Black Wiimote Coming to North America

Nintendo is clearly very fond of white. When the Wii home gaming console was initially launched in 2006, the Japanese manufacturer was talking about offering it in a variety of colors, including eye-popping red and mellow green, but it took it about 3 years just to move away from white and towards the other non color, black, so it could be that those looking for a red Nintendo Wii might have to wait until around this time of the year in 2012.

At the moment, all those interested in a cooler-looking motion-tracking console might pick up a fully black Wii, complete with all the peripherals and the newly launched Wii Motion Plus add on, in Japan, but the company has refused to make an announcement related to any other market.

Now, Nintendo has announced that it will bring a black Wiimote, a black Motion Plus, a Classic Controller and a Nunchuk to North America in time for the Christmas shopping season. Prices are not yet announced but customers looking for the cool look need to be prepared to shell out a little bit more than for the regular version of the peripherals.

It's a bit weird to talk about launching black peripherals but not at all about the possibility of releasing the black Wii in North America or in Europe. One of the reasons might be that Nintendo is simply not producing enough of them to satisfy potential demand.

Another possible explanation is that the company, which could be facing more competition from both the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 as a result of the price cuts announced by Sony and Microsoft, might be keeping the unveiling of a black Nintendo Wii, maybe with an added price cut, as something to present to the public in October or November to woo back customers.