Wii Play (http://www.wiiplay.net)

All gaming geeks out there already know that Nintendo’s new gaming console, Wii, will be out this Sunday, November 19. My new and improved Wii Play website however, will not be launching alongside it. While the site is currently up and running, it’s really just a placeholder site that I put up to grab some search engine rankings. The real site will be nothing like the existing one. It will be much more than just a Wii information site. It will be a community, a resource, and hopefully a lot of other things to future Wii players out there.

So why am I not relaunching the site the same day the console launches? Well, two reasons really. The first is that I’d like to hold off a little to see what kind of features I might be able to add that may compliment some of the console’s less well known additions. For instance, maybe I’ll be able to connect the website to some Wii Channels or perhaps access the Wii network somehow to display console stats. I just won’t know until the console launches.

The second (and real) reason for holding off the release is that it’s just not ready yet. I’m writing the entire thing from scratch; code, database, design, and let me just say how hard it is to come home from work and try and do some development when that’s what I just came home from. On top of all that, the site will have an enormous amount of features. I’m talking some of the best elements from some of the best sites out there all rolled into one with even more features that have never been seen before. Yeah, I’ll hyping it up a bunch, but don’t worry, I’ll be backing it up.

So when will it be released? Honestly, I don’t have a firm date yet. I need a good couple days to actually sit down and have at it, then maybe I could see what I’ve got left. I am planning on doing a beta release to some people to bang on it a bit, so if you’re interested in that, shoot me an email via the contact form. As of right now, I’m looking at an early 2007 launch. With the holidays and New Year coming up, there’s not going to be too much time to work, but hopefully I’ll be able to unveil the beast soon.