Not much happening at News Pop! today, other than the announcement of the Nintendo Wii's price and launch date details. We'll have some more news on that in a bit, but first one other snippet of info.

EA to add licensed music to The Sims 2 Pets

EA announced, today, that it would be adding a list of a little more than twenty five tracks from music artists to it's soon to be released The Sims 2 Pets. Songs from artists such as The Flaming Lips, Pussycat Dolls and Skye Sweetnam will be available to be heard, in Simlish, while playing the game. All of the songs will be available on the console version of the game, while some will be left out from the PC version. The official song list is:

Aly & AJ - “Chemicals React”

Brazil - “Candles Cast Long Shadows”

Cowboy Troy - “I play Chicken with a Train”

Cut Copy - “Future”

Dena Deadly - “Fortuzala”

The Flaming Lips - “Free Radicals”

Hot Chip - “Colours”

Hot Chip - “So Glad To See You”

Isabelle Huang - “Hit It”

Jessi Malay - “Topsy Turvy”

Joanna J - “Unthinkable”

Kristen Dex - “Come On Come On”

New Amsterdams - “Turn Out the Light”

Prescott - “Dixie Dixie Where Have You Been All My Life”

Prescott - “Hurt Nobody”

Ralph Myerz and The Jack Herren Band - “Boombox Breakdown”

Saving Jane - “Girl Next Door”

Skye Sweetnam - “Boyhunter”

Something for Rockets - “I Never Know”

Tanaila - “Wow Wow Wow”

The Films - “Black Shoes”

The Format - “The Compromise”

The Netw0rk - “Topy Apa Ty”

Pussycat Dolls - “Don't Cha”

Touchstone - “Simpatico”

W of P3 - “Aff Wubbas Doo”

More details on Wii

It looks like there are still more details to add to our earlier article about the Wii launch price and date. Nintendo has officially launch it's Wii.com website, announced that first party Wii games will be region free and confirmed that the Wii will not play DVD movies. Nintendo also showed off the Wii's interface, called “Wii Channels”, at the press event today. Wii Channels will extend through a multitude of options, allowing users to access their games, pictures, the news, weather and “Mii Channel”, a Wii Channel that allows users to create their own avatar, possibly even a look alike of themselves.

Update - Sept. 15, 2006 - According to new information, the Wii may not be region free after all. IGN is reporting that Nintendo UK's General Manager, David Yarnton, said that Wii games and online contact will, in fact, be region-encoded. This news follows statments made by Perrin Kaplan, NOA's Vice President of Marketing and Corporate Affairs, yesterday, which claimed that the Wii would be region free.