Nintendo's Iwata on the Wii Price Point

kukyfrope writes "Satoru Iwata, Nintendo President, recently talked with GameDaily about the rumors surrounding the $249 Wii price point, his take of the PS3 price point and controller, and to reassure us that the GameBoy is far from dead! 'You may want to check our past records of price points when launching past hardware... I think you'll agree that we always come up with an affordable price point.'"

Comments

Two hundred fifty bucks!

[LoRdTAW]

$250? Yea that sounds like the good ol days when Super Nintendo cost 200 at launch. And if you want to adjust for inflation I bet its about even. If thats the price, Nintendo will definatly appeal to those with less money. A smaller investment in the hardware leaves you with more money to purchase software which IMHO is way more important then the console. I know a kid who spent 800 on his 360 at launch and didnt have any money left for a single game. He just played his old xbox games for a month before he had enough saved up to buy a 360 game.

Just wow

[Anonymous Coward]

BIZ: Speaking of Sony, I wanted to know what your reaction was to their media briefing, especially their expensive price and the fact that they now announced motion sensing for the PS3 controller.

SI: As for the latter part of the question, actually we were anticipating that Sony would make that kind of announcement, so I had to make a kind of wry smile at the time. Having said that, however, putting the motion sensing technology into the classic [PS3] controller, which is going to be held with two hands, is pretty much different from the motion sensor being incorporated into the Wii remote or the combination of the Wii remote and the nunchuk controller... There's a huge gap between the two, I can tell you, with that whole experience, so I really don't think that the inclusion of motion sensing into Sony's classic type of controller can affect in one way or the other the advantage that we have with the Wii controller.

As for the comment on the price point that Sony announced, the only thing that I may be able to tell is that probably there's a huge gap between how the platform supplier wants to price it and how the customers want the supplier to price it. And other than that it's very hard for me to comment on that as the corporate president running a rival corporation. I think the ultimate decision has to be made by the actual customer and as one of the potential customers of PS3, of course I think it's going to be kind of a [tough] price point for anybody to purchase; that sentiment has been shared by a number of people working in this industry that I've been able to talk to so far.

After these weeks of Sony trashing on Nintendo in their press conference, and Microsoft trashing on Sony every time they opened their mouth after their press conference, and Sony trashing Microsoft right back, the amount of tact Mr. Iwata is showing here is rather shocking.

Re:Just wow

[Robotron23]

The candid Japanese. Honour takes precedant above all else over there my good man; and taking an opportunity to add to the gargantuan amount of criticism against Sony is not an honourable practice. Iwata knows gamer's are dismayed by Sony; he knows BIZ want him to bash Sony with fervour; but he will not.

Such as it is: Iwata, and all of Nintendo Japan will hold their national traditions and quirks. The only persons from Nintendo you'll hear actively bashing Sony will be execs from Euroland/the U.S.

I personally was surprised the DS Lite official price is £100 - I was expecting more along the lines of £120. If Nintendo are willing to price a handheld at this level, then who knows - the Wii may be merely £130 - £150. In which case, hooray! :)

price doesn't matter... much

[krotkruton]

Most people who buy the Wii will do so because of the controller, not the price. In the case of the PS3, most people will buy it because it will have the widest selection of games out of the new consoles. A lot of people bought the 360 because it was the first next-gen console to be released.

This isn't to say that plenty of people will buy one or more of the consoles because they like the brand or own the previous generations of it or that some people will make their decisions based on price. IMO, price is not the driving factor behind purchasing a console.

I own well over 50 PS2 games (I really don't know how many, but that is a low estimate), 20 Nintendo 64 games, 20 Xbox games, 50 PSOne games, 50 SNES games, and I probably have 20 or so NES games stuffed in a box somewhere. If I buy just 20 games for a system at $50 a game, that comes out to be $1000. For the PS3's low model, the system plus 20 games comes out to be $1500, while the Wii, assuming the price for the system will be $200, with 20 games will be around $1200. I'm only paying 25% more for the PS3 with 20 games as opposed to paying 200% more if you just consider the systems without games. Yes, a $500 or $600 pricetag seems like a lot compared to $200, but as you buy more games, that initial investment means so much less. At 50 games for each console, the PS3 only costs 11% more.

All those games that I own add up to (assuming the average game cost me $30) $6300 where the consoles cost me no more than $1400. The consoles cost me roughly 18% of the money I have spent on video games, with the estimates I have provided (even though I didn't consider controllers, adapters, TVs, electricity, and anything else that might be related). Since I know the initial price of a console isn't a major factor in the long run, I don't think that it will affect people that much in the beginning either.

Re:price doesn't matter... much

[Chode2235]

I think you fail to account for the increased price of creation/production when you insist that the PS3 will have the widest variety of games. The one thing that traditionally lured developers to the PS console were the low costs of production and licensing. With huge budgets and expense to make a game I don't really think developers are going to take multi-million dollar risks, they will play it safe. PS3 will see a deeper entrenchment and reliance on established franchises/IP, and genres. With the 27 games on the show floor, I think Wii not only had the widest variety of games but the most interesting and cutting edge. They really seem to be encouraging new ideas and trying to lure smaller developers. My guess is that they are hoping for the next big thing. Point being, the way the cards are set out now I don't see Sony having a wider variety of interesting games than Nintendo. Plus at 60+ a pop, it will cost a lot more to game on the PS3 than the Wii.

Why care about console price?

[SmallFurryCreature]

Talk about game price. I only have handhelds and I noticed that nintendo has a long history of releasing old games for full price on their handheld.

Oh yeah gameplay is alright but really does a Advance Wars Dual Strike deserve the same price point as an Oblivion?

I think that that is the real Nintendo success. That consumers so far are not objecting to paying full price for games for handheld games that have cost a fraction of the development costs.

With DS sales so high I can't help but feal DS developers are cleaning up.

I buy most of my games secondhand. 44.95 vs 12.50 makes a huge difference.

So very nice that the Wii will cost 249 or whatever. What I want to know is the price of games. That is the real kicker.

As for the whole idea of downloadable old games. Are they going to be priced the same as the handheld ports?

And since when does Nintendo have a reputation for being cheap? Just check out the hardware vs price cost of the new tiny GBA and a PSP. The PSP at the moment is only twice as expensive but surely it got two times the hardware inside?

Saying that nintendo consoles are cheap is like saying lada's are cheaper then volvo's. Well duh.

This is not a comment on their value as a gaming machine but price alone ain't everything. Nintendo has to be cheap because absolutly nobody would buy one at a higher price. The Wii has to be cheap. The PS3 can afford to be expensive (or so Sony hopes at least). Put another way, would you buy a Wii at 360 prices? No, didn't think so.

How about the Japanese price?

[Anonymous Coward]

Everyone's talking about how the US price of Nintendo consoles have always been $199... but how about the Japanese price? Is it also a constant price point?

Do you think that, suppose they break their US -> $199 rule with the Wii, the Japanese price will have any effect?