The Wii U will be sold at a loss

[JEMC]

TomaTito said:

HappySqurriel said:

You have to factor in the cost of doing buisness in Europe ...

There are higher regulatory costs, labour costs and taxes which all translate to it being more expensive to produce/sell anything throughout most of the Eurozone; and this results in goods being more expensive.

You're right about the taxes, forgot to factor that in, don't know if they are also included in the Japanese prices.

Since they always talk about retail prices, we can assume that the VAT is included.

Now, using your numbers*

 

TomaTito said:

Wii U Basic

• Japan: 26250 yen
• Europe: 31000 yen
• US: 24000 yen

Wii U Premium

• Japan: 31500 yen
• Europe: 36000 yen (console) - 5000 yen (Nintendo Land)= 31000 yen
• US: 28000 yen (console) - 5000 yen (Nintendo Land) = 23000 yen

 

Right now VAT in Japan is a mind blowing... 8%! (Who do I have to kill to get that VAT over here?) we end with

Japan

WiiU Basic : 26250 ¥ => 25000 ¥

WiiU Premium : 31500 ¥ => 30000 ¥

USA's price is without VAT, but in Europe is also included. The vat is : 19% in Germany, 19.6% in France and 21% in both Spain and Italy (the biggest markets in Europe, excluding the UK). If we assume a 20% of VAT in Europe we end up with

Europe

 

WiiU Basic : 310000 ¥ => 25833 ¥

WiiU Premium : 36000 ¥ => 30000 ¥

 

Basically we pay the same.

 

*Remember that those are the retail prices which include the margin that goes to the store, those are not the prices that Nintendo sells the WiiU to them.