By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
Soundwave on 04 January 2026
Edit Thread
burninmylight said:
Soundwave said:

That's really all it was. Nintendo didn't want to take the risk of something unproven on an expensive chipset. 

The Wii could have definitely been more powerful, $250 was still quite a bit of money even back then. The GameCube was a massive upgrade over the N64 and was still only $199.99 just a few years earlier. 

The re-used the GameCube chipset because it made the system far, far less risky for Nintendo, if it had flopped they could have moved on to another console. 

Same thing with the DS, if the DS had not taken off they would have moved to make a better than PSP Game Boy Next for sure. 

The broke ass college kid that was me in 2006 definitely remembers that $250 was quite a bit of money back then, lol. But in 2006, you could hold down an apartment working part time on minimum wage. We had 20 fewer years of wage stagnation vs. inflation, were still years away from the '08 recession and the more recent COVID recession. If you had the dollars, those dollars went farther.

The Wii and the Switch had a lot in common leading up to their launches. Plenty of message board pundits speculated the Wii would fail because of its price compared to its graphical and processor capabilities, just like the Switch. Both consoles had humongous hype leading into their launches and came out of the gates like they were shot from a cannon because they both introduced a concept that the masses suddenly realized it needed and couldn't get elsewhere. Like I said earlier, if you make something people really want, their going to find a way to get it regardless of price.

I realize that it's easy for me to say casually now with 20 years of hindsight and no irons in the fire in Nintendo's board meetings, but if Nintendo made a more powerful Wii at an extra $50-150, it would have been fine. People still to this day go broke trying to get their hands on the latest iPhone. MFers will go and get the latest Jordans, yet sleep in the middle of the floor on an air mattress. Everybody complained about Tears of the Kindgom's $10 price hike over the MSRP of every other Switch game, yet that did nothing to stop its momentum. Make a product people want, they'll go and get it once their tears dry up over the price.

Even at $250 the Wii could have been a lot more powerful than what it was. Again $200 was what the GameCube launched at just 5 years earlier and that was a monstrous upgrade over the N64. 

Nintendo didn't want to risk it. I also think the Wii was probably supposed to cost $199.99 ... they only went to $250 once they started to get positive word of mouth from initial showings of the system and Sony dropped the bomb of $599.99 for PS3. With PS3 being $600, I think Nintendo realized they could get away with $249.99. 

But Nintendo themselves has said now in hindsight not making the Wii more powerful to support things like HD resolution was a mistake (well Miyamoto has said it).