Nintendo Announces Japanese Wii Price

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.

Comments

Congrats Nintendo

[creepynut]

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

[EnderWiggnz]

with flash, you plug a DOM into your onboard IDE, and hit it with a glue gun. /producing upwrds of 250k units a year this way :-)

Re:Congrats Nintendo

[AKAImBatman]

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.

BS

[Yahweh Doesn't Exist]

if it's 225 dollars, then here in the UK it will be 225 pounds. FACT.

still a good price in absolute terms though.

Price

[tgpo]

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.

Sold!

[nbannerman]

£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? ;)

Re:Quality Over Quantity?

[Slappytron]

So only 6 million Revolutions by next march? That doesn't sound too good to me.

Assuming Wii launches in October, that's about a million a month, which is above the Xbox 360's pace (which in turn, is selling faster than PS2 at launch).

6 million would be over 25% of the total number of Gamecubes sold (about 21mil). It would be about 10% of the total number of NES's sold (around 60mil). It seems like a very reasonable target, especially for launch when production has not yet ramped up.