Official press release - Everybody Votes channel

A brand new channel launches today for the Wii Menu providing a quick, easy and fun way to cast your answers to a multitude of different questions. The Everybody Votes Channel allows you to compare and contrast your opinions with those of friends, family and people from across the globe. With a regularly updated supply of new questions to ponder, this is a great way to discover not only differences between you and your family, but also between your country and others!

?If you have ever wondered whether many other people share the same opinions, preferences, likes or dislikes as you, then the Everybody Votes Channel is a quick and easy way to quell those curiosities? says Laurent Fischer, Marketing Director, Nintendo of Europe. ?From whether people believe in aliens to what they would do if they had 1 million Euros, this quirky but addictive channel lets you find out what others think as well as being a great discussion starter with family and friends!?

Cast Your Vote

This latest addition to the Wii Menu features different general poll questions for users to answer. Three questions will always be offered. These will then closed after a week and updated with new ones. When accessing the main page of the Everybody Votes Channel, users will be greeted with the current polls open and can then register their votes by clicking on their chosen one.

Within hours of the poll closing, the latest regional results of the poll will be made available and will be displayed for each region of the relevant country. Vote ratios for each question will be displayed on the Channel using hundreds of Miis to represent the different votes.

The previous twelve polls that a player has voted on are archived so they can check back on them after they have closed. Each time a new poll closes, if the user has voted on it, it is added to the archive and the oldest one on there is deleted.

In addition to casting a vote, users can also predict the outcome of the poll. Every correct prediction will be added to the player’s profile and used to calculate how tuned in they are with general public opinion, which is shown in the ?How Tuned In Are You? ? section.

Fun For the Entire Family

Users are able to register a total of six different players on each Wii console using Mii data and names from the Mii Channel, meaning that each member of the household can have their own say on a poll. The Everybody Votes Channel records all of the votes cast by a player and allows them to check their opinions against those of their family using vote results as well as their ?How Tuned In Are You?? results. This allows users to compare numbers of consecutive wins and overall wins versus losses recorded.

Worldwide Polls

As well as providing three different sets of general poll questions each week, the ‘Everybody Votes Channel’ also features worldwide poll questions. These are set twice a month and run for approximately two weeks, with live result updates appearing just hours after the vote closes.

Miis illustrate the global vote ratio and a bar graph shows the results for each different country globally. Players can sort these results by vote percentage, country or in order of prediction accuracy.

Have Your Say

An additional feature of this channel is the ?Suggest a Question? section, which allows players to suggest a poll topic they would like to see on the service. Each player is allowed to make up to one suggestion a day, the best of which may be converted into a poll question by Nintendo.

Everybody Votes Channel is the latest addition to the Wii Menu and can be downloaded for free from the Wii Shop Channel. The Wii Menu is the starting point for all of the console’s functions and offers a gateway to a rich variety of entertainment options. When connected to a TV, the Wii Menu offers a simple interface letting users pick games to play, receive news and weather reports, view and send photos or even create playable caricatures of themselves to use in actual games. Additional functions allow users to download classic games to Wii’s Virtual Console.

Source: Nintendo press release email

Official Nintendo Press Release - Wii News Channel

As the options for news multiply, Nintendo is putting a simple solution for straight news right in the palm of your hand-in the form of the Wii Remote™. The News Channel, free to Wii™ owners, will debut on the console’s Wii Menu beginning tomorrow, Saturday, Jan. 27. Using the international resources of the Associated Press, the News Channel gives you key stories in multiple categories from across the country and around the world.

“What Wii has done for video gaming, we hope it will also accomplish for news,” says Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime. “Just by pointing at your TV screen, you become your own interactive editor, instantly accessing the latest headline stories, whether they originate in Kansas City or Kyoto.”

“The Associated Press is always looking for innovative ways to expand its audience for news and information,” said Jane Seagrave, vice president and director of AP’s digital division. “The Wii News Channel extends our global reach even further, on yet another platform, offering our news to people who otherwise might not see it.”

The simple user interface allows Wii owners to spin a virtual globe and point to the location of a news event using the Wii Remote. Stories will be listed under headings including Business, Sports, Arts/Entertainment, Technology and Science/Health to allow users to quickly access information in the order they want. At any given time, dozens of stories might be available for each category. In the global view, stories can be grouped by region instead of category. Icons show which stories have been read, which stories are text-only and which ones come with news photos. Because Wii caters to all different ages, the interface allows users to change the size of the text. By using the “always-on” system functionality of WiiConnect24™, stories will be updated frequently, even while owners are sleeping.

More About: Nintendo, Press Release, Wii News Channel

Datel confirmed that it’s working on a new version of their FreeLoader utility to allow Nintendo Wii owners to play Wii games from any territory.

“All we can say at present is watch this space - we’re working on it, and if it’s possible, you’ll be the first to know”, says Datel.

The same post also confirms that the GameCube versions of FreeLoader and Action Replay also work on Wii, allowing gamers to play GameCube games from any region on their Wii. Obviously, these GC versions of Freeloader and Action Replay will only allow you to play import GameCube games and not Wii games, so don’t even try it.

More About: FreeLoader, Nintendo, Wii

It was reported from David Yarnton of Nintendo UK that Nintendo of America’s Perrin Kaplan made an error regarding the Nintendo Wii being Region Free. Well it turns out the boss was right, Nintendo of America confirmed today that the Wii will not be Region Free at all.

source: 1up

More About: Nintendo Wii, not be Region Free

The central menu of the Nintendo Wii, is not more than simple, smooth, and intuitive variable menu in that we can sail between the channels available. Its a variable menu because it is personalizeable

Now Lets see The Wii Channels:
Disk Drive Channel
Go here to start up Wii and GameCube games.
Wii Disk Channel Video

Picture Channel
Access the pictures that are stored away on your SD Memory Card. The Wiimote is used to shrink and enarge pictures by moving the controller away and towards the screen. You also have access to image modification tools including paint brushes and paint buckets, and can view your images as a slide show.
WiiPhoto Video

Internet Channel
Go here to access the Opera internet browser. In addition to supporting flash (making this a step up from the DS browser), the browser uses the Wiimote to zoom in and out. The browser will normally cost money, but Nintendo will make it available for free download until June of 2007.
Wii Internet Channel Video

Weather Channel
This free weather service requires an internet connection. In addition to daily weather based on region, you also have access to a weekly forecast. The service gives you a view of the Earth, which you can rotate to access different regions.
WiiWeather Video
News Channel
The latest news is automatically updated and viewable through this free service, which also requires an internet connection. The new channel is said to have “functions indicative of a game machine.” Users can also change the font size for easy viewing.
WiiNews Channel Video
Avatar Channel
In this channel, you create your own avatar, which is referred to as a “Mii.” Your Mii is used in Wii games (as in Wii Sports) and can be transferred to your Wiimote and used on other Wii consoles. Nintendo chief software producer Shigeru Miyamoto commented at Nintendo’s Japanese Wii press conference that this is a feature he’s always wanted to have.
MiiChannel Video

Virtual Console Channel
The unloaded classic games for the Virtual Console are in the main menu of Wii
Virtual Console Channel Video

More About: Nintendo Wii, Wii Channels

As we reported before Nintendo Wii will be Region Free!

During the 12 Sep Nintendo conference they announced that Wii is now confirmed to be REGION FREE on First-Party, Third-party it is up to them to lock or not.

More About: Nintendo Wii, Region Free, Nintendo, Wii

One of the most anticipated features of Wii is its game download service, dubbed the “Virtual Console.” .

Using this Virtual Console service, users will have the ability to download and play many or all Nintendo-produced NES/Famicom, SNES/Super Famicom, and N64 games for a small fee.
More notably, some games may offer free retro downloads as a bonus for the purchase. Nintendo has also announced that games developed for the Sega Genesis and TurboGrafx 16 consoles will be offered via the Virtual Console download service.

While the gameplay will be the same for all of the retro titles offered via the Virtual Console, Nintendo has stated that some of the games may be improved with sharper graphics or better framerates. In addition, gamers may be able to download games that were not originally released in their region, and some multiplayer games may be playable online, if it is technically possible.The Virtual Console service will not be used exclusively for retro games, however. Nintendo has stated that they are interested in using the service to distribute new, original content.

According to a Japanese press release, “all downloaded games will be stored on the 512 [MB] flash memory built into the system”. To prevent illegal copying, downloaded games will feature a proprietary DRM system