If Nintendo was smart they would have released a sku without a gamepad and then offered to sell the gamepads through the Nintendo site. This version could easily sell for $149 and they could include MK8 or Smash Bros. I think that if they did this there would have been crazy sales this holiday season.

But then again I'm thinking they would not even be in this situation if they named it the Wii 2. My biggest fear is that NX will be using gamepads. If this happens I'm predicting problems for NX.

Eh....Eherm.....I...I care! :P

No seriously, I appreciate it. I'm a student, I'm not swimmimng in money. So everything I don't have to spend on my power bill, I can spend on games/assorted nice things. Maybe electricity is cheaper in the US or something, but it's pretty expensive where I live and prices are rising pretty much yearly.

It also has something to do with what kinda deals Sony and MS can make.

When your selling insane amounts of units, you are more likely to get good prices on the individual components for the systems.

Another thing is the design of the console, was it design with forwards thinking designs? will individual components drop in price overtime? rise? will production of a component you need get rarer or harder to get your hands on?

Those old breakdowns of the Wii U, they guessed it cost like 80$ to make one of those wii u gamepads, which is just a nuts amount to use on just the controller for a system. Its probably one of the reasons the Wii U isnt cheaper than it is.

Your fight is 10 years late, you are not fighting with the right guy (I was a day one owner), and that's not what I was talking about. I'm not talking about quality/price, extra feature, I'm saying that 600$ for a console launch price is insane, and so lowering price made a lot of sense. They failed hard, lowered the price, and sold a lot more.

This is what I would have done if I was nintendo.

Made a new system with just the pro controller, and have it be 50$ or more cheaper than the normal wii u console.

(a pro controller only wii u, could sell at 199$)

Nintendo wants to make as much money as they can with Wii U.
They know that even with a price cut Wii U won't sell good so why should they do a price cut?

The Wii U's wireless streaming tech is one of the biggest cost increases and the fact they ignored going for a SoC design also effected the price.

To sell games and accessories. Their sales numbers show that the average Wii U owner buys 6 games. Not to mention whatever impulse purchases pop up on the eshop and all the peripherals that always get included with a Nintendo console. A Wii U unit with a Pro controller for $149-199 would equal big bucks in the long run for Nintendo. People who buy it would want the essentials, which are SM3DW, Mario Kart, Smash Bros, SMBU, Splatoon and when it happens, Zelda U. Not to mention DLC, controllers, amiibos, etc. etc. They would just need to patch certain games like Splatoon to use the twin stick setup and a map in the corner of the screen.

I'm not fighting, I was just adding another perspective about the value of the PS3 launch price. ;)

There are even 3 perspectives:

• The PS3 was expensive for people who were only interested in HD-games but not in HD-movies, I get that. The Xbox 360 was the better option for them, if the exclusive titles didn't matter.
• Both the PS3 and the 360-HDDVD-combo were well priced for people, who were interested in HD-movies, but not in games... they were a good option to the much more expensive standalone-HD-players (BR + HDDVD), especially until it was decided, which format survives.
• Both the PS3 and the 360-HDDVD-combo were great bargains for people (like me), who were interested in HD-games and HD-movies... I love both games and movies and wanted the best picture quality on my TV and projection screen.

I dare say greed and "we don't compete with them"