Nintendo’s Wii Speak microphone-thing is designed to pick up voices from a whole roomful of people rather than just lone gamers - that’s ‘cos the Wii itself is a social gaming hub that’s only ever played by perma-smiling family groups, y’see. Anyway, the device has just been dated and priced.

In short there’s a choice of two options - an Animal Crossing: Let’s Go to the City Bundle or the standalone unit. All things considered, and based on the fact the Animal Crossing: Let’s Go to the City is currently the only game to support Wii Speak, we’ll take the bundle thanks.

In terms of price and release date details, our US chums are getting all the above on November 16th, for $69.99 and $29.99 respectively. Meanwhile, at least one UK retailer has jumped the gun on any official announcement from Nintendo Europe and is advertising the bundle arriving on December 5th at £49.98 (£10.01 off the supposed rrp!) and the solus unit on the 31st at £32.99.

The separate Wii Speak Channel should launch at the same time as Animal Crossing and users will need to swap friend codes before they start chatting with their mates. Fingers crossed Nintendo doesn’t hang about in bringing more games online with the device - Mario Kart Wii would be too cool.