In an interview with GameDaily at this year’s E3, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata had this to say about Wii’s launch price: “What we’ve been repeatedly saying is that it’s going to be an affordable price point, and when we say affordable, you may want to check our past records of price points, launching price points for any past [Nintendo home console] hardware…”
Take note that every US Nintendo home console has launched for $200, according to Wikipedia. (Yes, even the scaled down $199 NES and $199 N64)
Also in the interview, Iwata cleared up rumors of a discontinued Game Boy line by saying, “No, it’s not true after all.” Long live the three pillar strategy, baby!
[Thanks, DeltaOne]
In the UK it launched for £249 I think, it might have been £229 but certainly wasnt as cheap as the US if that was your price.
Man, with that processor chip still under dev I hope it dosent hit some ground breaking status and raise production cost. Would Nintndo let us down if that happened or eat production cost?
I still say $250.00… That would be a more than reasonable price for a Next-Gen gaming console for me!
Careful not to be too ethnocentric, Blake. Iwata could have very well been referring to Japanese launch prices. The Super Famicom, for instance, debuted at ¥25,000. I'm not sure of the others, but it might be worth a little research.
this tells me 199… and that's what i'll believe until led to consider otherwise…
If there's two Remotes included, I would say $250 is very fair. I just think about all the hardware and features included and $250 with one controller would even be pretty fair.We know you'll at least get:1) Wii2) one Wii remote2) one nunchuk attachment3) sensor bar for Wii Remote4) power cable5) some sort of A/V cable (composite?)6) built-in WiFi7) built-in BlueTooth8) 512MB of storage memoryOther things possible for inclusion:1) second Wii remote2) second nunchuk attachment3) Classic Controller4) Opera browserand more stuff I can't think of right now.
It should come with Wii Sports, because I'm probably never going to buy it.
I swear I bought my N64 for 249.00. I know I am not nutts. 🙂
i am convinced that you will be able to get everything that you need to go home and hook up wii and play a game for $199, now you may still need a game or you may not, just depends on the configuration you go for.
All this guff over Wii's price point is Nintendo messing with our heads. Think about it: They give us a bit of info and keep quiet. They release some hardware and save more for later. They have not given us a price, simply an estimate; “it's going to be under $250,†"The Wii console will be a price that you all will really like, and it will cause you to line up for it." If Wii was going to sell for $250 Nintendo representatives would not have hinted to us an estimated price point that's anywhere near that actually price. So far Nintendo's marketing moves for Wii are nothing like they're past systems (probably due to new employees worldwide including Reggie FillsAmie, now President of NOA!) They have taken a totally new approach with Wii and they will do that with the price as well. Nothing led us to believe that the Wiimote would be the next controller. I have seen many designs by fans for the “New Controller†and out of those hundreds only one was a remote shape. I even said to myself, “yea right not in your wildest dreams, a TV remote shaped controller LMFAO! I ate my words.†Nintendo has not done anything by the books, except stay hush hush like they always do about info, so why should we believe their price quotes? We shouldn't! If Wii were going to sell for $250, then in all the Iwata interviews, all the Reggie interviews, all the Kaplan interviews they would have all been saying “Wii will be under $400.†That still competes price wise with Xbox360 and PS3 (not taking into account the technological superiority of the non Nintendo consoles.) Don't forget our friend Tax will be added on, more then once in some cases. Nintendo takes this into consideration. Another thing, I bet it is darn cheep for Nintendo to build a Wii console.In conclusion after studying Nintendo's moves for many years, what they are doing with Wii is fresh and I love it! If they say Wii will be under $250 it will be. The most it would be is $200, my gut is telling me $150-$170 range. If its $250 it will come with games and additional controls. Considering the GameCube is selling for $99 right now.If Nintendo wants a broader audience, a new type of game play and friendly price point (as well as the importance of a large library of games this generation for Wii) are three of the four spices needed in the stew. The fourth being advertisement. They need to get the word out to everyone, to a point where you cant escape it. Commercials, TV, Radio, Magazine ad's, Movie Theatre ad's, Public Transportation, internet. Nintendo needs to be nailing them out and they need to be nailing them out hard, fast, appealing, and exciting. Advertisements for past Nintendo systems have been pathetic and sparse. Nintendo like any company makes mistakes, its run by us and we are only human, but Nintendo is great at learning from past mistakes. The only people who know Nintendo still exists and is releasing the Wii console are mainly the industry, fans, and game players. The average everyday person whom Nintendo wants to appeal to says things like “oh Nintendo is still around?†Don't make the same mistake twice.ADVERTISE NINTENDO, ADVERTISE!!!!!!