Nintendo announced during its press event in New York that the Wii U release date in the US is November 18, 2012. About 1 month before the Japanese release date. Nintendo also said the European Wii U launch date is set for November 30, 2012. Just as in Japan, the Wii U will be launched with 2 versions for gamers in the west.
The Basic Wii U Set will have 8GB of internal storage for $299 and the Deluxe Wii U set will have 32GB of internal storage. Nintendo also says the Wii U supports external storage via hard drives and flash memory cards. No word yet as to if games can run off of those mediums yet.
The US launch date announcement also came with some other big news from Nintendo. The Wii U will not only be your new video game system… Taking a cue from Sony’s strategy of launching successful consoles that tie in to your entertainment center, Nintendo has announced that the Wii U will also be a DVR. You will also be able to use the Wii U controller to watch your shows and movies on in addition to see additional information about them. For example you could watch a sports game and see the scores and player stats on the controller. Or watch a movie and see trivia about it on the Wii U controller screen. This is all part of the brand new Nintendo TVii service which will launch alongside the Wii U. Nintendo posted a video demonstrating some of the features of Nintendo TVii which you can see here below..