Finally, after months and months of waiting and grabbing at any and every scrap of Nintendo news that comes across the internet, they've finally announced the release date and price point, as well as a few more insights into just what the Wii can do, and what the packages comes with.

Nintendo's Incomparable Wii Console Launches Nov. 19; MSRP $249.99 (nintendo)
Live from New York -- It's the Wii Conference (1up)
Wii cuts up the Big Apple (gamespot)

As you can see, it's scheduled for release in North America on November 19th, just in time for holiday purchases, and the suggested retail price is about $250. A little more expensive than I thought it would be, but compared to the Playstation 3 at $600 and the Xbox360 at $400? It's definately the best deal on the market. (Personally, I want an Xbox360, but I'm going to wait until Halo 3 is released. I'm going to try to acquire a Playstation 2, also, for a couple games, but I'm not going to get it new, and I'm not paying more than $75 for it.)

Of course, you're getting people who've been predicting a $200 price point for so long that they've begun to believe it, and now they're all hopping mad that "Nintendo said less than $250, and they do $249.99, the jerks!" The morons. Look, Nintendo said no MORE than $250, and everyone else took that far too liberally and predicted as low as $150 for crying out loud, and now they're upset that it's $250, and that it's too expensive and not competitive. What?! Not competitive?! Compared to what? The Sega Genesis? Luckily, there's enough level-minded people out there to put those whiners in their place and laugh at them for me.

There are going to be 4 million units shipped worldwide by the end of the year, with the majority being shipped to the United States, so Nintendo says that finding one won't be a problem. (Compared to 500,000 worldwide Playstations 3s, hahahahaha!!! Nice job, Sony!)

Wii Sports is going to be included in the package you're going to buy. Which, in my opinion, is perfect! I was going to get it anyway, because it's a neat little game that showcases everything the Wii can do, but now it's just coming in the package. The packages also comes with one Wii remote and nunchuk attachment, which was pretty much expected, but we were hoping for more than one. Additional Wii remotes will cost $40, and the nunchuck attachments will cost $20, and, obviously, sold separately. Not really happy about that... kind of expensive for a complete controller.

They also announced something they call Wii Channels. Currently, they have a channel for news articles, a channel for personal photos, a channel for making little avatars (for I don't know what, yet... probably to design characters for Wii Sports, for one), a channel for browsing the web, and a channel for WEATHER. Worldwide weather. On your TV. I don't know about you, but the weather channel sounds awesome! People have been pointing out that the Playstation 3 and the Xbox360 are both designed for more of a complete media center instead of just games. Playstation 3 is more like a useless computer you connect to your TV that happens to play games (bias? me?), Xbox360 is more of a game system that happens to do computery things, and then there's the Wii. Not a whole bunch of pointless junk. Primarily a ground-breaking gaming system with a pinch of miscellaneous gizmos to have infinite fun with. Nintendo in a nutshell.

So there you have it, folks. Save up your money and buy one come November! Hey... buy two!