By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Nintendo Discussion - The Wii U will be sold at a loss

VGKing on 24 October 2012
DanneSandin said:
Damn! That's a first for Nintendo!!! Just another evidence that PS4 won't be much stronger than WiiU


PS4 will be much stronger than Wii U.

Let's take a look at WHY the Wii U will be sold at a loss shall we?

1. Wii U gamepad.(this alone is killing Nintendo's profits). If there was no Wii U gamepad, this Wii U could easily be sold for a profit at $300.

Tha'ts all I can think of right now. It's the morning :)



Around the Network
noname2200 on 24 October 2012
badgenome said:
DanneSandin said:

Haven't you heard? It's gonna get bundled with Vita - to save those diminishing sales ;)

That's stupid. Nothing can save the Vita.

Vita means "life."

RolStoppable said:
pezus said:
Looks like I'll be buying it at launch. I'm listening to NiKKoM

Don't forget to buy Mass Effect 3 to support hardcore gaming on the Wii U.

But only after buying the Mass Effect Trilogy, because you're not a total tool.



VGKing on 24 October 2012
Play4Fun said:
maverick40 said:
Apparantly, the Wii U controller will retail at approx $150. This is not a good sign profit margin of the console itself. Although you never know with Nintendo.

http://kotaku.com/5942876/the-wii-us-controllers-are-really-expensive


Controllers are sold for really, really high profit margins at retail. Just because it may be sold for $150 at retail doesn't mean it adds $150 or even $100 to the console bundle.


You sir have a point. I expect manufacturing costs for that Gamepad to be between $50-$70. People are used to buying $600 tablets so selling a Wii U gamepad at $150 won't shock consumers if they view it as an alternative to the Kindle Fire/iPad.



ethomaz on 24 October 2012

The loss in due the expensive controller... to try equilibrate the things Nintendo made a cheap hardware for Wii U... the controller only should cost $200-250 for Nintendo (I guess).



DélioPT on 24 October 2012

If Iwata hasn`t explained the "loss" during the presentation, maybe we will hear something about it tomorrow on the briefing.



Around the Network
Viper1 on 24 October 2012
VGKing said:
DanneSandin said:
Damn! That's a first for Nintendo!!! Just another evidence that PS4 won't be much stronger than WiiU


PS4 will be much stronger than Wii U.

Let's take a look at WHY the Wii U will be sold at a loss shall we?

1. Wii U gamepad.(this alone is killing Nintendo's profits). If there was no Wii U gamepad, this Wii U could easily be sold for a profit at $300.

Tha'ts all I can think of right now. It's the morning :)

It will be stronger but not by the level a lot of gamers are assuming.   Look at the exchange rates I listed above.    Even if Sony were to make a ¥40,000 system, they'd have to sell it in the US for $500 to keep from posting a loss.  Sony can't afford to take major losses this time and because of the economic status of currency exchange rates, it won't be a massive powerhouse jump.   Again, I agree that it will be stronger than the Wii U, but nothing like the PS3 to Wii was as many people assume it will be.



The rEVOLution is not being televised

VGKing on 24 October 2012
HappySqurriel said:
maverick40 said:
Apparantly, the Wii U controller will retail at approx $150. This is not a good sign profit margin of the console itself. Although you never know with Nintendo.

http://kotaku.com/5942876/the-wii-us-controllers-are-really-expensive


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.

Yeah. You're one of the few that seems informed on the Wii U. One of the reason the Wii U is not a SUPER BEAST compared to an Xbox 360 is because Nintendo aimed for a small console and is power efficient. Sony won't. They will build a conole similar in size to the first PS3 Slim and that allows them to have much more power in the system since they aren't building based on power consumption.(I assume power consumption is the last thing they think about since even the phat PS3 didn't have much of a dent on your energy bill with daily use)



Viper1 on 24 October 2012
VGKing said:

Yeah. You're one of the few that seems informed on the Wii U. One of the reason the Wii U is not a SUPER BEAST compared to an Xbox 360 is because Nintendo aimed for a small console and is power efficient. Sony won't. They will build a conole similar in size to the first PS3 Slim and that allows them to have much more power in the system since they aren't building based on power consumption.(I assume power consumption is the last thing they think about since even the phat PS3 didn't have much of a dent on your energy bill with daily use)

In the US and some other cheap energy nations, not much.  But in some countries, like Denmark for instance, it would add a lot to your monthly bill.



The rEVOLution is not being televised

VGKing on 24 October 2012
DanneSandin said:
teigaga said:
DanneSandin said:
Damn! That's a first for Nintendo!!! Just another evidence that PS4 won't be much stronger than WiiU


I wonder if they're making a loss on the $349 model as well?

As far we know sony's system doesn't come with a 50$ control. Assuming Nintendo are only making a small loss and Sony are aiming for a $399 system and they're willing to make a loss of up to $100 (as opposed to $300 loss from ps3). That gives them an additional $99 to spend on CPU/GPU compared to Nintendo and maybe $30-40 on a large harddrive. Then the question is; what kind of leap would A $100 difference make? But one must remember the ps4 isn't launching for at least another 12months, so GPU/CPU graphical efficiency and prices would presembaly be a fair bit better by late 2013.  

 

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...

Sony won't be using alien technology on the PS4. This means that even if they take a big loss at launch, those losses will go down fast over time.(unlike the PS3)



badgenome on 24 October 2012
noname2200 said:
badgenome said:

That's stupid. Nothing can save the Vita.

Vita means "life."

Sony loves irony.