Wii $170?

WhiteZero

WhiteZero

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Source: A teaser story on GamesIndustry.biz promoting an exclusive interview with David Gardner, executive vice president and COO of Electronic Arts' Worldwide Studios.

What we heard: This morning, industry trade site GamesIndustry.biz ran a story with the headline, "Wii will retail for around $170 - EA." According to the story, Gardner said the world's largest third-party publisher believes that Nintendo's console will arrive in North American shelves sporting a price tag of $170.

Combined with reports out of Japan last week that the console would launch for about $170 over there, the EA news could be taken as further evidence that Nintendo had settled on a price point for its next console. Having two such sources coming out with the same figure mere weeks before Nintendo is expected to make its official announcement would lend credibility to the idea that the Wii would hit shelves for less than half the price of a premium Xbox 360, and less than a third the price of the high-end PlayStation 3 package.

However, a few things didn't quite fit. The GamesIndustry.biz article says that EA is expecting a $170 price tag in North America. But the only quote it gives to back that up has Gardner saying "I've heard in Japan that the price is about $170…" There might be some context missing there, or perhaps it was taken to mean that Gardner heard while he was in Japan that the North American price would be $170. Regardless, it isn't clear where the $170 figure for North America came from.

On top of that, Gardner doesn't say from where he heard the information. It could be Nintendo, or analysts' expectations, retail partners, or ranting derelicts on the street corner.

Put those ambiguities together and it's entirely possible that Gardner was not referencing information he heard as a result of his position within EA, but instead referencing the original Japanese reports that had the Internet buzzing last week.

The official story: A quick e-mail to Gardner confirmed suspicions. "It was indeed the Japanese report," Gardner told GameSpot. "I read it on the Web--just passing the same rumor around… In any case I hope it becomes true!"

Bogus or not bogus?: The price might be not bogus, but EA saying it'll be $170 is definitely bogus.
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http://www.gamespot.com/news/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=24919542&sid=6156125&tag=lastword;img

:O
 
This is good news ... but to scale it still costs more than the other two consoles. Wii is only marginally more powerful than the current gen, besides the controller it isn't a lot different than the Gamecube. Heh, it probably would have been possible for them to release the Wiimote for the NGC, but that wouldn't be too good for profits.

What I would really like to see is games that cost $40 or less, maybe certain games like Zelda cost the full $50. Then I could really get into the idea of simple, cheap, pick up and play games. Regardless I'll still probably pick one up in a year or two.
 
smwScott said:
This is good news ... but to scale it still costs more than the other two consoles. Wii is only marginally more powerful than the current gen, besides the controller it isn't a lot different than the Gamecube.
Click to expand...

Your joking right? The controller is totaly different.
And what dose "power" mean to a console? Maybe if your the headless gamer just looking for the best graphics.

We could go back to NES graphics and as long as the games we're fun I'd stick with it.
 
I'm pretty sure ages ago, they mentioned that games for Wii would be cheaper than current-gen games too thanks to lower production costs. Another great reason to get one. If I'm going to be buying two games a month rather than one, I get alot more gaming for my cash.
 
Reginald said:
I'm pretty sure ages ago, they mentioned that games for Wii would be cheaper than current-gen games too thanks to lower production costs. Another great reason to get one. If I'm going to be buying two games a month rather than one, I get alot more gaming for my cash.
Click to expand...

But up untill now, we only knew that the price ceiling was around $250.

Only a few months left till we actually get to play it!
 
WhiteZero said:
Your joking right? The controller is totaly different.
And what dose "power" mean to a console? Maybe if your the headless gamer just looking for the best graphics.

We could go back to NES graphics and as long as the games we're fun I'd stick with it.
Click to expand...

Well then go play NES games. I still have my SNES and play it fairly regularly. Before you accuse someone of more or less being a mindless idiot you should read their post and make sure you fully comprehend it. I said the Wii isn't far separated from the Gamecube ... besides the controller.

Also, I don't believe you understand what I meant by "to scale." To scale it is more expensive than either the 360 or PS3, both of which are being sold at a loss. The Wii uses old/established technology and can therefore be manufactured more cheaply and sold at a profit. I wasn't joking, nor was I expressing an opinion, that's just the way it is.

And finally ... yes, power does matter. There are many things the Wii won't be able to do that its' competitors can. These are things that affect gameplay directly. GTA3 is an example of a game that is the product of it's technology. It's not just about graphics, it's about what the added power affords developers to do. The extra horsepower also allows developers to take greater liberties with the art style and incorporate gameplay changing tech such as advanced physics. You will never see a realistic war game with hundreads of people, vehicles, etc. fighting at once on the Wii ... and that's just one random example I just made up.

The Wii is for fun, simple, intuitive games that are aimed at a more mainstream audience. I think that's great and I'll probably get one myself ... but it's lack of power is a huge limiting factor, and the controller isn't going to be well suited to all genres.
 
I bet he miss read 'besides the controller' in your post above like I did.
I read it as " besides, the controller is" instead of " besides the controller, it is".
 
smwScott said:
Well then go play NES games. I still have my SNES and play it fairly regularly. Before you accuse someone of more or less being a mindless idiot you should read their post and make sure you fully comprehend it. I said the Wii isn't far separated from the Gamecube ... besides the controller.

Also, I don't believe you understand what I meant by "to scale." To scale it is more expensive than either the 360 or PS3, both of which are being sold at a loss. The Wii uses old/established technology and can therefore be manufactured more cheaply and sold at a profit. I wasn't joking, nor was I expressing an opinion, that's just the way it is.

And finally ... yes, power does matter. There are many things the Wii won't be able to do that its' competitors can. These are things that affect gameplay directly. GTA3 is an example of a game that is the product of it's technology. It's not just about graphics, it's about what the added power affords developers to do. The extra horsepower also allows developers to take greater liberties with the art style and incorporate gameplay changing tech such as advanced physics. You will never see a realistic war game with hundreads of people, vehicles, etc. fighting at once on the Wii ... and that's just one random example I just made up.

The Wii is for fun, simple, intuitive games that are aimed at a more mainstream audience. I think that's great and I'll probably get one myself ... but it's lack of power is a huge limiting factor, and the controller isn't going to be well suited to all genres.
Click to expand...

I love how defensive people get on the internet. Calm down, guy, I wasnt calling you "mindless", I'm refering to the people who only think about gfx. Cheers, I still play SNES too. And yes, like Asus, I miss-read your post about the controller. My bad.

I agree that more power dose allow devs to do more with their games. But instead of going "next-gen" with graphics, Nintendo has gone next-gen with interaction, ala the WiiMote.

However, the Wii's graphics power allows it to do most of what all the other next-gen systems can. Really, I feel that this gen is the smallest leap in gaming history from gen to gen. The leap from Atari to 8-bit (nintendo) to 16-bit (nintendo and sega) to 32 and 64 bit and even the leap from those to PS2 and X-Box were phenominal. This generation seems to have just added a few frills (motion-blur, HDR, the obligatory higher-res textures and bigger poly counts, etc). So I'm not really disapointed with Nintedo deciding not to dump tons into it's gfx capabilities. Especially, looking at your example of profit, that Nintendo isnt going to loose money off of the Wii. In fact, Nintedo is the only one out of the bunch that's ever profited off their gaming system.
 
I can't ****ing wait for the Wii. I have my reservations about it, but my anticipation for it takes all of that doubt over.
 
Goddamn... that's under $300 here. That's frickin amazing for a console launch... I remember seeing the Sega Mega Drive for more o.o

Anyone know, is this just for the console, or will this be for some kind of starter package including, say, a controller and cables to hook it up for net play. Also, possible noob question, but is EA handling the distribution outside of Japan or something?
 
Bad^Hat said:
Goddamn... that's under $300 here. That's frickin amazing for a console launch... I remember seeing the Sega Mega Drive for more o.o

Anyone know, is this just for the console, or will this be for some kind of starter package including, say, a controller and cables to hook it up for net play. Also, possible noob question, but is EA handling the distribution outside of Japan or something?
Click to expand...

Well, every console comes with a controller... and the only "cable" you'd need for net play would be a cat5 cable, which are dirt cheap anyway.
 
Most Nintendo consoles release with only one deal, which is the console, plus one controller and obviously all the wires. So at launch I'm buying 3 more controllers, and I think I decided on 6 games. Hell, if it's only 90 quid in Britain, I may as well buy more than 6 games. :E

Zelda: TP
Metroid Prime 3
Red Steel
Wario Ware
Excite Truck
Far Cry

Those are my near definite 6.
 
Holy Shiz! That's like £90! WOOOOOOOOOT!

I seriously can't wait.
 
Wii + extra controller for me. And as many as 3 launch titles, to start anyway.
 
Does anyone know how much the launch titles will cost?
 
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