Thursday, September 21, 2006

Wii FAQ

We've had a lot of people asking about the Wii, its features and other related issues. Here's some of the common questions...

NOTE! All of this is subject to change! The only ones that know what's what for sure about the Wii is Nintendo. If they change their minds, there's nothing DVDBoxOffice can do other than match Nintendo.

1. What's in the box??
According to Nintendo, the Wii will come with the console, cables, and the sensor bar, one Wii remote and one nunchuk controller. One Wii game -- Wii Sports -- will also be included.

2. How many games will be availble at launch?
Hard to say at this point. Nintendo is guessing at around 30, including Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and Excite Truck. Confirmation on 3rd Party games is still pending.

3. Why do you only take visa for this?
As with many of our more expensive items, we prefer to use Visa so that we can make use of the added security offered our customers via the Verified by Visa process. This is especially important in this case as popular items are often the most often bought in fraudulent purchases.
If you are a long-time customer with only a Mastercard to your name, we may be able to accomodate you. Contact our customer service department for more information.

4. How do I buy additional controllers?
We've recently posted the Remote, the Nunchuck, and a points card (details on which are pending) on our web site. We'll be adding more as information comes in, so keep an eye on the site for the latest additions.

5. Why is shipping so much?
When we first made the Wii available for preorder on our site, an oversite on our part inflated the frieght charges associated with it. This has since been corrected. Also, because there was no official weight given at that time, we had to guess at how heavy it would be. That is also no longer the case.

6. Is the Wii Region Free
This is especially tricky, but rumour has it both ways right now. It's probably safest to assume not, as these things rarely are. More on this as details come in.

7. Will you have stock on launch day?
Early indication is that we will have a number of consoles available for shipment on the day of the launch. How many? Your guess is as good as ours. Could be anywhere from 0 to hundreds, we just don't know yet. We are committed to filling orders as quickly as we can, but if Nintendo comes up short of consoles on launch day, then it may take some time to fill all of our orders.

8. Will My Wii be shipped on the day of the launch?
Orders are filled on a first come, first served basis. Therefore, the sooner you place your order, the higher up in the queue you will be. If we are short-stocked on the day of the launch, then we may not be able to fill all our orders immediately. See question 7 for more information on that.

9. Are the contents/price/release date etc. subject to change?
Most definately. Yes. Without a doubt. Launches of this nature have been nototiously messy in the past. We are optimistic, however, that being directly linked to Nintendo will minimize this, but there can be no guarantees at any point in regard to pricing, shipping, releases, contents etc. As mentioned above, if Nintendo changes their mind, then there's nothing we can do.

10. Will the Wii play my GameCube games?
Yes.

11. How can I connect my Wii to the internet?
The Wii will come equipped with Wi-Fi capabilities, so I've you've got a Wireless Router in your home, you should be able to connect that way.

12. My dog ate my credit card! How do I order a Wii?
We will also accept payment via Wire Transfer. For more information please contact our customer service department.

13. (ooo... unlucky...) Will I need an adaptor to use my North American Wii in ?
Not too sure at this time. We'll let you know as soon as we can find out on this.


My brain is officially drained. If there's anything I've missed here, feel free to contact us for more information.

Last Updated Sept. 28

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately, the Wii is region-locked. NoA confirmed it. There's still some vagueness about how far this region-lock will go though.

Unknown said...

Negatory. I contacted Nintendo Norway and they said that the regions will be Japan, America and Europe.

Although under what category Australia and the rest of Asia go under I don't know.

Anonymous said...

Is there a way to know how many pre-orders have been taken already? And when the amount of units is known will that be divulged?

DVDBoxOffice.com said...

I could tell you that, at this moment, about 180 people have placed orders for the Wii, but there would be problems with that. That 180 people doesn't include the number of people that have the Wii in their shopping cart, but not confirmed their order yet. Some of these orders could be fraudulent, or declined, so there still, the number could be wrong. So there's really no way to be sure. I know that's a pretty lame answer, but that's the closest I can come to something specific.

In regards to how many units we'll have on launch, it's still up in the air, and will probably stay there until we get our shipment in November. We are certainly optimistic that we will be receiving an initial allotment numbering in the hundreds, but whether that will be 2 or 9 hundreds is anybody's guess at this time. And there's always the possibility of something happening in between today and launch day that would limit Nintendo's ability to fill what they've told us. If WalMart Canada decides to have a hissy fit about wanting more units, they may end up with theirs at our loss, as we are a comparitively much smaller fish.

Something to keep in mind, as well. I mention these things like WalMart having hissy fits and such not because I expect they will or anything, so don't let that deter you. It's a simple matter of making sure that you know that stuff can happen that can change a situation. This happened last year with the XBox 360, where Microsoft changed their minds about things, and we wore it because we weren't cautious enough from the start. We're playing it safe this time, even though the circumstances are much better as this time around we're working directly with Nintendo where we weren't direct before. We do this simply because we don't want to disappoint our customers. We'd much rather have happy surprises for them.

I hope this answers your question at least a little. Sorry for having to be so sketchy.

Stacey (DVDBO Blogmeister)

Anonymous said...

I have ordered a Wii and a game (Zelda). But I only need the game, if I get the Wii. What can I do that the game would only be shipped if I get the Wii? A game without the Wii makes no sense.

Anonymous said...

For the above poster:
Check "Group items into as many shipments as possible" on your order status page.

This typically means that they will fit as much into a box in one go as they can, waiting on as many items to be instock as possible. There should be no problems fitting a console and 1 game into a single box and they release on the same date, so you should be ok :)

For Australians:

Just make note that the sites conversion rates are at 1CAD-0.9AUD, when real rates are at 1CAD-0.83AUD.

If you can't be bothered, the Wii cost is actually $335AUD, not $310AUD. I know the site warns you against this but I also know how lightly some ppl take that warning.

It's roughly $435-440AUD to ship a Wii by itself. Not including customs tax, which you are very likely to be charged through DHL. Keep it in mind.

Of course if you bundle it with games, your overall total price will be cheaper than buying it locally (again not including customs). If you plan well into the future however, you'll save hunderds and hunderds on games for the total life time of the console.

If you don't currently know, Australian retail prices are as follows on Dec 7th:

Wii - $399.95AUD
Games 1st party - $99.95AUD
Games 3rd party - ?
Wiimote - $69.95AUD
Wiichuck- $29.95AUD

On a typical bundle, you can find yourself saving $19-30AUD (not inc customs).

Anonymous said...

Sorry that should say:

"Group items into as FEW shipments as possible"

heh

Anonymous said...

Is the manufacturers warranty still valid because they usually give 12 months but you only give 30 days what if there's a technical fault, like so many other console launch first shipments.
And if it is valid what do I do if there is a fault after the very substantial 30 days?

Anonymous said...

do you write down the value for shipments to europe? this is to minimize the risk of paying duty to our beloved swedish rip-off government.

Anonymous said...

Hi there, just to the anonymous poster talking about importation of the Wii for Australians..

Some good news for us! I believe it was a fair number of months ago now, but the legislation regarding the price threshold before customs go to town on you tax wise has changed.

Instead of the limit being $250 for goods arriving via couriers and $1000 for goods arriving by post, the threshold for couriers has now been upped to match that of the postal service @ $1000.

So for most Australians it will be very easy to import the wii and also avoid any extra customs duties or taxes! :)

I found the notice released by Australian customs here (it's a PDF) and the up-to-date general info on importing listed here also lists general info as well as the limits!

I hope that helps out anyone that was potentially worried about customs fees!

Anonymous said...

My apologies, the original PDF link that I linked to wasn't the actual declaration that they changed the thresholds, I didn't read that thorougly enough.

The one I was looking for was this one.

:)

DVDBoxOffice.com said...

To Martin: Re: Warrantee

Most faults occur right out of the box or with in the first 30 days.

So if a customer has trouble after 30 days they can contact us for help.

In most cases the cost of shipping both ways return and reshipping would be their responsibility.

Over the last 8 years the amount of defective hardware we have sold has been small to nil to say the least.


To Anonymous RE: Shipping values

As a retailer we must comply with international shipping and customs laws -- so yes, we do write down the value of all the goods we ship. Mind you, not all packages we ship are charged customs by all customs officials. Very often our packages are ignored as they look like regular old packages. The odds that your package will be inspected, however, increases with the use of couriered items. Then of course there's always the times when you're charged for no reason that you can fathom -- I once had to pay customs charges on a jacket that I had forgotten at a friend's house in the US. Go figure ;)

Anonymous said...

I noticed that the price of the Wii console and 2 of the games I have pre ordered have been reduced in price on the website. However, this price reduction is not shown in my open order history. Will I be charged the old price or the new sale prices?

Anonymous said...

The change in price was a glitch, they returned it to the previous price, all the orders that got it cheaper were updated to the original price.

Anonymous said...

When will you guys know ho amny systems you will get for launch and will you inform people with pre-orders if their order will be filled for lauch day?