Wii U launches 8 December in Japan: $338 for basic set, $405 for premium

There are not one, but two decent reasons to read this story. One, it’s not about the iPhone 5 and two, it’s the launch date of Nintendo’s fabled Wii U. Come 8 December in Japan, the world may sit up and take notice of the Big-N again.

Two will tell the tale

The successor to the Wii, the Wii U is an interesting experiment for one of the world’s oldest gaming companies. Instead of a standard controller, the Wii U has a tablet-like GamePad, with a tiny touchscreen built-in.

As we said, there are two Wii Us to pickup. Go for the basic set at US$338 or the premium bundle for US$450. Is this Nintendo’s first mistake though? Maybe not, as the Wii initially launched in the US$300-US$350 range.

The standard Wii U comes in white, has one gamepad and 8GB of storage. The premium unit has 32GB storage, a controller with stylus, comes in black and has a stand for the console and controller. Nifty stuff. Another controller can be snapped up for US$65.

Some specs too

During the presentation care of a Nintendo Direct live stream, some details of the system hardware were revealed. There’ll be 2GB memory, 1GB for games and 1GB for system memory. Wii U discs will hold up to 25GB, which is pretty much on par with Blu Ray discs.

As for launch titles, we can look forward to Nintendo Land and New Super Mario Bros. U.

US President of Nintendo, Reggie Fils-Aime aims to spread international launch dates and prices later this afternoon in New York.