Nintendo president Satoru Iwata confirms Wii U will be sold at a loss

[Corey]

Rarely does Nintendo (NTDOY) sell new hardware at a loss, but during a financial results briefing, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata revealed the Wii U will be sold below its manufacturing cost. Iwata explained that due to rising yen, it chose a price ”that consumers would consider to be reasonable” and not one based on manufacturing cost. As a result, Iwata warns that the Wii U will have a “negative impact” on the company’s profits in the months after the console launches.

The company was previously forced to sell the 3DS handheld at a loss after a drastic price cut, but has since returned the device to profitability as component prices fell. Iwata cautioned that when profits do pick up, they likely won’t be “Nintendo-like profits,” which tend to skew on the deep side.

The Wii U goes on sale in the U.S. on November 18th starting at $299.99 for a Basic Set and $349.99 for a Deluxe Set. Nintendo expects to sell 5.5 million Wii U consoles and 24 million Wii U games by the end of Q2.

 

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[TulsaGeoff]

Expensive because I've heard the new xbox and playstation will be shooting for the $300 price tag. And those will most likely have better graphics.

[SkyeDarkhawk]

The Wii U still has a launch price of $299 for the basic version. 8GB of internal flash storage, and the Wii U Gamepad; which is essentially a tablet. Doesn't sound like a bad price to me.

Wii U Deluxe package increases the flash storage to 32GB, you also get the Nintendo Land game included, along with additional accessories for only the price of the game added to the overall cost, $349 is a bargain.

http://www.nintendo.com/wiiu/features/whats-in-the-box/

 

Also, I thought people had progressed beyond the "better graphics" argument from game consoles. With the Wii U's additional integration into home entertainment, addition of true HD graphics, brings Nintendo up a few notches from what it had been previously. Not to mention exclusive sequels to games that were previously multi-system releases, or even non-Wii releases, should make the Wii U feel like quite the deal.

[TulsaGeoff]

32 GBs of memory for the decked out unit? Iphones can exceed that... better graphics has become the standard rather than the difference maker. Some would say that ps3 has better graphics than Xbox, I believe it does. However, I only use my ps3 for streaming because I like my FPS's on xbox. Everyone I know that games, games on an Xbox. Wii is fun to play with my gf and mario series games are pretty good. I love all the mario karts and would rate them as one of the top games of all time. The system always sold at a price cheaper than the Xbox and PS, and rightfully so. I will probably pass on this system. For me, the new Xbox will be a must have and I'll be getting it as soon as I can. I played Need for Speed on the Wii and it was a joke... It looked like I was playing Cruising USA on n64.

Edited October 26, 2012 by TulsaGeoff

[SkyeDarkhawk]

I wasn't entirely pushing towards the different maker aspect, but rather the quality of the game. Xbox and PS3 are still just rehasing what they've been making for the last 10 years.

The Wii U isn't going to be like previous Nintendo platforms. It's full 1080i/1080p games, and not just party/kid games.

Bayonetta 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, Ninja Gaiden 3, Darksiders 2, Mass Effect 3, Batman: Arkham City... just to name the larger sequels coming to the new system. Plenty of first run titles as well.

[TulsaGeoff]

I'm curious to see how robust these controllers are. I know when I grew up we would slam our controllers out of frustration. I can't imagine one of those can take too many falls.

Edited October 26, 2012 by TulsaGeoff