i agree with this

wii sports isn't really free, neither. Nintendo has to cover the development cost, too. the cost is hidden with the console.

Plus, it's not like people are going to buy a Wii without a game. It's not like they can watch DVDs or something. I guess they could play VC games, but I seriously doubt anyone would buy a Wii just for that.

Absolute lie. I bought Wii Play from my local Game Swap for $19.99 USD with no controller brand new. Seperate SKU and all.

Local Game Swap? 20 bucks? Can you say jipped? lol

Wii Play by itself is worth 10 bucks, at most.

There is no seperate sku

What you bought, was an opened copy of Wii Pay, with an unopened disk.

so... wiisports is worth $50US? I don't think so, it is a tech demo that was developed to show off the strengths of the wiimote. It might be great fun and replayable, but that doesn't mean that it is worth that much. Nintendo was going to launch the system at 250 regardless of the pack in.. this was just a cheap way for them justify the price to american gamers who would have to choose between this and the xbox 360 which was more comparable in price. This wasn't an issue in Japan because the 360 isn't really a legitimate option so they forwent the pack in.

wiisports is basically the debug program that nintendo made to test the controllers... just like when microsoft made the bug splating game for xbox live/GFW (which was never released) the game was designed to test cross platform gaming (360 -> PC). It was a good social game, but lacked depth... Every developer creates some sort of "wrapper" function that will allow testing, I do it at work all the time. Nintendo just gave it to the public.

It's not about whether YOU think it's worth $50. It's whether the buying public thinks it's worth $50 and this game has already demonstrated that.

A very polished "tech demo" I would say. I've had my Wii for over six months and still bust out the Sports to challenge myself and others. We especially like to play Home Run Derby! I'm curious, how much does Wii Sports sell for in Japan? Anybody know?

I say count it, don't count it. Who Cares? Like others have said. If you don't want to count it, do some simple math.

Out of most Wii games that are currently on the market, there are only a few games I feel are worth $50: Zelda, Mario Party, and Wii Sports, maybe SSX Blur.

Who cares if it's a "tech demo" (debatable)? It has more replayability than basically any other Wii game right now. If you pick up and play Wii Sports even once a week since launch, I'd say it's definitely worth $50.

Personally, I'd say it's not a tech demo...it's a sports game. I mean...what makes a videogame a "tech demo" anyway? Because it's the first of its kind? I think it's stupid to denounce a whole game just because you think it's Nintendo just "testing out its machine."

Maybe I'll start calling Lair a "tech demo."  It's basically the same argument.