14 DAY TRIAL // Video game hardware developer Nintendo has announced that a new, redesigned Wii home console will be launched before Christmas in Europe, part of a new bundle that includes the actual hardware, a controller and two games, Wii Party and Wii Sports.
The Official Nintendo Magazine in the United Kingdom is reporting that the new hardware will have significant changes and will no longer be backward compatible with GameCube video games, lacking the memory card slot and the ports for the older device.
It's not clear whether the new Wii is in any way faster than the older model or if it uses less energy.
The United Kingdom division of Nintendo has also announced that the old Nintendo Wii model will no longer be sold in Europe once the new one is introduced before Christmas.
For the moment the company has not talked about changing the price point of its home console but it might also do that in order to make it more attractive to those who might be thinking of waiting for the new Wii U to be launched before buying a Nintendo home platform.
Nintendo of America has issued a statement saying that, for now, it “does not currently have any plans to release the Wii bundle that was announced by Nintendo of Europe on Aug. 17.”
It's highly unlikely that Nintendo will change the Wii model on just one major market, which means that an announcement for the United States market might be made at a later date.
At the E3 2011 event the hardware developer has announced that it is planning to launch a new console, the Wii U, during next year.
The new platform will offer the same graphics performance as the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 and will have an innovative new controller which includes a touch screen as well as more traditional control schemes.