wraggster
May 30th, 2006, 18:17
Over the weekend, several Japanese retailers listed Nintendo's Wii console for pre-order. The listings cropped up early on Friday, were live for around four hours, then pulled. The interesting thing is that a consistent pricepoint was used - 25,000 Yen - equal to £120, $220 and €174 as the current rate of exchange. We believe that the move was triggered by Nintendo's confirmation to journalists in Japan and the US that its new console would not pass the 25,000 Yen/$250 price.
However, the removal of the listings isn't the end of the story. Later that day, several new listings appeared, seemingly led by consumer tech store PC-Success, this time with a much lower price of 18,000 Yen. At the time of writing, this figure equates to a mere £85, $160 and €125. Though again, the listing was removed hours after going live, along with any trace of the whole Wii price bubble...
So what does any of this mean? Well, the good news is that the Wii is going to be cheap. Nintendo isn't ready to announce its pricing, though around the £100 mark in the UK shouldn't come as too much of a shock.
We'll update you as we learn more.
Via Spong (http://news.spong.com/article/10137)
However, the removal of the listings isn't the end of the story. Later that day, several new listings appeared, seemingly led by consumer tech store PC-Success, this time with a much lower price of 18,000 Yen. At the time of writing, this figure equates to a mere £85, $160 and €125. Though again, the listing was removed hours after going live, along with any trace of the whole Wii price bubble...
So what does any of this mean? Well, the good news is that the Wii is going to be cheap. Nintendo isn't ready to announce its pricing, though around the £100 mark in the UK shouldn't come as too much of a shock.
We'll update you as we learn more.
Via Spong (http://news.spong.com/article/10137)