How Much Will the Wii U Controller Cost?

[Ail]

archbrix said:

greenmedic88 said:

Ail said:

greenmedic88 said:
$79.99

I think a lot of people are seriously overestimating the cost of the parts that will go into making one of these controllers.

It's not a standalone device; it has no CPU, GPU, system RAM, etc.

Beyond having the basic internals of the current Wii Remote Plus (less than $10 worth of components), the LCD display (maybe a $20/sub $20 part), the touch screen interface (resistive; low cost), about the only other components will be the signal processor and related components that relay AV/player input signal to the console itself; not expensive parts.

The problem is that standard controllers don't have a lot orf expensive parts and they already retail at 50-60$ and I can see the cost of LCD screen, touchscreen and processing of the image adding easilly 25$ to the manufacturing cost. And Nitendo being Nintendo, they won't sell them at a loss.

Take a standard controller that cost at best 25$ to produce  and sells for 50-60$, this controller will cost 50$ to manufacture and will probably sell for 90-100$ ( retailers won't give up their margins on accessories either..).

 

 

Now you may be overestimating the cost to produce standard controllers as well. They are high margin items as controllers have typically been. The Wii Remote for example, cost something like $9.83 (iSuppli) back in 2006.

With the additional components, I'm guessing the iSuppli estimate on each will be just under $40.

Since it sounds as though Nintendo isn't going to be trying to sell every Wii U owner 3 extra LCD controllers (if it only syncs with 2 controllers) they won't(can't) be relying upon Wii U controller sales to inflate overall hardware margins. Barring the occasional "oops, broke my controller" replacements, they'll only be selling Wii U owners one additional controller max.

That's exactly what I was going to point out, but you beat me to it. 

The Wii remote and nunchuck together were under $15 for Nintendo to manufacture.  Sure, Ninty loves their profit, but $79-$89 for the Wii U controller seems pretty logical to me... and the success of the balance board has proven that consumers are willing to spend that much.

Even if Nintendo won't be relying on high margin, most retailers will be expecting to have those on this kind of item.

They already agree to sell the consoles with a low margin , I somewhat doubt they will agree to low margins on controllers too...

I could be wrong but my guess is that in the end the new controller will cost more than a balance board to produce so that gives it a good idea for a target price. Now like some said, Nintendo can always sweeten the deal by bundling a game..