Wii Rumors from Shacknews http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/43267

Wii Date and Price Rumored, Portable GameCube Revealed?

IGN Wii posted a number of Nintendo-related rumors today, apparently obtained directly from reliable sources in publishing and development. Soon after the news post went up, it was taken down and replaced by a statement indicating that IGN's sources do not wish to go to jail. A potential interpretation of this language is that the reported information fell under the domain of non-disclosure agreements and therefore holds some weight. Later, the post was replaced, with a few changes.

First up is the issue of the release date for the upcoming Wii. Apparently, Nintendo is telling launch title developers to have their games ready by mid-October or so for a launch on November 2; others believe the date may be November 12. Sources indicate that the machine will retail for $229 in the United States, though the contents of the package were not disclosed. It will be available in black and white, according to these sources.

In Nintendo's latest financial reports, the company stated that it plans to sell 6 million units of the console within the fiscal year ending March 31, 2007. Now, IGN's sources claim that the company has ramped up its expectations. The original IGN story claimed that the new figure is 5.5 million units by the end of the calendar year; the revised post replaces the quantity with "more than five million units."

Apparently, the console's region encoding will come via firmware rather than hardware; IGN speculates that this would result in an easier modification for gamers looking to play imported games.

One rumor, which IGN removed entirely for the reposted story, stated IBM may be working on a smaller version of the Wii's Broadway CPU for use in a portable console which would play GameCube discs. This has been rumored to be the approach taken with Nintendo's next Game Boy console, though past instances of this rumor did not come by way of apparently credible sources.