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Forums - Nintendo - Wii U Apparently Still Being Sold At A Loss

teigaga on 31 January 2015
zumnupy10 said:
DM235 said:


When I setup a repair with Nintendo, the cost was $100 for the GamePad and $10 for return shipping, plus taxes.  This requires that I ship a broken Gamepad to them.

When you lose it, it costs more ($140 + $5 shipping and taxes):

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=516246

Edit: CNN Report says it costs Nintendo $79 to make a Gamepad - http://www.gamespot.com/forums/nintendo-discussion-1000001/cnn-says-wii-u-basic-set-costs-228-to-make-29368526/


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.       

Don't forget that the controller was the main justification for the systems existence, hence why they thought they could get away with last gen hardware. Had it actually been as strong a selling point as they hoped, its cost would have been justified. 



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Drakrami on 31 January 2015

Add 1+1 and you suddenly realize why there wasn't a Wii U Smash bundle. They still had inventory for 2014, wasn't expecting to sell through it, so decided not to manufacture new WiiU units.



zumnupy10 on 31 January 2015
teigaga said:
zumnupy10 said:


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.       

Don't forget that the controller was the main justification for the systems existence, hence why they thought they could get away with last gen hardware. Had it actually been as strong a selling point as they hoped, its cost would have been justified. 

Whenever I think about Nintendo choices for the WiiU specs,  I come to the conclusion that Nintendo designed it to get ports of third party titles of PS3/X360 more easily.   Like if they believed PS3/X360 would keep getting games for a long time even after PS4/Xbone launched.

For me Nintendo trusted that PS3/X360 owners would take more time to upgrade to PS4/Xbone.  Maybe believing 8th gen prices would be higher than the $399.

Nintendo thought they could repeat the successful formula of the Wii.   A console with a different controller that offered a different experience than what PS4/Xbone could.

The thing is, Nintendo did not have compelling software to justify the gamepad like Wii sports did for the Wii.    



S.T.A.G.E. on 31 January 2015

Its that tablet thats causing their cheap hardware not to profit.



FromDK on 31 January 2015

So Nintendo expecting to make less money next year..

That is becourse WiiU will be sold at a loss..?

First.. that does not main that.. that only means they wont be making as many money on each units.. (and that fit that.. starting up production fine) it is not a sure indicator of them "loosing" on WiiU.

And then people say WiiU will not get a pricecut this year..?

Could't it be that Nintendo indeed do one.. and that's why the proffit is lower.. (if Nintendo know they will drop the price later this year.. they offcourse need to have it in theire forecast)



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VitroBahllee on 02 February 2015
FromDK said:
So Nintendo expecting to make less money next year..

That is becourse WiiU will be sold at a loss..?

First.. that does not main that.. that only means they wont be making as many money on each units.. (and that fit that.. starting up production fine) it is not a sure indicator of them "loosing" on WiiU.

And then people say WiiU will not get a pricecut this year..?

Could't it be that Nintendo indeed do one.. and that's why the proffit is lower.. (if Nintendo know they will drop the price later this year.. they offcourse need to have it in theire forecast)

Why do you think you understood the article enough to comment on it?



TheLastStarFighter on 02 February 2015

I think there is some confusion here. I don't think it's that a Wii U is sold at a loss in terms of components, etc, it's that operating the manufacturing operations increases costs and eats into Nintendo's profits. Q4 is almost always a drain on their profits because they are maintaining the same operations and overhead, but taking in less revenue than in Q3.

Wii U operations, as a whole, are not very profitable and most likely losing money. It doesn't mean that making and selling an individual Wii U loses money, but rather making, marketing, developing games, storing inventory, etc, loses money. Adding in producing more of them increases losses.