Between $299 and $349

$249. The ps3/360 will likely be $199 by then so in order for devs to be onboeard nintendo needs to make sure the console can actually compete

$250 or $300 is what I think they will go for. I am putting my bet on $250 atm.

they will sell it at a lost price depend on how much the cost is...

It has to be much more expensive than the PS3 or 360, to warrant that it is newer tech andworth the investment,

However they cannot buy into their own hype like they did with the 3DS and price gouge. Besides, Wii momentum is dead anyways, they are in no position to capitalize off predecessor momentum.

I sure as hell know that I'm not buying it at launch after the recent 3DS debacle. Launch purchasing was so 2001.

300$ USD (without taxes) is for me the most posible price, by 2012, PS360 will be at 200$ or posibly lower, I think that the expensive piece of the harware is the controller, it is almost like a tablet, I like the idea of combining a tablet and a TV for playing games, the Wii U will be a slow revolution... And I am going to get it on launch

I think Iwata never actually stated that they are actually taking a loss on every 3ds sold. If you read his wording carefully.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=438983

The only part where he says something close to this is the quote"On the other hand, a drastic markdown like this, before the mass-production effect can take place for the hardware, will naturally generate red ink on the hardware sales. As a result, a significant minus effect is expected on the profitability of the current fiscal year."

Does generate red ink on hardware sales means, they are taking a loss on each hardware sold? I really dunno, maybe its investor slang, or clever wording or whatever. Maybe It does. Does it?

I'm not sure if is just bad journalism or loss in translation here. I havent done alot of research on this so I cud be talking crazy. But if you can gimme I link where he outright stated this, it will help.

Yes, cyberninja, that is what red ink means. In business black numbers mean gains and red numbers mean losses.

That aside, I'm expecting $250, possibly $300. We know it will be relatively similar to the 360/PS3, but not how much more powerful it is. So lets compare, theoretically, what's going on inside each box. 360 was always cheaper than the ps3, even when it released earlier. Why? No cell and no blu-ray. Are these things still a bit pricey? Yeah, actually. The cell's multiple processors are not as price-efficient as a single multi-core processor, and they are also used in far fewer devices than power pc chips. Off the bat, Nintendo has the potential to have a cheaper CPU than the PS3 while still being more powerful.

Now, it's probable that they will have a more powerful GPU as well. Except, the old HD consoles are using GDDR3. GDDR5 has a higher price to performance ratio, and is relatively close in actual manufacturing cost. They could use the same amount of memory and get much better results and it may not even cost them a penny extra. Since there is a tendency for shared memory in consoles, that means that means all system memory can be expected to perform much better than the competition's, and the real cost here for them is that there will be more of it.

Now at this point a lot of your are probably thinking "okay, so it won't be much more costly to make the console, but what about that expensive controller?" Well, I say look at those expensive HDDs in the PS3 and 360 elite, and look at how much cheaper an 360 arcade unit is with its internal flash memory. $100 cheaper. So without an internal HDD, people should be looking at the WiiU price as starting at the arcade and working up from there. Are the added parts and the controller going to come up to $100 in value at retail? Maybe. Will it be significantly higher? No.

From what I've seen, people are overestimating the cost of the controller and failing to see that new hardware is inherently better, but not inherently more expensive. They are also neglecting to consider the fact that Sony and MS don't have any incentive to lower their price before the other one does because they dug such big holes at the beginning of the generation. Not a problem for Nintendo, who still has fat stacks of DS and Wii cash.

oh ok.

But he should have just said red ink on each hardware sold rather than just hardware sales. Or even just outright say it normally. Translation mistakes can happen here... Jeez.

EDIT:

WOW wait one second, there is an error in translation here, read it again. this sentence is very important

What does "mass production effect for the hardware" means??? and hardware sales?

If im not interpreting it right, it sound s like hes saying: until this mass price cut effect takes place for the hardware, there will be a loss in hardware sales(numbers)(because people will be waiting for the pricedrop) .

Dam does anyone have a link where he just says loss per hardware in English jeez.

$300-$350