Modchips Pushing Wii Price Up
via gamasutra
On a different note, I recently visited my local game shop and noticed that the price for Nintendo's Wii consoles have gone up over the past months, with imported hardware units appearing unofficially in Shanghai after the console's launch in November 2006.
While prices for Wii started at 3000 Yuan ($388) for these imports when the console was launched, prices soon decreased to around 2100 Yuan ($271) for the Japanese version of the console. However, in the last month, prices for Wii consoles skyrocketed, back up to almost 3000 Yuan again.
According to the local shop, the new consoles are equipped with mod chips that can play both US and Japanese back up copies of the games. With pirated Wii games selling for only 10 Yuan ($1.30) per game, demand for Wii consoles rose sharply, warranting the price hike. (The price of the mod chip is also likely factored in to some of the increase, of course.)
