Nintendo has stated numerous times that its next generation video game machine will be less expensive than the competition. Now it appears that it might be on store shelves considerably earlier than many were expecting as well.

While Nintendo has not made any formal announcements about the launch date for the Wii, most of the industry has expected the machine to hit retail at approximately the same time as Sony's PlayStation 3 (which is set for November 17). Now, industry observers - and insiders - say they expect the system to be available in October, with late September a dark horse candidate.

Indeed, the company appears to be already manufacturing final retail units of the Wii, according to a June 21st analyst's note from P.J. McNealy of American Technology Research. That would give it a significant head start over Sony, which has yet to begin final manufacturing of the PlayStation 3. Microsoft's first Xbox 360 did not roll off the assembly line last year until 69 days before the on sale date of Nov. 22. (That late start in production is the root cause behind last holiday's shortages.)

"October is a reasonable timeframe," wrote McNealy.

Nintendo has downplayed any suggested dates. Other industry insiders, who asked not to be named, though, said they, too, are expecting a September or October launch for the Wii.

Anyone wanting to make sure that their Wii console will have some games to play as soon as it comes out, can pre-order two games from Best Buy: Red Steel and Super Mario Galaxy. Each game can be pre-ordered for $49,99

It seems that the Nintendo Wii is getting more expensive all the time. When the rumours about a price started, it was said to cost around $150, then once it was officially announced the Wii was to cost around $200 and now the price has been set: under $250 for the US and no more than ¥25,000 ($220/£119/€174) in Japan.

Microsoft Corp.'s vice president in an interview during the Electronic Entertainment Exhibition (E3) criticized Sony Corp. for $599 price-tag on the PlayStation 3 and expressed opinion that consumers would prefer to get an Xbox 360 and a Wii, rather than a PlayStation 3.

"Tell me why you would buy a $600 PS3?" Peter Moore, Microsoft Xbox division vice president, is reported to have said, according to Reuters news-agency. "People are going to buy two (machines). They're going to buy an Xbox and they're going to buy a Wii for the price of one PS3".

"People will always gravitate toward a competitively priced product - like what I believe Wii will be - with innovative new designs and great intellectual property like Mario, Zelda and Metroid," Mr. Moore is reported to have said.

It is unclear whether Microsoft is going to co-work with Nintendo in a bid to replace Sony from the top of the game console world, however, denouncing the main rival amid praising another seems to be rather uncertain in terms of future plans.

Nintendo's Wii game console, which launch is scheduled adjacent to Sony's PlayStation 3, may become the most affordable gaming machine in years, as its pricing will be around $200, according to an executive of Sega, one of the main game publishers for Nintendo's game consoles.

Scott Steinberg, vice president of marketing for Sega, said in an interview with Forbes that Nintendo's Wii would cost less than $200, mainly because it does not feature state-of-the-art "heavy-duty" processors like those in PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360. Forbes further reported that Merrill Lynch analyst Justin Post predicted Thursday that the new machine, which will be released this fall, would sell for $200, a move that could prompt software publishers to create more titles for the gaming system.

Nintendo Wii console will feature IBM's custom PowerPC architecture based microprocessor named Broadway clocked at 729MHz and code-named Hollywood chip with built-in graphics core, DSP and I/O features from ATI that will operate at 243MHz, earlier reports suggested. Nintendo revolution will use 91MB of memory in total: 23MB of "main" 1T-SRAM, 64MB of "external" 1T-SRAM and 3MB texture buffer on the GPU. Nintendo's Wii does not feature a hard disk drive, instead, it boasts with 512MB of flash memory, but the console will also have a card reader, which will allow installing more memory.

Over the years we have seen Nintendo become increasingly innovative with their gaming platforms. First the DS had some interesting new features and the Wii will take that leap in innovation to a new level. It is pretty well known now that Nintendo is going in a different direction then Microsoft and Sony. Nintendo is stressing that this is an "every-man", it will also feature much different pricetag then PS3 and Xbox 360. Wii Also features an interesting new controller that is based highly on motion sensitivity. The controller features six degrees of freedom over the main controller and has an "external dongle", which has been named the "nunchuk" by nintendo for the other hand. Another neat feature is a small speaker built into the Wii Console pad, along with a built in rumble feature. Nintendo is looking to expand the market, which is great, but lets hope they don't leave the gamers out.

Yes you read right, the next generation console from Nintendo will be called "Wii", which sounds like the word we. That in turn means that this is the console for everyone. I personally liked Revolution much better.