A Console Gaming Wii-nner?

From the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) released in 1985 to the new Nintendo DS handheld gaming device, Nintendo has combined innovation and functionality to remain a leader in the console gaming entertainment industry. With competitors Sony and Microsoft taking huge chunks of profit from Nintendo in the console industry over the past few years, Nintendo has been searching for a way to climb back to the top and claim King of the Console Hill once again. According to Nintendo major-domo Satoru Iwata, Nintendo is on track to climb and conquer that hill later this year with the release of its next generation console, the Wii.

Set to release on November 19 in the US, Nintendo will be breaking previous traditions by debuting the new console in the US instead of Japan, hoping to capitalize on the delays plaguing Sony’s next-gen console. Dubbed "a console where something new happens everyday," the Nintendo Wii hopes to find a place in the living room as a stylish entertainment piece accessible to the whole family.

In a recent interview with the lead designers behind the Wii, they explain that Nintendo is deviating from its previous "toy-like" console designs to embrace the growing age demographic of modern gamers and the demands of a 21st century family. In order to differentiate it from other next-gen consoles, the design and production of the Wii took a different approach, "going against the norm" of developing "faster and flashier" machines and instead focusing on reducing size and power consumption. While the design team asserts they haven’t skimped on performance, they were able to make the Wii the size of three DVD cases stacked on top of each other while reducing its power consumption to one-fourth that of the Nintendo GameCube (its previous console system). Ideally, the Wii will become a central entertainment unit in all family homes, meant to be left on 24 hours a day.

The sleek, polished paint will exude the new aura of sophistication Nintendo wants to pull off, remaining backward compatible for those who want to play GameCube software on their new machine. Wireless Internet compatible, the Wii will allow the designers at Nintendo to remotely update the system when not in use, paving the way for interactive marketing solutions to be included and updated on a regular basis.

The Wii will also differentiate itself from the competition in another key area: price. Compared to the $399 Xbox 360 and the projected $499 for the Playstation 3, the Nintendo Wii’s $250 price tag seems mighty reasonable.

Read the whole interview with the Nintendo Wii design team here.