So us Europeans give them the most profit but get shafted the most on the release schedules.

I don't know for sure but I suspect there is a high cost for a company like Nintendo, Sony or Microsoft to do business across Europe and that is why their products are always noticeably more expensive. It is a simple argument but if it was similar in cost for them to do business and sell their consoles in Europe (as it is in North America and Japan) then wouldn't one of the companies take advantage of that and sell their console at a much more competitive price?

I dunno about that European number. There are a lot of extra costs like VAT, language translation and distribution costs that are higher in Europe.

That's alot of dough stacks they made so far!!!

VAT(sales tax) in the UK is a whopping 17.5%
They won't reduce the price until the wii stops selling like hotcakes.
Just how fast do hotcakes sell?

@HappySqurriel & Fishy Joe

yeah but this is profit, so the extra costs for selling in Europe have already been taken into account. Then Nintendo have charged an extra $74 (£37) for it.

Still Nintendo have probably charged Europe less compared to America and Japan, then Microsoft or (by a long way) Sony.

so they have already made more than 500 million dollars prfit in less than a year ?
now that muisness :)

 Correct.  And this is just Wii hardware.  Not including all other hardware and software.

Isn't Europe have higher quality control, too? That cost some change.

Not that I'm aware of.