Retail Radar: Wii gears up

Accessories for Nintendo's next-gen console spring up on online retailers' sites; memory cards, travel cases, and controller glove listed.

The excitement and hype surrounding a console launch is like chum for peripheral makers. In addition to store-built bundles, the first few months of a console are prime-time feeding grounds to earn a few extra bucks on early hype.

The Wii is heading into stores sometime later this year (details of the system's launch date and price are expected this month), and some new accessories for the console have been listed on the Web sites of EB Games and GameStop.

Unfortunately, most are of the vanilla variety, with travel bags and memory cards making up the bulk of the lot. However, it does give gamers a possible look at what various items will cost.

The most interesting item in the bunch is the Wii Controller Glove, which retails for $9.99. There's no product description, but given the focus on the Wii's controller, it's likely a protective sheath for the Wii-mote. Also listed without a description is a Wii Storage & Protection 1.0GB Kit for $69.99. Filed under the category "Storage & Travel" and carrying the "1.0GB" in its title, one would presume the product is some form of hybrid carrying case and memory card--or simply just a bundle featuring both.

Speaking of memory cards, SanDisk has some Wii-branded SD cards for the console, in both 512MB and 1GB sizes. They'll retail at $39.99 and $59.99, respectively. By comparison, memory units for the Xbox 360 are available in 64MB and 256MB capacities and retail for $39.99 and $59.99, respectively.

Also listed is a Wii Game Wallet for $9.99, a Wii Sling Bag for $29.99, and a Wii G-Pak Travel Case for $29.99. For what it's worth, all items have ship dates of November 1. However, online retailers typically must give items with tentative releases solid dates for data-entry purposes.

206 Comments

  • rarson

    Posted Sep 22, 2006 9:29 pm PT

    "umm.... its sept. and nobody still dont know how much it cost...."

    What, the Wii? That's been all over the place: $250 with a Wii Sports pack-in.

    Man, I saw controller glove and I was thinking Power Glove all over. I was hoping they meant "glove controller." Hehe...

  • xboxps2cube

    Posted Sep 11, 2006 3:51 pm PT

    umm.... its sept. and nobody still dont know how much it cost....

  • Dinghy_Dog

    Posted Sep 11, 2006 3:20 pm PT

    nice junk

  • dell900

    Posted Sep 11, 2006 3:12 pm PT

    sweet! ya yia!

  • --MasterLink--

    Posted Sep 11, 2006 2:17 pm PT

    Sweet accessories.

  • superarmcannon

    Posted Sep 10, 2006 10:47 pm PT

    The Wiimote glove is a good idea

  • Goldthumb

    Posted Sep 10, 2006 7:51 pm PT

    okay accessories..... i dont care i want the system. :-)

  • ssjtrunks6

    Posted Sep 10, 2006 6:14 pm PT

    I sure do wish the wii would be coming out with more games than it already has planned to come out... just like nintendo.. they focus more on asseccories than games, and memory cards, this is the only new gen game console that does not use a hard drive

  • Reecosun

    Posted Sep 10, 2006 10:30 am PT

    hahahaha this is funny cos Xbox is like the most expensive thing i've see except for the ps3 lol i can't wait till i get my wii COMMON RED STEEL

  • _Sam_

    Posted Sep 10, 2006 9:58 am PT

    sounds great

  • grenadier53

    Posted Sep 10, 2006 9:47 am PT

    Doesn't Nintendo think that this is way to much assesorising? I do not need some kind of Wii controller glove or a Wii Sling bag. The memory cards seem awesome (better than Microsoft), all the more reasons to buy a Wii. Good job Nintendo, keep it up!

  • selfaware_robot

    Posted Sep 10, 2006 9:24 am PT

    I'm getting a 512mb memory card and a Wii game wallet

  • jmegasite

    Posted Sep 10, 2006 7:56 am PT

    The Memory Cards are going to be awesome!!!

  • jmac777

    Posted Sep 10, 2006 7:04 am PT

    Yay..Wii gear is READY...yay....Hmm...when is the SYSTEM COMING OUT>>>THOUGH>>>(ANSWER ME NINTENDO>>>WHY HAVE YOU FORESKAEN ME>>>)(Just Kidding)

  • Zero254

    Posted Sep 9, 2006 10:03 pm PT

    The internet has egotisical people on it.
    What else is new?
    Sony sucks? They are still in business though.
    Nintendo is crappy? Well they are still popping out good games.
    Microsoft sucks bad? Then don't use their products. These accsories will be cool.

  • tenczas9

    Posted Sep 9, 2006 6:13 pm PT

    pardon my french........"who the *beeeeeeep* wants these accessories!?!?!? Give us the freakin console, not this junk! Instead of stocking shelves with this, save room for more wii's.

  • tenczas9

    Posted Sep 9, 2006 6:13 pm PT

    pardon my french........"who the *beeeeeeep* wants these accessories!?!?!? Give us the freakin console, not this junk!

  • locoskier77

    Posted Sep 9, 2006 3:25 pm PT

    I wonder if third party companies will make different verions of a wii-mote. For instance maybe a light up controller. AND as corny as this may sound a universal wii-mote might be kinda cool. ^_^

  • asus91

    Posted Sep 9, 2006 2:02 pm PT

    I want the WII. Really NOT EXPENSIVE compere to the other systems (the system and the accessories. GO NINTENDO

  • Gobo666

    Posted Sep 9, 2006 12:51 pm PT

    I realy want my WII!! And I'll take my accessories to boot!

  • -KoN-

    Posted Sep 9, 2006 11:49 am PT

    S0NY SUCKS!

  • gforce85

    Posted Sep 9, 2006 9:20 am PT

    I want a Wii man-bag! And a sheath for my controller! WiiiI!

  • Kevin_Kaniff

    Posted Sep 9, 2006 6:25 am PT

    According to Jack on Lost, the Wii games will cost the same as gamecube games.

  • Funky_Llama

    Posted Sep 9, 2006 2:52 am PT

    According to Play.com, Wii games will cost £50 ($93).

  • pepechidoone

    Posted Sep 8, 2006 7:58 pm PT

    there's some nice stuff

  • isher123456

    Posted Sep 8, 2006 7:46 pm PT

    wow!

  • Jebril

    Posted Sep 8, 2006 5:01 pm PT

    The Wii will not own or pwn the 360 and PS3 in terms of hardrive because claiming that the Wii will be able to support 160 gig USB Harddrives doesn't make it true, and no offence but this is Nintendo I mean they were using mini-discs when everyone else was with DVDs. That bieng said I'm glad Nintendo has now switched to DVDs, and is using the SD Card Format for saving games. But everyone should remeber that Xbox 360 has 4 USB Ports also, and the PS3 will have USB ports also, and if the Wii will be able to support external harddrives I'm sure the 360 and PS3 will come out with their own patches, with M$ big computer comapny and the president of Sony Entertainment telling everyone that PS3 is a computer.

  • Cypher_VR

    Posted Sep 8, 2006 4:35 pm PT

    I ONLY get official licenced items, because after buying memory cards that don't save properly and end up getting corrupted and flimsy products that break...
    I stopped buying that crap.

  • ziplife1

    Posted Sep 8, 2006 4:05 pm PT

    this news is f**g bullsh*t, next time give real news who cares of some rumored prices. and no the games dont cost $59 according to gameindustry.biz they cost $39 and that site has real news cause there info comes from real companys not other websites

  • OfficialBed

    Posted Sep 8, 2006 1:17 pm PT

    yeah!

  • gorillaz_13

    Posted Sep 8, 2006 1:04 pm PT

    yeah!awesome!^_^

  • ssjtrunks6

    Posted Sep 8, 2006 9:37 am PT

    YAy new news.... aww poopie, I though it would be something I did not know about

  • Willdyer10

    Posted Sep 8, 2006 8:55 am PT

    cool

  • Britesparc

    Posted Sep 8, 2006 5:01 am PT

    One thing I wish about the 360 is that it had memory card slots. It's so much easier and more convenient to exchange data with SD cards and the like - connecting them to PCs, getting music and images onto your console, etc. Obviously the Wii isn't as much of an entertainment hub as the 360 but it'll still make organising your game saves and downloads easier, especially if they let you back up to PCs... and MUCH cheaper too, especially if you can use any old SD!

    As for all these other extras... I just wanna know how much additional Wii-motes and classic controllers will cost, etc.

  • dandoc2

    Posted Sep 8, 2006 3:51 am PT

    i only buy official products --i dont know why but yer go ninty

  • daqua_99 Site moderator

    Posted Sep 8, 2006 3:06 am PT

    Very cheap .... Go Nintendo!!

  • _TheJoker_

    Posted Sep 8, 2006 2:51 am PT

    As Nintendo said, they are the cheapest out there, good thing.

  • lotsofgunfire

    Posted Sep 8, 2006 2:47 am PT

    ok so this stuff nov 1st now all we need is the release date and we're set

  • sinceps1

    Posted Sep 8, 2006 2:44 am PT

    violent post dude. Yes cool that the wii is getting accessories. Now for them to release the wii launch details...............................AND FOR REAL THIS TIME. I rest my case sony is doing no better. Sad less than half a million launch. Sony will kill the industry

  • Oldjoker123

    Posted Sep 8, 2006 1:43 am PT

    "So now gamespot's telling us about every little piece of garbage they happen to pick up? This information is worthless and pure sensationalist bull$h!#... "-boo_dat

    Boo frickedy ho, Gamespot is simply doing wat the entire f*^king point of the website is-to give gaming consumers information about gaming products. You've got no right to criticise, if you dont like it take your f*%king snooby fan boy attitude and leave, no one's forcing you to read the Gamepot news.

    Geeeez, had to get that off my chest

  • gozyaj

    Posted Sep 8, 2006 12:09 am PT

    FULL of surprises... gimmicks, and good stuff in the release date of the 2 next gen console!!!!

    3 months on counting!!!....

  • monkkito

    Posted Sep 7, 2006 11:09 pm PT

    Great, not like i'm buying any of that stuff, except for the memory cards that is

  • Lithavalon

    Posted Sep 7, 2006 9:54 pm PT

    woot

  • yawannataco

    Posted Sep 7, 2006 8:49 pm PT

    funny coming from the PS3 debacle to this... a model launch with games, accessories, vision, and all around high-anticipation. Not that I'm too excited about these, but no news is good news.

  • doubtme

    Posted Sep 7, 2006 8:16 pm PT

    YES

  • ATOMB

    Posted Sep 7, 2006 7:59 pm PT

  • jswaim

    Posted Sep 7, 2006 7:35 pm PT

    here we go wiis stuff is rolling nicely

  • Erickivan19

    Posted Sep 7, 2006 7:06 pm PT

    The launch day is getting closer

  • loldart

    Posted Sep 7, 2006 6:54 pm PT

    looks like I sould save up soon

  • roareh

    Posted Sep 7, 2006 6:41 pm PT

    wii.

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