Monday, April 9th 2012

Nintendo Wii U Costs Around $300: Sources

Sources associated with the manufacture and distribution of Nintendo products gave ForgetTheBox their estimates of the "Bill of Materials" of its upcoming Wii U game console, including that of its swanky-looking controller. The Bill of Materials of the entire package is estimated to be around US $180, despite its interactive screen, the controller's Bill of Materials is no more than US $50. Taking these figures into account the street price of Wii U is estimated by the source, is "no less than $300."

The same sources told ForgetTheBox, "Cutting production costs to maximize profits is Nintendo's main concern with the Wii U. They are cutting costs in the Wii U's hardware to build back confidence in investors. Nintendo wants investors to view Wii U as a less risky proposition." They went on to mention interesting tidbits such as "The cameras in the Wii U controller are an estimated manufacturing cost of $6. They are slightly better quality than the 3DS and DSi cameras. The touch screen has a manufacturing cost estimated at $14."
The sources also touched on the processing horsepower in use, which a recent report, citing sources among game developers, claimed to be less powerful than that of current-generation Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. "Nintendo chose an economical GPU and CPU that could keep up with the performance of today's current consoles, but keep hardware costs down to maximize profits," said the sources. "Nintendo got a bargain price on the custom GPU and CPU that the Wii U uses. There is a bigger focus on downloadable content, applications, video content, digital distribution, and services to create a stream of revenue. Investors will be ecstatic with the news," they added.
Source: ForgetTheBox.net
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58 Comments on Nintendo Wii U Costs Around $300: Sources

#51
digibucc
of course they won't develop for wii first. of course it will be focused on families, and thanks for the little kiddies bit :)
some of us still enjoy the game series we grew up on, and that was nintendo's line.

what you need to understand is it's not about directly competing. they have unique intellectual property. as long as they make something off hardware, their main titles will pull them through.

any third party adds to that and they want it for sure - but that is not their base. if they can churn out newer, better mario, zelda, donkey kong, metroid, etc - along with the other lower requirement titles like dance dance, and they serve as a media player - they will do better this time around as well.

what you guys are saying is the same thing they said about wii, gamecube which was well received though with poor sales, and n64. they change things up, while keeping a stable base focus - and it'll work for them again this time.
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#52
TheMailMan78
Big Member
digibuccof course they won't develop for wii first. of course it will be focused on families, and thanks for the little kiddies bit :)
some of us still enjoy the game series we grew up on, and that was nintendo's line.

what you need to understand is it's not about directly competing. they have unique intellectual property. as long as they make something off hardware, their main titles will pull them through.

any third party adds to that and they want it for sure - but that is not their base. if they can churn out newer, better mario, zelda, donkey kong, metroid, etc - along with the other lower requirement titles like dance dance, and they serve as a media player - they will do better this time around as well.

what you guys are saying is the same thing they said about wii, gamecube which was well received though with poor sales, and n64. they change things up, while keeping a stable base focus - and it'll work for them again this time.
Also whatever they do MS and Sony will copy years later talking about "innovation" :laugh: Honestly I feel kinda bad for MS and Sony. They are platforms without a proper place. Are they super weak PC's or are they consoles with no innovation?
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#53
Mega-Japan
TheMailMan78Exactly. Everything else I have on the PC.
Thank you! This is what I've been trying to say for a while!
For fun, and all time favorites, there's Wii.
For graphics and all the "hardcore" stuff, there's PC.
Anything in between is meh, depending on your taste. I know I'm a PC-Wii person.
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#54
ZoneDymo
FordGT90ConceptUbisoft and EA--they're the ones that made a fortune on the Wii (especially Ubi with the Rayman titles). They're not drawing in Capcom, Activision, THQ, Eidos, Square Enix, and the other big publishers. That doesn't exactly send a message of confidence.

And once again, the Wii U being very unique from the others, many developers are still going to steer clear because they can't easily port titles. The games for Wii U have to be developed from the ground up for the Wii U. That's costly and a huge risk because only a few select titles (most of them Nintendo) ever gain much traction on the platform.
Wait you respond to my statement on future WiiU support with talking about support on the current Wii?
Second, Lets see, Aliens Colonial Marines is a Gearbox/SEGA title and Darksiders 2 is an THQ title.
Next to those we have Batman: Arkham City, Assassins Creed 3, Metro Last Light, Ninja Gaiden and much more to come.
So once again, you have no point.
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#55
FordGT90Concept
"I go fast!1!11!1!"
Most developers will put out launch titles to guage interest. If those games hardly sell at all, you won't see many/any more on Wii U. I predict that, out of all those you listed, only Ninja Gaiden does well and not very well at that seeing most players interested in it have likely already played it on PS3/Xbox 360.
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#57
xenocide
FordGT90ConceptMost developers will put out launch titles to guage interest. If those games hardly sell at all, you won't see many/any more on Wii U. I predict that, out of all those you listed, only Ninja Gaiden does well and not very well at that seeing most players interested in it have likely already played it on PS3/Xbox 360.
This is the big thing. If you look at the games launched around the time of the console launching, and compare it to the games launched around the middle and end of the life cycle, you will notice tons of developers and publishers just stop supporting games on a said platform.
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#58
digibucc
right but if they never were a large part of sales, how much is it REALLY going to effect nintendo's bottom line, for them to not become one now?
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