I think it is safe to say that everyone reading this is pumped about the Wii U. The games appear to be fun and we get to see the return of some classic characters as well as a few new. But amidst all of the hype, there is still one lingering question…how much will it cost us?
Unfortunately, Nintendo has not yet felt the need to release the price point for the Wii U. Is it possible that even they are not sure how much it will cost the consumer? There have been some “leaks” of pricing throughout the world, but I can’t say that I truly believe them at this point. Although Nintendo has been tight lipped, Satoru Iwata did have this to say about the pricing:
“We won’t make the same mistake that we did with the 3DS, which was considered relatively high by consumers.”
So, what does Iwata’s comment mean? The only thing we can know for sure is that the device will not be sold at a ridiculous mark up. I would wager a guess that it will at, or even below cost (Nintendo Wii was bringing in a profit of $6.00 per unit at one time). Since Nintendo makes money off of licensing, games, Accessories, general merchandise, etc, a loss on the system would be okay. I mean, let’s face it, if the system doesn’t sell then there is no profit in games or licensing.
Although we might not know how much we will be handing over for the Wii U, Iwata’s quote comforts me. I feel comfortable knowing that Nintendo has learned from their past mistakes. How do you feel about what Iwata said?
Brian
Only $6.00 per Wii? I will be the first to admit that I don’t know a great deal about business workings but I have always been skeptical of this “companies selling things at a loss” talk.
I mean first of all, everything is “MADE IN CHINA” crap now and it’s made as cheaply as possible. Second, companies are greedy as hell. You can never be rich enough, right? So that’s why I’ve always felt like maybe we are being exaggerated to when they tell us they are losing money on what they sell.
So it seems like the Wii, the weakling of all systems would be so cheap that Nintendo would be making way more than $6.00 because that sure seems like nearly nothing to me.
Now as far as the Wii U, I won’t be able to pay more than $249 for it. Is that what the Wii launched at? I can’t remember. I still don’t even own a PS3 yet because of pricing.
Hitokiri_Ace
It’s hard to really judge what is “at a loss or not”. Purely from a production standpoint, ya, you can sell it for less than the parts/labor cost. Though in terms of the rest of the engineering/design phase? They have money invested that they won’t recoup until they sell X amount of units/games.. be that in a 3 month-3 year time frame, who knows.. I think selling it “at a loss” is another marketing term used to convince the customer they are getting a MUCH better deal. Blast Processing/Dynamic Contrast Ratio (on lcd tv’s)/etc.. all examples of such marketing ploys.
I think we will “come out on top.” In a way at least. Bear with me as I try to make a point. 🙂 Haha
For example: think about the Wii, it came out at $249. Not to bad of a price point for a new console right? How much is it 5 years from then? Last I checked they were around $99 new. What happened? Well, the parts got cheaper, they recouped some development cost. It’s nice when consoles get cheaper over time, right?
If they start out “at a loss”, then obviously they aren’t recouping any development costs with the hardware. They still make money with games though, it’s not =0.. Also, as the parts may get cheaper, they won’t be able to lower that initial price point because they will still want to make money on it eventually.
So really, I think it’s good. Though the people that wait until prices get lower, might not like this method quite so much.
Zero
Going to make this short.
Brian.. Please tell me you know that they are selling it for more than 6$ and that 6$ dollars is just the profit of each unit sold. Let’s say that a game cost 44$ to make, they sell it at 50$ that’s what it means they make it for 6$
Billman64
$6 x millions of units sold.
With the software, marketing takes up like the biggest bulk of the cost.