WiiNintendo

From an article over at IGN…

Though the Wii Speak microphone peripheral will ship day and date with Animal Crossing: City Folk on November 16, the downloadable Wii Speak Channel — the chat program that works outside of the Animal Crossing experience — won’t be downloadable until December.

Branded on the Wii Speak retail packaging is a sticker that announces “Wii Speak Channel coming in December!”

(Click to enlarge.)

UPDATE - Press Release from Nintendo:

The new in-game voice chat function for Animal Crossingâ„¢: City Folk will be ready to go as soon as the game launches on Nov. 16, using the Wii Speakâ„¢ accessory. A separate Wii Speakâ„¢ Channel that people can use to chat independent of Animal Crossing: City Folk will be available in December.

The new voice chat function makes use of the new Wii Speak accessory, a microphone that sits on top of the television and allows entire rooms of people to communicate with one another. Only users who have traded Friend Codes can connect with one another using Wii Speak. The accessory is sold separately at an MSRP of $29.99 and will also be available as a bundle with Animal Crossing: City Folk at select retailers at an MSRP of $69.99. The Wii Speak accessory comes with a code that lets users download the Wii Speak Channel from the Wii Shop Channel at no charge.

The Wii Speak Channel will allow friends and family members to chat with one another, whether they live across town or across the globe. When users are chatting with the Wii Speak Channel, they can see each other’s Mii™ characters representing them on the television screen.

Remember that Wii features parental controls that let adults manage the content their children can access. For more information about this and other Wii features, visit Wii.com.