Info on Wii price and launch shipments

Wii News | Still not final, but we've now got an upper limit...

Nintendo held a press conference today to discuss boring financial matters, but the numbers revealed some info on their plans for the Wii. Apparently when questioned by Famitsu, they revealed shipping and sales estimates and an upper limit for the console's US and Japanese price.

It was confirmed that the the Wii will sell for no more than ¥25,000 in Japan, and US$250 in North America. It's worth noting that these numbers are not the same - ¥25000 currently equals US$223 and, given that Nintendo products are generally cheaper in the US than Japan (the DS Lite's US launch price is US$20 cheaper then it's current Japanese price, for example), we can probably extrapolate that US$223 will be the upper limit in the US too.

For us PAL chumps, the Japanese max price equates to AU$295 (£119 for you Poms out there), and US$250 is about AU$330 or £133. As we've learnt recently however, overseas prices aren't much to go by for predicting our console prices, so we'll just have to wait and see.

On another note, Nintendo also projected worldwide sales of 6 million Wii units by the end of this fiscal year, which ends March 31 2007, which is pretty much the same number of PS3s Sony expects to sell in the same time. Nintendo also expects to sell 17 million Wii games by then as well - that's 2.83 per console, for those who care (all two of you). That's quite a few console and quite a few games, and this time next year we'll see if it happened.

Related Content

Wii hits three US milestones
25 Aug, 2007 Outperforms the DS and more.

Wii far more powerful then expected?
24 May, 2006 Sources disagree once again.

Analysts predict the Wii's price
17 May, 2006 Analysts are always right, right?

Page12 3 Next

63 Comments

Klawrence

5 years ago

Nice, At that price i will buy the console and 2.83 games

LeonJ

5 years ago

Hrmm, that's a nice price. Put money on $300 AU for Australians! A affordable gaming console! GASP!

?oe?oe

5 years ago

I'm going for at least 6 games.

That price is better the GCN's. Hopefull they make it extra cheap for aussieland, as it failed here.

Frozencry

5 years ago

Awesome price. Affordable and a strong launch line-up

Andronicus

5 years ago

Approximately $300?
That's a very good price!

I'll happily fork that money over, and I imagine I'd buy 2 games (MAYBE 3, if I have some money to burn by then) when I do pick up this system (whenever that is).

ugh the boot

5 years ago

hELLZ yEA!!! I'm buying every game i feel like buying (that's rare cuz I usually want them all except for the sports and driving games)!

arbok

5 years ago

amazing price

Jim Dash

5 years ago

At $300, how can you go wrong! That means I'd be able to afford Mario Galaxy and Twilight Princess at launch!

Awesome!! I'm stoked!

Nev

5 years ago

Just to put this into perspective.

The GameCube launched in the US for $199, whilst here in Australia it launched at $400. Similarly, UK gamers often pay a good deal extra for hardware - presumably due to taxes, both import and otherwise.

Given that, a US launch price point of $200-$250 would indicate an Australian price of between $400 and $500.

Console prices never equate to the exchange rate, otherwise the Xbox 360 premium pack would be AU$525, rather than the $650 price tag we've been slammed with.

Jeremy

5 years ago

These days it seems that the Aussie price is equivalent both Euro and Pound denominations - you can see that with both the Xbox 360 and PS3.

$300 still isn't an amount that should be sneezed at. Don't forget, by the time that Resident Evil 4 came out last year, you could buy GameCubes cheaper than gameboys, DS and even a lot of games. Did it make any difference? Nope.

It isn't just the price, Nintendo has to enhance their status and image as well.

Andronicus

5 years ago

Historically speaking, how long usually before the first price cut?

I mean, I COULD get a Wii at launch or within the first 6 months, and pick up "Super Mario Galaxy", maybe "Twilight Princess" and maybe the new "Wario Ware"...

OR...

I could wait a year or whatever until the first price cut, or first bundle, and get a Wii with "Super Mario Galaxy", "Super Smash Bros. Brawl" (I'm assuming it will be out within a year of launch), and whatever else takes my fancy at that time.

Hmm...

Infested Jibbs

5 years ago

^Nintendo has been very kind to australia recently though, the ds hevy launched here with a stupid low launch price and the ds lite will be launching here, again, at a lower then expected price and BEFORE the u.s. gets it.

Klawrence

5 years ago

JimDash360 wrote

At $300, how can you go wrong! That means I'd be able to afford Mario Galaxy and Twilight Princess at launch!

Awesome!! I'm stoked!

yer i will be gettin the exact same games a launch,only i dont expect mario to be a launch title

David

5 years ago

Nev wrote

Just to put this into perspective.

The GameCube launched in the US for $199, whilst here in Australia it launched at $400.

Wrong. The Gamecube launched here at $330, and exchange rates at the time meant that it was almost exactly the same price as the US.

Quote

Given that, a US launch price point of $200-$250 would indicate an Australian price of between $400 and $500.

Wrong again. Australia has generally had cheaper Nintendo hardware then the US for quite a while. The Gamecube has been AU$99 for two years, which is signifigantly cheaper then the US price has ever been.

The DS launched here at $199, when it's US price at the time was the equvalent of AU$220. The DS Lite is launching at almost exactly the Japanese price (which is about $20 more then the US price, but that's largely because the US dollar is so weak right now, but will likely recover)

Nintendo doesn't rip off Australia on prices anywhere near what the other two do, and often we get the best deal anywhere. I'd say $250 isn't out of the question in Australia for the Wii.

admeister

5 years ago

You said it David. I think it will come out at $300, that's for sure. I can certainly live with that, it would be cool if the games come out at $75 here, 50 US, isn't that what they said, that they wouldn't sell the games for any more than $50 US? I hope so, then it will end up very cheap, I could get whatever I want with it at launch. I can tell that other people are happy too.

slasherD

5 years ago

admeister wrote

And while hardware prices have been getting fairer over here, the same can't really be said for software prices - which are almost invariably higher over here than in the US

I'd be expecting something like US$199 and AU$299 (or similar ratio) for the console, and US$50 and AU$90 for games.

EDIT: On a related and happier note, the big improvement with Nintendo (and others) recently has been the launch dates compared with the US. So even if stuff isn't as cheap as over there, we at least are going to be getting it on time.

Jellyfish

5 years ago

^ Games will probably stay around the same price, even if the RRP is $75 what's stopping the stores from putting them up to $90-100. It's not like the RRP is on the boxes to keep them in check.

Jim Dash

5 years ago

At least at $300AU it is very affordable and I will be able to purchase at launch.

Nintendo have been treating us fairly lately.

Now did I read somewhere that the Nunchuck attatchment is an accessory and doesn't come with the Wii?

realitybites

5 years ago

By the time you add taxes and freight charges I suspect it will be either $349 or $399.

Nintendo don't have a great history in Australia (or PAL territory for that matter) for the last two home generation of consoles so it will be interesting to see how Nintendo market this to Australians.

EvilHayama

5 years ago

David wrote

Nintendo doesn't rip off Australia on prices anywhere near what the other two do, and often we get the best deal anywhere. I'd say $250 isn't out of the question in Australia for the Wii.

And I was impressed with an $AU300 price point...

As an aside, has nintendo mentioned region coding issues for the Wii? I was hoping with the worldwide launch and general lack of region coding this gen Nintendo wouldn't have any.

Klawrence

5 years ago

yer i also herd the games wernt going to be anymore than $50 US and the good thing about jb hi-fi near my house is that on launch week for 360 all the release titles were $75!!! i hope they do they same/ simmiler thing for the launch titles of Wii. if they do ill buy at launch 4 sure

LeonJ

5 years ago

It's looking like Nintendo is going to be a big player this time round. The amount of postitive press generated lately is amazing. The console is tailored to hardcore gamers and non-gamers. Much like the DS.

Is it just me, or does the Wii kind of feel like the NES? Ie new and exciting.

Nev

5 years ago

david wrote

Wrong. The Gamecube launched here at $330, and exchange rates at the time meant that it was almost exactly the same price as the US.

*gasp* You may ACTUALLY be right, upon closer investigation. I recall paying $400 for mine close to launch, but it's possible that it was a package deal.

At any rate, you lose brownie points for forgetting that the Australian launch came a full 6 months later than the US launch. The original RRP for the GameCube here was $399, but that figure was lowered to $329 prior to launch, at about the same time as the US console was cut to US$149. Which means that, even if the launch prices were equivalent (albeit 6 months apart), we were paying US$50 more at the time of release.

david wrote

One console is "generally?" Besides which, the GameCube's recomended retail price is not, nor has it ever been $99. The price has fluctuated from time to time, but Australian consumers paying less than the US market now is simply due to the abysmal sales here. Current RRP is AUD$129.95.

david wrote

The DS launched here at $199, when it's US price at the time was the equvalent of AU$220. The DS Lite is launching at almost exactly the Japanese price (which is about $20 more then the US price, but that's largely because the US dollar is so weak right now, but will likely recover)

The DS launched at $149 US. The Australian price ($199) worked out to be US$152 by the exchange rates at the time. Very close, I'll admit, though your figures are off by $20, which is almost exactly the situation with the launch of the DS Lite.

The new system is priced at AU$199.95 (US $152), which, again, is $20 more than the US price. I'm guessing you're not including these figures in your "Australia has generally had cheaper Nintendo hardware then the US for quite a while" statement either?

david wrote

Nintendo doesn't rip off Australia on prices anywhere near what the other two do, and often we get the best deal anywhere. I'd say $250 isn't out of the question in Australia for the Wii.

The "other two" at least are prepared to take a hit on their systems. The PS3 is going to be ridiculously expensive, but still about half the cost of production. You're getting $1,500 worth of equipment for half price, as opposed to paying extra for outdated hardware so Nintendo can turn a profit.

As I pointed out earlier, the difference in price is due to taxes, specifically import tax and GST. Companies don't purposefully increase the cost of their product when they release it in Australia just because they think people here are stupid enough to pay extra for no reason.

I'd say $329 is the lowest price point you could expect for the Wii, unless Nintendo decides to get serious about the Australian market and shave down their profit margins a little.

But a superior marketing campaign would be more beneficial than a cheaper price point. The GameCube, as we've noted, was pretty damn cheap, but it didn't make a dent in the long run.

slasherD

5 years ago

Nev wrote

But a superior marketing campaign would be more beneficial than a cheaper price point. The GameCube, as we've noted, was pretty damn cheap, but it didn't make a dent in the long run.

I definitely agree on this point. I can't see $50 or so difference in launch price genuinely affecting the the Wii's success. For the console to be successful, there needs to be some sort of advertising campaign and more importantly lots of in-store demos with the Wii-mote.

Nintendo would also be wise to try and associate the Wii as much as possible with the DS rather than the GCN.

Page12 3 Next

View as forum topic

Add Comment