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Resident_Hazard on 21 September 2010
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LordTheNightKnight said:
Resident_Hazard said:


I don't know... Nintendo did powerful hardware for reasonable costs with almost everything else--especially the SNES, GameCube, and Game Boy Advance--to an extent, the N64 and even the Virtual Boy (first 32-bit "poprtable" I believe).  I think for the Wii, we're mostly being charged for the Wiimote technology, and not the hardware tech--which I'm sure could've been sold for profit at around a $100--as the GameCube was a year before it's demise.  Aside from the original Game Boy and the current-gen, Nintendo typically focused on making generally powerful hardware.  For that matter, the original NES was powerful when it came out--the Master System and TG-16 came out after.

I think Nintendo could've found a way to make the Wii and DS powerful enough to fit easily with the current-gen--and still be affordable--but I think it was a conscious decision not to, so as to further differentiate the systems from the competition.

 


Well the estimated cost of the Wii was $160, but that was not taking the controllers packed-in into account.

Plus it wasn't just the specs of the other parts that upped the cost. It was also fitting them into a smaller and more power friendly size. It's the same reason parts for laptops cost more than desktop parts with the same specs.

Also, this was a Nintendo that wasn't sure of itself after what happened the last two generations. It seems the Wii specs were about playing it safe with the cost rather than differentiation. So that any potential losses would be as minimal as possible if the system didn't take off.

Oh, no doubt they were playing it safe.  With the Wii being little more (technologically) than a supercharged GameCube, I think they could've squeezed it into a smaller package without much expenditure.  You're right about laptops generally being spendier as they are "compact" versions of PC's, but Sony squeezed the entirety of PS2 power into a handheld a year before the Wii came out.  I just can't imagine what the hell costs so much in the Wii for mass production.  The system's size is fairly comparable to the GameCube (and we can remove a full inch from the bottom of the Cube to see it's full size since it's made up of expansion ports underneath).

But yeah, they didn't want to spend a lot or take too big a risk.  Banking entirely on the Wii Remote was their risk.