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Forums - Nintendo - InvenSense: WM+ gyro costs $1 per axis

Viper1 on 28 August 2008
DTG said:
Nintendo is known to rip consumers off in the pursuit of ever greater profits. Both the nunchuck and wiimote are necessary for 90% of hardcore games yet their combined cost is higher than any other first party controller of competitive systems. Heck, look at Nintendo's profit margin in Europe and you come to realize that a greedy company like Nintendo will milk every last cent out of this attachment.

 

You say that like profits are evil or that making profit on hardware is evil.   Do you also not understand that their is more advanced technology in the Wii-mote and Nun-chuck than in either the X360 pad or the Dual Shock 3?



The rEVOLution is not being televised

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scottie on 28 August 2008
Blappo said:

http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/wii-motion-sensor.ars/1

"When you think of gyroscopes today, though, especially with regard to heading information, they're around $300,000 and are capable of accuracy of ten-thousandths of a degree per hour so that a 747 after an eleven hour flight can land where it's supposed to land," explained Virginia. "Game controllers, such as what Nintendo has selected, don't need that kind of accuracy. What they were looking for something in the area of one-tenth of a degree per second. [The IDG-600 gryo in the MotionPlus] measure up to 1500 degrees per second; it offers accuracy and full-range motion. We worked towards [a cost of] $1 per axis."

This should mean each gyro will cost Nintendo about $6.  The rest of the WM+ components and assembly would probably only cost $4, so I would guess the costs for the WM+ would be about $10.  I think a MSRP of $19.99 is likely for the WM+ assuming Nintendo releases a standalone SKU.

Does this sound reasonable or did I read this incorrectly?

 

We worked towards that cost does not mean they reached it

Ninty has already stated they will release a standalone, and that they will not make a profit on it.