Wiis bundled with Wii MotionPlus, Wii Sports Resort starting May 9

Following a week of rumors, Nintendo has finally made it official. Starting May 9 in the Americas, the Wii will be bundled with not only Wii Sports and a Wii Nunchuk, but also with Wii Sports Resort and the Wii MotionPlus motion-sensing-enhancing add-on. Though the latter game and peripheral is sold separately for $50, the console's price will remain $200. The Wii MotionPlus is also available a la carte for $20.

Also starting next Sunday, would-be Wii buyers in the Western hemisphere will have a choice of color for the first time. Nintendo confirmed that the console will be available in both in black and white hues, after over three and a half years of being available solely in white. When the Wii was first unveiled as the "Revolution" at the 2005 Electronic Entertainment Expo, prototypes were shown in five colors, including gray, red, and green. The black Wii has been available for some time in Europe and Japan.

Nintendo's move comes seven months after it shaved $50 off the Wii's cost to counter price drops by its two rivals in the console wars, Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. This spring, Microsoft also tried to boost sales of the Xbox 360 Elite by bundling it with two top games: Halo 3: ODST and Forza Motorsport 3. However, the NPD Group's March US game sales report showed the Wii was still on top with 557,500 units sold, compared with 338,400 Xbox 360s and 313,900 PS3s.