OMG WII GAME PRICES

~J~ · 24 Oct 2006 at 13:07

I think if everyone is been realistic and fair, Nintendo have produced a damn good bargain but perhaps not suited to everyone's taste.

The magic £150 which people mention is obtainable if you look at some realistic figures:

Current GameCube : £60
Wireless Controller : £25
Wireless adapter : £25
A game : £30
Sensor Bar : £15

That alone adds to £155, which is a fiver more than what people are expecting. Maybe you could shave off a fiver on the console itself, as well as the controller, reducing it by £10 down to £145.

So there you have a more realistic £145 which people are expecting, but in the same breath, those people are saying it's a little bit more powerful than a GameCube. So how much 'extra' would people expect to pay for a new piece of kit, that bit 'more powerful' than a GameCube?

The Running Man · 24 Oct 2006 at 13:26

well, taking into account the GC's 4+ year age, deflationary pressure - decreasing costs, increasing economies of scale

you would have to say less than the sum of a GC and its parts. i thought it was going to be sub £150 in all honesty.

da_mic_1530 · 24 Oct 2006 at 13:49

well seeing how rapidly gamecubes dropped in price, im giving it a long time before i consider a WII

Moonpie2 · 24 Oct 2006 at 13:53

I'd quite like to have paid £150 and then been given the choice about whether I wanted Wii Sports or not.

I've never liked games being thrust upon me.

NokkonWud · 24 Oct 2006 at 13:53

Whappers said:
I totally agree. I think I read on Gamespot a while back that they are making a profit straight out of the box so they're not losing a penny. It is too expensive I feel for what you're getting. I might get one in a couple of months if the price dies down a little. But not at £179.99 They could have lowered the price but chose not to I'm one customer who won't be contributing to their festive period sales figures.

/gets coat.

£180 is cheap. I'm a student and it's still not a lot of money for something thats gonna be fun to play and most importantly, CHANGE the way you play.

Oakesy2001uk · 24 Oct 2006 at 13:57

Nickg said:
well, taking into account the GC's 4+ year age, deflationary pressure - decreasing costs, increasing economies of scale

you would have to say less than the sum of a GC and its parts. i thought it was going to be sub £150 in all honesty.

I was under the impressoin it was more like double the GC power not on par. I dont think the price is unreasonable, also you can guarentee it will be 150 pretty shortly after release.

I'm happy paying that, and I suspect are a lot of other people. The fact that games will likely be 20 to 25 quid a go is even better!

Tunney · 24 Oct 2006 at 14:03

If the games RRP for £33 then that fantastic value and I don't think that £180 is too much for the console. My only concern is with the controllers. A Wiimote + nunchunk will set you back almost £45, which will make four-player action almost non-existant for anyone other than those who know three friends with a Wii too.

rp2000 · 24 Oct 2006 at 14:14

bakes0310 said:
The prices have gone down to the proper price now at £32.99
So we get a cheap console and cheap games maybe the controlers are gonna be expensive

Where have the prices gone down? RRP is still 39.99 which is what GAME and gameplay are still listing. I noticed Play have them for 32.99 is this what you mean?

rp2000

Mr.Orb · 24 Oct 2006 at 14:18

Didn't the gamecube drop in price just before it launched?

XPE · 24 Oct 2006 at 14:20

Whappers said:
I totally agree. I think I read on Gamespot a while back that they are making a profit straight out of the box so they're not losing a penny. It is too expensive I feel for what you're getting. I might get one in a couple of months if the price dies down a little. But not at £179.99 They could have lowered the price but chose not to I'm one customer who won't be contributing to their festive period sales figures.

/gets coat.

A company making money on the products they sell !!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Dear god what type of world do we live in !!!!!

Moonpie2 said:
I'd quite like to have paid £150 and then been given the choice about whether I wanted Wii Sports or not.

I've never liked games being thrust upon me.

I would have to agree with you there, i dont really want wii sports

Wrathamon · 24 Oct 2006 at 14:22

I reported on the price drop a few days ago on another thread...

The RRP is still 39.99, but at least one online retailer doing preorders for 32.99.

As for cost of the console, I have no problems of that. All this comparison to the gamecube is quite irrelevant. The Wii may only be clocked 1.5x faster than the GC or whatever (going by leaked specs) but it is a new processor (Broadway), new faster graphics chip (Hollywood) from ATI, although still derived from the original ArtX Flipper. Add in several years of research and development as well as the new silicon, and it's a bargain.

Also Nintendo don't sell the hardware for a loss like Sony and Microsoft. (And the retailer markup is only ~5% for the Wii Console itself)

thor · 24 Oct 2006 at 14:25

Our current sense of value is quite strange, not just in relation to the Wii but also other things like the cost of 360/PS3 games.

I'm a student and I do not consider £180 for a brand new console which will allow me to play some of the best games available, and with an entirely innovative control method, to be too much money. I mean, I paid that just the other week for a Nano and all it can do is play music.

It's the same with people complaining about the cost of 360 games. The RRP is £44.99-49.99 which is inline with the RRP for PS1 games when they were first released, but for some reason, today we consider that a lot.

I'll quite happily snap up a Wii for £162 (a nice 10% perk for being a student!) when it's released, and I'm sure I'll consider it great value for money too.

dirtydog · 24 Oct 2006 at 14:27

rp2000 said:
Where have the prices gone down? RRP is still 39.99 which is what GAME and gameplay are still listing. I noticed Play have them for 32.99 is this what you mean?

rp2000

So the console is a whole £20 cheaper than the 360, and games are a whole £7 cheaper. Not much to get excited about really is it

VIRII · 24 Oct 2006 at 14:48

dirtydog said:
So the console is a whole £20 cheaper than the 360, and games are a whole £7 cheaper. Not much to get excited about really is it

Hmmm I am thinking that in view of my new improved cheerful mood we should try and get you a Wii seeing as we failed miserably to get you a 360.

So instead of a "360 for DD" we could start a "Wii for DD" campaign.

Anyone here willing to "Wii for DD"?

dirtydog · 24 Oct 2006 at 14:51

VIRII said:
my cheerful mood

is this a first?

So instead of a "360 for DD" we could start a "Wii for DD" campaign.

Anyone here willing to "Wii for DD"?

Meh I don't think I'd have a Wii given to be honest

Mr_White · 24 Oct 2006 at 14:58

You can get an Xbox 360 for £20 more, the Wii isn't good value considering the actual hardware you get (not the peripherals and other gimmicks)

Nismo · 24 Oct 2006 at 14:59

Mr_White said:
You can get an Xbox 360 for £20 more, the Wii isn't good value considering the actual hardware you get (not the peripherals and other gimmicks)

But you need to spend more money on the 360 to get the full experience, whereas with the Wii you spend £180 and get everything in the box, including a game

DaveyD · 24 Oct 2006 at 15:12

Nismo said:
But you need to spend more money on the 360 to get the full experience, whereas with the Wii you spend £180 and get everything in the box, including a game

And wireless built in, storage, and all that other stuff, but as with this debate and PS3 vs. 360, it's all dependant on what you want out of the console, and if you want to pay for all the features out of the box or by separate peripherals. The Wii is good that, at the moment, doesn't require anything else to get it going, bar maybe the USB expantion for ethernet for those that don't have wireless.

Beansprout · 24 Oct 2006 at 15:28

Pug said:
not at all, its just perceived value. I, and it would appear others, feel that the value offered by the Wii at £179 isn't justifiable on the age of the technology used. Nothing to do with profits.

You can't say "oh, the old tech costs X so the new one should cost X*(value of improvement)" because the value of improvement is not equal to the upfront costs - such as R&D, marketing, etc.

I'm sure the price will be below £150 before long, but initially I'd much prefer Nintendo to sell as many as possible at a higher profit so that a) they don't go bust, b) they can focus on making more wicked games and stuff and c) the early adopters pay the larger amounts, thus allowing folk like me to jump in later at a lower price

I find it equally funny how people say "Why shouldnt Ninty make a profit" and then go on to say how Sony are greedy when they're LOSING money on their consoles!

Aye

But either way, its good to hear the game prices are affordable too - makes the prospect of me investing more likely

Yup - I hate paying a fortune for games - I'd far rather buy lots of cheap ones than a few more expensive ones

Wrathamon · 24 Oct 2006 at 15:52

Beansprout said:
so that a) they don't go bust

That's not going to happen to Nintendo. It's a common misconception that as the gamecube is in 'third place' they must be on the brink...

Last month they raised their PROFIT forecast for this financial year to $841 million.

Out of the big three, they are the only console manufacturer to make a profit - by comparison, Microsoft's gaming division made a LOSS of $485 million in 2005 year, and a LOSS of $1.26 billion for 2006 (fiscal year ending 30th June 2006).

Likewise Sony also make a heavy LOSS on their gaming segment, not got the figures to hand, but from what i remember it was around $200 million for the last year, and they also borrowed heavily....

EDIT: Found one of the figures... Sony's LOSS for Q2 this year (3 months) was $177 million