Breaking News: Wii price and launch

the corpo

http://computerandvideogames.com are reporting that the MCV leaked rumour this morning of a November 24 launch for the Wii at £149 is almost 99% definite.

Keep an eye on the site for confirmation...

the corpo

uh, how odd, the story is gone now. it was one of the rollover items at the top of the page...

RE*AC*TOR

Good catch!

Might have been put up by mistake.

Either way £149 = €219

About right.

the corpo

here was the text



Nintendo Wi: price and launch details!
Friday 8-Sep-2006 11:23 AM Stop Press: £149 and November 24!

Reports sweeping the internet at the moment are saying that the Nintendo Wii will launch on November 24, priced at just £149 and that stock will be plentiful if you want to fill your Christmas stocking.

Trade mag MCV is reporting both price and launch details as fact even ahead of next Friday's press conference when Nintendo was expected to confirm both details. Nintendo are remaining tight lipped and are apparently refusing to comment on the reports, but when such a well established and respected magazine goes early, we have to suspect there's more than a glimmer of truth to it.

We'll have more for you on this breaking story as it happens.

Smellyirishman

Thread here in Nintendo forum, rumour still up here.

RE*AC*TOR

Full text just in case it gets taken down:

£149 Wii set for November
10:00, Sep 8th by Ben Parfitt
There’s still a week to go until Nintendo officially announces the details of the Wii launch – but MCV can reveal that the new console will hit retail by November 24th, it will be priced at £149 and stock will be plentiful.
Nintendo is remaining tight-lipped until its conferences next week, which take place on Thursday September 14th in the US and Japan, followed by Friday September 15th in Europe.

But MCV believes that Nintendo has chosen to launch its next generation console at £149, a figure that falls slap bang in the middle of the varying estimates that have been discussed for months. This makes Wii £50 cheaper than the Core Xbox 360 Pack and an estimated £275 cheaper than PS3.

Though the final details were thrashed out before the news of PS3’s delay emerged, a planned release to coincide with Thanksgiving in the US is anticipated. MCV expects Wii to launch shortly before Friday November 24th in the UK, giving it a lengthy spell at retail in the run-up to Christmas.

Senior industry sources have confirmed to MCV that Wii stock availability will not be an issue in the UK, with plentiful supplies anticipated for both the November launch and the Christmas run-in. This should eradicate any pre-order woes and will be enough to satisfy demand across retail.

Froot

Thats fantastic news.

I'm glad Nintendo are doing it properly, the way it should be done, by releasing plenty of stock and not charging over €500 just because its next gen.

RE*AC*TOR

Denial from Nintendo

Eurogamer wrote:

Nintendo UK boss David Yarnton has told our sister site, GamesIndustry.biz, that reports the Wii will retail for £149 and will be in shops shortly before November 24 are "definitely not right".

The claims, which appeared in an article by trade publication MCV, are "only speculation, and definitely not fact," according to Yarnton.

"They're not far off, but they're definitely not right," he told GI.biz.

As previously announced, Nintendo is holding a Wii press event in London next Friday, where it is set to reveal the official price point and launch date for the console.

"We will be announcing more details then," Yarnton confirmed.

Retr0gamer

Fingers crossed for an even cheaper Wii. 150 euros would mean another 2 games to buy out of my Wii budget

FutureGuy

the corpo wrote:

http://computerandvideogames.com are reporting that the MCV leaked rumour this morning of a November 24 launch for the Wii at £149 is almost 99% definite.

Keep an eye on the site for confirmation...

Personally, I would be surprised to see the console released so late in November. What is the PS3 release date? I thought that was mid-november?

As for the price, I'm sure Irish retailers will bump up the price as usual.

BlitzKrieg

does anyone know if nintendo have said what comes with the console?

(i.e nunchuck controllers, wii sports etc?)

Vegeta

FutureGuy wrote:

Personally, I would be surprised to see the console released so late in November. What is the PS3 release date? I thought that was mid-november?

March 2007

Zombrex

Froot wrote:

and not charging over €500 just because its next gen.

They can do that because, hardware wise, it isn't really next gen.

Nintendo, I think rather sensibly and with surprising boldness, have decided that increasing processing power and graphical power to such a degree that your price point (and developing costs) skyrockets, is not a good idea, and as such have for the first time release a current-gen "next-gen" console (hardware wise).

They are leaving Microsoft and Sony to battle it out with the polygon rates, the super duper shaders, they multi-core CPUs, probably because Nintendo realise that his ultimately is a dead end. Consumers don't really care if a model has 100,000 polygons or a 1 million so long as it doesn't cost them an extra €40 to play the 1 million game. Microsoft and Sony are effectively pricing themselves out of the market, and I think unless they change something, they are going to have a serious struggle to get the X360 or PS3 to have the uptake of previous consoles, at least in the first few years of release when the price point wil remain high.

So the Wii is probably not going to be that more powerful than the GameCube or original Xbox. It seems to not do HD, sticking to standard for the moment. I would image it has a graphical processor similar to what you would find on a standard mid-range PC graphics card from ATI or Nvidia, which is still impressive compare to say the PS2.

The really next-gen thing will be the controller, and it will be very interesting to see how that pans out.

Nintendo have even stated they hope that people will buy a Wii along side either the X360 or PS3. They are attempting to win the game by not playing. They know they cannot beat Sony and Microsoft playing the polygon count game, so they are changing the rules. And judging by the hidious cost of developing for the PS3 and X360 I think that was probably the smartest Nintendo have made in a series of smart moves.

evad_lhorg

BlitzKrieg wrote:

does anyone know if nintendo have said what comes with the console?

(i.e nunchuck controllers, wii sports etc?)

nunchuck does.

steviec

Wicknight wrote:

They can do that because, hardware wise, it isn't really next gen.

Nintendo, I think rather sensibly and with surprising boldness, have decided that increasing processing power and graphical power to such a degree that your price point (and developing costs) skyrockets, is not a good idea, and as such have for the first time release a current-gen "next-gen" console (hardware wise).

They are leaving Microsoft and Sony to battle it out with the polygon rates, the super duper shaders, they multi-core CPUs, probably because Nintendo realise that his ultimately is a dead end. Consumers don't really care if a model has 100,000 polygons or a 1 million so long as it doesn't cost them an extra €40 to play the 1 million game. Microsoft and Sony are effectively pricing themselves out of the market, and I think unless they change something, they are going to have a serious struggle to get the X360 or PS3 to have the uptake of previous consoles, at least in the first few years of release when the price point wil remain high.

So the Wii is probably not going to be that more powerful than the GameCube or original Xbox. It seems to not do HD, sticking to standard for the moment. I would image it has a graphical processor similar to what you would find on a standard mid-range PC graphics card from ATI or Nvidia, which is still impressive compare to say the PS2.

The really next-gen thing will be the controller, and it will be very interesting to see how that pans out.

Nintendo have even stated they hope that people will buy a Wii along side either the X360 or PS3. They are attempting to win the game by not playing. They know they cannot beat Sony and Microsoft playing the polygon count game, so they are changing the rules. And judging by the hidious cost of developing for the PS3 and X360 I think that was probably the smartest Nintendo have made in a series of smart moves.

And if better hardware is a dead-end, why not stick with a PS2 or Gamecube? Much bigger games library, much much cheaper, all they need is to release a 30 euro motion sensing controller...

I think the whole sky-rocketing costs thing is a silly argument. The 360 is dearer than an xbox. The PS2 was dearer than a PS1. The N64 was dearer than a SNES. The Megadrive was dearer than a Master System. Taking inflation into account, the launch prices of every generation of console has been roughly the same as previous(with some exceptions). Same goes for games & hardware. In terms of development costs, they haven't really risen abnormally, and there's no reason at all for a 360 game to cost more to develop than a Wii game if it looks the same as the Wii game(in fact it may be cheaper, since horribly inefficient code could produce the desired results on such powerful hardware where a lot of optimisation would be needed on Wii). The difference is, people have higher expectations of 360 games and therefore they won't look the same as Wii games. But it doesn't mean they couldn't, and Rockstar have already explored the cheap n cheerful next-gen avenue to great effect with Rockstar table tennis. So on the 360 and the PS3, devs have a choice to spend a fortune on a huge and gorgeous epic, or they can not use all of the system's power and produce something competent and cost effective, if they want. On the Wii they only have option 2. Purposely tying the developers hands to stop them making better games is hardly a good solution, but Nintendo have done a brilliant job of spinning what they're doing to make it sound like that.

The fact is, if better hardware wasn't a good thing, I'd just stick with my PS2 and Gamecube.

Goodshape

I tell you what, if it turns out they don't launch in November for ~€220, there's going to be a lot of unhappy customers.

Rumour seems inline with all the others though, and what I've grown to expect. I'd say the U.S. / Japan will get it earlier in November (week before the PS3 launch prehaps) with E.U. a week or two later (like November 24th).

Anyone here work in Smyths? Last time I was in they had it marked for November 6th release on the board. They know something we don't?

Attol

Smith's seem to know everything. They were taking PS3 orders and everything. I'm sure there'll be a lot of happy customers who were guaranteed one by Xmas. As far as I'm aware everyone else covered themselves by not promising things they couldn't deliver for certain.

Goodshape

Well, in fairness, Sony did say November 17th. I suppose they could have been more careful and waited until the things were on the way, but if you're given a date, you're given a date. Not their fault tbh. Complain to Sony.

The Nintendo sign I know used to just say 'November' (while the PS3 was down for 'Nov 17th'). I asked the clerk back then and he told me it was a best guess, but a couple of weeks ago I noticed it had been updated to 'Novmeber 6th' - which seems too precise for guess work, and is also in-line with some rumours I've read. Although as I said above, I wouldn't be surprised if that's the US/Jap date, while we get a couple of weeks later.. hopefully!

Have they even confirmed a world wide release yet? Could this 'end of year' stuff apply only to the other markets?

Come on Nintendo! The suspense is killing me!

Zombrex

steviec wrote:

Taking inflation into account, the launch prices of every generation of console has been roughly the same as previous(with some exceptions).

That isn't really true.

The PS1 launched today would cost $370, the PS2 $330, the Xbo $340. The PS3 is going to cost approx $500-$600. That is quite a difference to what gamers have come to expect.

steviec wrote:

In terms of development costs, they haven't really risen abnormally

That is where you are very wrong. The cost of developing games systems has sky rocketed in the last 5 years. Games are costing between 5 and 15 times what it cost to produce a game from the Playstation 1

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20030619-165.html

steviec wrote:

So on the 360 and the PS3, devs have a choice to spend a fortune on a huge and gorgeous epic, or they can not use all of the system's power and produce something competent and cost effective, if they want.

Then it won't sell. First gen xbox 360 games have already been criticised for not looking "next-gen" enough, with people pointing out what is the point of buying an Xbox360 if you can get the game with similar graphics on the Xbox.

steviec wrote:

The fact is, if better hardware wasn't a good thing, I'd just stick with my PS2 and Gamecube.

A lot of people are thinking just that, that if newer hardware is the only thing these next-gens have going for them I will stick with my PS2, Xbox until the price comes down.

The second hand industry is enjoying huge sales at the moment, just when you think everyone woudl be packing up their Xboxs or PS2 and putting them in the attic. They aren't, they are turning to older games on those platforms that they can get for cheap (€20) instead of new releases or next-gen that they can get for €50+

The video game industry is in trouble. It has been in trouble for a few years. Sky rocketing development costs, higher than expected next-gen prices, the massive increase in the 2nd hand retail industry (spurred on by customer annoyance at said prices of next-gen), are all showing that time is running out for the current business model of "better is best"

Nintendo realise this. They need something new, to attract people to their system. Simply newer graphics hardware isn't going to wash anymore.

BloodBath

What was the ps1's initial cost in Ireland? I bought one on release day but can't remember the price. I seem to remember it being around the 300 pound mark. With currency conversion and inflation that would make it around 500e today. Not a big difference tbh.

Wii is looking good at that price though.

BlitzKrieg

there's supposable an article somewhere that lists where the PS3 comes in on the top something most expensive consoles at launch. Its placing was number 5 i think.

If I remember correctly (and I could be wrong)

the four above it are the Saturn (launch $399), 3DO (launch $700) Turbo grfx cd ($399) and Neo Geo ($499)

Here's a funny thing to note.


A key element in some of those consoles failure were that at the times of their release, consoles of equal worth were released at much cheaper prices (saturn = Ps1 $299) (3DO = Ps1 $299) (Turbo GFX = mega drive $200) (NEO GEO = Snes $199)

Now I can get Retrogamer to come in here and sing praises to the ends of the earth for most of those 4 consoles (god knows i'll join him on the Saturn one)

but the rule of thumb stands that despite all the claims by those above companies (some of which were firmly established [sega]) they got heavily slapped for their pricing.



On a side note. I find it funny that sony could make such a mistake, because those of us who remember the Saturn's release at E3 (1994? i think) Sony kicked Sega squarely in the nuts when they announced the PS1 would sell for $100 cheaper. You'd think they'd remember how much that worked.

Attol

Goodshape wrote:

Well, in fairness, Sony did say November 17th. I suppose they could have been more careful and waited until the things were on the way, but if you're given a date, you're given a date. Not their fault tbh. Complain to Sony.

But how could they guess stock levels before they've been told? I know for a fact that stores will not have had any ideas of Irish stock levels.

BlitzKrieg

found that article


http://curmudgeongamer.com/2006/05/history-of-console-prices-or-500-aint.html


voila.

Star Lord

According to that chart, every nintendo console was $200 :eek:

Wasnt the cube $250?

BlitzKrieg

are you sure your not mixing euros and dollers up?


and i think this is also the Recommanded selling price set by each company (not what its actually sold for by retail.)

Star Lord

Ah, that could be it.