoto company, likely influenced by the extremely strong yen, also makes Wii U significantly more expensive than both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. On Twitter this morning, prior to the start of Nintendo’s presentation, Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter noted that Wal-Mart had reduced the price of an entry-level Xbox 360 Kinect bundle from $300 to $249.

Nintendo spent a good deal of its presentation Thursday talking up “Nintendo TVii,” a service that aims to route all of your television watching through Wii U. Nintendo says you’ll be able to search and watch live television using the GamePad’s touchscreen as a multi-functional remote control, browsing through catalogs of shows. If those shows are available on Hulu, Amazon or Netflix you’ll see those choices appear as well.

Game-wise, Nintendo didn’t announce many new Wii U titles. It said it will publish Bayonetta 2, the sequel to Sega’s cult classic action game. Activision took the stage to announce mostly casual-oriented games like Skylanders Giants and Wipeout 3, but also said that Call of Duty: Black Ops II would be available on Wii U.

Wired’s live blog coverage from Thursday morning is below.

Now that Nintendo has unveiled the price and date of Wii U for its home territory of Japan, all that’s left is to tell the rest of the world.

Nintendo of America will take the final wraps off its plans for Wii U in a livestreamed event from New York City on Thursday morning.

Early Thursday morning in a livestreamed presentation from Japan, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said that Wii U would be sold in two configurations there: A Premium Set including 32 GB of onboard storage, three plastic stand accessories for the console and GamePad controller, and discounts on downloadable games, and a Basic Set with none of the bells and whistles.

These sets were priced at 30,000 yen and 25,000 yen before tax. Due to the strong yen, these prices are currently the equivalent of about $400 and $350, but given Nintendo’s usual pricing schemes across the U.S. and Japan, it is more likely that these prices telegraph a $300/$250 release here — if indeed Nintendo of America also introduces two hardware SKUs.

7:00 — Any minute now.

7:03 — NoA COO Reggie Fils-Aime takes the stage. “This is a day that many of us have been looking forward to for quite a while.”

7:04 — Sunday, November 18 is launch day.

7:05 — Satoru Iwata is doing a livestream concurrently for the Japanese market. When this gets boring, I glance at that.

7:06 — Fils-Aime says two configurations for the US, too. Basic Set seems unchanged from Japanese version: System, controller, white colors.

7:07 — “Deluxe Set” comes with the charging stands — and the NintendoLand game, Fils-Aime says. (Very good move.) Still hasn’t talked price.

7:08 — Wii U works with “almost all” Wii games, Fils-Aime says. Hmm, what are the caveats? Nintendo will sell Wii U branded versions of the Wii remote and nunchuk controllers.

7:09 — PRICE SHOCKER. Basic set to cost $300, Deluxe Set to cost $350.

7:10 — Wow, the American and Japanese presentations are pretty well synced up; NoA is talking about the Metroid mini-game in NintendoLand at the same time that it’s being talked up on the Japanese side.

7:14 — Extensive demo of Metroid mini-game in NintendoLand. It’s a multiplayer horde-mode sort of thing where one player runs on the ground (on TV) and other player flies ship (on GamePad screen). Looks fun enough, but audience still probably thinking about $350 shock factor.

7:15 — Japan stream update: Game & Wario, the new Wario Ware game, isn’t coming until 2013.

7:17 — New Super Mario Bros. U confirmed for day one in the U.S., says NoA.

7:18 — Mario U will have “skill-based challenges,” like “complete a level without touching the ground.” Okay, that’s pretty cool.

7:20 — U.S. talking about Lego City Undercover. Japan talking about third-party games: Samurai Warriors Orochi 2, Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Wii Edition.

7:21 — There’s “a lot more [game news] to come,” Fils-Aime says. Get me more coffee. Now talking about “the most significant non-gaming initiative Nintendo has ever introduced.” “Expanding with a broader entertainment experience.”

7:22: “Nintendo TVii.” “Wii [has] become the singular device that most people use to connect their TV to the internet.”

7:23: Well, this is ambitious. Nintendo wants you to use Wii U GamePad as your TV portal — it’ll list tons of shows, and you click on them to see your viewing options: Buy from Hulu? Stream from Netflix? Tune in on your TV? Also showed some Xbox SmartGlass-style features: Watch football on TV while browsing more information about the game on the controller.

7:24: This:

7:25: “The big innovation is bringing all of your services to one place… plus live TV.” Showing how Nintendo TVii works, users can recommend things to each other, etc. You can watch a trailer on the GamePad while watching another show on the TV.

7:26: They’re watching the Halloween episode of Modern Family on the TV. On the GamePad, “moments” from those TV shows start appearing as they happen. You can share those moments on Twitter, etc. right from the GamePad.

7:27: While we’re watching this, they just announced Bayonetta 2 for Wii U in Japan. Seriously.

7:28: Nintendo TVii looks pretty interesting, actually. Not going to lie. Tough to understand if it’s going to work without having it in one’s home and seeing if it really is something that makes the TV experience better, not just more complex. Oh, meanwhile in Japan they’re talking about Dragon Quest X.

7:29: As per Twitter comments, Wii U “Premium Set” in Japan comes with a beta invite for DQX. You can move your data from Wii version, already out in Japan, to Wii U.

7:30: Fils-Aime announcing Bayonetta 2 on the U.S. stream. Sorry, you’re late to this party. Bayonetta 2 is a Wii U exclusive, published by Nintendo. Japan news: Monster Hunter Tri 3G HD Version will be released for Wii U this year, and there will be a hardware bundle for 38,000 yen in Japan.

7:41: The official name of Project P-100 is now The Wonderful 101. Oh, and Monster Hunter Ultimate (new name) is also coming to America for 3DS and Wii U, in March.

7:42: One final guest, says Fils-Aime. Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing.

7:44: Name-drops Skylanders. Is that what we’re about to see?

7:46: Rapid-fire sizzle reel of Activision games: Skylanders Giants, Wipeout 3, 007 Legends, Transformers…

7:48: And Call of Duty: Black Ops II. Of course.

7:51: Two players playing CODBLOPS, one using GamePad, other using TV.

7:54: Still a little too early to guarantee which games will be there on launch day, says a returned Fils-Aime. Oh? But here’s the “launch window” roster, from November 18 to end of March. That’s a big-ass window.

7:56: A whole mess of game names scrolls by. I think the only real announcement in there was a Wii U version of Epic Mickey 2: Power of Two.

8:00: Presentation over.