A few points for the people asking what is so special:

1. The are contactless chargers - click the link to see one without the wiimote, it has no visible contacts.

2. The wiimote can be charged without removing the jacket

3. They charge via AC power, not Wii USB port, and can have up to four units linked in series.

So yes, while there are many other charging docks on the market, these have a few unique selling points that might make them worthwhile.

I have a couple of USB charging docks that I bought in China that do the job, but I'm not 100% happy with them for exactly these reasons. IE- I need to use an alternative back plate to make them work and I can't use jackets because they won't fit in the dock.

Three sea shells

Is the purpose of prison punishment or rehabilitation? I guess it depends on how right-wing you are. Ideally it should be a balance of both: punish you for your crimes and rehabilitate you into society.

Video games certainly have the potential to be used for rehabilitation purposes.

And remember, one of the people in this article is in jail for walking around naked. Hardly a danger to society. So what if some wierdo hippy gets to play a little ProEv while he's in the slammer?

@41 - Those $40 DVD players are manufactured by dodgy chinese companies that don't pay their licence fees to the MPEG group. Every DVD enabled device is required to pay patent licencing fees to the MPEG group, something along the lines of $20 per device.

the difference between $250 and $270 is significant in the eyees of the consumer (but let's not get onto the whole thing about nintendo making a profit at launch). It's not inconceivable that DVD playback could be included as a WiiShopping Channel purchase, for those who actually want it. $25 worth of Wii points would satisfy the MPEG group and cover nintendo's costs, and only those who really want it would have to pay for it.

Just theorising.

Well, the disappointment felt by Europeans on this issue is down to the fact that we tend to get fewer games, often much later than the US and Japan. A quick look at DS releases, some real gems have been out for some time in other regions, but are still waiting for release over here.

I understand, EU games need localisation. Most games are released in six languages over here. But it still means that the experience of owning a DS in the UK or other EU countries is inferior to the USA and Japan. All signs point to it being a similar situation with the Wii (compare the launch/launch window lists in the earlier joystiq post).

I had thought about buying a local Wii, but importing games and peripherals, as I have done with my DS lite (my DS phat was a JP version), but now it appears I'll be stuck with a local Wii and the inferior local release structure. Oh well! I might still buy my additional controllers from asia, to cut costs a little.

Well, looks like I'm going to have to wait and see how things pan out. I had been planning on getting one at launch, but the vagueness over region encoding (1st party: no; 3rd party: maybe) and not knowing about the localisation of the UI, means I'll have to hold on with my final decision. If it's completely region free AND has UI language selection, then I'll be getting mine from asia.

I did this with my first DS (phatty). Bought a Japanese version from a shop in China, significantly cheaper than the UK. Since all DSes are basically the same, all I needed to do was switch the language and buy a UK AC adaptor. I may end up doing the same with the Wii, once all the info comes out.

Also, to answer the comment earlier, the price quoted on nintendo.co.uk is £29 for a wiimote, £14 for a nunchuk. That's £43, compared to the US price of £32 at current rates. Even with VAT the US price only comes to £37.

Of course, so many factors play a part in deciding global pricing, but the most important factor is how much people are willing to pay in each territory. If Nintendo have set pricing at this level in the UK, it's because they know that we'll pay it.

rf - those numbers are in megaBITS, not megaBYTES. Divide those numbers by 8 to get a better idea of their size.

ie: 128mb = 16MB, 256mb = 32MB, 512mb = 64MB, 1gb = 1024mb = 128MB.

#22 - rumble and force feedback are not the same thing. Rumble is indiscriminate, where FF is directional (eg. Steering wheel giving resistance on tight turns, or a light-gun with recoil mechanism).

With regards to batteries - the DS and GBAsp use rechargable Li stick batteries, offering a pretty long play time and a pretty short charge time. I can't imagine the Wiimote using much more power than the DS (2 screens, 2 processors, 2 speakers, wifi vs. giro, accelerometer, rumble, speaker, wifi). I think it would be reasonable if there were charging ports with which to trickle charge overnight. If you play from a full charge to a flat battery in one session, well ... I think you need to get some fresh air and reassess your priorities.

I'd prefer to have a seamless power system like my DS, rather than a battery bay that can slip off or break over time, or leave me fumbling with AAs when all I need to do is plug it in for a while.

Hey joystiq guys! there's a duff "strong" tag in this article (, in North America and Europe,) making the whole of joystiq go bold.

Just FYI.