JRPGfan said:
Its not. If its a tablet with a 500gflop gpu in it, it should be around that price. The Nvidia Shield tablet sells for 199$ and nvidia dont expect software profits to be made on it. This is what will make the NX a winner, its price. They cant afford to be anywhere near their competitors in terms of price, if their going for the really low end, of the market. 299$ would put it at the same price as a PS4/XB1 slim, which it just cant be and be expected to sell well. |
But my understanding is that the NX will have a lot more stuff on it than an Nvidia Shield. Does the Nvidia Shield have a separate docking station? Can you hook an Nvidia Shield to your TV? Dedicated physical detachable controls? Did the Nvidia Shield launch for only $199?
On top of all that, my view has always been that Nintendo is perceived as a premium brand. It has always had a premium price. Not a huge premium, but still always costing those extra 20%. A little extra premium to guarantee that famous durable Nintendo hardware quality. And consumers historically have had no problem with that. The Segas, Xboxes and PS2s have always been the cheaper option, while with Nintendo the consumer know what they want.
The Wii was the only exception and could for a multiple reasons launch for cheaper ($249).
The Wii U launched at $299 for the basic version and $349 for the deluxe version. And people are demanding only $199 for the NX? Absolutely crazy. Totally unreasonable.
Your comparison with the PS4 Slim and Xbox One Slim at $299 are not entirely fair, because those are old consoles now, over three years old by the time NX comes out. And even if we would compare with the PS4 and Xbox One, even if the NX is slightly weaker hardware it's roughly in the same ballpark. And overall it brings much more value than the PS4 and Xbox One (with the hybrid functionality and the docking station).
Btw, what does the Wii U cost still? Perhaps the US official price is $249 but in Sweden it still costs the same as an Xbox One, and that also tells something about Nintendo's pricing mentality.
I don't get it, despite having easy access to learn about the historical facts, how come every time Nintendo is about to launch a new product we get the same discussion, these unreasonable expectations?
I believe the NX will cost $299 at launch (and be a huge sucess). It will cost only $249 if we're extremely lucky.
