I seem to remember Nintendo saying that having multiple colours made the launch too confusing. That the popular colour would sell out and the unpopular colour would just sit on shelves while people waited. They want you to walk in and buy the system as early as possible and the colour you want not being available gives you an excuse to wait. So you can see the reason behind not having multiple colours at launch.

Then again they did brake that rule with the 3DS!

What if nothing changes say in 6 months or a year from those available? They are no longer "limited" edition.

I get what TysonQ7 is saying. For Nintendo to throw on a special Nintendo logo or make it a certain color to distinguish something that is truly limited and unique to those early adopters of the Wii U would be real slick and Nintendo fans/collectors would swoop them up faster than you can say Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Eye of the Beholder II — The Legend of Darkmoon. I know I would preorder one of these launch special limited editions faster than you can say D (Playstation game)!

@Ryno
Looks like you've got it.

Why not make a version to make Early Adopters not regretful?
And to all you people who say "It won't be worth as much as other Limited Editions!": Who cares? Personally I buy Special Editions TO KEEP and not to resell later.

It just occured to me that having a special edition might tick off fans who couldn't get the special edition in time. And perhaps even confuse those who are out of the loop.

Tell you what.

You guys have a white Wii U and I'll have my Famicom or NES or SNES or N64 or Gamecube themed version! Everyone happy!

This applies to all special editions, doesn't it?
Or does having it at launch make it more obscure then say, launching a Luffy PS3?

You say Luffy PS3 as if One Piece isn't a multiple-million dollar franchise in Japan and the most popular manga ever created...

But I do see what you're saying. I just think it would be worse if it's at launch.

Well limited edition consoles sell on 360 my friend already had a 360 yet she bought another one because it was a Gears of War 360. I say it's a good idea people love to buy them and why not, no one's forcing you to buy it. If people wanna pay extra for a cooler looking system well hey it's their money and they'll let Nintendo take it if they want.

Doesn't matter my dad can make skins for my wii u if he needs to.
Now that I think about it.... Why haven't I made a kid Icarus themed 3ds

All I know is that I want that limited Edition Miku Vita, but it's way too expensive to import.

Either way I wont be regretful buying a Wii U at launch no matter how soon the price drop comes because I am willingly paying the premium to have the system first. However, I could see how some might be regretful. I don't know exactly what, but like I said earlier I think it would be cool to do something special for those who are supporting the system right up front.

Well, maybe a special looking one. Or different colors. But no other differences!

I mean, just look at Microsoft and Sony! How many different Xbox360's are there?! One has that amount of memory, the other has special online features, yet another one is smaller etc. Over and over again they add and remove features. I guess it's also a pain when your console has to be repaired. What if they just send you a other Xbox360, a totally different model?! I can imagine the horrors! It's already very bad that Nintendo released a Wii with removed Gamecube games compatibility!!

I think Nintendo's experience with the less-than-expected early sales of the 3DS will inspire some kind of Ambassador program for Wii U, and I wouldn't be surprised if we hear about it at E3.

I agree they probably shouldn't do that at launch, but I definitely think releasing new systems with small changes over the life of the machine is a good thing to maintain both user and developer interest. After all if the audience for Wii-U isn't as big as Wii, then logically if they want to shift the same numbers they should be trying to get existing owners to buy another one; the best way to do that is add some more bells and whistles. The other benefit is being able to keep up with other platforms and ensure developers who are prone to making dev kit upgrades to cater to people who keep up with the latest hardware will still feel like the Wii-U is worth continuing to support.

Look at how few noteworthy 3rd party titles get a cross-platform release that includes Wii nowadays. There's no real reason for that besides Nintendo failing to upgrade the Wii earlier.

Maybe having the entire first shipment of consoles being special is a simpler option. Although some people might think that the special edition is the regular model and that the regular model is special.

On what planet would this ever be the case? They would be labelled as themed or special edition versions. And I'm pretty certain that people could tell which is the special edition just by looking at it!

Example 1: A special edition NES themed Wii U
Example 2: A regular white Wii U

Which is the special edition?

^Not every buyer will be in the know, dude. How many regular people know what a NES looks like, for example?

Whether or not people will know what a NES is doesn't really matter with a branded Wii U. If it happens it will be marketed and advertised as a special edition.

People may not know what Zelda is but they can clearly see that the clearly marked Zelda 25th Anniversary 3DS is a special edition just by looking at it!

"Look at how few noteworthy 3rd party titles get a cross-platform release that includes Wii nowadays. There's no real reason for that besides Nintendo failing to upgrade the Wii earlier"

That's not what I meant. Nintendo just chose to release a console that was only 2 times as powerful as a Gamecube, While Sony and Microsoft came with a massive boost. The result was that if you would port a xbox360/PS3 game to the Wii, it would suffer a lot graphics-wise. Even if Nintendo had released a HD Wii later on, it wouldn't make much of a difference.

Therefore I hope that the Wii u will have at least as much power as xbox720/PS4!!

This is a bit of a silly statement. You can't compare Wii U with rumoured consoles that we know absolutely nothing about..