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Forums - Gaming Discussion - How is it possible that the X1 and PS4 are already basically the same price as a Wii U?

theRepublic on 27 November 2015
JWeinCom said:
A few things...

Firstly, the Wii U's chipset is highly customized, which means they'll have to pay more for them. The chip was customized to keep energy consumption low... Stupid decision, but there you have it.

An extra LCD screen is going to bring up the price as well.

And of course, Nintendo at this point doesn't really need or want to take a loss leading strategy. Their best bet at this point is to try to make what money they can off of the Wii U, and try to push sales with game bundles rather than price cuts. The Wii U is clearly not competing with the PS4 or XBox One, so no need to get in a price war. Get what you can out of it in its last year.

Yeah, they have done that the past two generations now, and it is time to give up that mindset.  Not sure how they really got into that, but they need to drop it ASAP.  Clearly, no one else cares.



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peterdavid12345 on 27 November 2015

Gamepad, and the Nintendo want to sell it with profits as well.



ArchangelMadzz on 27 November 2015
Justagamer said:
JWeinCom said:
A few things...

Firstly, the Wii U's chipset is highly customized, which means they'll have to pay more for them. The chip was customized to keep energy consumption low... Stupid decision, but there you have it.

An extra LCD screen is going to bring up the price as well.

And of course, Nintendo at this point doesn't really need or want to take a loss leading strategy. Their best bet at this point is to try to make what money they can off of the Wii U, and try to push sales with game bundles rather than price cuts. The Wii U is clearly not competing with the PS4 or XBox One, so no need to get in a price war. Get what you can out of it in its last year.

I've never understood Nintendo's fixation on using the least amount of power as possible. I suppose it's a good thing environmentally, but when they're trying to sell systems, I've never known anyone that said, I'm getting the nintendo system, it uses the least amount of power. 

 

 And of course, the controller. The main reason the wiiu costs so damn much. So many bad choices with the wiiu, it's insane. 


And even then the gamepad battery is really low (3 and a half hours with the unit I had) so you spend lots of energy charging it in the first place 



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Intrinsic on 27 November 2015

Two reasons.

1. the gamepad costs Nintendo around $70 to make. while the controllers in the PS4/XB1 cost around $25.

2. for the same reason MS isn't slashing the price of the XB1 and selling it for $199 even if they can afford to. At some point you realize that the cost isn't what is stopping your console from selling. At that point the smarter thing to do is focus on profitability so you can at least recoup most of your losses. And not on market share which could mean you would jut bleed more money.



greenmedic88 on 28 November 2015

Boils down to overall revenue and profit per unit.

The Wii U has underperformed expectation and Nintendo prioritized profit margins over revenue with the understanding that slashing margins by dumping product near cost would not reverse sales trends.

The Wii U should see good sales over the holidays; Nintendo products in general trend more like toys in terms of where sales are loaded. This year appears to be no different as the Wii U was reported as being a hot item at Target.



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Ljink96 on 28 November 2015

Yup, it's been said, GamePad. Way more expensive than Dualshock 4 or Xbone's controlller.



chapset on 28 November 2015

Sony and Microsoft love us while Nintendo is greedy as always and trying to rip off the few remaining fans that they have. They will try to sell you games that are 3, 4, 5 or more years old still at full price. sometimes even when the sequel is out the first one will still be at launch price. Their greed as no end. gg



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S.T.A.G.E. on 28 November 2015

Thank you. I dont give a damn about the gamepad excuse. Its not a proper price point for the level of tech compared to the competition. With the prospect of a new console coming so soon, Nintendo needs to cut the price a.s.a.p.



ps_wiro on 28 November 2015

It's the gamepad + selling at lower levels unlike the PS4 and Xbox One they can't afford to drop the price so much...



baloofarsan on 28 November 2015
t3mporary_126 said:
baloofarsan said:
I have bought four Wii U:s (for friends and family) allways under $200 in Q2.


Damn Nintendo should hire you for their marketing team.


I have found that the weeks before E3 are the best for bargains.