Image: Nintendo

Less than two hours after a Best Buy Canada advertisement let the news slip, Nintendo confirmed the upcoming release of a Wii Mini. For a price of $99, the console will be available December 7 to an exclusively Canadian market.

Speculation began last week after Nintendo World Report gained information from a “major retailer” of the console’s existence. On Tuesday, Best Buy Canada posted a photograph and pre-release link for the Mini, but the link appeared to be broken, so some thought it was a hoax. Shortly after and in an obvious rush, Nintendo posted the console to its own website. As of now, the main “Learn more” and the “Looking for accessories?” buttons lead to empty pages and Nintendo’s home page and top menu completely lack links to the Mini page.  

A secondary “Learn more” button does appear to work, leading to a short description of the product.

The Wii Mini will not have internet capabilities, but it will be compatible with the more than 1,300 original Wii games.

Game discs will be top-loaded to preserve system longevity and the system as a whole has been redesigned to fit in a smaller package.

The matte black system comes with a red Wii Remote Plus and a red Nunchuck controller.

Currently, the console will only be available in Canada and Nintendo has no further information about international availability in the future. 

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Mollie Paige writes for the Toronto Standard. You can follow her on twitter @MolliePB

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