|
|
Post by Old Man Rupee on May 25, 2006 14:29:28 GMT -5
This just in, Nintendo have announced that the price of Wii (snort, chuckle) will not go over the maximum of $250 in the US. Thats about £135 for us English guys!
Note: this is just for the console itself, no added extras, and it could end up a lot cheaper than this, as this is only a maximum.
|
|
|
|
Post by Fryguy64 on May 25, 2006 15:03:57 GMT -5
Indeed, I saw this too. Nintendo announced the rough pricing when simultaneously saying their profit forecasts were lower than expected due to poor Gamecube sales.
I'm not surprised. My Gamecube is sitting there untouched. Until tomorrow. Chibi Robo! Yay!
|
|
|
|
Post by Dances in Undergarments on May 26, 2006 5:49:01 GMT -5
Not over 25,000 yen, either. Which equals about US$220. And since Nintendo have been selling their consoles at a price lower the Japanese one recently, does that mean we can expect the upper limit to be $220? A $200 console would be awesome.
|
|
|
|
Post by amazingeee on May 26, 2006 10:16:54 GMT -5
Are they making a profit at these prices? Also, I've read conflicting reports on N's profit statements. I've read that they're 12.5% up from last year, and that they're 19% down...  |
|
|
|
Post by Fryguy64 on May 26, 2006 15:00:01 GMT -5
Yeah, their projected profit FORECASTS are down - basically meaning that they're not making enough money off the Gamecube than they were hoping this year. DS sales are awesome, but they haven't made up for the profit drop.
But their profits are still better than last year.
I suppose it serves them right for not releasing anything for it. If they dropped the price of the system and games, and stocked some more stores then they'd probably make a bit more cash.
And I imagine that they could sell the Wii at an even lower price than that and make a profit. Remember... it's based very closely on Gamecube hardware, which is already five years old. The majority of their component costs must be tiny by now, and game production will also be more profitable. They're probably also hoping for quite a bit of revenue from WiiConnect24.
But it's this wait that's doing the damage to Nintendo's profits. They have a bad habit of dropping support for a system too long before the next one is released.
|
|
|
|
Post by amazingeee on May 26, 2006 15:29:08 GMT -5
Thanks for the clarification, FryGuy.
Its basically GC x2 graphics wise, which of course is a small jump after 5 years and shouldn't cost more. And Nintendo is turning a profit on GCs at $100, so you add the Wi-Fi and the new controllers, theres no way it adds $150. I hope and partially expect N to debut the Wii at $200, especially if Microsoft drops the price of the 360. All they've said is $250 is the upper limit.
There is also the rumor that Wii Sports will be bundled with the console, which of course would require the inclusion of a second controller. That might justify the $250 tag.
The only thing that really seems stupid in all this is that they haven't included a hard drive on a system that has a massive download service as a key feature. How is that going to work??
|
|
|
|
Post by Fryguy64 on May 26, 2006 20:35:20 GMT -5
I thought it had a form of internal memory, with external memory expansions available.
|
|
|
|
Post by Wildcat on May 26, 2006 20:53:44 GMT -5
Last I knew, it has a 512 MB Flash Memory, plus USB ports. ^^
|
|
|
|
Post by amazingeee on May 27, 2006 2:14:33 GMT -5
I think 512MB is positively "meh." Its not a major deterent... But its very "meh." I can't imagine that stores a lot of games, especially N64 games...
|
|
|
|
Post by Fryguy64 on May 27, 2006 4:52:44 GMT -5
It's enough space to store every NES and SNES game Nintendo's ever made, however. And then some.
|
|
|
|
Post by Nester the Lark on May 27, 2006 10:41:45 GMT -5
Or just one N64 game: Resident Evil 2. But I won't have to worry about that since I own the cartridge.  So the idea is that if you want extra space, you just buy a USB flash drive? Works for me. I'm still hoping for the ability to rip music CD's and create customized in-game soundtracks, but I don't think it'll happen. |
|
|
|
Post by amazingeee on May 27, 2006 15:24:20 GMT -5
It's enough space to store every NES and SNES game Nintendo's ever made, however. And then some.  R...really? Or just one N64 game: Resident Evil 2. A half-gig N64 game? I was thinking 512MB would hold about 8 N64 games... |
|
|
|
Post by Fryguy64 on May 27, 2006 16:13:31 GMT -5
Note that it's every game NINTENDO ever made on the NES and SNES. Not every game. Though you could probably get every NES game in there. Most of them are only a few Kb.
|
|
|
|
Post by Nester the Lark on May 27, 2006 16:53:07 GMT -5
A half-gig N64 game? I was thinking 512MB would hold about 8 N64 games... Well, I think RE2 was the only N64 game that reached the 512 capacity, though Mother 3 was extected to be that large also. What's really impressive is that Angel Studios (who ported RE2 to the N64) managed to fit a 2 CD game onto a single cartridge (even if the FMVs suffer from excessive compression). Both N64 Zelda games were each, I believe, 256 Mb. As much as everyone says it was a mistake for Nintendo to stick with cartridges for so long, I find it fascinating that the technology was dragged out so far. EDIT: I'm sorry, you're right. I'm confusing my bits and bytes again (a mistake I make all too often  ). At 512 MegaBITS, RE2 is only 64 MegaBYTES, thus you could fit the game on the 512 MegaBYTE flash memory eight times. But again, since RE2 is the only N64 game to reach that capacity, you could still fit a number of N64 games on the drive (though, not ALL of them). |
|
R...really?
). At 512 MegaBITS, RE2 is only 64 MegaBYTES, thus you could fit the game on the 512 MegaBYTE flash memory eight times. But again, since RE2 is the only N64 game to reach that capacity, you could still fit a number of N64 games on the drive (though, not ALL of them).