Nintendo World Store Manager: "Enough [Wii] for walk-ins as well."

by Alexander Sliwinski { Oct 28th 2006 at 4:00PM }

Joystiq recently had the opportunity to spend time with New York City Nintendo World Store Manager, Paul Gonzalez, and unlike the marketing-jargon spin-meisters we typically deal with, Gonzalez was refreshingly forthright.

Gonzalez told us Wii pre-orders for the November 19 launch will certainly be filled, and there will be "enough for walk-ins as well." We gave him a chance to take back that quote -- last thing we want to do is get him fired -- but he backed it up saying, "I'm not expecting to sell out on Sunday. Monday -- no promises."

There are currently no playable Wii demos available at the store. Gonzalez said they are expecting them the first week of November and an email blast will be sent out letting people know.

Gonzalez is happy to see that the Wii is bundled with Wii Sports, "It's the best way to explain the system. It is a great tutorial ... I enjoyed the boxing, you got your rights and lefts in there, it's certainly a work out." And what about Zelda: Twilight Princess? "Zelda is good, there's a bit of a learning curve." He went on to say conceptually the gameplay is all so new, but players will get used to it.

Specific Nintendo World store Wii launch details will be released next week.

See also: Nintendo Fusion Tour: Nintendo World store video

Gonzalez also put to rest a random rumor that he had heard and people have consistently asked him. Does the Wavebird controller receiver point in the wrong direction, making it impossible to use on the Wii due to the flap? He opened up the Wii display unit and had an employee bring over the Wavebird receiver -- it would have been the design error of the year -- but the Wavebird receiver does point in a direction allowing it to be used on the Wii. You can also see that your Gamecube memory cards stick in the top of the Wii behind a second flap. Essentially, once the flaps come up, the top of the Wii is the same as the front of the Gamecube.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

MysticX @ Oct 28th 2006 4:14PM

All I wanna know is will PAL games be in 576p or will they be in 480p? Since we have a higher SD resolution then you yanks. That would be awesome, then all of a sudden american graphic whores would be importing PAL games to the U.S. which would increase sales ALOT! Here´s hopin.

BTW, where do I put that password thingy to make these comments? Instead of the email or what?

ImCowman @ Oct 28th 2006 4:17PM

I AM WAITING ALL NIGHT THERE!!

I was really upset I never got a preorder anywhere, so i was gonna wait in a line at some random store. But now that I can do it at Nintendo World.....WOW im going there.

Mr. Khan @ Oct 28th 2006 4:23PM

Perhaps this is a foreshadowing of Nintendo being able to keep up with demand, since their experience with DS Lite shortages (maybe they're starting to learn lessons)

Where is that article? The one that said they would have 10 million Wiis produced by the end of their fiscal year...

It would be good if they could compete with 360 sales numbers over this holiday season

And MysticX, your not alone, i tried all sorts of ways to implement the password, none of them worked, and in the end i just gave up (this was immediately after they implemented the feature), Also, 480p would make no sense in the PAL, why would you pay MORE to buy a cable to scale the resolution DOWN from 576i?

Being that these companies all seem to pull those kind of bonehead moves, it may happen, but i doubt.

MysticX @ Oct 28th 2006 4:27PM

What I´m saying is that US gamecube has the native resolution: 720x480i/p, but PAL has/should have: 768x576i/p. So I would much more like the PAL version of 576p!!!

FuzzyPickles @ Oct 28th 2006 4:41PM

F*ck yeah, I'm getting Wii at launch.

Unless, of course, the whole effen city is in line ahead of me.

Brandon @ Oct 28th 2006 4:42PM

I'm glad to hear him say there is a learning curve for Zelda. The gameplay is great in every title so far, but it's time to ramp up the difficulty a little. Fighting common enemies has gotten too easy in many cases.

Vlad @ Oct 28th 2006 4:51PM

I'm still trying to decide if I should get the Wii or GC version of Zelda to play on my Wii. I'll probably go with Wii, because it's so new and it's the "killer app" at launch, but i'm still a little wary. we'll see.

Wii Sports FTW!

natureboy46 @ Oct 28th 2006 5:00PM

This is good news. I missed out on the pre-orders at NWS and after hearing about the lines outside all the Toys R Us stores already I figured I wouldn't be getting a Wii this year.

I wonder why they stopped taking pre-orders though? If they have so many units you'd think that they could have left a few more for pre-order.

Good news about the Wavebird, although I couldn't possibly imagine that it would not fit in the first place.

Hyperfludd @ Oct 28th 2006 5:19PM

YES!!!!!!

I WAS WAITING FOR THIS INFORMATION!!!

Im camping on saturday morning :D

slacker @ Oct 28th 2006 6:19PM

couple of things. i hate the smurf like games on nintendo. but due to my 360 red ring of death fiasco and ps3 charging even more than the already super expensive360. there is a good chance i will be jumping on the Wii bandwagon. it is a sad day for me.... but thank god nintendo gives us a 3rd option.

Jose @ Oct 28th 2006 6:22PM

I don't know what the Nintendo World Store looks like, as I've never been there (probably because I've never been to NYC), but I was just wondering how a department store like that, which I have seen through videos on yourtube of events held therein, how will you have Wii's on display during all business hours with so many windows. I've heard a few times that sunlight interferes with the motion sensing. That won't be a problem in our dark basement bedrooms, and when trying to impress a date after hours once the sun's gone down and before we get the chance to, but I wonder still.

Reeve @ Oct 28th 2006 6:33PM

My fiance reserved us a Wii at Nintendo World awhile ago, so we're all set (and FuzzyPickles, yes we are!). So glad to hear the good news about the Wavebirds; it was something I had been wondering about myself.

See you at Ninty World on launch day! ^_^

Azkridth @ Oct 28th 2006 6:51PM

Oh lawd! I hope I can go and preorder mine! When I went to other game stores, the preorders were all taken D:. Wish me luck.

John Chamard @ Oct 28th 2006 7:27PM

I too am curious about the differences in Zelda, to the point where I may get both.

VanGuardian1 @ Oct 28th 2006 9:23PM

I'm only aware of 3 differences between the Wii version of TP and Gamecube version.

1) Controllers. (can't use gamecube controllers on Wii version, can't use gamecube controllers on Wii version)
2) Widescreen support : Wii has it, gamecube doesn't (I don't think playing the gamecube version on the Wii would offer it, but I could be wrong)
3) Improved Graphics. They said during E3 since the Wii was a bit more powerful that they upped the graphics a bit and improved some textures as well, but don't expect a massive difference, visually. Extra disc space helps. ;)

I haven't heard of any other differences, but considering Wii's online situation, it's possible that nintendo could make a few "online" offerings for it. And you may need the Wii version of Z:TP for it (I don't think the gamecube's memory card was designed for downloadable content).

VanGuardian1 @ Oct 28th 2006 9:27PM

edit : can't use 1 version's controls on the other. :p

Also, they've never made official mention of supporting other controllers other than the wii-mote/nunchuck for the Wii version of Z:TP. So that's currently up in the air.

Snap @ Oct 28th 2006 9:36PM

Apparently there is no fishing mini-game on the GC version of TP either.

Still not sold on the Wii quite yet. Gonna wait and see how it plays out in the "real" world first.

JPRacer @ Oct 28th 2006 10:27PM

It's difficult to see the difference between 480i/p and 576i/p but it's not difficult to see the difference between 60Hz and 50Hz. I'll sacrifice resolution for better refresh rate.

FuzzyPickles @ Oct 28th 2006 10:59PM

I'm just concerned about the camera controls, mostly, since I trust Nintendo that everything else would be ironed out. With OOT and MM, free camera didn't matter because I didn't know it was an option yet... but with WW, I only use the free camera and never the auto one... I don't know if that's enough to convince me to grab the GCN instead, though.

Walt's Ghost @ Oct 29th 2006 1:28AM

The European Wii supports PAL 50hz (576i), PAL 60hz(480i), and EDTV/HDTV (480p).

JulyFlame @ Oct 29th 2006 7:37PM

Well, that's all well and good.

Nice to know even if you didn't preorder you still have the chance to get one right then.

DCSimian @ Oct 30th 2006 9:49AM

Hope other retailers will have plenty in stock for walk-ins...living in DC, the nearest Nintendo World Store is 4 hours away :p Just keep in mind that you don't necessarily have to get the system from your local EB, Gamestop, etc...dedicated game stores. Reminds me of when World of Warcraft came out...went to the local Gamestop...all out. CompUSA was down the road, so I went there...had it in stock...I was happy :)