Mmm... bad news for me. I guess this means it won't have a soon pricecut.

I'd imagine that the pad costs at most $80 or so. The thing is basically a gutted DS: same type of touchscreen technology, some communication abilities, and a display. The display is better than the DS display, but then the device has minimal processing capabilities to balance against that.

i don't think sony can and will take a huge loss on ps4. they cant afford a 100 dollar hit on every system imo. one year and a $399 price tag ain't gonna be enough for the ps4 to be a significantly jump over wiiu...

That $150 is probably including the typical extreme mark-up that is associated with accessories ...

IIRC wired controllers for the PS2 and Gamecube were (roughly) $25, with the Wavebird selling for $35, and console manufacturers were making a lot of profit off of these. In this generation controllers increased to costing $50 even though they were not substantially more complicated than the Wavebird. While I could be wrong, I suspect that the typical controller is now selling for 400% its manufacturing cost.

If I was guessing, I would expect the Wii U tablet would add $25 to the cost of the system above the cost of a conventional controller; certainly, a noticeable increase but it wouldn't be as dramatic as some people expect.

Ultimately, as I said in a different thread, Nintendo is a conservative company (read: cheap) and will not take the massive losses that Sony or Microsoft will but they're not incompetent; and if they could release the Wii U for a lower price and/or increase the processing power while retaining their current price they would. Hypothetically speaking, if Nintendo was willing to take the kind of losses that Sony and Microsoft were they could possibly increase processing power by 50%, if they were willing to release their system to be much larger while running hotter they could increase the processing power by another 50%, and if they were willing to sell it for $100 more they could increase processing power by another 50%; but the only way beyond that is producing a system with many negatives simply to get more processing power.

WiiU will be sold at a loss in the States, but at a profit in Europe.

According to?

They took a $9 hit during the launch quarter.

I suspect, if indeed they are taking a loss, they are only taking a loss on the US sales.   The exchange rates break down like this:

Basic: ¥26,250 = $328.81   (US price = $299.99)
Deluxe: ¥31,500 = $394.62   (US price = $349.99)

So we already see they are taking a $28.82 and $44.63 difference in the US.   Those aren't necessarily losses unless the Japanese price is break even or at a loss as well.   If the Japanese price is at a profit, you have to subtract the difference in the Japanese profit and those US price differences.

I will wait for the IR Event on Nintendo Investors Relations to see if the Wii U will be sold at a loss or profit. I think the Wii U will be sold at profit on the hardware side; however, marketing, R & D development, and other expenses taken into account, the Wii U will be sold at a loss on launch. This should only be temporary.

Mii.

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

Wii U Deluxe

• Japan: 38850 yen
• Europe: 40000 yen

a small loss at launch is fine but basically this means wii U doesn't take off at launch they won't be able to afford an emergency price cut like they did with the 3DS. and I still think 5.5M this fiscal year sounds too high of a target. i just don't see wii U getting anywhere near the same attention that wii got.