Nintendo Releases Wii Browser For Free, Updates Flash 163
An anonymous reader writes "Nintendo has released an update for the Wii Internet Channel (a version of the Opera browser). It is now a free download (if you already paid for it, you get a free NES game), and finally supports Flash 9 content after being limited to Flash 7 ever since it was launched in late 2006."
I hope the sensor bar can deploy airbags... (Score:2, Funny)
...because you'll need them with all the crashing that browser is going to do. Every browser that runs Flash 9 and up without some sort of isolation or sandbox crashes frequently. I hope it doesn't hard lock the console.
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I believe that I read in the update notes that the new browser is using Flash Lite 3.1, which is like Flash 8 only... lite-er?. At any rate, my first (and only) attempt to load Pandora caused the browser to lock up solid.
Re:I hope the sensor bar can deploy airbags... (Score:5, Funny)
hahah finally :) (Score:1)
Re:hahah finally :) (Score:4, Informative)
Finally useful... (Score:3, Insightful)
...for watching videos on YouTube?
Haven't even bothered to install the browser so far, my wife's netbook runs circles around a Wii for couch surfing.
Actually I'm genuinely curious: Who uses the Wii browser and for what?
http://www.youtube.com/xl (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.youtube.com/xl [youtube.com] is an easy way to access youtube content from your wii
Works perfectly in mine with the OLDER version of the internet channel
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My experience with YouTube on the Wii browser is that, yes, it works. However, the videos are a LOT more pixelated compared to the same video on a PC.
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10 year old boys trying to see boobies when they cant get around the parental controls on the family's computer?
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"you are so 90ties."
So's your AOL speak. Time to ditch the MC Hammer pants, man.
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Re:Finally useful... (Score:5, Funny)
Indeed, the Shire, Bree and what is left of Arnor have saturation computer ownership and ubiquitous WiFi. Mordor, OTOH, is stuck on DOS 5.0 and 33k modems since the recent collapse of political power in that region.
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Awesome. +1 Internets for you.
-l
Re:Finally useful... (Score:4, Interesting)
It's just like every other feature that is included for free: you don't think you'll ever use it, but once or twice when you actually do you realize it was totally worth the zero dollars you paid for it. I have it because for some reason it was free when they first offered it. I mainly use it for three things
1. I am playing a game on the 360, need to check gamefaqs for a hint or something, and the computer is being used or I don't feel like bringing the laptop in
2. -ahem- websites that I don't want to view on my computer, for a variety of reasons
3. The wii happens to be on and I don't want to start a game but am bored
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Or if I need something more up-to-date, open the wii opera browser and go to the latest official forecast, which is updated quicker [weatheroffice.gc.ca].
Wii Forecast Channel != The Weather Channel (Score:2)
Weather channel.
For one thing, Wii has Forecast Channel powered by Weathernews, not the real Weather Channel [weather.com], unless you've bookmarked weather.com in Internet Channel. In the summer of 2008, I noticed Forecast Channel wasn't nearly as accurate as The Weather Channel. For another, if you're playing the Wii on a TV that gets cable, you can always pause whatever Wii game you're playing, change the channel to The Weather Channel, and watch Local on the 8s.
Wow really?! (Score:2)
I don't think the lower case "channel" was a typo. I think it's pretty clear he meant "the wii channel what has the weather" without caring what the official name is.
"Local on the 8s" is also 7 minutes too slow if you want the weather now (and you can't check weather around the world with a neat spinning globe interface =D). It is more accurate though.
Re:Finally useful... (Score:4, Interesting)
You can leave it on, but be sure you don't leave a disk in the drive. It'll spin constantly and the drives simply are not rated for that much wear and tear. I left mine on (since they imply you should with the presence of all those spiffy channels on the main menu) but didn't think to pull out the disks. 1.5 years later, I'm dumping $70 on a new optical drive that you can really only get from Nintendo.
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Yeah, went through the same thing. I figure it's the trade-off for not having to spend five minutes starting the console, sitting through the godawfully slow legal screen while hammering the A button, waiting for the disc to finally show up in the game window, waiting for it to do its unskippable noisy thumbnail routing, and then wading through the sea of unskippable splash screens. Nintendo came up with a clever idea for a controller and then proceeded to fuck up every other aspect of the console.
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Well I use it for reading Slashdot :), and checking my Emails in between games and the homebrew channel but that is about it mostly play Wii games and Atari 2600 and 7800 games on it Via Razors Emulators.
other than that not a hell of a lot, but if you can buy the Wii keyboard it makes it a lot easier to surf the web, I got mine for 15.00 at game stop because it did not have a box or manual but it works great.
R.Morton
Re:Finally useful... (Score:4, Informative)
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I own the Playstation 2 version. Depending on your tastes it
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Who uses the Wii browser and for what?
We use it to watch web-based videos on the living room telly. That means YouTube, BBC iPlayer, etc. You can also play Flash games on the Wii; YetiSports Albatross Overload is a favourite with us. It can also be useful for the eternal question of "Oh, what's that actor's name, and what else was he in ?"
42" browsing? (Score:4, Insightful)
Actually I'm genuinely curious: Who uses the Wii browser and for what?
Browsing the web on a very bright 42" monitor is kinda' cool :)
With a wiimote, it means you'll have neither of: a hot laptop on your ball sack; or a desk between the couch and your TV.
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Browsing the web on a very bright 42" monitor is kinda' cool :)
When TVs that big became popular, VGA and HDMI inputs also became popular.
With a wiimote, it means you'll have neither of: a hot laptop on your ball sack; or a desk between the couch and your TV.
My Eee PC doesn't get hot enough to hurt my genitals. And if you eat on the couch, you probably already have a desk of sorts; run a USB cable from a Mac mini (which looks like a Wii) to a hub by the couch, set your keyboard and mouse on the TV tray, and you're set.
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The big difference between connecting a console or a portable computer to a TV is that the console is almost always connected to the TV in the first place.
Then, for instance, what should developers who want to develop console-style games but aren't yet established enough for a console license do?
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My wife and I just plugged an old G5 tower into the screen and control it using screen sharing + jaadu vnc on our iPods.
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1) "If you can afford X, then you can afford Y" is always a bad argument.
2) Your solution is a pain in the ass, not nearly as intuitive.
3) The Wii's screen resolution is just fine for most pages, and if it isn't you can zoom out or scroll left and right.
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480P/I is *NOT* standard definition. Halve that again to get closer to reality.
Sorry for poor taste... (Score:2)
its quite nice [...] a 42incher.
That's what she said...
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...for watching videos on YouTube?
Haven't even bothered to install the browser so far, my wife's netbook runs circles around a Wii for couch surfing.
Actually I'm genuinely curious: Who uses the Wii browser and for what?
YouTube works wonderfully, though YouTube seems to serve pretty low-res videos at the moment (I don't think Wii has the processor power to decode HD videos anyway). So it works, but doesn't look exactly glorious - but still pretty watchable if you squint just right. And in this version, based on cursory testing, the YouTube XL fullscreen mode finally seems to work at tolerable framerate - it used to work nicely in non-fullscreen, but went sluggish in fullscreen. (Incidentally, Flash 7 for Linux suffered fro
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Youtube
BBC iPlayer
Last.FM
Some fairly nice free extras right there...
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my wife's netbook runs circles around a Wii for couch surfing.
If you want to watch YouTube on the tube, and you're not ready to splurge on replacing your SDTV with an HDTV, it's easier to find a Wii in stores than a $40 netbook-to-SDTV adapter [sewelldirect.com]. And afterward, you can use the Wii to play video games with friends.
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Um, I meant I surf with the netbook. I have no desire to hook it up to the TV. Also, that way the TV and browsing don't interfere. :)
But others did make good points about flash games and video possibilities. I have a Wii so should look into those...
iPlayer (Score:2)
It's just a pity that the update prevents iPlayer from working.
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A lot of people (i.e. wives and girlfriends) don't want to have a laptop sitting around on their living room table...
Get real. This is slashdot. None of us have those things you mentioned - wives, girlfriends, living rooms.
All of those involve leaving our parents' basements.
Except . . . (Score:2)
Video still... but iPlayer will become useful. Woo!
Except now iPlayer doesn't work.
From one of TFA -
Great, we can see what 'content' we can't actually view or hear.
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that's unfortunate. I remember watching Hole-in-the-wall on the iPlayer on my friends Wii during a party. That was one wild night...
I should have waited (Score:2, Informative)
Meh, at least there's a slight compensation =/
Regarding Youtube, we tried watching some videos but I found the framerate to be very laggy, especially in the full-screen mode. I didn't do extensive testing of Y
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You can transfer Wii points to other people. Find someone who wants to download a game, trade the points for cash, and you're not out a penny.
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Oh, for goodness sake, if you're that paranoid over $10 in Wii points ... just sell them to a friend. Or donate them to a local hospital - there are plenty of hospitals and senior citizen's homes that use Wiis for exrcise.
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Wiibserver? (Score:3, Interesting)
!Flash 9 (Score:5, Informative)
I am (unfortunately) a Flash dev.
The new Internet Channel supports Flash Lite 3, not Flash 9. Flash Lite 3 supports all the ActionScript Virtual Machine 1 (AVM1) content that will run on or before Flash 9. However, it does not support AVM2 content -- that is, content created with ActionScript 3 or Flex. ActionScript 3 was released with Flash 9. I don't know of any Flash 9 content that isn't written using AS3/AVM2 -- if you're trying to be backwards compatible (say, you're a corporation, and every 0.01% penetration counts) you're gonna code in Flash 7 or 8 anyway.
This opens up a bunch of content written with Flash 8, but it still means you're not going to able to use, say, the vast majority of games on Kongregate or YouTube HD. Besides that, the browser has so little memory available to it that any "high end" Flash content is off-limits anyway. This update really doesn't do much for me.
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Somebody mod this up.
For them, Flash 9 means youtube (Score:2)
Wii is a SD device (TV speaking) that is completely (and electronically) incapable of showing HD content. So, Youtube HD is non issue.
If you speak about high end sites entirely designed on Flash, flash shops etc. that won't be really needed on Wii. I can't picture Wii user profile wondering around with that stick and clicking things. They all have PC/Mac/Linux desktops and laptops anyway.
Think of Wii as a high end smart phone. Like Nokia E90 or N97, they come with Flash Lite 3 too. I think Nintendo thinks a
My wii question... (Score:2)
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Will we (wii?) ever see the price come down? It has been on the market for almost 3 years now and the price has yet to change.
Then pray for Nintendo's 3 hit combo games to not improve the sales of their console at all. Then perhaps, if they're not still destroying the competition till march 2010, you will have a chance to see a price cut. Scratch that, they would have to be selling the least of the three consoles for Nintendo to do sth about the price.
BTW, the 3 hit combo games are Wii Sports Resort, Wii Fit + and New Super Mario Bros Wii.
Nintendo expects each of them to sell 10 millions units for the record, and WSR (the only one
Not Flash 9 content ! (Score:4, Informative)
Although the updated Internet Channel identifies itself as a v9 Flash Player, it is actually still incapable of playing what anyone considers 'Flash 9 content' such as applications that use Adobe's Flex framework (or indeed anything that needs ActionScript 3).
It's really 'Flash Lite 3.1' as explained at http://www.adobe.com/products/flashlite/faq/
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If the software advertises itself as Flash 9, it better fucking be flash 9. Plain and simple.
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There are pretty much no new games for it.
That has been true of the wii for most of it's life, yet oddly...
I think it has peaked and is on the way down.
...it has a long way it would need to fall before it reaches the other two
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The game developers probably have realized that even though the Wii has a better market penetration, the people that have it at home just use it for WiiFit and similar stuff, not gaming. Nintendo is the only one gaining from the Wii sales.
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The Wii has the highest number of third party million sellers this generation.
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The Wii has the highest number of third party million sellers this generation.
Bullshit. 360 has 36 third party million sales games. Wii has only 19. Using stats from here [wikipedia.org] and here [wikipedia.org].
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Most of those third party sales on the 360 are emulated games or game remakes from older consoles or ports. As far as ACTUAL UNIQUE third-party games designed specifically for each console, Nintendo has Microsoft BEATEN solidly in the third-party maker section as far as games actually designed for the console, and not just emulated or ported.
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Most of those third party sales on the 360 are emulated games or game remakes from older consoles
Bullshit. None of those games are emulated or remakes. They were all games developed specifically for the 360. I love this shifting goalpost that came about once it was shown that the GP was false because Microsoft or the 360 always has to lose.
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None? really? FUCKING REALLY? What about the recent port/remakle of Marvel vs Capcom 2, eh? How about the most recent remake of the old NES 1942 for the 360? Trials HD is just a wannabe remake of fucking EXCITEBIKE for the NES with physics and 3D graphics.
Are you that out of touch with reality? Or are you just that young, given your incredibly high UID?
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He says none of those games are emulated or remakes
http://games.teamxbox.com/xbox-360/2248/Marvel-vs-Capcom-2/ [teamxbox.com]
http://games.teamxbox.com/xbox-360/1964/1942-Joint-Strike/ [teamxbox.com]
He's full of it and you're off on your google fu
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No google required.
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The Wii has the highest number of third party million sellers this generation.
No, there aren't enough good quality 3rd party games on the Wii for that.
But the Wii has the highest number of 3rd party games sold already worldwide, despite the XB360 having 1 year headstart on the market.
Re:The Wii is on the way down (Score:4, Insightful)
It may be that Nintendo do not supply guidelines in writing, but if the develoeprs had actually used a Wii before writing ther games, wii would not be faced with the POS tha is our limited choice. Several times we have gone out to buy games for a party or other excuse, and come back wiht dross because we felt obliged to buy *something*. Honestly, the Wii market is desperate for any new game that is playable.
I remain in home of a multi-player World Mapouka Championship, but I am not hlding my breath. (It it was released, I might end up holding some other part of my anatomy :-)
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World Mapouka Championship [youtube.com]
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Since Nintendo has to approve all games before they're brought to the market, that's mostly their fault.
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Give Okami a try. It was originally a PS2 game... but it was almost designed for the wii-mote while on the PS2, so the port made tons of sense, and it works out wonderfully. (You cast magic by drawing on the screen. Yes, even on the PS2 version)
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I've been playing Call of Duty: World at War on the Wii and I've been pleasantly surprised. I haven't played it on any other console (or on the PC) so I'll probably hear it from people who have but I've been real happy with the controls. I don't use any type of gun to play, just the wiimote with the nunchuck attached, and I really love the controls. I've played other Call of Duty titles on both other consoles and on the PC and I'd pick the Wii controls over them any day.
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TBH while the WiiMote was initially charming, I miss the old controllers for most of the games we ended up buying. I've even noticed on some games on the PS3 that I tend to hold the controller more vertical than horizontal when I play, and that can result in unexpected game actions.
Thus is the price of progress.
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You've never tried the Wii Fit with a snowboarding game, have you?
I've bought over 30 games for it since I bought my console at the end of February. I also finally got around to replacing my old tube tv with a 50" 1920x1080p plasma tv and sound system [slashdot.org] - not to watch TV, but so that when my friends come over, they can better enjoy playing games. That DVDs look much better is a nice bonus.
Game developers took a while to warm up to the Wii, but now there are tons of titles, and the MotionPlus makes a di
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They're fun all right. I just ignore the whole "thrust" business, since you inevitably lose speed when you pull back (and it's more fun to make a sharper turn by tilting sharply, then pulling back to reduce thrust, then pivoting the controller into the turn).
Everyone likes the sword game. Just the thing to take out your frustrations on your boss, your sibling, or your co-worker.
Ping pong is a blast with another person, as opposed to an AI opponent.
Even the bowling is better.
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The game developers probably have realized that even though the Wii has a better market penetration, the people that have it at home just use it for WiiFit and similar stuff, not gaming. Nintendo is the only one gaining from the Wii sales.
Actually, the game developers are going out of business, see their studio closed or are losing tons of money, while Nintendo, the only one making only good games for its console, rakes in the cash.
So to me that just means the game developers look mor like very stupid entities that deserve what happens to them.
Since the launch of the Wii, the choices are still the same: support the console correctly to go up, or go down.
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Re:The Wii is on the way down (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:The Wii is on the way down (Score:4, Informative)
Yes, there certainly is [wikipedia.org].
Re:The Wii is on the way down (Score:4, Informative)
Wii Fit Plus
Wii Sports Resort
Muramasa: The Demon Blade
Red Steel 2
New Super Mario Brothers
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles
+ a bunch of 360 ports that probably won't be as good.
+ a bunch of sports games that are better on the Wii thanks to the Wii Motion Plus.
Post Christmas there is:
Mario Galaxy 2
Metroid: Other M
No More Heroes 2
+ a bunch of 360 ports that probably won't be as good.
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I'm still not sure the motion plus is a good move. They should have put more effort into it.
Resort is fun, but the motion plus add-on is relatively easy to confuse. Wave a bit around, and your sword / table tennis bat can already be slightly off (or point in a completely different direction).
Grand slam tennis also supports the motion plus, but it is even worse than Resort (does work well without motion plus though).
I hope they
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It must be more common than you'd think. On the reverse sword stages, I get it a lot when doing a wide side-to-side sweep(it's good for getting cheap hits enemies on either side of your current opponent).
If I'm quick, I can get back into position and hit the down button to reset, but I've gotten hit a couple of times when the enemy recovered while my sword still thought I was committing hari-kari.
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Exactly. To the parent poster, I've got two motion plus add-on's, bought in different stores, both with this behaviour.
Another comment was about mp working fine with Tiger woods. I've had less difficulties with Tiger, but the same problem did occur every now and then. The problem seems to occur most often with game
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Yeah I know it is packed in with Wii Sports Resort and Tiger Woods 10, but if you get Resort you pretty much have to buy another Motion Plus since its predominately a multi player game. No thanks Nintendo, I've already blown enough on Wii peripherals for the time being.
The overwhelming majority of Wii Sports Resort games are "pass the controller,"-bowling, archery, Frisbee golf etc. The only one you really need a second controller for is sword fighting.
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BTW you can get all the iplayer content through the "all a-z" menus of catch up TV on demand. I generally find this to be a much more reliable route than the iplayer specific menus.
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Sounds like you need to bug virgin until they replace the box.
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I can't tell, did they do this deliberately? An update to Flash that makes it harder to view Flash sites, brilliant.
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Hulu was the first site I checked, and no, it doesn't work. Apparently Hulu used to work with Flash 9, but now requires Flash 10 (I have my suspicions this new requirement was added to prevent embedded browsers like the Wii's Opera from being able to use it).
However, there is software called "PlayOn" that will act as a UPnP server and stream Hulu content to the Wii. It's not free and requires Windows.
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So, Hulu is brain dead? (Score:2)
Wii or any console is advertisers and content providers dream. No popular adblock hacks, no "flash video ripping", no attention issues. Why would they take measures to prevent Wii browser to embed the videos? IMHO they should start coding a special Hulu for Wii right now.
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"enough of this crap. we want the zelda game intended for the wii and chrono trigger on virtual console. get off your fat asses plz plz"
Fuck that. I want the goddamned games that aren't a rehash of the same shit over and over and over again. Zelda's been the same damned thing since the N64. Chrono Trigger just got a DS rerelease. Metroid Prime Trilogy just got reported and re-coded to work flawlessly with the Wii.
To quote an old UPN commercial from the 90s - "BEEN THERE, DONE THAT, TIME FOR SOMETHING NEW! I
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It's coming, I'm sure. They're not stupid, and they know they can make money from it. But it takes time to adapt the engines to work with the Wii.
Case in point, I've had my Wii for almost 2 years now, and I just now broke down and bought my first Wii points card. Why? Because they finally got off their asses and released Secret of Mana. They have partnerned wi