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[Nirolak]

Confirmed for the new page:

During the second quarter of this fiscal term, we have successfully eliminated the situation that we sell the Nintendo 3DS hardware below cost, which was the main reason our corporate profits fell in the last term. However, as we are in the phase of concentrating our development resources on software for the Nintendo 3DS system, which is still in an earlier stage of penetration than that of Nintendo DS, and as we have not yet launched the Wii U system, it is difficult to increase the total sales of software, which is generally profitable. In addition to the yen’s continuous appreciation, the Wii U hardware will have a negative impact on Nintendo’s profits early after the launch because rather than determining a price based on its manufacturing cost, we selected one that consumers would consider to be reasonable. In this first half of the term before the launch of the Wii U, we were not able to make a profit on software for the system while we had to book a loss on the hardware, which is currently in production and will be sold below cost. Our loss has therefore widened during the second quarter in spite of bringing the Nintendo 3DS hardware back to profitability. Although we expect our financial performance to be revitalized, under these circumstances, unfortunately we cannot say that we will achieve “Nintendo-like” profits within this fiscal year.

Source: http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/library/events/121025/04.html

 

[BY2K]

Damn. :/

What's a Nintendo-like profit?

 

[Acageron]

I like it. Nintendo valuing a lower price point more than short-term profitability.

 

[Nirolak]

Damn. :/

What's a Nintendo-like profit?

A huge positive. Think these numbers but with a positive sign or higher.

 

[perfectchaos007]

Microsoft and Sony plan to buy millions of WiiU units with no software.

 

[KillerTravis]

Damn. :/

What's a Nintendo-like profit?

Iwata and Miyamoto being able to bath in money pools.

 

[grimshawish]

“Nintendo-like”

Oh - poor Ninty :'(

 

[OldJadedGamer]

I like it. Nintendo valuing a lower price point more than short-term profitability.

Seems they learned their lesson with the 3DS.

 

[bigtroyjon]

Microsoft and Sony plan to buy millions of WiiU units with no software.

lol, I guess Microsoft wanted to be evil and spend a billion dollars to kill off Nintendo's 3rd party support, that would be a great way to do it.

 

[2San]

RAM is cheap, RAM chips are even cheaper. 2GB of ram for the Wii U probably cost nintendo all of $10 per console. The Bluray-alike drive probably cost a good deal more than that

(edit) actually checking current prices and not having to deal with retail markup, it's probably closer to $5.

Slow Ram(DDR3) are cheap, fast ram(GDDR5) like on GPU's can get pretty pricey. Feel free point out where I can get 2GB's of GDDR5 ram for 10 dollars. When we are talking about the Wii U's Ram we are talking about the fast kind.

 

[Shining Sunshine]

If Nintendo pulls in Gamecube results, they're going to be in deep trouble.

 

[jokkir]

Microsoft and Sony plan to buy millions of WiiU units with no software.

And then they tape several together to make the PS4/Nextbox. It's genius!

 

[frankie_baby]

Slow Ram(DDR3) are cheap fast ram(GDDR5) like on GPU's can get pretty pricey. Feel free point out where I can GDDR5 ram for 10 dollars. When we are talking about the Wii U's Ram we are talking about the fast kind.

Actually most hints suggest DDR 3

 

[ohlawd]

And then they tape several together to make the PS4/Nextbox. It's genius!

But... but that's not 10x the PS3/360! *cries*

 

[NBtoaster]

Slow Ram(DDR3) are cheap fast ram(GDDR5) like on GPU's can get pretty pricey. Feel free point out where I can GDDR5 ram for 10 dollars. When we are talking about the Wii U's Ram we are talking about the fast kind.

We don't know what RAM the Wii U uses do we?

 

[MatthewB92]

Slow Ram(DDR3) are cheap, fast ram(GDDR5) like on GPU's can get pretty pricey. Feel free point out where I can get 2GB's of GDDR5 ram for 10 dollars. When we are talking about the Wii U's Ram we are talking about the fast kind.

Plus that GDDR5 RAM(Or whatever RAM it has.) is most likely custom made.

 

[jcm]

Confirmed for the new page:


Source: http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/library/events/121025/04.html

That makes it sound like it's the Wii U overall, not just the low end model.

 

[frankie_baby]

So it is priced so high so that they..don't sell them?

Sorry, that reason is utterly stupid and no company on earth operates that way. If they put it on the market, they want it to sell. If they don't, they don't put it on the market. The price isn't high to deter sales, it is high because it has to be to turn a profit.



The price of the HDD was specifically to make the $400 Xbox 360 look like the better value. As for the Wlan adaptor, it was probably just a price gouge but USB Wlan adaptors for PC at the time were 50-70 bucks anyway.

Not priced so high so they don't sell them, as I said the only people that would buy a 2nd one right now have more money than sense so might as well milk them

Oh and I'm pretty sure I bought a a PC wifi adapter back then for about £10

 

[I Stalk Alone]

My guess is more than a third of the total system is the controller given the tech in the main unit and how much retail is on the controller alone.

I doubt the controller costs more than the 3DS to produce based on what you said.

The controller would cost no more than $50 in my view. I think i am being generous at this price since the wii motion plus and nunchuck cost less than $10 to make. You need to add the screen, new wireless tech, magnetometer, cameras, better speakers, more memory, extra plastic and pcb.

The DS3 for PS3 costs 10 times less than what it sells for. Yes the wii u controller is expensive by controller standards but it does not cost more than a nintendo ds let alone a 3DS. You know what though we will let people believe the other option. It is more funny that way.

Also whoever said they were not suprised in nintendo spending more money on outdated tech when cheaper and faster tech is available is crazy. The idea that a company as cheap as nintendo would rather spend more money just to get outdated tech is probably the most reaching post i have heard all day.

There was a fire at that factory, a components price suddenly jumped up. Lets find out what the company was and what they manufacture. The Wii U was expected to make a modest profit of less than $10 per unit considering wii was about $6 per unit. I doubt they are losing much more than $10 per unit so otherwise their forecast for profitability in Q3 will be drastically affected.

What could cause say a sudden $20 difference in manufacturing? Exchange rates or something unexpected like a component shortage?

 

[bjb]

Seems like every month that passes there's just more and more negative Wii U news.

Good thing I'm passing on this debacle.

 

[Instro]

So it is priced so high so that they..don't sell them?

Sorry, that reason is utterly stupid and no company on earth operates that way. If they put it on the market, they want it to sell. If they don't, they don't put it on the market. The price isn't high to deter sales, it is high because it has to be to turn a profit.

Then why are they not selling it as a stand alone product in the US or EU? Why is it that the only way to get a new one is if you break your original? They want the hardware to sell, they want the games to sell, they want their peripherals to sell when they are exorbitantly priced. It's not that they don't want to sell people the game pad, its that they want to sell it at the usual markup pricing, if they can't do that then they are losing out on significant amounts of profits. Why get people buying the gamepads now when they can get them down the road at a much better profit margin?

iSupply will tell us how much exactly the unit BOM are and how much the BOM is for the controller and we'll see just how much each costs. The people saying the price of the unit isn't being increased by the controller is just digging a deeper hole showing how Nintendo is really price gouging consumers more than any other company in history.

They absolutely fuck consumers on pricing for peripherals and controllers, its an industry standard. Look at Sony with their Vita memory cards, look at MS with everything little thing not included with the 360. Hell normal controllers only cost $5-10 to produce yet sell for $60. Nintendo would be out of their mind to sell their gamepad for anything less than a massive markup on the cost, and its clear they don't want to.

 

[apana]

Seems like every month that passes there's just more and more negative Wii U news.

Good thing I'm passing on this debacle.

I am confused, how is Wii U being sold at a loss negative news for you?

 

[GeneralManager]

Seems like every month that passes there's just more and more negative Wii U news.

Good thing I'm passing on this debacle.

How is this bad for a good consumer? You wanted Nintendo to make a large profit on you from the $300 price?

 

[2San]

We don't know what RAM the Wii U uses do we?

Actually most hints suggest DDR 3

I assumed it would be like all the other consoles. :/

 

[tnaden]

Seems like every month that passes there's just more and more negative Wii U news.

Good thing I'm passing on this debacle.

How can you possibly spin this news to be bad news for you as a consumer?!

 

[Medalion]

$350 for deluxe, and STILL at a loss?

Geez Ninty

 

[ViewtifulJC]

I am confused

 

[OldJadedGamer]

I doubt the controller costs more than the 3DS to produce based on what you said.

The controller would cost no more than $50 in my view. I think i am being generous at this price since the wii motion plus and nunchuck cost less than $10 to make. You need to add the screen, new wireless tech, magnetometer, cameras, better speakers, more memory, extra plastic and pcb.

The DS3 for PS3 costs 10 times less than what it sells for. Yes the wii u controller is expensive by controller standards but it does not cost more than a nintendo ds let alone a 3DS. You know what though we will let people believe the other option. It is more funny that way.

Also whoever said they were not suprised in nintendo spending more money on outdated tech when cheaper and faster tech is available is crazy. The idea that a company as cheap as nintendo would rather spend more money just to get outdated tech is probably the most reaching post i have heard all day.

There was a fire at that factory, a components price suddenly jumped up. Lets find out what the company was and what they manufacture. The Wii U was expected to make a modest profit of less than $10 per unit considering wii was about $6 per unit. I doubt they are losing much more than $10 per unit so otherwise their forecast for profitability in Q3 will be drastically affected.

What could cause say a sudden $20 difference in manufacturing? Exchange rates or something unexpected like a component shortage?

The WiiU controller does cost more than a brand new DS and almost as much as a 3DS. These are facts you can check yourself.

 

[deviljho]

Good thing I'm passing on this debacle.

You can post this, but let's see how long you hold out.

 

[KojiKnight]

I assumed it would be like all the other consoles. :/

There's your problem, this is Nintendo

 

[Anth0ny]

$350 for deluxe, and STILL at a loss?

Geez Ninty

that plastic ain't cheap

 

[Skiesofwonder]

Seems like every month that passes there's just more and more negative Wii U news.

Good thing I'm passing on this debacle.

Classic case of damned if they do, damned if they don't. This is a good thing for the consumer.

 

[Haunted]

I am confused, how is Wii U being sold at a loss negative news for you?

How is this bad for a good consumer?

How can you possibly spin this news to be bad news for you as a consumer?!

Sometimes the news are bad for Nintendo, sometimes they're bad for the consumer. The important thing for bjb is that they're all bad news.

Also Nintendo is bad and you should feel bad.

 

[Instro]

The WiiU controller does cost more than a brand new DS and almost as much as a 3DS. These are facts you can check yourself.

The cost of the WiiU controller is a fact? Just a moment ago we were speculating.

 

[PetrCobra]

Actually most hints suggest DDR 3

The hints I saw suggest a 50/50 combination of DDR3 and GDDR5, but I guess we'll have to wait until the launch to be sure.

 

[Rhazer Fusion]

For some reason, I am having difficulty believing that Nintendo is losing money on hardware when it looks comparable to current generation technology which is 8 years old. The controller? Then again, this really scares me. If Nintenodo is apparently losing money on hardware, what will happen with Microsoft and Sony when their consoles and their pricing? How much will they lose when they most likely sell it at a lost?

 

[tnaden]

Sometimes the news are bad for Nintendo, sometimes they're bad for the consumer.

The important thing is, they're all bad news. Also Nintendo is bad and you should feel bad.

Sony is making a profit. This is bad news (for the consumer). Glad I'm not getting a vita with all these bad news.
(Same flawed logic, bad example)

Classic case of damned if they do, damned if they don't. This is a good thing for the consumer.

This is true for too many topics on all sides. Gaf hates everything.

EDIT:

I recommend a routine sarcasm detector checkup. (for my post, not his)

GOD DAMN IT. It's been broken for a few days now (Oh, well the point is still valid)

 

[KojiKnight]

The hints I saw suggest a 50/50 combination of DDR3 and GDDR5, but I guess we'll have to wait until the launch to be sure.

Only place I saw that was when someone speculated that the chips assumed to be RAM on the mainboard looked like 2 different types (2 sets of 2) and they postulated that was because half would be GDDR5 and the other DDR3... That's hardly anything to be certain of, especially because the chips may have been the same size, but the angle of the shot may have skewed it.

(Edit) Why is it so hard to imagine could be losing money on this? "But it's like PS360 graphics!" and both the HD twins are still over $200... couple that with newer tech, more ram, and the tablet controller and suddenly an extra $100 not netting them a profit makes a bit more sense.

Honestly I was surprised at first that they are reporting losing on the console just because we were so drilled in the last year that Nintendo won't lose money on the Wii U... but logically it makes sense that they could be.

 

[mario_O]

Well I'll make them a favor not buying it till next year

 

[Haunted]

Sony is making a profit. This is bad news (for the consumer). Glad I'm not getting a vita with all these bad news.
(Same flawed logic, bad example)

I recommend a routine sarcasm detector checkup.

 

[OldJadedGamer]

The cost of the WiiU controller is a fact? Just a moment ago we were speculating.

Yes, NCL confirmed it. Keep up. You may have been speculating but not sure others were the controller price for Japan is confirmed.

Then why are they not selling it as a stand alone product in the US or EU? Why is it that the only way to get a new one is if you break your original? They want the hardware to sell, they want the games to sell, they want their peripherals to sell when they are exorbitantly priced. It's not that they don't want to sell people the game pad, its that they want to sell it at the usual markup pricing, if they can't do that then they are losing out on significant amounts of profits. Why get people buying the gamepads now when they can get them down the road at a much better profit margin?

Your theory is thrown out the window by the fact that they are selling it as a stand alone in Japan.

They absolutely fuck consumers on pricing for peripherals and controllers, its an industry standard. Look at Sony with their Vita memory cards, look at MS with everything little thing not included with the 360. Hell normal controllers only cost $5-10 to produce yet sell for $60. Nintendo would be out of their mind to sell their gamepad for anything less than a massive markup on the cost, and its clear they don't want to.

Even the most expensive memory card isn't over 50% of the system and again, doesn't come with the Vita. We are talking about things that are in the box at launch and considered part of the cost of goods they are taking a loss on.

 

[GiantEnemyGoomba]

Seems like every month that passes there's just more and more negative Wii U news.

Good thing I'm passing on this debacle.

That's good.

 

[Pineconn]

For some reason, I am having difficulty believing that Nintendo is losing money on hardware when it looks comparable to current generation technology which is 8 years old. The controller? Then again, this really scares me. If Nintenodo is apparently losing money on hardware, what will happen with Microsoft and Sony when their consoles and their pricing? How much will they lose when they most likely sell it at a lost?

This generation began in 2004?

 

[BY2K]

The WiiU controller does cost more than a brand new DS and almost as much as a 3DS. These are facts you can check yourself.

What? Where was this confirmed?

 

[I Stalk Alone]

The WiiU controller does cost more than a brand new DS and almost as much as a 3DS. These are facts you can check yourself.

I assume that you are replying based on me talking about production costs and not retail costs. If so can you point me in the right direction that states that the gamepad cost almost as much to make than the 3DS or costs more to make than the dsi? My google skills are poor.

 

[Darryl]

if this is true and they're really packing $300-350 worth of hardware into that package, it's gonna be pretty hard for sony/MS to blow the console away while keeping a good price point. they're gonna have to skip out on their own version of the tablet controller or something.

 

[frankie_baby]

The WiiU controller does cost more than a brand new DS and almost as much as a 3DS. These are facts you can check yourself.

Its not a fact its just badly educated guesses from yourself retail price snd production price ARE NOT the same thing

 

[grimshawish]

If Nintenodo is apparently losing money on hardware, what will happen with Microsoft and Sony when their consoles and their pricing? How much will they lose when they most likely sell it at a lost?

People keep bringing this up, and I keep having the same thought...

What is the estimated cost of the rumoured components (at component cost, excl everything else) compared to the same cost of the components in the last generations tech when it launched? Has the gap widened, are those costs just going up? (e.g. not becoming more affordable)

If we can't estimate that though; do remember people:
- WiiU isn't some shitty cheap skate console
- It is more powerful and arguably better engineered (is more modern, NOT 2005 tech)
- Has less latency to the gamepad than what seems to be any (most) HD TVs
- Has a screen included in the cost AS WELL AS...a battery (thats probably the most important bit.


But yeah, is there any reason to believe PS4/720 will be priced more than 360 at launch?

 

[OldJadedGamer]

What? Where was this confirmed?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2012/sep/13/wii-u-nintendo-launch-details-live

8:16am of Nintendo's Japanese conference in Septemmber.

 

[gamergirly]

if this is true and they're really packing $300-350 worth of hardware into that package, it's gonna be pretty hard for sony/MS to blow the console away while keeping a good price point. they're gonna have to skip out on their own version of the tablet controller or something.

Definitely. As I said earlier, if Nintendo can't turn a profit at $300, then Sony/MS will not be doing much better. They either gonna sell the consoles around $350/$400 and take a loss or take an entire different route altogether like 36 month contracts