EDIT: It’s now Friday the 15th and Nintendo have made their European announcement. Although I was a little off with some predictions, the rest are unfortunately spot-on. A really late release of December 8th has me worried, but we’ll have to wait and see. Roll on the midnight launches!

With all the commotion this week about Nintendo’s Wii launch announcements, I’ve been pretty excited, not least about one very special game. Soon speculation will be over and we’ll know when we can get our hands on it, and what it’ll cost. And there’s the problem.

The Japanese will have to pay the equivalent of £113, a tremendously low price for a home console. The American equivalent is rumoured to be around £133, another extremely cheap option considering XBox 360 launched here for around £209 for the “base” system. I won’t even go into PlayStation 3′s predicted £300+ price.

Wait a second. I said this would be a problem, didn’t I? Yep, and it will be, because there’s no way we’ll get the console at these prices. If it came in much under £180 I’d be surprised.

On top of that, you’ll be wanting at least another controller so you can have as much fun as these crazy ladies. They’re retailing at $40 in America, which is just over £20. That’ll be another £40 please, man on the street.

I suppose you’d also like a game to play on it. Despite the fact Wii games are said to be much cheaper to develop than on rival consoles, Nintendo presumably want to cover the losses they’ll make on the hardware by selling software at £40-£50 a time. If Microsoft can do it, why not Nintendo? It’s only fair.

Watching today’s Wii footage, I honestly believed – and still do – that Wii will change the way we play games. One of its assets is that “pick up and play” ethos that drove the DS to great heights. The thing is, and this is me being a bit cynical and trepidacious about the whole thing, will it change games for the better? Fair enough, I couldn’t swing a golf club on the Dreamcast, but I can’t play Shenmue on the Wii. I do worry that longer, deeper games simply won’t have a home there, especially with the work required for third party developers to transfer high-profile projects.

The main problem with the price point is that it has to be balanced. There are those that will see the concept and want in – families and the elderly, if Nintendo are to be believed – but there will also be those that want to take their experience deeper rather than wider.

I would love nothing more than to play four-player Wario Ware: Smooth Moves with my best friends, or even my parents, but do I fancy shelling out the £100+ to buy the controllers? Not particularly, no.

That’s enough cynicism, though. I should take joy in the little things, like creating a cartoon avatar – called a “Mii”, which I love – that levels up the better you get at games. I hereby copyright the phrase “It’s a Mii!”
I love the fact it has a built-in weather channel.

I’m excited that I’ll be able to play Harvest Moon and Animal Crossing in new ways.

It can send photos and text messages to mobile phones, as well as communicate with other Wii owners, both within the home and outside it via WiiConnect24. Sounds like a personal, proper message board.

Yet the thing I’m most excited about is buried somewhere in the Wii launch footage Nintendo previewed today. A glimpse of the most wonderful WarioWare minigame imaginable; a true classic gaming moment updated using Wii technology.

Using the remote to push fingers into a 3D nose gets me quivering with excitement.

I am listening to Innervisions by Stevie Wonder