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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Will Nintendo opt to lose money initially on the Wii U? Reggie says "NO" Update

spurgeonryan said:

Shows that Nintendo may be willing to keep the price really low when it first comes out. I wonder if they would be willing to sell the pad controller seperate to make this happen? They already have the current controller that is compatible with the Wii U right? So just keep the pad controller seperate and sell it like Microsoft sells the Kinect. Or even bundle it in a seperate offer for a higher price.

Great idea. That way it can have like 20-30% adaption rate among Wii-U userbase which ensures as much 3rd party software support as SixAxis got ;)



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I think 300$ is the maximun price that Nintendo can sell the wii U if they want it to be a success, being the ideal price 250$. If they launch the Wii U at 350$-400$ it will fail miserably. If they want the Wii U to be a success they need the Wii crowd on board, so Wii Sports U and New Super Mario Bros. Mii must be launch titles.



$200 worth of tech in the console - $100 worth of tech in a controller - sell it at cost.

..seems reasonable enough to me. i just can't envision nintendo taking a loss...they'll lower their profit margin and cut corners in their hardware until it is at least a wash at a reasonable launch price.



kitler53 said:
$200 worth of tech in the console - $100 worth of tech in a controller - sell it at cost.

..seems reasonable enough to me. i just can't envision nintendo taking a loss...they'll lower their profit margin and cut corners in their hardware until it is at least a wash at a reasonable launch price.

The controller is definitely the variable, but i could conceivably peg it at under $100 for production costs. We are talking about something functionally inert like the Wii remote, such that it will have little if any onboard processing power or memory. The very high capacity streaming technology is likely the worst factor, because even the touch screen is older tech (same touchscreens as the DS/3DS as opposed to what's used in virtually everything else)



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Don't think it will sell the console at a loss, but probably they decide to sell it at a price without profit (don't know the exact word to describe that sorry xD)
They need to build a great launch lineup in order to move the PS360 crowd; maybe with a Wii U sports or a 1st party secondary game (It comes to mind probably a F Zero or a Metroid game)
With the right price and right games, Wii U could sell like hot cakes



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kitler53 said:
$200 worth of tech in the console - $100 worth of tech in a controller - sell it at cost.

..seems reasonable enough to me. i just can't envision nintendo taking a loss...they'll lower their profit margin and cut corners in their hardware until it is at least a wash at a reasonable launch price.


You think the controller costs $100 to make? Really?

>_>



turtuls said:
I think they wont lose money at a loss because they will make the tablet do some crazy interaction crap with the ds/3ds like the playing with the touch screen with the tablet and using your tv as the top screen and if you got a 3d tv you can play 3ds games on it and everyone will be going how revolutionary that is and those hardcore that bought that gameboy player for the gamecube will be willing to buy it at any price. Also, a new wii sports will help sales.


QUE?!?!!? LOL yeah because we all know how well the GB player did for the GC and that damn thing wasnt even that expensive. And it wasnt even that technically marvelous, it was just an updated Super GB. Not sure where you're coming from



Why do people think that Ninty cant sell it for 400??? Is it some rule?? Didnt MS sell 360 for that price and it did alright. The guys at Ninty already said it would be costly. So unless they are going to backtrack and cheap out on hardware, which lets be real might be good for them and not good for actual gamers; $300-400 is not outside the realm of possibility.



Play4Fun said:
kitler53 said:
$200 worth of tech in the console - $100 worth of tech in a controller - sell it at cost.

..seems reasonable enough to me. i just can't envision nintendo taking a loss...they'll lower their profit margin and cut corners in their hardware until it is at least a wash at a reasonable launch price.


You think the controller costs $100 to make? Really?

>_>


it's a wiimote + motion-plus + a 6.2" high definition touch screen + a camera + mic + a recharable battery + whatever tech is needed to recieve and decode the data stream. i don't know what that will all cost but there is quite a few things stuck in there...for it's size there is probably a good $20 just tied to plastic casing...



Mr Khan said:
kitler53 said:
$200 worth of tech in the console - $100 worth of tech in a controller - sell it at cost.

..seems reasonable enough to me. i just can't envision nintendo taking a loss...they'll lower their profit margin and cut corners in their hardware until it is at least a wash at a reasonable launch price.

The controller is definitely the variable, but i could conceivably peg it at under $100 for production costs. We are talking about something functionally inert like the Wii remote, such that it will have little if any onboard processing power or memory. The very high capacity streaming technology is likely the worst factor, because even the touch screen is older tech (same touchscreens as the DS/3DS as opposed to what's used in virtually everything else)

i not saying that it will cost $100 but maybe upwards of.  i'm just making an estimate of costs, afterall if i'm high all that proves is that nintendo doesn't need to sell at a loss. 

..but i don't think i'm that far off.  nintendo is taking a small loss on 3DSs right?  well they both have touch screens (the wiiU's is bigger), they both have a recharable battery, a camera, a mic, a speaker, accelerameters, a gyroscope...   so it's short the CPU or whatever, a second screen, and the 3D camera.  if $270 is a loss on the 3DS then $100 for a wiiU controller doesn't seem that high to me for how many feature are tit-for-tat.