[chiphell] wii-u pricing leaked? there goes the cheap consoles, $400

[IonusX]

chiphell has had a photo leak over at their site of an image clearly of an upcoming article from an unamed source. anyway the articles headline clearly ruins the wii-u's pricing and well its a death sentence for the cheapness excuse of a console the wii-u will cost $400 according to this leak (before taxation, so after say 440 (assuming 10% tax)
and well for 450 you can make a respectable computer.. if this is true.. there goes that excuse..
http://www.chiphell.com/thread-339876-1-1.html
nintendo seems convinced that you can and will be bought

 

[RavenSEAL]

Correct me if i'm wrong...

XBOX 360 & PS3 were more expensive when they came out...

 

[purbeast0]

Correct me if i'm wrong...

XBOX 360 & PS3 were more expensive when they came out...

you are wrong about 360. it was $300 core, $400 for the premium.

ps3 was $500 and $600.

 

[TakeNoPrisoners]

$400 isn't anything unusual for a next-gen console.

I remember paying that for my Xbox 360 at launch.

 

[-Slacker-]

The wii had to be cheap because it was much slower than the xbox360, which launched before it. In fact, I'm not sure, but it may have been slower than even the original xbox.

This time the wiiu launches first by at least a year, and mops the floor with the PS3 and the 360, so yeah...

 

[Rage187]

This time the wiiu launches first by at least a year, and mops the floor with the PS3 and the 360, so yeah...

You played one? How was it? Or did someone post benchmarks?

BTW, this is the next Virtua Boy. This thing has $400 worth of fail written all over it.

 

[darkxshade]

Lets take a step back and think about who we're talking about. Nintendo is the Apple of consoles. When the Wii came out @ $250, they were constantly sold out as people were lined up around the block snatching them up and successfully selling them on eBay for as much as $1000. I don't think for $150 more, it will have as big an impact on demand as you may think. Not to mention, they will have no competition as far as next gen consoles are concerned from Microsoft or Sony. They know what they are doing.

 

[purbeast0]

Lets take a step back and think about who we're talking about. Nintendo is the Apple of consoles. When the Wii came out @ $250, they were constantly sold out as people were lined up around the block snatching them up and successfully selling them on eBay for as much as $1000. I don't think for $150 more, it will have as big an impact on demand as you may think. Not to mention, they will have no competition as far as next gen consoles are concerned from Microsoft or Sony. They know what they are doing.

if they 'know what they are doing' why did they have to drop the price of the 3DS by $70 merely weeks after launch (maybe 2-3 months dont remember). went from $250 to $180. apparently they didn't know what they were doing with that.

also, when Wii came out, the motion controls were 100% new and everyone was anxious. on top of that, it was the cheapest of the 3 main consoles out there. it was a totally different market.

oh and btw, i sold 1 xbox360 for $1700 + $100 overnight shipping when 360 launched. sold another for $840 and another for $700.

 

[Sonikku]

Nintendo may as well milk it at $400 for a year considering how much the ipad generation will gobble them up without regard for quality.

 

[darkxshade]

if they 'know what they are doing' why did they have to drop the price of the 3DS by $70 merely weeks after launch

Could have been a strategy to get the extra dough from those who were willing to pay during the initial run. You think they would have made more money with the 3DS if they had sold it for $150 at release like previous handhelds? I don't blame them for doing this, it's smart IMO. Release at a higher price if you think your stock won't hold up just so supply meets demand then lower prices after the hype has died down whether it be 2 months or 6 or a year. Then you have more money than you would have instead of resellers on eBay.

 

[Rage187]

Isn't this the same console where they decided at first that nobody was going to play multiplayer with the fancy new controllers. Then the community backlash hit and now they are having to figure out how to make it work?

Yeah, they are really off to a good start.

 

[ghost recon88]

Wonder if it's worth pre-ordering some from amazon to resell on eBay :hmm:

 

[purbeast0]

Could have been a strategy to get the extra dough from those who were willing to pay during the initial run. You think they would have made more money with the 3DS if they had sold it for $150 at release like previous handhelds? I don't blame them for doing this, it's smart IMO. Release at a higher price if you think your stock won't hold up just so supply meets demand then lower prices after the hype has died down whether it be 2 months or 6 or a year. Then you have more money than you would have instead of resellers on eBay.

yea, it also "could have been" sony's strategy to sell PS3 at $500 and $600 for the same reason, to get the profits ebayers would be getting... but i strongly doubt it.

less consoles out there = less games sold, which is where these companies really make their money.

 

[Golgatha]

Nintendo may as well milk it at $400 for a year considering how much the ipad generation will gobble them up without regard for quality.

My original Wii is still working. Can't say that for my BC PS3 20GB launch model. My XBox is still running fine, but I waited for about the 4th hardware revision before I jumped on that boat due to the massive failure rate of the first couple of hardware revisions.

 

[darkxshade]

yea, it also "could have been" sony's strategy to sell PS3 at $500 and $600 for the same reason, to get the profits ebayers would be getting... but i strongly doubt it.

less consoles out there = less games sold, which is where these companies really make their money.

Apples to oranges, Sony had to lower the prices to that mark and taking something like $200 hit/console. They had to make money by selling games.

The Wii on the other hand was netting them like $80/console.

 

[AstroManLuca]

The wii had to be cheap because it was much slower than the xbox360, which launched before it. In fact, I'm not sure, but it may have been slower than even the original xbox.

This time the wiiu launches first by at least a year, and mops the floor with the PS3 and the 360, so yeah...

Funny you say that because the stuff I saw shows the Wii-U running old multiplatform games that have already been running on the 360 and PS3 for years. Beating seven-year-old consoles isn't an achievement, it's the bare minimum required for them to remain competitive. At its launch, the Wii was estimated to be roughly as powerful as an original Xbox, give or take, and it was priced accordingly. Sounds like the Wii-U is in a similar situation except they're not going with a sane price.

 

[alent1234]

Nintendo may as well milk it at $400 for a year considering how much the ipad generation will gobble them up without regard for quality.

the ipad 3 will probably have better graphics

 

[blurredvision]

I don't believe the WiiU will debut at $400, or at least if there are multiple SKU's, the cheapest won't be at that price. It's just my opinion, but I think Nintendo is smarter than that.

 

[Born2bwire]

I'll believe it when I see it. I was expecting around $300-$350 pricepoint myself. Actually, now that I run the numbers on some anonymous website, the $250 we spent on the Wii in 2004 would be $300 in 2011. But the $250 spent on say a SNES in 1991 would be $415 in 2011.

So, huh. Guess it isn't too out of line from previous consoles. The Wii was really cheap.

 

[BD2003]

$400 is insane. I don't believe that'll be the price anyway.

But even at $200, the Wii U is going to be a catastrophe unless theyve totally rethought everything since last E3. It has dreamcast written all over it. A day late, and a dollar short.

 

[Born2bwire]

$400 is insane. I don't believe that'll be the price anyway.

But even at $200, the Wii U is going to be a catastrophe unless theyve totally rethought everything since last E3. It has dreamcast written all over it. A day late, and a dollar short.

Yeah, I'm worried that it will be a Dreamcast too. Developers seem really keen on releasing games on all systems. With the WiiU coming out before the next Sony and Microsoft equivalents, is that going to mean that developers will ease down the abilities of a game to allow it to be ported to the PS3 and Xbox360? Then, when the next gen does come out the WiiU will look underpowered and receive the shortend of the stick again.

 

[zerocool84]

$400 is insane. I don't believe that'll be the price anyway.

But even at $200, the Wii U is going to be a catastrophe unless theyve totally rethought everything since last E3. It has dreamcast written all over it. A day late, and a dollar short.

The Dreamcast was a record selling console when it came out. It was great but the PS2 killed it when it came out.

 

[BD2003]

I'm sure there will be a transitional period where the Wii U seems viable. But an underpowered system never lasts no matter how much it had going for it from the start.

I was gung ho about the wii because it was something genuinely new, and even though it was underpowered, I never thought they'd be so short sighted to ride it out 6 years with it. I said 3 years max before it came out on this very forum, cause I just couldn't see how they'd have the audacity to pull that kind of stunt.

The wii had about 3 good years and then fell off a cliff.

They're repeating the same mistake, this time without a killer new feature to kick it off. There's no way this thing doesn't bomb.

 

[zerocool84]

I'm sure there will be a transitional period where the Wii U seems viable. But an underpowered system never lasts no matter how much it had going for it from the start.

I was gung ho about the wii because it was something genuinely new, and even though it was underpowered, I never thought they'd be so short sighted to ride it out 6 years with it. I said 3 years max before it came out on this very forum, cause I just couldn't see how they'd have the audacity to pull that kind of stunt.

The wii had about 3 good years and then fell off a cliff.

They're repeating the same mistake, this time without a killer new feature to kick it off. There's no way this thing doesn't bomb.

The Wii is still selling well. They haven't needed to create a new system so they didn't. The Wii made so much money for them. It doesn't matter if something is underpowered, the Wii shows that the average person doesn't care about that. The Wii never fell off any cliff.

 

[BD2003]

The Wii is still selling well. They haven't needed to create a new system so they didn't. The Wii made so much money for them. It doesn't matter if something is underpowered, the Wii shows that the average person doesn't care about that. The Wii never fell off any cliff.

Sure it has. Sales have slowed dramatically for it, while sales are still rising for the ps3 and 360. The wii is still well ahead of both, but it's impossible to factor out how much of that success is due to low cost, and how much if it is due to its unique controls and games. Its glory days are well behind it either way.

Regardless, even if it has the same
low price point, that new controller just doesn't have the same mass appeal. Even if the Wii U looks as good as the current gen, who is that for? Why not just keep your 360?

Their sales and their stock price are in the shitter. Theyre issuing public apologies for their recent fuckups. They were caught with their pants down, and abandoned by third parties. And they're setting themselves up to do it again, because they've fallen so far behind.

Maybe we'll all get lucky and they'll just give up on hardware. Then we can play Nintendo games with modern online capabilities on other consoles without having to waste money on a dedicated Nintendo player that's half assed.