Wii U is set to come out on the 18th, and my pre-order was in on the day that was an option to buy, so that should be in soon.

But all of the new info on that device seems mixed. It still has a resistive touch screen, lacks voice communications, and requires running the console in a entirely different mode when running Wii games (or that has been the indication so far). Usually when you build a PC there is a trade-off to be made in price vs. performance, and it seems like the Wii U would have been much nicer if it moved just a bit more up the price curve. Usually when spending 20% more nets a 50% performance increase, I would go for it. That does not seem to be the case with Nintendo, as they are just hitting specs that slightly exceed the x360.

Considering the price is a bit silly too; sure it is nominally 300, but most people will want to have:

Deluxe version (+50), Wii Mote Plus + Nunchuck (+60), Pro Controller (+50), external hardrive (+70). So the whole thing is really 530, and most people are going to sink some money into games (probably at least 60 on release day). So saving those extra 4-5 dollars in BOM cost to go resistive instead of capacitive just seems absurd. A new console is already expensive, and the increase in end price is not close to the magnitude of the initial purchase price. It feels like putting 2Gbyte of RAM into a new PC, because it will theoretically still work okay.

Oh, and it does not have Ethernet, because a network cable input jack is just to much to ask for >.>. I really do hope the game justify the 600 dollar outlay that comes on the release date for this thing, but it honestly feels less worth it than the PS3 looked when it was new (and hey, the PS3 could play blurays, unlike certain other devices). And as much as I like Nintendo (I am buying the thing and have 4 games on pre-order, and already picked up a 2Tbyte external drive) the device so far seems like it is not really aimed at the demographics who played the NES growing up.