Nintendo exec says Wii to be profitable right away

[wraggster]

"As a consumer you have to be excited by the $250 price. Relative to the PS3 and 360 it's a bargain," said Mike Hickey, analyst at Janco Partners.

Fils-Aime is counting on Wii appealing to consumers beyond just game enthusiasts, and hopes that lower prices for the console will make it easier on non-gamers' wallets.

"That kind of (value) proposition is going to be tough for our competitors," he said.

Fils-Aime in May was named president and chief operating officer of Nintendo of America, the U.S. arm of the Japanese video game maker known for "Donkey Kong" and "Mario Bros." games.

"We are a company that competes only in the interactive entertainment space, so we have to make a profit on everything we do," he said.

[The Hombrew Hunter]

I agree.

The fact that my mom's going to Germany, the Wii will be my only console christmas present. YES!

[Hevyduty]

Of course Nintendo's going to make a profit right away. Everything associated with the Wii (the system itself, downloadable games, extra controllers, etc.) is radically overpriced.

Now, to be fair, this is partially based on the fact that the XBox 360 Premium is $400 but costs over $500 to make. If MS sold it at cost, then the Wii would seem like a bargain. But they don't, and unfortunately for Nintendo, that's what they have to compete with.

Sorry, but for $250, I feel like the Wii doesn't provide enough horsepower under the hood. Yes, my expectations are somewhat inflated by MS and Sony's arguably anti-competitive pricing strategies. But again, that's an obstacle Nintendo needed to overcome. And they failed miserably to overcome that today.

Had they thrown in two controllers with the console, I'd accept $250 as a fair price. Not a great price, but you don't expect a bargain at launch.

I'll get a Wii eventually, but not until the price drops significantly. I'd have paid $200 at launch, but after today's disgrace I wouldn't buy one for a penny over $150. And by then, games I'd have paid $50 for this year will be $20 or less. I think Nintendo's disastrous press conference today (yes, every bit as disastrous as Sony's E3 presentation) has cost them a shot at first place, and perhaps second place as well.

Nintendo made a massive mistake today. I just don't see the Wii succeeding with this kind of obvious price gouging.

The Wii's only chance to succeed was to make it cheap enough for people to consider taking a chance on its new brand of gameplay. That didn't happen. Nintendo has priced themselves out of the consumer market, and most hardcore gamers (XBox 360 and PS3 fans) won't accept the sub-par graphics.

I'm afraid that Nintendo has doomed the Wii to fail today via a display of greed and arrogance usually only associated with Sony.

[Shadowblind]

Ah heck yes!

only 250 fora game system that will be better or equal to the PS3!

What Sony'll do: Move the release date of the PS3 two days after the Wii and send ninjas into the nintendo headquarters to stop production.

THE WII CANNOT BE STOPPED!!!

[Video_freak]

THE WII CANNOT BE STOPPED!!!

Indeed!

[CrackA]

Of course Nintendo's going to make a profit right away. Everything associated with the Wii (the system itself, downloadable games, extra controllers, etc.) is radically overpriced.

Now, to be fair, this is partially based on the fact that the XBox 360 Premium is $400 but costs over $500 to make. If MS sold it at cost, then the Wii would seem like a bargain. But they don't, and unfortunately for Nintendo, that's what they have to compete with.

Sorry, but for $250, I feel like the Wii doesn't provide enough horsepower under the hood. Yes, my expectations are somewhat inflated by MS and Sony's arguably anti-competitive pricing strategies. But again, that's an obstacle Nintendo needed to overcome. And they failed miserably to overcome that today.

Had they thrown in two controllers with the console, I'd accept $250 as a fair price. Not a great price, but you don't expect a bargain at launch.

I'll get a Wii eventually, but not until the price drops significantly. I'd have paid $200 at launch, but after today's disgrace I wouldn't buy one for a penny over $150. And by then, games I'd have paid $50 for this year will be $20 or less. I think Nintendo's disastrous press conference today (yes, every bit as disastrous as Sony's E3 presentation) has cost them a shot at first place, and perhaps second place as well.

Nintendo made a massive mistake today. I just don't see the Wii succeeding with this kind of obvious price gouging.

The Wii's only chance to succeed was to make it cheap enough for people to consider taking a chance on its new brand of gameplay. That didn't happen. Nintendo has priced themselves out of the consumer market, and most hardcore gamers (XBox 360 and PS3 fans) won't accept the sub-par graphics.

I'm afraid that Nintendo has doomed the Wii to fail today via a display of greed and arrogance usually only associated with Sony.

thats what i said about ps3, obnoctious fanboy.

[Adrenalin]

O
Now, to be fair, this is partially based on the fact that the XBox 360 Premium is $400 but costs over $500 to make. If MS sold it at cost, then the Wii would seem like a bargain. But they don't, and unfortunately for Nintendo, that's what they have to compete with.

u are an idiot
no matter how many rumours u've heard, there is no way that microsoft is losing that much money on 360's. in fact, i doubt that they lose any at all.

get some commonsense

[Jenksie]

u are an idiot
no matter how many rumours u've heard, there is no way that microsoft is losing that much money on 360's. in fact, i doubt that they lose any at all.

get some commonsense

You are calling someone an idiot based on a comment they have made that is true. The cosnole are sold at an initial loss to ensure a strong user base thus improving sales and therefore increasing licensing payments. As a console goes through its production lifetime new technologies come available allowing components to be manufactured for less and this comes to a point where a machine can become more profitable to sell, though at this point a company will generally lower the price at a strategic price, e.g. pre holiday season. The key fact is getting a large user base. if a company makes a licens fee of £5* per game then they want as many units out ther as possible. if an average gamer buys 5 new games per year that would mean an income of £25 per year for the life of the console. Just think of games like GTA where it has cost the console manufacturer nothing to produce but they get a slice of the pie for every sale. Thats where the money is, loss leaders are key to many business models.


*this is not an exact figure, just a value to explain my argument.