25 May 2006
Ferry

Nintendo announces Japanese Wii price!

Nintendo Wii Price = $249.99 / €249 / £179 + free game!

Back in May Nintendo revealed to Famitsu.com, at the company’s recent press conference unveiling its financial results, that Wii would arrive in Japanese stores with a maximum price tag of 25,000 yen.

Let’s break this maximum price down to global prices, by comparing it with the upcoming DS Lite. The Japanese price of 16800 yen converts directly into $150 / €117 / £80. Of course due to US prices being listed without taxes, additional shipping to Europe and added taxes there of up to 20% are already included in the price, so it comes down to the official global prices of $130 / €150 (+28.2%) / £100 (+25%).

Looking at the Wii price of 25,000 yen, that converts directly into $223 / €175 / £119. When deciding regional prices for their products they can’t just stay with the nearest number, but they can round it off so it’s easy for customers to pay for at the store. Keeping that in mind, we can expect the Wii prices to be: $225 / €225 / £150 !!

Add in a second controller and you’re at $250, you’re going to get at least one new game, which puts you at $300. Perhaps these low prices are why Nintendo has predicted on the same press conference that sales of six million units by March 2007 are achievable for the Wii.

25 May 2006 07:38
Michel

sales of six million units by March 2006 are achievable for the Wii.

– typo: 2007. If they can achieve it by March 2006, I jump in the bandwagon. Heck, for the Wii, I jump in the bandwagon anyways

25 May 2006 08:16
Guy

Personally i didnt give a monkeys about the wii until e3. Now everyone i know wants one of those little badboys!
You have to hand it to nintendo, how long were people talking about games consoles being a 2 horse race between ms and sony.

25 May 2006 08:28
Stiggle

Whats the betting that they’ll also be making a profit on those figures too - unlike MS & Sony who are loosing money on the hardware sales(again)

25 May 2006 08:50
Anthrox

i think microsoft and sony have lossed focus of gaming they want these system to make other idea like blue-ray and live anywhere the main compent of gaming xbox live is a great idea but in the real world people just dont have the same games as everyone else so it doesnt work well.

also the main thing that i got from the e3 is the excement of playing fun games again i think thats where nintendo lost it path for a bit there and forgot about the games they made in the past since mario 64 there hasnt been anything that made nintendo king in the late 80s early 90s with games like new super mario bros and yoshi island 2 for the ds coming out and a new mario 3D game that look to be somthing like mario64 i cant wait.

also the fact that the wiimote will get people active raining out side cant play tennis play a round on the wii it easy cheap and simple anyone can use it.

25 May 2006 09:10
I'm posting too

Think about this: Nintendo announced that the Nintendo 64 would debut at a price under $250. Everyone expected it to be $249.99. It came out at $199.99.

25 May 2006 09:25
happyd

Stiggle -

One of the things that has made Nintendo unique to it’s shareholders is that they have never lost money on consoles sold. Unlike Atari, MS, Sony and Sega, whom have all sold consoles below manufacturing costs, Nintendo has never done this. As it stands, since E3, Sony’s stock is continuing to decline, partially due to bad press and pr, while Nintendo’s has continued to increase. I think Nintendo has done well to position itself in the market as a company focused on things other than how many floating point numbers it can process per second, and we’ll continue to see them grow and strengthen their market share and stock value. I’ll take my bets to the bank, in saying that Nintendo by Jan ‘07 will beat sales expectations and be trading at a $5 increase per share from today (80% increase since Jan ‘06), while Sony I expect (and likely due to historical shipment problems) will continue to decline another couple of dollars. That being said, Sony is *still* a more well rounded company, come Q4 2006, it might be a good time to buy as stock will be cheap and I believe the company should rebound (though not from console sales alone).

25 July 2006 20:09
super luigi

thats awesome i would rather spend 300$ than 600$ for the ps3

26 July 2006 13:34
Rick

$225 american? I was planning on saving $600 for this, now I can buy all the launch titles and extra controllers!

26 July 2006 22:27
chaazz blue

Was Hoping it would be cheaper….

28 July 2006 11:57
jSHAW

i think nintendo has done it again. first with the new ds lite now the wii at $220. plus the games will be $50 not $60 and has great launch titles i believe they will win or at least out sell the x box 360 and ps3 this console war.