After much waiting, scraping, scrounging, calling and e-mailing for information on the final Canadian pricing of the Wii and its accessories we are, at long last, able to say that we have them. The prices of the accessories, said accessories being the Wii remote, Nunchuck attachment and Classic Controller, are $45.99, $24.99 and $24.99 CAD each, though we have reason to believe some of that pricing is off by one dollar.

We did not, however, get these pricing details from Nintendo. Instead, the information was stumbled upon during a regular read-through of Kotaku, through a link provided by them to a cost calculator on N-Sider.com. By a great deal of kindness, the creator of the calculator did not only make sure that it was American friendly, but also Canadian friendly, provincial taxes and all. The total price of a Wii with an extra Wii remote and Nunchuck attachment, plus a game comes out to $468.45 CAD after taxes, in Ontario. Compare that to the pricing of an Xbox 360 with one extra wireless controller and a new game, costing a total $718.17 CAD, and the Wii begins to look inexpensive again. If you go one further and try to price that against the Playstation 3, which will be debuting two days before the Wii at an approximate price of $549 CAD for the 20 GB model and $649 CAD for the 60 GB model before taxes, the cost of the Wii appears even more affordable.

Of course, when it all comes down to it, only time will tell if consumers actually feel that Wii is all that Nintendo and most of the hype is making it up to be. Nintendo is taking a large leap of faith with the Wii, putting innovation at the helm and above things like high-definition graphics and sound. In the end consumers will be the ones who make that final important decision, to buy, or not.

To calculate the cost of the Wii for yourself go to N-Sider.com's “Nintendo Wii Calculator”.

http://www.n-sider.com/newsview.php?type=story&storyid=2441