Some of the ideas are good except the pricing one. A 200$ price tag would not be smart in the slightest. A) Nintendo could never meet demand in fact they couldn't come close, lets say it sells like gang busters Nintendo sells well for a year then starts to die down. By year three Nintendo will have to cut the price even if the hardware is amazing. Consumers expect a price cut. B) The core gamers willing to buy software in large quantities will pay 300$ , but if you launch at 199$ more casual gamers will pick up WiiU and buy maybe 2-3 games life time. Nintendo needs to attract the core gamers first and casuals on the side. In year three Nintendo can then cut then consoles price by up to 100$ with a massive casual drive.

Nintendo cant afford to lose money. The climbing Yen the mighty Sony hurting bad. Investor confidence low. Nintendo needs to retail at 299$ if it fails Nintendo could cut by 50$ by fall 2013!
Nintendo needs to turn a healthy profit!

That's only hardware costs though. It's not taking into account the packaging, retailer cut or recouping the R&D and marketing costs. Still, they may still be able to launch at $250 and still hover around profitability.

I recognise the author's face and believe he has written professional stuff before but this article felt unprofessional, as written by a forum amateur.

Nintendo will never lose money on a console, won't happen.

Wouldn't surprise me if they were losing money on 3DS after the price-cut.

If Sony can sell the Vita at $250 ($270 with a 4GB memory card) I'm sure Nintendo is at least breaking even with the 3DS at $170.

Isn't Sony taking a loss on the Vita though? $170 is pretty low for Nintendo and 3DS, especially when you factor in the exchange rate

I agree. $299 is a good sweet spot for a console launch. Design the hardware so that it will break even at that price point even with a modest sellthrough and you can either jump for joy if high volumes bring in big profits or discount the price later down the line and focus on software for profit. A race to the bottom usually fails to produce good value for anybody.

No. You obviously haven't read a JC7 Thread.

I don't think that Nintendo goes to go lower than $250.  I also think Nintendo needs to cover R&D costs over the first 25 to 30 million units.  So starting at $300 might be wiser.

I should have used "could be" rather than "would be."  I also have questions about that $180 estimate.