Nov 19, 2006 2:43 am US/Pacific
Fans Line Up For New Nintendo Wii
LOS ANGELES (CBS) ―
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The Nintendo Wii features a wireless controller.
The videogame campers aren't gone just yet - the more well-behaved fans of the Nintendo Wii game console are lined up and ready to buy it at midnight.
More than 500 gamers lined up Saturday at the GameStop store at Hollywood's Universal CityWalk, among other area outlets, in anticipation of the midnight release, and at Best Buy on La Brea Avenue in West Hollywood, where a line began forming Friday.
Unlike the limited release of the $600 Sony Playstation 3, which sparked melees at some outlets that had many more customers than consoles, Nintendo says it has enough of their units to satisfy expected demand.
To avoid the kind of chaos that caused fistfights and stampedes at stores in Palmdale and West Covina, among other places, GameStop was handing out wristbands to customers to reserve their toys. One Nintendo fan paid $100 to get a place in line.
The Wii is a more affordable console, costing about $250, less than half of the premium PS3 and still less than the $400 top-end Microsoft Xbox 360. Old school gamers will still be able to play their classic Nintendo games such as Super Mario and Donkey Kong on the new Wii.
Another difference is the wireless and fully interactive Nintendo game controller, which allows players to throw punches in boxing games or swing air tennis rackets or baseball bats in other simulated games.
It also has touch-screen and voice recognition capabilities, although it lacks the high-definition graphics that the competing game devices have.
Like the new Playstation, some customers said they plan to sell the new toys on the Internet auction site eBay, where the consoles are expected to fetch $600 and more -- the $600 PS3 was selling at four times the retail price on eBay.
Nintendo intends to ship 4 million Wii consoles globally by the end of the year, twice the number of available Playstation3s.
(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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