An anonymous source with close ties to Nintendo believes that they know how much Nintendo’s manufacturing costs are for Wii U, and also how much the system will retail for when it makes its debut sometime after this years E3 event in June.

• Total cost of materials to manufacture the Wii U console (includes cost of controller) is estimated to be around $180
• Controller’s total bill of materials and components costs no more than $50
• Wii U will be no less than $300 when it launches- NFC capabilities for each new Wii U controller costs no more than $5 to implement
• Price of NFC implementation in mobile devices is expected to fall below $1 in the near future
• Microsoft’s Kinect cost $56 after tearing it apart
• Wii U controller’s cost of materials would be slightly less than what Kinect cost

source: http://mynintendonews.com/2012/04/08/wii-u-cost-of-manufacturing-detailed-system-to-retail-for-under-300/

It says "Wii U will be no less than $300 when it launches", but the source says "under $300".

Either way it's just another rumor to add to the pile, though I wouldn't mind if it launched at that price.

miz1q2w3e said: It says "Wii U will be no less than $300 when it launches", but the source says "under $300". Either way it's just another rumor to add to the pile, though I wouldn't mind if it launched at that price.

Pretty much this.

so the controller will probably retail for around what we pay for controllers today, thats good i actually thought it would cost near $100

The pre-order price for the console in blockbuster is £300

I am pretty sure after you include the distribution costs and such the actual cost of getting a unit to store shelves would likely be 200$ so if it retails at 300$ and the retailer gets a 15% cut which I believe is what Best Buy makes.That would leave Nintendo with roughly 55$ profit on every unit at launch price. If it retails at 250$ then Nintendo will only make like 5$ off each unit at launch, Nintendo needs higher profits then 5$ to keep itself from taking another annual loss, they no longer have strong Wii sales or DS ones to keep the company afloat and 3DS while profitable is not at the moment a cash cow. Nintendo needs a decent profit on every unit.

I did expect Nintendo to take a small loss on hardware at 350$. Taking another annual loss, but it appears Nintendo isn't willing to take a second annual loss. It says Nintendo is cutting corners they better still release a platform more powerful then PS3 I still say 2.5x the power is the least power the WiiU should have.

I really hope Nintendo left a lot of room for upgrades. I know in 2013 Nintendo could release a new model for the tablet. Nintendo could upgrade a lot of features on the WiiU and while I definitely don't want WiiU to become a PC I do think however that the tablet should be upgraded maybe a 1080p tablet in 2013 with some exclusive features not necessary for game play but making game play better.

If this is true then is definitely good news for my wallet, although the manufacturing cost looks really low, just to compare how much does it cost to manufacture a ps3 or xbox 360?

o_O.Q said: so the controller will probably retail for around what we pay for controllers today, thats good i actually thought it would cost near $100

Thing is controllers are cheap as hell to make, probably around $15, meaning it's an easy way to make profit - Nintendo won't be making any profit if they sell it for the current price.

o_O.Q said: so the controller will probably retail for around what we pay for controllers today, thats good i actually thought it would cost near $100

SMH.

I started reading..

"An anonymous source..."

So I stopped reading.