Are they producing them with a solid gold processor? this is ridiculous!

How are they selling refurbs for $200? I'm starting to think they might have to make the game pad less Wii U model just so they can lower the price.

Don't forget the most profitable also lol

To all the people that think Nintendo will get rid of the gamepad lol one word" amiibo" .....you cannot use amiibos without gamepad ..sorry gamepad us here to stay ...... They are making a killing with the amiibos ..do you really think they are gonna get rid of the gamepad when that is making them millions and they are selling extremely well ...don't think so

That's crazily high for a controller. 

Nintendo's path after the WiiU is definetely the most interesting thing in the videogame industry to watch and pay attention in the next few years.    It will be very interesting to see what Nintendo will do with their next console after the WiiU.       

Oh. Those "off the shelve parts" are on NO shelves today. I can't buy ANY of those chips. 

Both XOne and PS4 have CUSTOM design excactly suited to their respective needs. 

There are two things which makes the HD twins chips cheaper:

- a SINGLE die instead of multiple bound together as on the Wii U. 

- TINY amounts of L2 cache to support those slow netbook cores

Those design decissions in favor to monetarize their consoles at the earliest possible time is indeed going to backfire BIG in 2016 when TWO new AMD customers are using the LATEST AMD x86 and ARM APUs.

While some speculated about Nintendo being one of the customers - it is clear who they are: FACEBOOK and AMAZON. 

Its ironic that Microsoft and Sony paved the way for THEIR biggest threat - a ME-TOO console running circles around them. At least for Microsoft it makes sense: they will do everything whats needed to have WINDOWS on the FACEBOOK CONSOLE. As Sony has nothing to offer OS wise they will be the biggest loser of this gen...

You're right only in that the AMD APU of XOne and PS4 or utilizing NETBOOK core designs found also in other AMD products.  But even these cores are altered a bit.

From a production stand point both APUs need their own production runs...

Nope. As they account in Yen they have - as Sony too - a big problem as the Euros value is going down and will stay there for a while they will get fewer Yens for each Euro.

NoE has already taken some actions to lower their costs as relocating their office and laying off support staff. Also closing Club Nintendo having no shipping costs for the rewards will help a bit too.

But in the end I think these changes won't offset the losses due to the the changed exchange rates...

yes ... it is completely impossible to build a pro controller or a peripheral with nfc reader.

But on the other hand I agree. What speakes against the gamepadless console is the upcoming games like starfox, mario maker and project giant robot that make heavy use of the controller.

Nintendo really is in a tough position!

Yeah, backwards compatibility hasn't helped much.  Everyone who wants to play Wii games owns a Wii, and there is no reason to get a Wii U for that purpose as it does nothing to enhance the experience.  I feel that if it rendered all Wii games in 720/1080P that you'd get a ton of people buying it just for that feature (I would have).  

The second point is probably one of the biggest problems with the system.  They focused too much on energy efficiency and a slim profile, which, while nice, are things that the average gamer couldn't care less about.  If they didn't care about power efficiency as much, they probably could have gotten a more powerful GPU at very little extra cost.  They could also have just gone with the existing X360 CPU or something to cut costs (similar enough architecture, though not sure about Wii compatibility there).