The gaming world is speculating about the launch date and price for the Wii, and we've researched all the tidbits to keep you in the know...

Nintendo kept launch details for the Wii close to its chest at their E3 conference, though have admitted that the console will definately launch in the fourth quarter of this year. Price-wise though, we're still pretty unsure - though we do have some clues.

EGM Magazine reported pre-E3 that Nintendo had a price-point of $249 (that's �134, �193) planned - and though Nintendo remained quiet on pricing, EGM did have the correct scoop on WiiConnect24 and the controller's speaker - though they claimed Metroid Prime 3 had slipped to 2007 and that Smash Bros. would be available at launch. Wrong way round, guys!

Plenty of people picked up on a recent throwaway comment by Scott Steinberg, the vice president of marketing for Sega, who said to Forbes that we can "bet on the Wii will selling for less than $200", contradicting EGM's suggested price-point.

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, interviewed by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer was asked if he could compare the Wii's price to the $600 version of the PS3, to which he responded that Nintendo had always said the price would be affordable, and that, "compared with $600, anything is affordable, so it's absurd to even compare our price."

In the same interview, Iwata also made the point that "Microsoft didn't announce Xbox 360's price at last year's E3. And the year before that, the prices for the PSP and the DS weren't announced, so I don't think it's unusual at all that we're not announcing the price at E3 this time. But he concluded that the Wii "will come out in the fourth quarter, so I expect to talk about [pricing] around summer."

And a summer announcement for a launch date/pricing is backed up by Shigeru Miyamoto, who when interviewed by Kotaku, said that these details would be announced before the Tokyo Game Show (22-24th September).

Additionally, its interesting to note that Amazon.co.uk are now listing the Wii launch titles from Square-Enix, specifically Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Crystal Bearers and Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors - and have both down for a November 11th release. Though as many gamers probably know, Amazon do like to make up their release dates to suit them...

So that's how things stand - right now, we'll just have to be a little more patient. Which means (probably quite as Nintendo intended) we can now concentrate on just the games instead.

Thanks to R-E reader Chris Lyne for the heads-up on the Amazon dates!