Back of the Wii box sparks speculation

by Kevin Kelly on Oct 18th 2006 9:28AM

The good people at Wiixors snagged some decent shots of the back of the Wii box at an EB Games and, besides making us want one of our very own, it has caused a few rumors to pop up -- namely, what is the Wii Startup Disc?

The rumors seem to be split into several camps: One says it's nothing more than the Wii Sports disc; others say it's an OS disc; other still say it's the Wii Opera browser, some sort of tutorial, or something far more insidious ... like a firmware update. It's a mystery.

If it's just the Wii Sports disc, why wouldn't the box say that? There's already a huge notice on the front of the box proclaiming the Wii Sports disc to be inside, so what else could it be? What do you want it to be?

[Via GoNintendo]

Source

Tags: Box, Nintendo, Rumors, Speculation, Starup Disc, Wii, Wii Sports

Reader Comments (89)

Has anyone determined yet if the Wii remote requires calibration? Or how critical the positioning of the sensor bar is to the system. That could be considered "setup" Of course why wouldn't that be internal to the console. As a Wii skeptic, I have noticed Nintendo "omitting" several things over the past few months about the system, such as the little-mentioned Sensor Bar and the fact they don't even list the system specs on their site. Has anyone pulled one out of a box and set it up, in a non-kiosk, non-Nintendo rep filled enviroment?

15. again with the dissapointment. if they weren't trying to copy sony all the time.(web browser,vertical stand,firmware updates. you name the rest. and personally i think that miyamoto should shove the wiimote and wiisports up his ass.
what is nintendo trying to do be like the ipod .
ipod= idog,itunes,imac. i everything.
wii= wiimote, wiisports, wiigolf, wiisux. whats the deal is nintendo trying to establish themselves like the ipod. do they seriously think that they can win. HELLL NOOOO!!! zelda is the worst of their franchise, that can't even compete with resistance fall of man. even untold legends the worst looking ps3 game makes zelda looks pixalated.

Posted at 10:06AM on Oct 18th 2006 by NovaCharged

Joystiq please get rid of this little kid. All I see him post is the same repetitive negative comments.

I'll also say that it's a firmware upgrade. Nintendo said they would upgrade the firmware in the future... might as well get people started on it now.

Here's why I think it's Opera, and this "speculation" is partly Joystiq's fault, for not showing the rest of the box.

On the other half of the bottom of the box (see GoNintendo), there's an Opera Software logo.

What else could that mean?

weird. Strange stuffs in the french column (the second one).

They refer to the Wii as "de la console Wii" which in short is worded as "de la wii".

So for all thoses lines, you have "whatever de la wii". Except for the last one - which is not consistent with the rest as it says "du wii" where it should say "de la wii" as on all other lines.

Fake??!?

It's definitely a Super Paper Mario demo disc. If you didn't know this, you are dumb.

It's most certainly not anything like Opera, since for Opera to be useful, you have to have a net connection, which you could use to download the newest version of, you guessed it, Opera.

It seems very reasonable for it to be the firmware upate or even a os install disk. That way they can manufacture Wiis over several months while continuing to bug-fix the OS, then pump out 2 million disks in a day or two. CD/DVD production is by now a very fast and finely tuned process, whereas they needed as much lead time on Wii production as possible to meet demand.

Some of these ideas are just crazy. The fact is that the disc is actually a startup disc as it says. Each time you want to use it you insert the disc to turn it on. A buddy of mine at Nintendo's factory in Grenada said they had forgot to wire the power buttons in the first few million units and this was the best solution. So, insert the disc and poof it turns on and spits the disc back out. Oh, to turn it off you have to unplug it.

"again with the dissapointment. if they weren't trying to copy sony all the time.(web browser,vertical stand,firmware updates. you name the rest. and personally i think that miyamoto should shove the wiimote and wiisports up his ass.
what is nintendo trying to do be like the ipod .
ipod= idog,itunes,imac. i everything.
wii= wiimote, wiisports, wiigolf, wiisux. whats the deal is nintendo trying to establish themselves like the ipod. do they seriously think that they can win. HELLL NOOOO!!! zelda is the worst of their franchise, that can't even compete with resistance fall of man. even untold legends the worst looking ps3 game makes zelda looks pixalated."

My god, I sincerely hope that this is supposed to be sarcasm or whatever. Or a weak attempt at creating some nonsensical online persona. This post simply cannot be from a real person. It's too stupid for that.

I'm betting firmware update, as well.

"It's definitely a Super Paper Mario demo disc. If you didn't know this, you are dumb."

I know that wasn't a serious comment, but it has to be said that the rumor about that game being moved to Wii has been debunked.

its the wii sync disc, to sync all the wiithiings

probably a welcome video introducing the basics of Wii with Iwata and Miyamoto making funny faces and demonstrating some money-making machine.

Not to spark more controversy but...no one is perfect. Typos go out in books and stuff ALL the time!

No Wii sync...thats what the Syng button on the Wii controller is for!

Oh, and Kaz's lover up over on page one?

You're an idiot. Thanks for visiting the internet, now GTFO.

In addition to #51's comments, I'd say that even if Nintendo did go and flash all of the Wiis that have been produced with the updated firmware (as opposed to just shipping an DVD to do it) before shipping, it would be a good idea to have a "firmware backup DVD" which the Wii would still be able to run in the event that a firmware update later on down the road gets corrupted during a power loss, for example. This backup firmware could be in some ROM in the system, but that would be cost prohibitive and, like mentioned, couldn't be fine-tuned up until close to release, as could printing it on a DVD.

I'm going with the tutorial disk guess.

No need to put that kind of information into the limited storage space available... and putting interactive video footage showing you how to use it would be very helpful for having fun right away.

Firmware upgrade is not a bad guess either.

Either way, it's much ado about little.

I think the ones who keep saying it is the WiiI Sports disc actually work for EB/GS. only they are that blind to the big "Wii Sports" proclamation on the front. yep, i am a jaded customer of theirs. :)

Why can't it be the Wii sports disk. Whether it is blatantly displayed on the front does not matter, the "includes" blurb on the back almost always will list absolutely everything that comes in the box no matter what.

Just because Wii sports is displayed prominantly on the front doesn't mean they wouldn't display the title of the disk carrying it on the back. The Wii console itself is also very obviously displayed on the front as well and yet they also say it's there on the blurb.

If anything it is a disk containing Wii Sports, and a host of other things that could include stuff like:
Tutorial info, trailers of other games, firmware upgrade, Opera browser, etc.

I'm sure it's a "how to get started with your Wii!" type training demonstration. the controller is new, so likely this is some sort of interactive tutorial, plus likely some demos, etc.

I am almost sure it is the Wii sports disk. The only reason I think that is because it doesn't say "Wii Sports" anywhere on there.. And the only thing close to that is the start up disk.

50: "Du" and "De la" are gender dependent. "Disque Startup" is masculine while the others are feminine.

My bet is that it's a disc designed to help you set up the sensor, calibrate the controller, and anything else to that effect.

I would assume it's Wii Sports with a healthy dose of demos and videos. I would also assume that letting people play more Wii games would get them to buy more of them, especially if they just bought the console.

The CD: Debbie Does Wii.

perhaps something with the virtual console maybe? Or something that sets up the connect24?

I think it's a firmware disc. Maybe when you fire up the console for the first time it'll prompt you to insert the startup disc so that it can load the latest firmware, and then it'll pop it out and after that you're ready to go.

Dude, French is just completely fucked up.

I want it to be the NOC List.

dun-dun, dun-dun-dun, dun-dun...

It's probably a wizard. You pop that baby in and Fred Savage will guide you through the wonderful world of Video Armageddon and Super Mario 3.

It's obviously used to help you set up the sensor bar and such. How else are all the people who didn't even know about this thing going to set it up right? Much easier to have a video demonstration instead of reading something out of a manual.

My guess? A disk that will set you up with synching the Wii Remote and all that good stuff. After all, the Wii is so darn small it probably isn't included in the firmware.

Is it really that important? Who gives a crap what's on it? We'll all find out when it's released.

Why does it seem like evenyone's trying to deny that its a firmware update? Again, who cares if it is?

Follow the "Read" link...and check out the first picture on that site...Are those the guys fingers?!

Then HOLY ****! THAT IS ONE SMALL CONSOLE BOX!

Its a starter disc. Which happens to include the Wii sports games and the Opera browser.

I've got one of those boxes sitting next to me right now; I work at EB and since we got extra Wii boxes, my manager said I could take one home. If anybody wants any photos of the packaging from other angles or anything, let me know, and I'll see what I can do. It sure is pretty.

to #20 32_Footsteps

I don't see why that's suprising, since that's that the top people have been calling it all the time... but is it supposed to be "Nunchuck or "Nunchuk?

Didn't you guys know it was Zelda on that disc...

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Back of the Wii box sparks speculation

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