The Wii Mini Is Real, Arrives December 7 — In Canada 139
An anonymous reader writes "Yesterday there was a rumor doing the rounds that Nintendo was set to release a brand new version of the Wii console called the Wii Mini. The new machine would be significantly smaller than the current Wii, is expected to ship with a Wii Remote Plus, Nunchuk, and Sensor Bar, and hopefully carries a much lower (sub-$100) price. Well, it looks as though this wasn't just a rumor. Best Buy Canada has it listed with an image on its front page and a December 7 release date." Also at PC Mag.
Re:Cooling (Score:2, Insightful)
Don't know where you got that idea, but I've had mine more than two years and the only time the red LED has ever lit up is when the console has lost power. Is this info in the manual somewhere?
Re:No internet? (Score:5, Insightful)
Other than sharing the same 2.4GHz ISM frequency band, bluetooth (used for their controllers) and WiFi share basically nothing. In the regular Wii they use separate chipsets, separate antennas, etc. They're stripping out a few bucks worth of hardware. Not to mention, implementing WiFi in a product invariably involves paying a bunch of license fees to patent holders etc - either included in the price of your wifi chipset or paid separately. This adds a couple more bucks to the design.
Take the $99 they're selling the thing for at the store and subtract store markup, shipping, factory tooling, packaging, the rest of the stuff in the Wii box, etc. and you don't have much money to spend on the Wii Mini itself. A few bucks spent adding WiFi could end up being a significant part of the cost.
Honestly, I have to throw some praise at Nintendo for making a game system that's so cheap. My workplace is doing an "adopt-a-family" thing for the christmas season, where employees get together and buy christmas gifts for single parents who can't afford much for their kids. At $99, it's made our shopping list.