Rummy Posted June 7, 2011 Share Posted June 7, 2011 So yeah, it's maybe early days, but what did/do people think regarding the Wii U and prices? Release dates('2012' - probs christmas) and how Nintendo might market it, as well as their approach in the conference? Basically this thread for speculations around such issues with the Wii-U. Wanna post more but right now I just cba. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
killthenet Posted June 7, 2011 Share Posted June 7, 2011 It's pretty interesting really. Nintendo have always made sure that they've made a profit from their hardware, they've been sensible about their business practices. But due to the highly complex controller I don't think they're going to be able to continue to operate this way. If Nintendo want the casual audience to latch onto the Wii U then they're going to have to price the console (or extra controllers at least) at a reasonable price point, so as not to scare customers away. I would say £250 - £300 for the console and 1 controller, with the individual controller price set at around £80-£100. Even that seems a bit steep, but there is so much tech in at Wii U tablet that I don't think they'd sell it for any cheaper. Perhaps the console will be sold at a loss to Nintendo in order for consumers to get their hands on the controller more easily and be willing to fork out a bit extra for more controllers when they discover the unique experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rummy Posted June 8, 2011 Author Share Posted June 8, 2011 I was originally thinking around £230 price mark, but then realized that the controller must be quite pricey tech wise and we'll probs be looking at £250 release. I AM hoping however that they sell it as a loss leader. Nintendo are MINTED from the Wii and DS considering they always turned profit. 85 million Wiis sold, let's say by now they average £50 profit on all of those(with falling price of tech etc) and that's....4 billion profit, just on wii consoles alone. Even at a more conservative £30 average, that's still £2.5billion profit. Controllers, imo they're gonna need to maybe be easily swappable between systems(wiimote synching atm isn't terrible, but sometimes iffy), that could help cos you could pop to your mate's with your own 'New Controller'. I do think you're right though, it'll end up having its own price point around at least £50(but yeah probably more). What did you think about their announcement of Lego City Stories? The whole mysterious EA partnership too? I thought that the Lego World thing is a fantastic marketing plan. Imagine making that bundle/release title, with a decent online as well, they might manage to work it into a really killer app for the console(tho I still find myself doubtful of Nintendo online). I've not played much of the Lego games, but I hear a lot of love for them, and it does have quite a nice wide appeal. A big ol' open world/sandbox lego game is quite interesting, too. It sounded like a slight take from GTA, and it may have some good parodic humour in it too. There's a lot about this console that intrigues me, but also I'm scared, I've been quite disillusioned with Nintendo for a few years now, and I'm not keen to rush out and buy another console on release(the 3DS is possibly the first console I haven't done so, not counting DS Lite/Dsi) that might end up just staling and gathering dust in my living room. Do you think they've done enough to bring people like me back to their shores? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adthegreat Posted June 8, 2011 Share Posted June 8, 2011 I'm thinking it will be between 350-400 Euros here in Switzerland. Pricy I suppose, but for what it does I would be willing to pay it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zechs Merquise Posted June 8, 2011 Share Posted June 8, 2011 I'm thinking it will be between 350-400 Euros here in Switzerland. Pricy I suppose, but for what it does I would be willing to pay it. I'd be willing to pay £350 for this! But I think Nintendo will be competitive! But the time this releases the technology to produce great looking games will have dropped in price. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aimless Posted June 8, 2011 Share Posted June 8, 2011 They won't sell it at a loss. However, I can see them launching at under £250, maybe even £200 if they're going to be aggressive. I don't think the controller is as pricey an inclusion as some are thinking. It's a dumb terminal, all the machine's processing power being housed in the main unit, and the screen itself isn't that high-tech: it's a single-touch resistive screen, nowhere in the same league as Vita's multi-touch, capacitive OLED display. The screen could well not even be bespoke, simply an off-the-shelf component used by GPS systems and the like. Outside of the screen it's ostensibly not worlds apart from the tech found in a Wii Remote+. As for the machine itself... well, it's hard to say as we don't know what's inside it! I think the only confirmed thing as far as specifications go is that it uses a 45nm POWER7 IBM chip, which I suppose is good news insofar as it will have a higher manufacturing yield — and thus lower relative cost — than the PS3 and 360's original processors. As for the graphics chip, it's a custom AMD job, most likely a variant of the HD5000 series but that's in no way confirmed and wouldn't narrow things down too much if it were: the low end is the HD5450 which goes for about £30 at retail, the highest being the HD5970 for over £400. (Probably not the latter, then.) Basically we don't now enough to really speculate as to the price, but I think Nintendo will be gunning for as close to £200 as possible. My reasons for this are two-fold: 1) they're clearly positioning this as an upgrade to the Wii, a bit like the Apple model, so putting out a machine twice as expensive as the original machine wouldn't really fit, and 2) they need to capitalise on their window of opportunity when it comes to the core market, getting as many people to 'upgrade' from a 360 or PS3 before their respective successors are released/announced so that they'll have a strong base heading into the new hardware generation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burny Posted June 8, 2011 Share Posted June 8, 2011 Can't really make any truly informed guess about prices for the hardware, but I'm guessing a 300-350€ price point over here. If anything, a reluctant reception will prevent them to slap 50€ on the originally intended price, like they did with the 3DS. As for marketing, one thing should be clear: They're not trying to get back the 'harcode audience. The tablet controller just doesn't scream "ardcore FPS gaming" and all the potential uses in these games will be regarded as gimmicks by the more core-oriented audience. My prediction is that they will once again directly market this to the "expanded" audience. possibly even as a cheap alternative for a tablet with better game support. It shouldn't be difficult, to drive home the point of a tablet that can seamlessly share content with the big living room screen and play Nintendo games to people, who might consider the other tablets because they're hip. It should be even easier, if they undercut the most popular alternative - the iPad - by selling it for about half the price and heavily marketing the social aspect it inherits from the Wii brand. What they will be (they better be!) doing for 3rd parties is trying to make this into a suitable port machine. If they can only get useful ports of big 3rd party titles for two years after launch, this might be enough to establish the console as a perfect bridge machine, that offers Nintendo's world of gaming while it doesn't exclude the outside world. There are of course many ways this could go wrong and end up in a similar spot as the Wii while never enjoying a similar hype. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hero-of-Time Posted June 8, 2011 Share Posted June 8, 2011 http://www.n-europe.com/news.php?nid=15658 In a newly translated interview with Nikkei, Iwata talks briefly about the console price. While talking to Japanese magazine Nikkei, Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata has went on to briefly talk about the pricing of the console, stating that the Wii U could be priced higher than ¥20,000. Iwata was also cited as saying "Nintendo is unlikely to sell the new console for the same price as the current Wii". N-Europe will bring you more Wii U details as we get them. I'm expecting to see the console priced at around £280-300. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Mad Monkey Posted June 8, 2011 Share Posted June 8, 2011 I'm hoping for a £250 price, I fear maybe £300+ though, I would be willing to pay that, but would have a hard job finding the money probably. I'm not too bothered about controller price, I don't get many gaming visitors, and as it looks like the Wiimote will work with it I'll have a spare controller for some multiplayer games anyway. I'll hazard a guess at £60-70 on the controller though, more than that would be too much in my eyes, as 3 of them would cost almost as much as buying a second console. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tales Posted June 8, 2011 Share Posted June 8, 2011 300£* is an absolute limit for me. Not paying more than that for any machine from any company. *(actually it's 3000 kroner, whatever the rate is these days I don't know) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
or else you will DIE Posted June 8, 2011 Share Posted June 8, 2011 yup, £300 is the limit for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grazza Posted June 8, 2011 Share Posted June 8, 2011 £200 for me. I don't want it to be like the 3DS launch again. My prediction is that they will once again directly market this to the "expanded" audience. possibly even as a cheap alternative for a tablet with better game support. It shouldn't be difficult, to drive home the point of a tablet that can seamlessly share content with the big living room screen and play Nintendo games to people, who might consider the other tablets because they're hip. Imagine if you're browsing something "inappropriate" on the internet and you accidentally flick it onto the family TV while they're watching Taggart! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Mad Monkey Posted June 8, 2011 Share Posted June 8, 2011 Imagine if you're browsing something "inappropriate" on the internet and you accidentally flick it onto the family TV while they're watching Taggart! What do you mean imagine, that's exactly what I'm planning on doing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patch Posted June 8, 2011 Share Posted June 8, 2011 It sounded like Iwata was clarifying that the Wii U will be more than the Wii is selling for right now which might be ¥20,000 then? How much is the Wii going for in Japan right now? ¥20,000 is equivalent to £153 at the moment, so that seems encouraging. Imagine if you're browsing something "inappropriate" on the internet and you accidentally flick it onto the family TV while they're watching Taggart! Haha, I like the 'accidentally flick' part. What are your fingers meant to be doing I wonder? By the way, your limit is £200. Would you really not buy it if it was £209 then? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grazza Posted June 8, 2011 Share Posted June 8, 2011 Haha, I like the 'accidentally flick' part. What are your fingers meant to be doing I wonder? I don't think they'd need to be doing anything dodgy, just a fumbled "enlarge" (no pun intended) or "save" could easily cause such an action. It's just when I saw them flick that parrot onto the TV and it said "Hello!" I thought "Who the heck looks at parrots on the internet?" By the way, your limit is £200. Would you really not buy it if it was £209 then? LOL, my personal limit is £250, I might even stretch to £300 depending on the launch games, but don't tell Nintendo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patch Posted June 8, 2011 Share Posted June 8, 2011 I don't think they'd need to be doing anything dodgy, just a fumbled "enlarge" (no pun intended) or "save" could easily cause such an action. It's just when I saw them flick that parrot onto the TV and it said "Hello!" I thought "Who the heck looks at parrots on the internet?" Wrong type of birds for sure. The possibilities are almost endless for prank setups and not just the naked kind. LOL, my personal limit is £250, I might even stretch to £300 depending on the launch games, but don't tell Nintendo. Not sure what my limit would be. I'd have to see nearer the time. I'm pretty sure I'd draw the line at £2499 though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Mad Monkey Posted June 8, 2011 Share Posted June 8, 2011 Not sure what my limit would be. I'd have to see nearer the time. I'm pretty sure I'd draw the line at £2499 though. Definitely don't tell Nintendo that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rummy Posted June 8, 2011 Author Share Posted June 8, 2011 I'm limiting myself to £200 or £230 and probably not purchasing at launch unless it's got a real good killer Nintendo title. What's the current official price of the wii anyway? They won't sell it at a loss. However, I can see them launching at under £250, maybe even £200 if they're going to be aggressive. I don't think the controller is as pricey an inclusion as some are thinking. It's a dumb terminal, all the machine's processing power being housed in the main unit, and the screen itself isn't that high-tech: it's a single-touch resistive screen, nowhere in the same league as Vita's multi-touch, capacitive OLED display. The screen could well not even be bespoke, simply an off-the-shelf component used by GPS systems and the like. Outside of the screen it's ostensibly not worlds apart from the tech found in a Wii Remote+. As for the machine itself... well, it's hard to say as we don't know what's inside it! I think the only confirmed thing as far as specifications go is that it uses a 45nm POWER7 IBM chip, which I suppose is good news insofar as it will have a higher manufacturing yield — and thus lower relative cost — than the PS3 and 360's original processors. As for the graphics chip, it's a custom AMD job, most likely a variant of the HD5000 series but that's in no way confirmed and wouldn't narrow things down too much if it were: the low end is the HD5450 which goes for about £30 at retail, the highest being the HD5970 for over £400. (Probably not the latter, then.) Basically we don't now enough to really speculate as to the price, but I think Nintendo will be gunning for as close to £200 as possible. My reasons for this are two-fold: 1) they're clearly positioning this as an upgrade to the Wii, a bit like the Apple model, so putting out a machine twice as expensive as the original machine wouldn't really fit, and 2) they need to capitalise on their window of opportunity when it comes to the core market, getting as many people to 'upgrade' from a 360 or PS3 before their respective successors are released/announced so that they'll have a strong base heading into the new hardware generation. Good points. Though it'd be NICE if Nintendo took the hit and sold it as a loss leader, they'd definitely make it all back if it goes like the Wii has. Hell, they probably couldn't even bankrupt themselves going how the Wii has! If this is close to £200, maybe I'll buy at launch actually. The 'New Controller' is like what...a DS style shell and wiimote stuck together? Even so I can't imagine that selling at less than £40 or so, with the touch screen too. What I'm really concerned about, is the battery life on the thing, and how it charges etc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Peeps Posted June 8, 2011 Share Posted June 8, 2011 I wouldn't like to pay more than £250 for it, though I imagine it will be around £280-£300. Best start saving now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heroicjanitor Posted June 8, 2011 Share Posted June 8, 2011 (edited) I think it will be 350 euros. And the release date will be 20th November 2012. Edited June 8, 2011 by heroicjanitor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Mad Monkey Posted June 8, 2011 Share Posted June 8, 2011 Best start saving now Too right, I'm planning on putting a fiver a week in a big jar, hopefully cover the console and a couple of launch titles for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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