You've rather missed the context entirely, NinjabreadMan. Satoru Iwata is implying that the Wii and DS need to maintain a perceived value of their existing prices, thus not necessitating a price drop at all. They are bypassing the traditional model of lowering system costs entirely in the process. And in the long run, this will work fine, as currency naturally experiences inflation in value over time (meaning that while the price tag remains the same, the Wii ultimately will cost less in 2009 than it did in 2006 in terms of the actual value of the currency used to pay for the product).

If a products retain the same demand, the MSRP willbe retained as well regardless of the company or product.

 What makes this unique is the simple fact that no product has maintained this level of supply/demand in a very long, long time.

 That is a valid point, but still he said that the earliy buyers shouldn't be punished when compared to the late comers. If the later buyers pay a less amount than the early adopters it is a type of a slap in the face to the early supporters.

There isn't one bit of out of date tech in the Wii. Only an ignorant fanboy suggests as much. Do some research for once, geez.

@Viper1: I completely agree. I think Ninja here is just trying to get on our nerves...

Wii= Win this Gen (by sales and fun imo)

I'm sorry, but you just revealed how ill-informed you are. Wiis are not built from scratch by Nintendo in one place. The work is subcontracted out to several different companies. These companies are usually small firms that need to sign long-term contracts to protect their bottom-line. Investing in new physical plant (or retooling existing capacity) is not a small matter for them, and it's not reasonable to expect all of them to have the capacity to ramp up production.

If any one of these companies has trouble building its widget, it brings the whole production line to a halt. If you want to find a new firm, you have to negotiate a new long-term contract (and if you're simply looking to increase production of an existing product, they're almost guaranteed to want to sell you more than you think you need), and wait for their facilities to come online, which entails training the workforce and building or buying new equipment.

In short: Production is a far more complex and delicate process than fanboys assume. There is no silver bullet.

True you could put it that way, but you could also say you paid a premium in order to enjoy the product before anyone else.

Also, it isn't as simple as supply and demand. Disposable income, alternative choices, preferences all come into it. The laws of demand and supply only hold when all factors related to them are fixed, and they sure as hell aren't fixed in a real world situation like this.

According to supply and demand, if you increased supply when demand was fixed, the price willing to be paid would fall but you'd sell more units.

my friends owns a Wii, and he stated that graphic wise Wii > 360 > ps3
when i told him it has the worst graphics out of all three consoles he looked at me like i was a complete moron.

Anyway with a high price tag that is in the range with the other consoles, many people will assume it has similar graphics as the other consoles.

sony and microsoft overestimated the average console owner, who is totally clueless.

How long did it take Sony to ramp up production on the PS2?

Peak PS2 production was in 2002 with about 6 months of 2.2 million per month.