WII U Confirmed for a Late 2012 Launch

Nintendo Wii U will be released simultaneously in North America, Japan, Europe and Australia sometime this holiday season.

By Matt Mann /

We have known for a while that Nintendo would be releasing the Wii U sometime this year, however we now have a much smaller release date window. Nintendo President Satoru Iwata has confirmed that the Nintendo Wii U will be released simultaneously in North America, Japan, Europe and Australia sometime this holiday season. The first reports were that the Nintendo Wii U would launch between June and the end of this year. Now we have that time frame narrowed down to holiday season 2012, but as always plans could change things could get delayed. Nintendo has in the past tried to get a simultaneous worldwide release for a console and had to delay for certain territories. It is a little surprising to see Nintendo release the console so close to 2013, I was expecting the system to have at least a years head start on the next generation of consoles. We will know a lot more after E3, where Nintendo plans to fully unveil the Wii U hopefully with a price point and launch titles.