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Forums - Nintendo - Reggie: Price Cuts are baaaad. Software is goooood

Millennium on 26 May 2009
Joelcool7 said:
LordTheNightKnight said:
Since the Wii is already at a sweet spot for pricing, a cut will be when the price is no longer necessary to stay that high (as in the profit margin is so high, even a price cut will still make loads).

And it makes sense that Nintendo is courting developers. That's kind of what Sony did with the PS1.

According to EAGames and Sega back when the Wii was first released. Nintendo would make a profit by selling the console as low as 170$. This means it costs less then 170USD to manufacture a Wii. So that means Nintendo is making about 100$ in pure profits off of every unit, and since its launch in 2006 hardware manufacturing costs will have gotten even cheaper. I wouldn't be suprised if Nintendo was making 150$ off of every console sold.

Those rumors were pretty soundly debunked. While the Wii certainly made a profit at launch, the cost to make at the time was about $210, not "less than $170." The $170 crap was just another not-so-subtle insult from developers being all butthurt that the Wii wouldn't let them continue the graphics-are-everything philosophy.



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What do I hate about modern gaming? I hate tedium replacing challenge, complexity replacing depth, and domination replacing entertainment. I hate the outsourcing of mechanics to physics textbooks, art direction to photocopiers, and story to cheap Hollywood screenwriters. I hate the confusion of obsession with dedication, style with substance, new with gimmicky, old with obsolete, new with evolutionary, and old with time-tested.
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Joelcool7 on 26 May 2009
Bobbuffalo said:
JGarret said:
Reggie = captain obvious.

Maybe but many people doesn't see that. Many gamers (both wii owners and not ones) think that the only way to gain sales is with price cuts and not software (the same dudes that say that wii sold because the control or PS3 will kill xbox if it has a price cut). If there's is no sofwtare that customers care they won't buy any console no matter the price.

Well to be fare one of the major reasons Nintendo doesn't need a price cut is because their competition was so grossly over expensive that the average casual gamer that Nintendo was targeting wasn't willing to spend the extra 300$ on a console. Nintendo has made most of their money off of casual gamers who wouldn't be willing to shell out more then 279.99$ a console.

If Nintendo had launched the Wii at 599.99$ like Sony and Microsoft. It would have had to have had a price cut by now in order to compete. Even the unique controller wouldn't have been able to save the Wii at 600$. Its budget pricing can be credited with most of Nintendo's continued success.

Why will Nintendo not need a price cut for the next few years? Because the  competitions hardware is only now becoming as affordable as the Wii. But by now the Wii has a massive installed user base. It is software now and will be increasingly software that sells the Wii. I feel that the Wii no longer being the budget console will have to rely heavier on its first party catalog. Or the fact that all games released on Wii are pretty much exclusives.

 

Its becoming a software oriented war. But you can't deny pricing is and was a major factor in the Wii's success. Had Wii cost 600$ coming out of the gate or the 360 costing only 279.99$ coming out of the gate we would have a seen a drasticly different war!



-JC7

"In God We Trust - In Games We Play " - Joel Reimer

 

LordTheNightKnight on 26 May 2009
Millennium said:
Joelcool7 said:
LordTheNightKnight said:
Since the Wii is already at a sweet spot for pricing, a cut will be when the price is no longer necessary to stay that high (as in the profit margin is so high, even a price cut will still make loads).

And it makes sense that Nintendo is courting developers. That's kind of what Sony did with the PS1.

According to EAGames and Sega back when the Wii was first released. Nintendo would make a profit by selling the console as low as 170$. This means it costs less then 170USD to manufacture a Wii. So that means Nintendo is making about 100$ in pure profits off of every unit, and since its launch in 2006 hardware manufacturing costs will have gotten even cheaper. I wouldn't be suprised if Nintendo was making 150$ off of every console sold.

Those rumors were pretty soundly debunked. While the Wii certainly made a profit at launch, the cost to make at the time was about $210, not "less than $170." The $170 crap was just another not-so-subtle insult from developers being all butthurt that the Wii wouldn't let them continue the graphics-are-everything philosophy.

It was actually both. The initial reports didn't cover the price of including the Wiimote, Nunchuck, and Wii Sports.



A flashy-first game is awesome when it comes out. A great-first game is awesome forever.

Plus, just for the hell of it: Kelly Brook at the 2008 BAFTAs

Bobbuffalo on 26 May 2009

@Joelcool....hmm..maybe but I am not so sure about that.

The PS2 was more expensive than the competition and outsell them.

And the Gamecube was way more cheaper and it bombed..

yeah maybe 600 dls could have been mean slow sales but don't understimate the HUGE effect wii sports had on audiences (heck some even payed 500 on ebay for it!)



theprof00 on 26 May 2009

wii as I see it, really has no killer apps that ps360 owners are really into.

We like to say that ps2 was the first casual system, but ps2 had a much different line-up. I don't think it's possible to affect sales with software at this point.



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LordTheNightKnight on 26 May 2009
Joelcool7 said:
LordTheNightKnight said:
Joelcool7 said:
This better not be hinting at another lax Nintendo showing at E3. Nintendo started backing off two years ago to give third parties a better chance at competing against Nintendo's first party onslaught. But third parties still haven't succeeded to the levels of the DS. I want my wave after wave of Nintendo first party content that I enjoyed on the GameCube.

You didn't get that. You're remembering something far different than what happened. The Gamecube had loads of droughts and drips, with only holidays having anything close to a wave.

The last few years I bought one new first party title every month. I had over 40 first party titles at the hieght of the GameCube. Sure their was a slow start to the GameCube but its last two or three years saw a steady flow of first party content. I barely owned a single third party game because Nintendo released enough first party games to keep me satisfied.

A release a month is not "wave after wave". That term implies numbers coming in too large and too fast to count.



A flashy-first game is awesome when it comes out. A great-first game is awesome forever.

Plus, just for the hell of it: Kelly Brook at the 2008 BAFTAs

liquidninja on 27 May 2009

"In order to achieve high levels of sales of hardware, we need all genres in the market," said Mr. Fils-Aime.

He's right but I can't think any genre that's not on the Wii.

Now of course he likely means well produced games in each genre. I think the Wii is getting there this year. The Conduit, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, Need for Speed Nitro .etc.



Joelcool7 on 27 May 2009
liquidninja said:
"In order to achieve high levels of sales of hardware, we need all genres in the market," said Mr. Fils-Aime.

He's right but I can't think any genre that's not on the Wii.

Now of course he likely means well produced games in each genre. I think the Wii is getting there this year. The Conduit, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, Need for Speed Nitro .etc.

Many genre's are under presented mainly FPS for example. If Nintendo is going to see continued success it will need to see more FPS games etc...etc.. get released. But this year with The Conduit , The Grinder and RedSteel2 I think Nintendo could finally have FPS fully represented!



-JC7

"In God We Trust - In Games We Play " - Joel Reimer

 

Thechalkblock on 27 May 2009

Reggie is right.



NightstrikerX on 27 May 2009

Reggie is onto something here, since the value of a console is generally determined largely by it's software library over anything else. It would be nice if the wii could enter, and leave this console generation with a 269.99 price tag, showing that yes it is possible to not only enter and leave a console race and never change the price. But that it should be something desirable. If I knew the wii would drop in price and I didn't have one, I would wait for a price drop to buy one.

But by never changing the price, consumers are free to pick one up whenever they want, no pressure! Microsoft and Sony could learn something from nintendo's example.



Why must JRPG female leads suck so bad?