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Nintendo slyly hints at Wii release date
7/25/2006 4:36:37 PM, by Jeremy Reimer
Press releases are the bread and butter of journalists, providing unfiltered statements from companies announcing their latest product plans or acquisitions. However, the language of press releases leaves much to be desired. Typically, they are long-winded, full of ridiculous superlatives about the company, and engage in meaningless marketing babble.
Given this reality, it was a delightful surprise to read Nintendo's latest press release concerning their fall gaming lineup. Instead of the usual dry language, Nintendo decided to have a little fun. The news item is ostensibly about the company's upcoming game releases, including Final Fantasy V Advance for the Game Boy Advance. The dual-screened DS is set to receive a whole slew of new titles in the coming months:
Oct. 9: Clubhouse Games
Oct. 16: Nintendogs (Dalmatian)
Oct. 23: Magical Starsign
Oct. 30: Pok?n Ranger
Oct. 30: Children of Mana
Nov. 6: Elite Beat Agents
Nov. 13: Yoshi's Island 2
Dec. 4: Custom Robo Arena
Dec. 4: Kirby Squeak Squad
Where the fun comes in is the statement that the press release is not about the launch date of the Nintendo Wii, but "perhaps the secret to the launch information for Wii is somehow encoded in the text of this news item." The release does go on to talk a bit about the Wii and how the much-anticipated Zelda: Twilight Princess will be available for both the GameCube and Wii (the latter an enhanced version), but just when it is about to reveal the release date it ends with a cheeky "oh look, we're out of space."
With the Internet being what it is, it did not take long for gaming enthusiasts to crack the code. Gaming Target was one of the first to figure it out, noticing that at least one new game was being released every Monday in the fourth quarter except for October 2, November 20, and November 27.
November 27 is after Black Friday, the traditional hottest shopping day of the year, so it can be discounted. November 20 is after the launch of the PlayStation 3, which seems unlikely given Nintendo's desire to get a jump on its old rival. This leaves October 2 as the most likely launch date for both the Nintendo Wii and the new Zelda.
Personally, I'll have my credit card ready.
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😯 OH MY
I'm so very excited about this now that we actually KNOW
Well kind of
Discuss~
Oh brother. Hahahhaa. Whose idea was it to look at all these release dates and decipher the code. Like seriously....
...
Thanks! Hopefully this is correct, because i'm in need of a new console. Badly.
If only it was that easy...
This is Matt's, the Wii Editor at IGN, blog about the date.
Yes, October 2nd is one of the possible dates... But there's more...
On of the guys on the board went all Mathematical on this and got:
Quote:
It appears that the number of words in each sentence is significant. There are 19 in the first sentence and 26 in the second sentence. 2006 is the given key, so as 26 becomes 2006 then 19 becomes 1009. This gives us 10/09/2006 as the release date.
The original, unedited announcement can be found here.
Quote:
You might want to pore over it for a few hours before staying up all night to debate phraseology and comma placement with your friends online. Or maybe it's all just a scam to get you to read the other games we have launching this fall. One of the two.
Basically, Nintendo might just be screwing with us. Either way, I'm hoping for a October release.
i'll actually be able to buy it. that'll be kickass. so yeah october sounds good.
