The Official Wii Price Thread.

[scubahood]

http://www.play.com Is where i will be ordering my extra wii motes and nunchuks

 

£25 for wii mote and £13 for nunchuk

 

Same here was gonna get that wii play but i don't think i would play it much so i'm just gonna get the wii mote on it own

[triforce_keeper]

I dunno whether to get wii play or not. A free wii mote sounds tempting.

[Link83]

I have to say that I am alittle dissapointed by the price - its not so much the price itself, but rather the fact that it is SO much more expensive than the USA/JPN Wii's consoles

 

I for one am not at all interested in Wii Sports, I would rather I could buy the Wii without it. I'm guessing from the difference between the USA and JPN prices, that Nintendo is charging £20.00 extra for Wii Sports - and I would rather buy the Wii on its own for £160.00.

 

I certainly dont think Nintendo should be charging for Wii Sports - to me it seems to be more of a 'tech demo' to show off what the controller is capable of, rather than a full game.

 

I wonder how many people would actually buy 'Wii Sports' for £20.00 if it retailed separately from the console?

 

In the end though I guess I can accept the £180 price tag. What I cant accept though is the price for the controllers - £45.00! They should be selling the Wiimote and nunchuk together for £30-35 max. £45.00 makes the price for multiplayer gaming really add up - which from my understanding was one of Nintendo's big selling points for the Wii console - hence the name Wii - 'Wii play together' etc.

 

Anyway, just my little rant::shrug:

[ZeldaFreak]

In the end though I guess I can accept the £180 price tag. What I cant accept though is the price for the controllers - £45.00! They should be selling the Wiimote and nunchuk together for £30-35 max. £45.00 makes the price for multiplayer gaming really add up - which from my understanding was one of Nintendo's big selling points for the Wii console - hence the name Wii - 'Wii play together' etc.

 

I know its your opinion, but some families won't actually need the wiimote, you know if they only want to play maybe sonic when it launches, Excite Truck, and Wii Sports and Wii Play.

 

So it makes better business sense and to go to new markets if you offer those as two seperate products and maybe offer a package for for £40 for both.

[Raven]

Australian Price:

$400

 

Ok. I'm sure a bunch of you are well aware that I was quite annoyed at the release price of the Nintendo Wii in Australia.

 

But since then, I have come to terms with it, and even think that I am coming out the better for it. I guessss that Nintendo understands that a lot of retailers in Australia (and probably the world) are offering great deals.

 

For example, I placed my preorder on Saturday morning (Euro conference was on Friday night, Australia time) with Toys r Us. Now when you preorder with them, you get a free game. Oh yes thats right!

 

$400 = Nintendo Wii + Wii Sports + Free game of choice (ie. zelda!)

 

It isn't all bad! My only concern is the cost of the Wiimote and the nunchuck. Because I would like to play Wiisports with 4 players, but for all those extra wiimotes and extra nunchucks, it'll cost an additional $210.

I think what I might have to do is convince more people to get it at launchl I'm pretty sure my best mates are getting one as well, so I might just have to get one additional... I dont know.

 

Viva la Wii!!!!!

[mcj metroid]

dont worry though the price will drop dramatically ehrn ps3 arrives just u wait?

[twilightlink]

I think my main problem with the price is how much more expensive it is in comparison to the US.

We're talking the US get it at $250 equivalent of £133. We get it at £175. Thats ALMOST a £50 difference, and with that money we could by another lovely wii game.

BUT saying that, Im honestly happy with the price. I know its contradictory, but I really am happy with it. Its cheap for a brand new console, and I dont care if people talk about the price compared to 360...the consoles are COMPLETELY different. Ok, 360 is more powerful, but just LOOK at what the Wii has incorporated into the GUI itself, as well as the way it will make gameplay much more interesting.

 

In all, the price is right, but it could have been cheaper IMO.

[demonmike04]

Remember guys..Game stores do deals, so dont threat, you may get money of things when you buy the console.

[wooks63]

I think my main problem with the price is how much more expensive it is in comparison to the US.

We're talking the US get it at $250 equivalent of £133. We get it at £175. Thats ALMOST a £50 difference, and with that money we could by another lovely wii game.

 

I'm sorry to have to repeat myself, but you must take into consideration that we have far higher import duties and taxes than the US which I'm sure, once you take these into consideration, levels the playing field somewhat. Also, I'm sure I read somewhere that the $250 cost in the US was before any local taxes (different states have different scales of taxes), so you're not really comparing like with like.

[AshMat]

Exactly what wooks said, it's the UKs government taxes that cause the really higher price.

[twilightlink]

I know there are taxes ^^. Its just fun to compare and moan about what we could have...again though, Im ok with the price. It was more of...an understanding of those that are complaining.

I dont think the pricing of $250 was before tax you know...something seems odd...namely that Reggie announced it at $250, it wasnt a speculated price. Now that its been announced, really...theres not much that can be done as everyone expects it to be $250 in the US.

[pedrocasilva]

This guy has a point

 

"Yes another price thread. Although this time its not about Nintendo. Its about whiners. First of all I'd like to say that this is typical and most of you whiners stating they wont get Wii will get it anyway. Half of you complained about the controller saying Nintendo's screwed and werent getting it and yet you stayed around and came back. Same happened when the name was revealled, at E3, and even at Leizpeg. Also if you guys are so deadset on not buying Wii then stop skulking and leave the forums there is no point for you here.

 

Anyway lets get on with the complaints. First complaint is that Wii is slightly better than Xbox and it sells for 130-150. Ok even if that were true, Miyamoto made a comment that barely anyone has used a system to its fullest potential and that games like RE4 and TP are the few games tapping into fuller potential. Also xbox charges 50 bucks a year to play online, Nintendo is doing it for free. As well as offering free updates on games while xbox live forces you to buy upgrades and there are rare times when you can get free updates through live. Nintendo is also offering for free the mii feature, the photo and music option, free updates on news and weather which are much easier to use if you want to get the news now instead of waiting for news channel to get to the part you want to know about, and there arent too many companies that let you text message to your cellphone for free. You also should factor in that the wii is only the size of 3 DVD's stacked upon itsef. They managed to cram in the Wii and GCN disc drive in that small space. They also had to spend money on getting a custom made CPU and GPU that was slightly more powerful and smaller. They had to essentially buy all new parts for Wii even if they performed at or similar to an Xbox or GCN rate and have much smaller. So they are building an entirely new system and tons of new parts are being put into the system while having the structure similar to the GCN. That is another thing the system is entirely developer friendly it will be much easier to create games for developers and developers can use the system better. The xbox and the 360 both are much harder for developers to use and are based off of a PC structure while Wii is custom designed for videogaming.

Another complaint I was reading about was the price of the controller. Now the core only costs 40 bucks. That is pretty good considering that the 360 wired controller is the same price. Last time I checked the controller has memory to store your mii and personal controls, as well as blue tooth, rumble, the motion sensing, and the controller speaker. The nunchuk is only 20 bucks and has an acceleratomer. Combined that is only 10 bucks more expensive than the 360 wireless controller.

Imagine how expensive the PS3 controller will be since it has tilt as well. Most non-gamers only need the core controller so it isnt too expensive for them.

 

With wrapping up mostly everything in that paragraph I will also comment on Nintendo's profit. Perrin Kaplan stated that they are only making a profit when wiisports is added in. Perrin explained that without wiisports they wouldn't gain or lose. Now heaven forbid Nintendo for wanting to make a profit. Its the whole reason why they are doing this. Unless you want Nintendo to go the same route as Sega. Nintendo unlike Microsoft and Sony can't afford to lose tons of money all the time.

 

So to sum up quit whinning half of you will get it anyway. If you know for sure your not getting it then get off these forums. I explained why it costs the way it does and it seems reasonable for Nintendo when thinking about it. I personally was expecting 230 but its nothing to get too worked up against. It's the same price as a PSP. I think most people were hoping to take advantage of Nintendo's new strategy and think that they were going to get everything dirt cheap."

Source: http://blogs.ign.com/Halo_Prime/; http://forums.nintendo.com/nintendo/board/message?board.id=revolution&message.id=1922177

 

He really has a point.

[DCK]

He really has a point.

I don't think anyone doubts the Wii is actually worth the money Nintendo asks for it. The problem is that Nintendo promised 'under $250' and the fanbase makes $200 from that by definition. Nintendo has failed to price the Wii aggressively (they're even proudly claiming they're making profit on the hardware) and the lack of guts is highly annoying. We're all fan enough here to fork over the 180 pounds or 250 euros though.

 

Also, the full potential of the console is still vague, especially when third parties release terrible screenshots all the time.

[Charlie]

Also xbox charges 50 bucks a year to play online, Nintendo is doing it for free. As well as offering free updates on games while xbox live forces you to buy upgrades and there are rare times when you can get free updates through live.

 

There are no online games for the Wii at launch. That really depends on what you class as an upgrade, there are currently no updates for the Wii planned, we dont have a clue whether 3rd parties will make us pay for extra missions, although you can be assured that game updates will be free, as they are on XBL.

[Kaxxx]

Imagine you lived in Mexico. £236 for the Wii.

 

http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/wii/wii...ico-201513.php

 

Now, quit your crying.

[YenRug]

Imagine you lived in Mexico. £236 for the Wii.

 

http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/wii/wii...ico-201513.php

 

Now, quit your crying.

 

There isn't an official branch of Nintendo in Mexico, as I recall, only a licensed importer, hence the over-inflated price of the Wii.

[PioRow]

 

Also xbox charges 50 bucks a year to play online, Nintendo is doing it for free. As well as offering free updates on games while xbox live forces you to buy upgrades and there are rare times when you can get free updates through live.

 

Just because they are offering a free online service doesnt mean they wont be charging for online content and play. Its perfectly feasable that you will have to pay via your points to play games online. It will be very unlikely that playing a game online with a Wii will be 100% fee

 

free updates on news and weather which are much easier to use if you want to get the news now instead of waiting for news channel to get to the part you want to know about,

 

The weather feature isnt anything new. XBMC had weather updates. All nintendo have done is implement the raw data that is available from the net for free in a clever GUI. The globe is clever but its something a good developer couldn't do in their spare time over a few weeks, its not revolutonary in any way.

 

They managed to cram in the Wii and GCN disc drive in that small space. They also had to spend money on getting a custom made CPU and GPU that was slightly more powerful and smaller.

 

The drive the Wii uses is standard. The GCN disks are just small size dvd's like the free novelty ones you get with magazines. The way you slide the disks in has been around in car cd systems for years and slim line cd/dvd players have been in laptops for years. The dvd drive is nothing special.

The GPU isnt cutting edge so making it smaller isnt a big deal, its not like making the most powerfull GPU at the smallest size.

 

Last time I checked the controller has memory to store your mii and personal controls,

 

I think the controller has the quivalent of 256k of memory, something very small, it will cost no more than a few pence.

[pedrocasilva]

Don't quote me as doing that post, as I just quoted someone.

 

Just because they are offering a free online service doesnt mean they wont be charging for online content and play. Its perfectly feasable that you will have to pay via your points to play games online. It will be very unlikely that playing a game online with a Wii will be 100% free

I'd rather say it's rather likely that playing a game online with Wii is as free as playing one on DS.

The weather feature isnt anything new. XBMC had weather updates. All nintendo have done is implement the raw data that is available from the net for free in a clever GUI. The globe is clever but its something a good developer couldn't do in their spare time over a few weeks, its not revolutonary in any way.

No one said it was (revolutionary).

The drive the Wii uses is standard. The GCN disks are just small size dvd's like the free novelty ones you get with magazines. The way you slide the disks in has been around in car cd systems for years and slim line cd/dvd players have been in laptops for years. The dvd drive is nothing special.

The GPU isnt cutting edge so making it smaller isnt a big deal, its not like making the most powerfull GPU at the smallest size.

The thing is integration, it's hard to put a DVD drive in that space with the hardware it has inside, it's diferent from a car cd system.

 

GPU is not a powerhouse, but that doesn't mean it's not cutting edge, quite the oposite. the thing is, it's smaller than flipper and it's more powerful than flipper, what more could you possibly want?

 

We don't even know how many new optimizations and features it has, but believe me, judging from mario galaxy and metroid prime 3... and developers talking about physics aceleration and all... the list is not that small.

I think the controller has the quivalent of 256k of memory, something very small, it will cost no more than a few pence.

6 KB infact, inexpensive maybe, but it's a embedded feature, meaning you can use the wiimote to transfer data, same for it reproducing sound and all... it makes it expensive.

[YenRug]

The drive the Wii uses is standard. The GCN disks are just small size dvd's like the free novelty ones you get with magazines. The way you slide the disks in has been around in car cd systems for years and slim line cd/dvd players have been in laptops for years. The dvd drive is nothing special.

 

Except that it's not a DVD drive, so it isn't standard. GC discs were not mini-DVD's; for starters they are spun in the opposite direction to normal discs, then they were a custom format, too. Wii discs are not DVD's, either; whilst they are the same physical size and have the same capacity as a DVD, they are a custom format. Also, up until now, the slide in disk slot drives have only supported CD/DVD sized discs, the one in the Wii supports two different sized media in a single device.

 

Are you still sure that it's not something special?

[system_error]

It is nothing special ... just the first drive in the world with slot-in loading for two different disc sizes

 

 

The price is quite okay when you value gameplay, innovations and extras (MII channel, free online play, Wii Sports) - concerning hardware I don't think that I make a good deal with the Wii. Playstation 3 and XBOX 360 offer more when it comes to hardware. So it is a matter of choice.

[dazzybee]

I think the price is great, I think it's a little higher so they have room to drop when the PS3 comes out or for an extra incentive next year sometime. I think it's a bargain, especially with Wii Sports bundled in which could be avgreat little game.

 

The controllers are very expensive though and I'm sure most if us here will want 4 so that's a lot of money, but there's some serious tech in there so it's understandable. I'm lucky, there's going to be me and 3 other housemates, two of us are buying one, we're getting wii play and my housemates will be etting their own controllers - also means we'll be able to get a ridiculous amount of launch games!!!

[Nintendork]

Everything is approximate right now, I don't have a problem with £30-40 games or the £180 system.

 

What pisses me off is how much the controllers are. I suppose there is a fair bit of tech but Nintendo said they wanted to keep them cheap, which they haven't done.

 

So much for their vision of everyone in the family owning their personalised Wii controller a'la Raving Rabbids video.

 

I will take them round my mates, where as with GameCubes we have 4 controllers per system because they were so cheap in comparison.

 

Launch I'll probably get a system, super monkey ball, a classic controller and some classic points. Happy to pay up to £250 for that.

[thomaschung]

I don't think anyone doubts the Wii is actually worth the money Nintendo asks for it. The problem is that Nintendo promised 'under $250' and the fanbase makes $200 from that by definition. Nintendo has failed to price the Wii aggressively (they're even proudly claiming they're making profit on the hardware) and the lack of guts is highly annoying. We're all fan enough here to fork over the 180 pounds or 250 euros though.

 

Also, the full potential of the console is still vague, especially when third parties release terrible screenshots all the time.

 

I agree with you mate. Although I will still buy a Wii because of Zelda, I'm really underwhelmed by anything else at launch. £180 is not cheap and not mass market affordable which was what Nintendo have been beating on about. It's not aggressive enough.

 

Now with the announcement that PS3 core system price has been slashed by 20% in Japan because of the complaints, that's not a whole lot more expensive than the Wii now. But I can't see Nintendo changing the price in that region as it's already the equivalent of about £100 which is a good price.

 

I'm still concerned about how great these controls actually going to be. Obviously some games will benefit but others will just not. And actually i think there are more genres where it's not really necessary

[Phube]

Everything is approximate right now, I don't have a problem with £30-40 games or the £180 system.

 

What pisses me off is how much the controllers are. I suppose there is a fair bit of tech but Nintendo said they wanted to keep them cheap, which they haven't done.

 

So much for their vision of everyone in the family owning their personalised Wii controller a'la Raving Rabbids video.

 

I will take them round my mates, where as with GameCubes we have 4 controllers per system because they were so cheap in comparison.

 

Launch I'll probably get a system, super monkey ball, a classic controller and some classic points. Happy to pay up to £250 for that.

 

But they'd buy them themselves, you don't have to buy everone a controller you know!!

Surely that's the idea of having personalised Wii-motes, to take them round your friends!!!

 

P.s the Official GC game pad has an RRP of £24.99, what's your point???

[Nintendork]

Yeah well eBay says £5 for 2. We only got into Smash Bros. this time last year.