Nintendo Wiis on European DVD hopes

Japanese gamers get a movie player bundled with their Wii, but Nintendo says-it'll never make it to this side of the world.

Up until now Nintendo's Wii release has been pretty even worldwide. Theres region-free games, more or less standard worldwide pricing and the bog-standard bundling of Wii Sports.

But it looks like Nintendo's had a re-think. Lucky Japanese gamers will get an exclusive DVD player shoehorned inside their console, something the rest of the world may never see.

The latest nugget of Nintendo info comes courtesy of the gamers at Edge, who say the enhanced console will only go on sale in the land of the rising sun.

Nintendo confirmed in a statement that the Wii will be a games-only machine in Europe and America, stating that "DVD players are now sold so cheaply and the penetration rate is so high that we did not think it was worth including and raising the price of Wii."

It's a fair point, and we're sure almost everyone looking to jump on the Wii bandwagon already has a player or two nestled beneath their telly.

It's still a slight slap in the face to the Nintendo faithful though, and we can't help thinking a bundled DVD player would help the Wii win over yet more non-gamers, something it's so far been hell-bent on achieving.