Nintendo Wii in Stock

There used to be times when you bought a thing, it just did the thing you bought it for. Record players played records. Discmen spun CDs. Game consoles played games. No more, no less. Then the PlayStation 2 became the best-selling console in history by doubling as a DVD player. Now consoles have gone beyond mere multitasking, enduring to transform themselves with new functions long after you bring 'em home.

Think of this as a new front in the ongoing console wars. Nintendo's Wii won the first round by proudly claiming to be a games-only machine — unlike Sony and Microsoft's multimedia powerhouses — to facilitate their low price point. "We wanted consumers to be able to access our products on a lower budget. That's why [we made] the initial decision to leave a DVD player and a lot of other functionality out of the system," explains Nintendo Canada spokesman Matt Ryan. "The other thing is, how many DVD players do people have in their houses? I've got three. I don't need three."

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