Apparently oblivious to the jokes that initially surrounded the Wii’s name, Nintendo just announced the Wii Mini — a budget console that offers fewer features than the original Wii but is much cheaper.
The Wii Mini will sell for just $100 when it’s released in Canada on December 7. For some reason, Nintendo is keeping the console exclusive to the country for this holiday season, and it isn’t saying anything about availability elsewhere.
To make the Wii Mini so cheap, Nintendo had to chop out many features, like networking capabilities and compatibility with GameCube games. The Wii Mini will only be able to play Wii game discs (Nintendo says there are now more than 1,400 disc-based Wii games available). The console comes with a Wii Remote and Nunchuk controller, and it’ll offer all of the motion gaming capabilities the Wii is known for.
By stripping out extra features and focusing on a core experience, Nintendo is clearly aiming to extend the life of its existing Wii hardware. And given that the new Wii U console starts at $300, Nintendo may be able to tempt some budget buyers who somehow missed out on the original Wii with this smaller console.