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HappySqurriel on 15 June 2011
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Rpruett said:
HappySqurriel said:
Rpruett said:
HappySqurriel said:
By the time the Wii U releases everyone who wants a DVD player will already have a working DVD player, Blu-Ray players will be available for (around) $50 to $75 and most of the people who care about Blu-Ray will have already bought in, and Netflix will slowly be climing to be the #1 way people watch movies. In other words, there is really no value in including support for Nintendo, and if they design the system to be physically incompatible it makes piracy more difficult.

It's a typical Nintendo mistake.  The type of mistake that makes no logical sense to anyone other then Nintendo.   If what you're saying is true, incorporating (DVD/Bluray) playback should be an absolute cinch and not even a large cost of money.  Quite simply, it's Nintendo cutting corners on costs to make more profit at the consumers expense.

Nothing is  "necessary" , but in todays age it should have tons of multi-media features,  high quality online-integration,  playback of various media types (Music, Movies, etc), HD support and more.  Even though Nintendo doesn't consider itself in competition with MS and Sony, they are. 

Nintendo is afraid of pleasing what some would call the 'core' crowd on the 360 and PS3 and I have no idea why.  I've longed for a system like the SNES  for years but Nintendo continually doesn't take the necessary steps to achieve this.

 

The reason to add a feature to a console is if the added cost to implement the feature is less than the value added for the consumer; if you don't stick to this principle you will eventually end up with hardware that costs much more to produce than consumers are willing to pay and you have to heavily subsidize it simply to sell it. While it may make fanboy's brag, a company losing a lot of money on hardware is a bad thing because it demonstrates that they have focused on things that their customers don't value.

While you may disagree with it personally, Nintendo is "betting" that the cost of adding disc-based media playback is greater than the value of the feature to consumers; you may disagree but it is an assumption that hasn't worked too badly for them with the Wii and Nintendo DS

Again, if the features are as rudimentary and simple as you mentioned above, the cost couldn't possibly be significant for Nintendo.  This is simply Nintendo not providing features that general consumers would enjoy having for their own bottom line.   Again, value is in the eye of the beholder and with a wide array of opinions and eyes on their console it's safe to say a healthy percentage would enjoy having this  feature.

Thus, they aren't diverging from any principles nor are they making hardware that they are selling at a catastrophic loss (Like PS3).   I am arguing that their consumers do value these features and that part of any good business is growing your business.  People flock to Sony and 360 for a multitude of reasons,  one of which being general media playback features that Nintendo completely neglects.

That assumption had a value difference of $250 vs $400 / $600 respectively.  If you expect to see a drastic price difference like this between the consoles this upcoming generation, I'd call you absolutely crazy.  This is the wrong strategy, at the wrong time for Nintendo given their position.   This is there chance to 'catch-up' in numerous ways, instead they're looking to be still behind half a generation. 

With an unknown 'new' market they acquired with the Wii,  a guaranteed tighter pricing battle and what appears to be the usual baffling Nintendo decisions,  I don't think that the Wii is a good comparison point at this time. 


I don't think you're understanding what I am saying ...

Including or not including any feature is the result of a design philosophy, and if your design philosophy is the "migh aswell" philosophy you eventually end up with gold plated requirments and and costs that are out of control. Even inexpensive features like adding additional USB ports, SD card readers, and additional media functions have costs that add up over time if you don't put restrictions on adding these features. What this means is that every company that expects any level of success has to draw the line somewhere.

Now, if it costs $10 per system to add this media playback, 10% of the userbase finds any value in it, less than 1% of potential users see it as a deal breaker not to include it do you include the feature? Remember that including this feature costs $100 for every user who finds value in it and more than $1,000 for every user who wouldn't buy your system otherwise.