We have been sitting on this news for a couple of days while we sorted out the whispers that the Nintendo Wii in black would actually be hitting North American shores. From what we hear, the decision to make the black version of the Wii available in North America was not a difficult one.

The popularity of the black unit has not gone unnoticed by Nintendo. The Wii has not been selling as well lately as Nintendo would like, and they are hopeful that the new black version will be enough to re-energize sales. We are not sure if this will be the case; we do think that they will sell some black consoles and they will attract some attention, but igniting another Wii frenzy is not likely to do it.

From what our sources are confirming, the black Wii bundle will include Wii Sports, Wii Sports Resort and the Wii Motion Plus. The price will stay at $199.99 and it will also be available in white, as well. Look for it to arrive on shelves on May 4th, but we suspect that only some retailers will have the black units right away. We expect that some retailers will want to burn though their existing white stock before putting the black units on the shelves.