What is up with the price of the Wii?

dalin80 · 1 Dec 2007 at 10:57

James07 said:
Daft post.

Ludicrous, ONLY console to use sensors as a controller, New gen of console, New gen of Games, Next gen gfx, the price of this console is low if you ask me, It sold more units then the 360 last week, do a bit of research bud.

And for £29 more than its original price, the PS3 was well on its way to £500 how the hell cna you justify that, to say its not that much greater than a 360 which is still at a pretty extortionate price.

the ps3 can use sensors as well, its built into every sixaxis and there is nothing 'next gen' about the graphics the wii is slower then the original xbox and all we have seen so far graphics wise is pitiful.

i really dont get what all the fuss is about or why they are selling so well :confused:

FrankJH · 1 Dec 2007 at 13:13

James07 said:
And for £29 more than its original price, the PS3 was well on its way to £500 how the hell cna you justify that, to say its not that much greater than a 360 which is still at a pretty extortionate price.

I think you mean £130 more than rrp (same product should be £199)

wannabedamned · 1 Dec 2007 at 13:18

James07 said:
Daft post.

Ludicrous, ONLY console to use sensors as a controller, New gen of console, New gen of Games, Next gen gfx, the price of this console is low if you ask me, It sold more units then the 360 last week, do a bit of research bud.

And for £29 more than its original price, the PS3 was well on its way to £500 how the hell cna you justify that, to say its not that much greater than a 360 which is still at a pretty extortionate price.

haha, james07, You say other peoples post are daft then post that.

NorthstaNder · 1 Dec 2007 at 13:41

mmj_uk said:
It's the retailers fault

Agreed. Whilst I realise retailers have to make a profit, there is no need for them to be ripping people off like they are at the moment.

scorza · 1 Dec 2007 at 14:15

NorthstaNder said:
Agreed. Whilst I realise retailers have to make a profit, there is no need for them to be ripping people off like they are at the moment.

Do you really think that all the extra profit from selling a Wii at those prices are going to the retailer?

NorthstaNder · 1 Dec 2007 at 14:18

scorza said:
Do you really think that all the extra profit from selling a Wii at those prices are going to the retailer?

Yes I do. Next question please.

wannabedamned · 1 Dec 2007 at 14:23

NorthstaNder said:
Yes I do. Next question please.

Agreed, All profit would go to retailer. That's why they are profits, Its anything above what they originally paid for the Wii, You think a retailer will think, wow, we made extra this time, let's give Nintendo a bigger cut.

Mr Men · 1 Dec 2007 at 14:23

scorza said:
Do you really think that all the extra profit from selling a Wii at those prices are going to the retailer?

Where else is it going? back to Nintendo?

wedgie · 1 Dec 2007 at 14:25

The extra profit is ONLY going to the retailer.

Kamakazie! · 1 Dec 2007 at 17:49

scorza said:
Nintendo UK control the price in the UK, so they are to blame. I'll wager that Nintendo Corp. doesn't know that the UK is bringing great shame on the name Nintendo

No, retailers set the price. RRP is RRP. It is illegal for companies to price fix.

scorza said:
Sorry RRP and supply and demand are myths in this country. The RRP might have "recommended" in the name but the reality is that it's far from only recommended. For years manufacturers and retailers have had a cosy arrangement where the price is set by the manufacturer (including a healthy slice of profit for the retailer), thus meaning the retailers don't have to compete with each other. Don't believe me? Try setting up your own shop and try and sell an Xbox 360 or a PS3 as a loss-leader - Microsoft and Sony would be on your ass in an instant.

It's easy to blame the retailers for this, but Nintendo are the ones who control the price. German Wii's are still 200 euros or whatever, the same stock shortages must apply to them as well, therefore it must be Nintendo UK doing some disgraceful price gouging.

See above.
You might have a point if it were the fact that every retailer is price gauging. The simple fact is, they are not.
You can still get them for RRP at plenty of places if you are there when they get stock.
Many of the big retailers do these bundles, but the Wii is still selling for RRP. You are fully entitled to sell Wii as a loss leader by why on earth would you when you can sell as many as you like for RRP even with rubbish game bundles?

Oh and MS and Sony wouldn't blink an eye if you wanted to sell the console as a loss leader. They are selling it at a loss already and if you want to absorb more of that thus increasing their market share and selling more games (which they make all there money on) they would be extremely happy. Plenty of shops were selling PS3 for lower than RRP a month or 2 after launch which was not a Sony initiative. Sony have done their own things since like giving away lots of Blu-Ray movies.

I agree that years ago this was the case, it is MUCH less of a problem now than it was. You can look at the whole car importing fiasco a few years ago. The manufacturers got ****** by the EC once people had complained.

atpbx said:
Yes which is about £173.99.

Funny how they are readily available all over the continent as well.

That is because they are in far more demand over here than on the continent.

Kamakazie! · 1 Dec 2007 at 18:03

Oh and also Scorza, the reason the Wii was £180 WITH Wii Sports and not £150 without is because retailers put pressure on Nintendo to sell it at a higher price, thus increasing their own profit on the system (markup works on %).

As said, yes, ALL the extra money goes directly to the retailer. If Nintendo were taking a bigger cut, then no where in the country would be selling it at the old RRP. As i said, people are, therefore the RRP from Nintendo is still the same and thus they will be getting the same cut as before.

AndrewPE28 · 1 Dec 2007 at 18:28

People will remember which retailers have taken the pee though. I certainly will next year when i'm upgrading my PC

fini · 1 Dec 2007 at 18:33

AndrewPE28 said:
People will remember which retailers have taken the pee though. I certainly will next year when i'm upgrading my PC

You say that, but every time its difficult to get hold of a console retailers do something like this (although yes this is the most I've ever seen added on to a console) and each time people go back there. Unfortunately stuff like this has little to no effect on a shops reputation long-term.

FrankJH · 1 Dec 2007 at 19:42

Kamakazie! said:
Oh and MS and Sony wouldn't blink an eye if you wanted to sell the console as a loss leader. They are selling it at a loss already and if you want to absorb more of that thus increasing their market share and selling more games (which they make all there money on) they would be extremely happy.
.

Sorry this makes no sense - Sony (MS and Nintendo) all sell their units at a given price to the retailers, so whether the retailer sells it at a loss or not doesnt mean anything about "absorbing more (of the loss)", they are stil getting the same amount after all - its only the retailer which needs to sell more games to make up for the loss they made on the console

scorza · 1 Dec 2007 at 19:47

So many naive people in here it's untrue

Why the hell was price-fixing brought into this? Price-fixing refers to multiple manufacturers grouping together to fix the price of their competing products artificially high - see for example recent examples of airlines colluding together on fuel surcharges. Nintendo telling retailers the price they must sell their console at is not price fixing - it's perfectly legal and accepted practice in the retail industry, although there have been calls in the past from free-marketeers to make the RRP system illegal because they believe it to be a form of anti-competitive behaviour - I for one agree with them.

So to expand on my question. I'm Nintendo UK, I set the price of my Wii's at £180, and tell the retailers that their cut will be say, £80. All of a sudden the retailers start selling it at £300. Am I really just going to accept that? I'm either going to withdraw the retailers licence to sell my product, or I'm going to demand a greater cut of the profit or they can stop selling it full stop.

Hedge · 2 Dec 2007 at 01:39

Profiting from demand is fine as far as im concerned.

I just found it funny that ocuk were deleting peoples threads not long ago on MM because they were selling Wiis over retail before ocuk were.

This post will get deleted too most likely lol

oweneades · 2 Dec 2007 at 01:49

scorza said:
So many naive people in here it's untrue Why the hell was price-fixing brought into this? Price-fixing refers to multiple manufacturers grouping together to fix the price of their competing products artificially high - see for example recent examples of airlines colluding together on fuel surcharges. Nintendo telling retailers the price they must sell their console at is not price fixing - it's perfectly legal and accepted practice in the retail industry, although there have been calls in the past from free-marketeers to make the RRP system illegal because they believe it to be a form of anti-competitive behaviour - I for one agree with them.

So to expand on my question. I'm Nintendo UK, I set the price of my Wii's at £180, and tell the retailers that their cut will be say, £80. All of a sudden the retailers start selling it at £300. Am I really just going to accept that? I'm either going to withdraw the retailers licence to sell my product, or I'm going to demand a greater cut of the profit or they can stop selling it full stop.

How does this explain why some retailers are selling it close to the rrp yet others are selling it way over the rrp? If that isn't an example of retailers making a profit then I don't know what is?!

Hedge · 2 Dec 2007 at 01:51

oweneades said:
How does this explain why some retailers are selling it close to the rrp yet others are selling it way over the rrp? If that isn't an example of retailers making a profit then I don't know what is?!

Independent retailers dont mind annoying a few people to get some profit.

larger companies with big chains of stores are more likely to stick to RRP as reputation must mean more to them

Kamakazie! · 2 Dec 2007 at 02:12

FrankJH said:
Sorry this makes no sense - Sony (MS and Nintendo) all sell their units at a given price to the retailers, so whether the retailer sells it at a loss or not doesnt mean anything about "absorbing more (of the loss)", they are stil getting the same amount after all - its only the retailer which needs to sell more games to make up for the loss they made on the console

I am aware of how things work. Maybe you mis-understood me. I was asserting that MS/Sony would be happy for retailers to take a hit on their consoles if it means them selling more.
Retailers would need to sell games to make up for the loss but MS/Sony (MS may actually make some money on the hardware now... not sure) solely rely on their videogame sales to make a profit. The more consoles out tehre, the more games sold and hopefully the more money they make. Attach rates are very important and if someone buys a console for a lower price they are more likely to have money for other games.

scorza said:
So many naive people in here it's untrue Why the hell was price-fixing brought into this? Price-fixing refers to multiple manufacturers grouping together to fix the price of their competing products artificially high - see for example recent examples of airlines colluding together on fuel surcharges. Nintendo telling retailers the price they must sell their console at is not price fixing - it's perfectly legal and accepted practice in the retail industry, although there have been calls in the past from free-marketeers to make the RRP system illegal because they believe it to be a form of anti-competitive behaviour - I for one agree with them.

So to expand on my question. I'm Nintendo UK, I set the price of my Wii's at £180, and tell the retailers that their cut will be say, £80. All of a sudden the retailers start selling it at £300. Am I really just going to accept that? I'm either going to withdraw the retailers licence to sell my product, or I'm going to demand a greater cut of the profit or they can stop selling it full stop.

It is nothing to do with being naive. You are just flat out wrong. Retailers are fully entitled to sell a product at what ever price they like. RRP is RECOMMENDED retail price. Nintendo can not tell retailer what price to sell the product for, they can only give the retailer a guide. Regardless of this, your second point is also wrong.
Nintendo already have a set price to sell their product to retailers for, they can't got back to the retailer and say "hey, you sold that for £300.... we want an extra £50 from you."

Now, some manufacturers in the past have used anti-competitive behaviour to try and maintain a higher price for their product. They would constrain supplies to certain retailers on purpose to prevent price drops, however, this is also 100% illegal. Any retailer with proof of this could get the manufacturer in to serious trouble.

meths · 2 Dec 2007 at 02:28

Kamakazie! said:
...snip...Now, some manufacturers in the past have used anti-competitive behaviour to try and maintain a higher price for their product. They would constrain supplies to certain retailers on purpose to prevent price drops, however, this is also 100% illegal. Any retailer with proof of this could get the manufacturer in to serious trouble.

Do you think that Nintendo are deliberately limiting the supply of Wii's to the UK?

I've suspected this for a while because I could understand an initial shortage of the console around the release date but we're a year down the line and they're still hard to come by [if you can't be bother trying very hard to get one or just don't know where or when to look].