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Nintendo Announces Japanese Wii Price 477

Posted by Zonk from the yay-for-cheap-fun dept.
Wowzer writes "Nintendo has revealed to Famitsu.com, at the company's recent press conference unveiling its financial results, that Wii would arrive in Japanese stores with a maximum price tag of 25,000 yen. After taking in account various factors, the conversion to other currencies comes down to a launch price of: 225 dollars, 225 euros, and 150 pounds." Update: 05/25 13:45 GMT by Z : GamesIndustry.biz points out they hope to ship 6 million units by next March, and an Opera exec has said you can browse the internets with the wiimote.
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Nintendo Announces Japanese Wii Price More

Nintendo Announces Japanese Wii Price

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  • Congrats Nintendo (Score:5, Insightful)

    by creepynut ( 933825 ) * <(teddy(slashdot)) (at) (teddybrown.ca)> on Thursday May 25, 2006 @08:37AM (#15400976) Homepage
    All this negative press about Sony, and you come out a true champ.

    This is one I'll be getting myself for Christmas. I don't see them changing the price much, if at all when it comes overseas.

    The next question is, how much of a profit are they making on that? IIRC, Nintendo doesn't have a history of taking losses on their consoles, someone correct me if I'm wrong. At this low price, is it possible they've taken a turn on this one?

    Either way, even if Sony has a killer launch lineup, I don't see them making the family Christmas market given the steep price difference. Unless the 360's price has a Christmas price drop, I doubt they'll be much in the match, since they got their head start last year.

    • Re:Congrats Nintendo (Score:5, Informative)

      by onewing ( 754420 ) on Thursday May 25, 2006 @08:45AM (#15401042)
      At this low price, is it possible they've taken a turn on this one?

      I seriously doubt they will be selling these at a loss. The hardware itself is claimed to be "two or three" times more powerfull than the gamecube. Since the GC launch in 2001 you can assume the technology for the Wii (which is very similiar IIRC) is a fairly affordable price at this point. The controllers themselves dont seem to contain anything terribly expensive, just an innovative use of two existing technologies.

      The only things that may possibly affect this will be the addition of 512 MB built-in flash memory, the possiblity of an additional wiimote and the sensor bar itself. But I dont belive that any of these is a deal breaker on a possible 200$ USD launch price, especially with how weak the USD is currently.

      • Re:Congrats Nintendo (Score:5, Informative)

        by AKAImBatman ( 238306 ) * <akaimbatman@gmaiBLUEl.com minus berry> on Thursday May 25, 2006 @09:12AM (#15401267) Homepage Journal
        Kingston 512MB Flash Cards can be had off of Amazon for $11.39 [amazon.com]. The list price is claimed to be $39.99. Even if we assume that the $11.39 figure undercuts the actual cost for some reason, I think it's safe to assume that the bulk cost would easily be within the range of those figures.

        Similarly, complex universal remotes retail for about $19.95. You can usually find them much cheaper than MSRP. The sensor bar's cost will likely depend on what it's made of. Since we can probably assume plastic, it probably won't be too costly either. The Wii itself uses off-the-shelf components for its hardware, making the only questions the CPU and GPU. Both of these appear to be modified forms of existing processors. Which means that in bulk they should be very affordable for Nintendo. Therefore, it's likely that Nintendo will be able to sell the Wii at a $199 price point without taking any sort of loss. At $250, they'd probably be making a profit.

        In comparison, both Microsoft and Sony have built their consoles out of highly customized and/or cutting edge hardware that require significant expense to manufacture. (At least initially.) The result is that they have to sell at far higher price points. In Microsoft's case, it's expected that they're losing money on each unit. (Though I seriously doubt that they're losing as much as the $200 that has been claimed by the media.) Both Sony and Microsoft should have paid attention to history. The Jaguar, Saturn, Neo-Geo, and Turbografix were all consoles that were on the cutting edge of technology. They all lost out to consoles that were inexpensive, built with off-the-shelf components (plus/minus a custom part or two), and were easily manufactured using less-than-cutting-edge technology.

        • Re:Congrats Nintendo (Score:2, Insightful)

          by Evangelion ( 2145 )
          Similarly, complex universal remotes retail for about $19.95. You can usually find them much cheaper than MSRP.

          Considering that the Wiimote has zero relationship to a traditional IR remote, other than shape, I don't see what this is supposed to mean.

          However, that doesn't change your point -- accelerometers are dirt cheap, they're included in every laptop hard drive made for the past who-knows-how-long. Similarly, the cirutry that interacts with the sensor bar can't be too costly either -- really, all it h

        • Re:Congrats Nintendo (Score:3, Insightful)

          by rolfwind ( 528248 )
          With that $11 price tag, you are assuming they are using regular flash memory. Perhaps they want the 40x flash, which is faster and more expensive. About $40-50 for a 512MB unit. That might make more sense in a multimedia system for faster load times.

          The Jaguar, Saturn, Neo-Geo, and Turbografix were all consoles that were on the cutting edge of technology. They all lost out to consoles that were inexpensive, built with off-the-shelf components (plus/minus a custom part or two), and were easily manufactur

          • Re:Congrats Nintendo (Score:4, Informative)

            by AKAImBatman ( 238306 ) * <akaimbatman@gmaiBLUEl.com minus berry> on Thursday May 25, 2006 @10:36AM (#15402010) Homepage Journal
            With that $11 price tag, you are assuming they are using regular flash memory. Perhaps they want the 40x flash, which is faster and more expensive.

            I doubt it. The flash is only used to store games downloaded from the Virtual Console service. When you consider how small most of these games are (barely a megabyte or two for the largest), you realize that using fast flash would be a waste of money.

            I believe the Jaguar was based on Motorala 6800 CPU (16 bit, Mac).

            Not exactly. The Jaguar had a Motorola 68000, a 32 bit DSP, a 32 bit GPU, a 64 bit object processor, and a 64 bit blitter. Basically, it had a LOT of custom processors stuffed into its case. Not to mention the 2MB of RAM, which was exceedingly expensive back in 1993. (4MB was still pretty standard on PCs.)
        • Interesting enough, the NES was, adjusted for inflation, was a little more expensive than the average of the two 360 price points ($350 or so).

          Nintendo has been consistantly keeping their price lower and lower each subsequent generation.

          Although their sales have been going down each generation - the NES was the best selling nintendo console made (the origional playstation outsold -that- by double, while the N64 sold about half as well as the origional) - if the poll on slashdot is to be extrapolated, the W
          • Interesting enough, the NES was, adjusted for inflation, was a little more expensive than the average of the two 360 price points ($350 or so).

            But it was right in line with the consoles that preceeded it. The Atari 2600 was introduced at $199.95, as was the Colecovision. The Intellivison was introduced at $299, and the Bally's Personal Arcade was $350 back in '79. So adjusting for inflation, consoles have continued to get cheaper over time. Which is in-line with general electronics which have also gotten cheaper with time.

            The problem with adjusting for inflation when setting new price points is that consumers are used to prices going down. Over time they will expect more for less. So if you give them a price that used to be acceptable (after adjusting for inflation), they'll feel you're overcharging them. Ergo, it's wisest to allow your pricing to follow the general trend of products.
      • especially with how weak the USD is currently
        If the dollar were strong, Nintendo could afford to sell them for fewer dollars. With the dollar weak, they can't afford to raise the price, otherwise Wii couldn't afford it.
    • They might make less profit on the console itself than in the past, but I suspect that at worst they'll come out with zero profit, zero loss. Count market share wins into that (and those will be massive if they don't do anything stupid now, or Sony suddenly gets an epiphany and does a 180 degree turn), along with future game and controller sales, and they're well within the black numbers.

    • Been wondering about the "loss leader" idea (Score:5, Interesting)

      by ianscot ( 591483 ) on Thursday May 25, 2006 @08:56AM (#15401138)
      IIRC, Nintendo doesn't have a history of taking losses on their consoles, someone correct me if I'm wrong. At this low price, is it possible they've taken a turn on this one?

      Given the marginalization of the GameCube, I've been wondering whether Nintendo wouldn't be smart to lose a smidge on each console this time around in order to regain market share. Their two competitors have blown prices sky high and narrowed their market considerably (I think) by making it necessary to pony up for an HD screen in order to really see the fun from their new systems. Sony and MS are vulnerable, vulnerable as can be. Nintendo needs to get the third party developers on board, and the relative cheapness of developing for Wii is a step that way. But imagine if the Wii release price was a bit of a loss leader, a $175 sort of thing, and they got a huge jump starting next November or so in their market share. Developers would take note.

      I doubt it happens. As you say, Nintendo makes profit on its consoles (and everything else), and doesn't play the market share game a la Microsoft. Sony always tries to bundle everything with some sort of wrongheaded standards war "leverage" move. MS desperately tries to gain market share despite losing rivers of money, and imagines they understand the "extreme" tone "hard core" gamers like, 'cause you know, they're so cool. The teams keep running the same plays... I still think Nintendo is the clear winner this round, in prospect.

      • Nintendo probably prefers to make money instead of selling many consoles.
      • That's pointless, even if Nintendo RAISES their launch price to lets say $250USD, 50 more than they every have before, they're still blowing the competition OUT OF THE WATER on price, what kind of message would selling themselves short send? This doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

        Nintendo has very sound, and more importantly, PROVEN business practices in the gaming industry. Why would they screw with what works? The only real reason Nintendo has lost some ground is that there is now so much more ground out
        • That's right, they are already winning on price by a long shot so there's no reason to go lower.

          However, there's more to why taking a loss would be pointless for them. You're a little of when you say there's more ground out there. There's the same amount of ground but more competition for it. One of the main points behind Nintendo's strategy with the Wii (and the DS) is to find new ground that the others aren't even playing on yet. If it pays off, Nintendo will be raking it in from console and game sales an
          • When I was discussing available market segments in relation to Nintendo, I was talking the changes in the market since NES. There may not be a larger market this year than last year (don't agree on this even but...), however the market has grown MASSIVELY since the days of NES.

            As for current market growth, it's still growing. People that never have bought a console, and never will, die every day. Children that will become gamers are born every day. The market is absolutely still growing. It's slowed a lot f
        • Dude, the basic xbox is $300, $250 is in no way blowing the competition OUT OF THE WATER

          The average consumer is going to stick with what they know and either buy the 360 for $300 or if they're budget concious they can always pick up a cheap PS2.

          It makes loads of sense for Nintendo to lose a few bucks on a system, if it's going to increase their customer base.
    • "At this low price, is it possible they've taken a turn on this one?"
      Yes they can.
      None of the components in the Wii is all that cutting edge. Some of the costs I guess off the top of my head are.
      $5 for the plastics.
      $25 dollars for the optical drive.
      $50-$100 for the electronics. The big variable here is the GPU.
      I am guessing on these costs but I think they are close.
      Remember that when you are buying millions of parts the price comes way down. That leaves them around $100-$150 a machine to cover development,

  • Sold! (Score:4, Interesting)

    by MMC Monster ( 602931 ) on Thursday May 25, 2006 @08:41AM (#15401002)
    I haven't bought a console in over a decade. But I will by a Wii. I've been thinking about a Playstation 2, since it's a mature system by now, but Nintendo has a lot more family oriented games, or so I hear.

  • BS (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Yahweh Doesn't Exist ( 906833 ) on Thursday May 25, 2006 @08:43AM (#15401017)
    if it's 225 dollars, then here in the UK it will be 225 pounds. FACT.

    still a good price in absolute terms though.

    • Re:BS (Score:2, Insightful)

      by CableModemSniper ( 556285 )
      Yes, but it's not $225 its 25,000 Yen. I doubt the US/Continent/UK price is going to be $225, it'll be $199.99 or $249.99. $224.99 is a really odd price.

    • Re:BS (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I wouldn't be so sure of that. As many people have mentioned recnetly the Gamecube was priced at $200 when it launched in the US. The UK launch price was significantly lower then £200 pounds (link [bbc.co.uk]).

  • NOTE! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Guppy06 ( 410832 ) on Thursday May 25, 2006 @08:48AM (#15401055)
    "After taking in account various factors, the conversion to other currencies comes down to a launch price of: 225 dollars, 225 euros, and 150 pounds."

    This is not official. This is mere speculation on the part of the article.

    I, too, can pull numbers out of my ass. For example, because the launch price of 25,000 JPY is exactly the same number they used for the GameCube, they'll release the Wii in the US for 199 USD (like they did with the GameCube).

    Until we get official numbers, though, this is all speculation.

    • Re:NOTE! (Score:2, Insightful)

      by TheBlackSwordsman ( 870838 )
      I, too, can pull numbers out of my ass. For example, because the launch price of 25,000 JPY is exactly the same number they used for the GameCube, they'll release the Wii in the US for 199 USD (like they did with the GameCube).

      Exactly. Anyway, I'm much more inclined to believe the Wii will launch for $200, considering that's the price every previous Nintendo console launched at.

    • Just to add one more NOTE to your point. Nintendo has been pretty consistent about charging more in Japan for their consoles than in the United States, for the initial release price at least.

  • Price (Score:3, Insightful)

    by tgpo ( 976851 ) on Thursday May 25, 2006 @08:53AM (#15401101)
    I can't say the announcement of the price has swayed me in any way. Price was never what held me back on newer systems. I havn't bought a system since the Nintendo 64 because most games are nothing more than recreations of games that have been available for years. The thing that does swing me to the Wii is the innovation and "Road Less Traveled" feel of the entire system. It no longer feels like a Gamecube V.2, nor does it feel like they are slapping some new hardware inside the old shell to make games prettier. I feel that is all the PS3 and 360 have going for it, they have more power than their earlier versions. SO WHAT! If you simply do updates and resell as brand new their is nothing innovative and exciting. It seems that Nintendo caught on to this and decided to try things a little differently. I saw that simply reshaping the wheel wasn't enough for most people and decided reinvert at least a small part of the wheel. Now I'm not saying that Nintendo is doing something that is 100% brand new, no, but I do say that Nintendo is doing something in a totally new way and they stand to reap the benefits of it. Sometimes, even a small diversion from the path will lead you to a whole new place.
    • We get the point; Wii is innovative and fresh, PS3 and 360 are the same old thing with better hardware, it's etched onto all of our brains after seeing the same thing posted over and over in every next-gen console article. Can we please stop repeating this now? Or at least stop modding it up?

  • Sold! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by nbannerman ( 974715 ) on Thursday May 25, 2006 @08:54AM (#15401121)
    £150?

    I'm buying one. End of discussion.

    For the price of a 360, I can get something original and interesting, plus 3 games, and waste away hours being entertained. Seriously, why do I need a 360 or a PS3, when this thing looks like it might actually manage to be a games console, instead of a glorified media centre? ;)
    • Because, everyone wants a media center. Microsoft and Sony say so.

      • Re:Sold! (Score:3, Interesting)

        by GeckoX ( 259575 )
        Actually, a lot of consumers do too.

        I'm about at the end of my rope with Sony, this time around they appear to be about to take SERIOUS advantage of my loyalty, which I will not stand for.

        In the past though, I've stuck with Sony because my game library is MUCH bigger than it would have been since I can (and do) still play PS1 games, AS WELL as use it as my dvd player and cd player. I didn't always use it for this, but in the time I've owned my PS2, I've had a 6 disc dvd player die, a high quality pure dvd p
    • Agreed. I don't have an HDTV, I don't need SuperXtremeFlashyMegaGrafX. I just want something fun to play that I won't need to sell my precious bodily fluids to afford.

      Plus, now I can walk around saying where's the Wiimote?!
  • In a surprise move, Nintendo announces that Elmer Fudd has been tapped as the official spokesperson for the North America release, scheduled for Q4 2006.

    No further details were released at this time.

  • Half the cost of one, a third of the other... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by ZSpade ( 812879 ) on Thursday May 25, 2006 @08:57AM (#15401145) Homepage
    This is a severe undercut... In fact there has never been such a mighty difference in prices in past console wars.(unless you count the neo-geo, meh-heh!) It will be interesting to stand by the sidelines and watch Nintendo again rise.

  • Wiimote (Score:5, Funny)

    by goldaryn ( 834427 ) on Thursday May 25, 2006 @09:01AM (#15401179) Homepage
    Update: 05/25 13:45 GMT by Z : GamesIndustry.biz points out they hope to ship 6 million units by next March, and an Opera exec has said you can browse the internets [sic] with the wiimote.

    "One-handed" browsing! Well spotted, ed. Will be useful :-)

  • Folks always forget the VAT (Score:4, Informative)

    by sirwired ( 27582 ) on Thursday May 25, 2006 @09:01AM (#15401182)
    In the uproar over how much more consoles (or electronics in general) cost in the UK and Europe, folks always forget about the VAT. (Value Added Tax)

    IIRC, in the UK, Europe, and Canada, the VAT is included in the advertised (and paid) price. In the US, the rough equivalent (Sales Tax) is never included in the advertised price (except for Gasoline for some reason). Of course, not all localities in the US charge sales tax, the amount varies depending on where you live, and the amount is lower than VAT.

    A more fair comparison would be to take the VAT out of the price, and THEN compare how much the equipment costs in various countries. That determines how much the manufactuer and retailer actually receives for the console.

    SirWired

    • Re:Folks always forget the VAT (Score:4, Informative)

      by Merlynnus ( 209292 ) on Thursday May 25, 2006 @09:24AM (#15401364)
      Off topic, but in Canada, that's (mostly) not true. Advertized prices are almost always without the Provincial Sale Tax (PST) and the Goods and Services Tax (GST). The rate varies from province to province (and in the East, they've combined it into a Harmonized Sales Tax (HST)) but it runs about 14%. Of course, there's no PST in Alberta and the GST is dropping a point sometime later this summer. Regardless, just like the US, everything except gas tends to be the "before-tax" price.

    • I was mistaken about Canada, I thought it was rolled in to the price. Oops.

      SirWired
    • I think most people simply forget that things in general cost more in number amounts than in the USA. A Starbucks coffee may be US$3, and in the UK it'll be 3 quid. Similar with cars, computers, etc.
    • VAT isn't included in the Canadian advertised price either we pay a 7% GST on top of the advertised price which is our equivalent of VAT. On top of that we pay any where from 0-10% PST (an additional sales tax) depending on where you live in the country. If you compare the Euopean price to the canadian price after all that tax it really doesnt seem like you guys are getting hosed as much. 225 US = about 250 CND + 15% total tax (for my province) = 287.50 CND = 200 Euros approximately.
    • Off topic, I know, but does anyone know why prices do not include tax in the USA? The advertised price has to have both state and national tax added to it. When I was last there, both were around 5% (this was Utah) and both were some silly number with two decimal places so it was impossible to do the sales tax calculations in your head. You could roughly check by approximating it to 10%, but unless you wanted to take a calculator with you you couldn't tell if the till was adding on a few pennies, or if y
      • Aside from the tax variance between states mentioned by sibling posters, there's also philosophical reasons--including the tax in the posted price tends to "hide" it from the taxpyaer, while having the tax as a separate line item on the receipt as we do in America makes it more apparent.

  • Hopefully (Score:3, Interesting)

    by JanneM ( 7445 ) on Thursday May 25, 2006 @09:03AM (#15401193) Homepage
    Could we perhaps see a Wii/DS-Lite combo pack for 40k yen? Either way, Nintendo has just sold me my new toy come winter.

  • Well, that settles it... (Score:3)

    by grasshoppa ( 657393 ) on Thursday May 25, 2006 @09:07AM (#15401230) Homepage
    ...I'm getting a wii, despite the name.

    Both Sony and Microsoft can go fuck themselves.

  • Headline Inaccurate (Score:5, Informative)

    by Miraba ( 846588 ) on Thursday May 25, 2006 @09:10AM (#15401254) Journal
    Nintendo announced the MAXIMUM price, not the actual price. 25,000 yen or less, US$250 or less, and "UK pricing will be in line with Japanese and US prices announced."

    Source: http://www.officialnintendomagazine.co.uk/news_250 506_wii.html [officialni...zine.co.uk]

  • Get ready for $200 (Score:4, Interesting)

    by RyoShin ( 610051 ) <tukaro@[ ]il.com ['gma' in gap]> on Thursday May 25, 2006 @09:10AM (#15401256) Homepage Journal
    The Gamecube was also launched at 25,000 Yen in Japan [cnn.com]. The Gamecube had a $200 price point in America.

    Unless Nintendo takes into consideration fluctuations of the dollar vs. yen (not sure what the difference is between then and now), I think it's pretty safe to say that we're going to see a $200 Wii. In previous interviews (during E3, I believe) Iwata stated they've had a pretty consistent price point for releases and see no reason to change that- every console system they've released has been done so at $200.

    While Nintendo may not have the latest & greatest in graphics processing, the technology they isn't exactly common. It's nice to see that they follow the trend of all other hardware, in that prices fall as technology advances (before you say "But they've all been the same price!", work in inflation, where the NES at launch cost $350 in 2005 dollars)

  • In other news, (Score:5, Informative)

    by mobby_6kl ( 668092 ) on Thursday May 25, 2006 @09:14AM (#15401281)
    Nintendo warns of weaker profits [bbc.co.uk]

    I'm not saying Nintendo is dying, it's normal to have lower profits while preparing mass production, just thought it'd be relevant.
  • You know Nintendo... After the first few months there will be a price drop, then a few months after another drop and so on... I say it will be $249 USD at launch to clear out the early buyers and holiday season but afterwards it will probably go down by $20 and then by the time they reach 6 or 7million units they might even bring it down by another $20. That's my theory.

  • Come on ./, get your story straight... (Score:4, Informative)

    by nmaster64 ( 867033 ) on Thursday May 25, 2006 @09:19AM (#15401314)
    A) They didn't announce the price point, they announced a MAX price point, which is very different. That title is misleading.
    B) You should note the fact that consoles almost never sell for the same price in different countries, no matter the exchange rates.
    C) It would have been worth mentioning Iwata's recent hint: "you may want to check our past records of price points, launching price points for any past hardware." Nintendo's never NOT released a system in the US for anything other than $199.99. Take that + this guy saying it's going to be LESS than ~$225, and I don't see how you can't come to the conclusion that it's going to be $199.99.

    My report on this story is here:
    Wii: Almost surely $200, but still not confirmed [nwizard.com]
  • http://www.google.com/search?q=225+US%24+in+EUR [google.com] So why do we europeans have to pay 50 US$ more for the same console?

  • Why argue (Score:3, Insightful)

    by suv4x4 ( 956391 ) on Thursday May 25, 2006 @09:45AM (#15401556)
    200 or 225, does it matter :) The news is the confirmation it'll not be $400 nor $600 :)

  • All things considered (Score:5, Funny)

    by EtherC ( 949222 ) on Thursday May 25, 2006 @10:15AM (#15401846)
    Max Japanese price: 25,000 yen
    Remove included tax: 25,000 / 1.05 = 23,810 yen
    Factor in realistic JPY -> USD expectation of exchange rate for 2006 4th qtr. (not today's): 23810 * 0.0086 = $204.77
    All past Nintendo consoles: $199.99
    Difference: $204.77 - $199.99 = $4.78
    Compute significance: (4.78 * 540) - (239 * sum(4 8 15 16 23 42)) = 0
    Most likely US price: $199.99

    (Special thanks to the Hanso Foundation for their significance formula)

  • The Price Makes Me Happy (Score:3, Funny)

    by Grayden ( 137336 ) on Thursday May 25, 2006 @11:08AM (#15402349) Homepage
    Nintendo Wheeeeeeee!!!

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