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Factory responsible for Wii U eDram to close within 2-3 years
- Thread starter SmokyDave
- Start date
DXB-KNIGHT
Member
2 to 3 years meh, I thought its something that will really turn on the heat at Nintendo.
People that suggest Nintendo should drop the Wii U needs to wake up. The Wii U already cost at lot of R&D, dropping the Wii U to make another console now would just cost more R&D, which means the new console would have to sell fucking gangbusters to make up the R&D cost of not one but TWO consoles.
Are you guys insane? They'll take the loss with the Wii U, they can, it will get the games it needs eventually and best case scenario they can make the Wii U go above Gamecube LTD numbers.
Are you guys insane? They'll take the loss with the Wii U, they can, it will get the games it needs eventually and best case scenario they can make the Wii U go above Gamecube LTD numbers.
The_Endgamer
Member
Should speed up the process of getting a redesign at least.
Palette Swap
Member
In my experience in a different industry, these situations can always happen over the life of a product and are a part of product management. As long as you know early enough, most component crises are manageable although they always come at a cost in that they derail plans that didn't need derailing in the first place.
I have no idea however how easy or hard producing this RAM elsewhere can be.
That might be where they go for their successor if they stick with PPC (which makes some sense for them) IBM actually has a fair bit of knowledge on large eDRAM cache and even creating a single die solution with AMD (XB360s) it might even be a smaller die node since it would be ~2017, I imagine 22nm could be targeted.
Seriously. Asking to drop Wii U now, despite the horrendous sales, is stupid. Especially considering the kind of (further) damage Nintendo's image would see by doing that. Killing a console would severly take away the abundant majority of faith consumers have in your products. And, for the same reason, I believe they won't cut the price of 100, at least not now: 3DS pricekill already created the belief that Nintendo platforms aren't things to buy so surely at launch, since they can be price cutted in the span of a few months after launch, and I believe this has been a component in Wii U's numbers (it's been for me, at least), doing it again would re-confirm it. They need to do a 50 price cut for this Holiday, though. That wouldn't be a price-cut causing disaffection, I'd think.
plank
Member
Its only been 10 months since release anybody who says that are just hating. I'm pretty sure Nintendo will roll with it for a while unless the big hitters flop as well.
Word of advice, never become a CEO.
Chittagong
Gold Member
Lol, it really seems like this console is Wii 2 For Super Players, purple poison mushrooms popping out of every block
plank
Member
For who? Or are you just relieved its not closing immediately?
Poetic.Injustice
Member
Reminds me they opened a few factories when Wii was selling out, Wonder if they're still open.
Not so automatic with semiconductors, especially those the production of which has been centralized in a single plant.
The real problem is that this news could further harm future plans of selling the Wii U at a lower price by increasing production cost - stockpiling, in particular, would do that.
PdotMichael
Banned
Increased production costs, which will make a price drop more unlikely or expensive for Nintendo.
Yeah, sure.
No one is being serious with that suggestion. Calm down man.
Hardly doomsday material either way. Actually it might be a good thing if it would convince Nintendo to have a shorter console cycle meaning a successor for Wii U launching within 2-3 years. Console cycles are too long.
Nonexistinghero
Banned
I don't see how it's a problem. Nintendo can just switch to have someone else make EDRAM. It will probably be 'slightly' different, but shouldn't have an impact.
I guess no one here knows that most consoles tend to switch various parts throughout their lifespan?
I guess no one here knows that most consoles tend to switch various parts throughout their lifespan?
Majmun
Member
I guess Nintendo should start to extrapolate Wii U demand numbers for the next 2-3 years then.
But what if they make too many, or too few?
Sure they can do that but what if their prediction is off mark? Storage space isn't cheap either.
SenatorBot
Member
Let's say that Nintendo believes in their forecasts 100%.
9 million Wii Us LTD by the end of the year, so they order 6 million chips for this year. I really don't think they'll use them up for a very very long time while they lose a lot of money.
Dont underestimate the impact of a slightly different architecture/proces. It'll cost Nintendo a lot of money to research that.
Mithos
Member
Sometimes you REALLY wonder though.
You're right Nintendo fans may be cult like & juggaloish in their devotion no matter the quality of product, but unlike juggalos I think Nintendo fans have their limit for bullshit they may be delusional when it comes to games but they are not stupid!
More importantly Nintendo may be master misers but they are brlliant and wouldn't just abandon ship on a leaky vessel.
Those who bought a Wii U recently would likely never buy a Nintendo console again if they were to do such a thing.
Ardenyal
Member
Who would give them a good deal though? The console isn't selling so the price would be higher.
Absolutely. It is a lot less of a problem than what it sounded like from the thread title though.
For those that suggest just stockpiling as many of the chips as possible. It's not AS easy as just throwing them into a warehouse and forgetting about them.
Semiconductor storage, if you want to keep the fault rate at a minimum, is rather complex and costly. To give a description of the process, here's the link from a company that does it. It's an interesting read:
http://www.forcetechnologies.co.uk/services/storage/long-term-storage
Semiconductor storage, if you want to keep the fault rate at a minimum, is rather complex and costly. To give a description of the process, here's the link from a company that does it. It's an interesting read:
http://www.forcetechnologies.co.uk/services/storage/long-term-storage
Majmun
Member
These parts usually get cheaper over time or when ordered in huge mass. But seeing how bad the factory is doing, I don't see the price for this customized edram dropping much in price.
The article states that WiiU's failure is a big reason for its demise. Nintendo's console has been nothing but a trainwreck so far. Yikes
michaelius
Banned
In 2-3 years? So it will last longer then Wii U then.
RukusProvider
Banned
WiiU production wil cease well before then.
Yeah, that's the main problem at hand I suppose, whether or not they manufacture too much or too little. Has anything similar to this ever happen to a game console manufacturer, like with other parts that are important to the hardware such as the eDram is to the Wii U?
grap3fruitman
Banned
How long until the Wii U becomes a collector's item?
OG_Original Gamer
Member
Probably about the same it will take you to become its CEO.