Gaming Isn't Wii supposed to be cheaper ?

[roguetrip]

The Wii is just a Gamecube with motion control, barely more powerful than the PSP, etc. Just look at the specs and it's in plain sight that it's not a Gamecube.

I don't think many people knew how much of a success the Wii would be. I believe that the shortages are true. If Wii's were even cheaper there'd most likely be an even bigger demand, and ebay sellers would gain a decent profit either way.

Yep, its a Gamecube 1.5 with motion sensors, and online support. About a month ago they shot down a price drop rumor and said it will stay at $250. IMO its not really worth that price where it should be around $150-180, but since this unit has such a large demand it will stay at $250 for atleast another 6 months. This unit is being picked up by the masses, and not just for kids, even 40-50 year olds are picking these system up since it was made to be simple yet fun.

As for ebay, its all about the supply and demand, you always see it when something new comes out with low supply, its all about what the buyer is willing to pay. Ebay isn't regulated, nor should it be. If you don't want to pay the price then look elsewhere. I agree what they are asking for a "used" system is crazy, but then again, alot of times it might be bundled with lots of accessories which if nintendo branded aren't cheap.

I was thinking about picking one up around tax season, and around that time we might see a lil less demand. I might also wait for a price drop (since wii mod-chips might have more progression than the D2C chip).

 

[ziddey]

It's really silly how the wii is so rare. It's not even that good. I constantly see wii's for sale new in box on craigslist being listed for $500. Makes me sick.

That said, I know someone who got a way a long time ago. Chipped it and sold it with a bunch of burned games (:x) for more than two times the cost. Bought a 360 with the money and couldn't be happier.

Personally, I was never that big a fan of consoles. Grew up with pc gaming and swear by it. I'll take a keyboard and mouse over a controller anyday

 

[FAST6191]

I personally will take the high road (an unusual point of view for me to take) and say the majority of people realise the cheapo 360s are not the bargain they appear to be.

Anyhow I grabbed a wii during the summer and promptly took up PC gaming again. The two are unrelated though.

 

[VmprHntrD]

I think Nintendo wanted it to be $200 initially, but retailers said no because they wanted more profit so they made it $250 instead. If the thing sold for $150, oh man that would be nuts. I still can't find any Wiis in my area.

You're close. I got a brother who works in the THQ organization. Anyway from him I learned pre-Wii that basically it was going to like SNES, N64, and GC go for $199.99USD. Retailers of all things bitched about it being too cheap, but also did market analysts who queried game making companies, retailers, and some consumers. Apparently, Nintendo is just as equal to blame as MS and Sony. Seems, that against the $300-400 and the $500-600 priced system it looked like a budget bargain basement price, and was a turn off. Words of desperate for attention, cheap because they're worried, cheap because it's poorly made, etc came up. The poking and prodding basically came up with $249.99 was just costly enough to make it seem competitive as a next-gen system and not something to ignore like the $99 Gamecube was. As a result I guess to be 'fair' unlike in Japan, Nintendo tossed in the Wii Sports game with that blue sticker like logo mooshed on the original box art to get attention. I guess they figured a good $30~ multi-pack of games tossed in was a show of good faith, would help like mad to promo the concept of Wii, and the rest so they listened, hiked the cost, tossed the game in and went with it.

I don't like it, but...odds are I would have picked up Wii Sports anyways so it all worked out in the end, but still wish it had been $200.

 

[coolbho3000]

Anyway, I'm also kinda pissed that I can't get that damn Guitar Hero III game. I own a Wii, and that version is so hard to find. It's on Amazon for 3 times the price and no stores are carying it right now. I can't even order it online at the normal retail price.

DO NOT BUY IT. Until they fix the mono sound issue. Seriously.

 

[MrKuenning]

I live in a small city of about 5000 people. I have at least 4 stores I can go buy a Wii for 250 in stock.

 

[cubin']

I think they should lower the price. The technology in the Wii is so much cheaper.

I don't think they'll lower the price if it continues to sell the way it does though.

 

[VmprHntrD]

By the way this syncs well with the other topic in our forums by 'rate the 3 systems' as it decayed into an arguing point over COST of the Wii to consumers. One guy pulled out an article that was in Japanese and translated into english up on Engadget.

The system itself with none of the wires, controller pieces, etc in JAPAN takes $158. Nintendo when adding in shipping costs, the controller parts, cabling, and all the other hidden costs and crap comes up to $195.99 and that's pre-Wii Sports pack-in for the states.

I suppose if you wanted to be realistic you could figure Wii Sports would have been a $30 game on the shelf since everywhere else you got to buy this one. So I don't see how they're screwing anyone at $250 when going up against that other post I made explaining that end of things.

 

[Renegade_R]

$250 is a VERY fair price to pay for the Wii...Nintendo has no obligation to authorize a price drop if demand does not slope off.

Think about it this way, if demand stays the way it is with people buying them like crazy and having them hawked off on eBay at +$200 profit, then what happens when they autrhorize say...a $40 price drop...demand will explode and it will be impossible to keep up with demand....hard enough as it is...

I say, if you have a Wii in generally new condition with all the boxes and stuff and you don't use it...sell it and make a nice buck. You'll also make the Christmas of one very lucky gamer.

 

[crystal107]

I hate those threads. all those Wii against PS or Xbox conversations... They have no balance :\
Some people are sony/microsoft fans and say anything to make the Wii look worthless, like they try to sell for their console's company, and some people are Nintendo fans and say anything good to argue... It's such a useless thread. You should call this thread "If you wanna argue about who is better, come here!".

 

[adgloride]

I never sell any of my consoles. But I've been seriously thinking of selling my modded wii. I know at this time being so close to christmas I'll get the most money for it. I'm really disappointed by the games and can't see why every ones going mad for it. The only reason I can think of, is because no one can get one, they want one

 

[The_Cylon_Surfer]

The price of the Wii is expensive! It's a rebranded GameCube with motion detection.... The NGC is only about £30 in most stores... That makes the Wii one hell of a lot of cash. And what makes it worse is that as soon as you own a Wii you soon realise that the "motion" detection is a pile of shit. I know many people may have summat to say about that but from what I have seen its true. Not one game uses the motion detection in a realistic manor - mainly you swing it left to right and your in game character will swing a sword in default way or spin as in SMG.

When I first read about the Wii I thought the idea was excellent but lets face it when the "brain training" fad is over and Nintendo have released the updated versions of thier flagship titles (Mario Kart, Zelda etc) the console will die - as did the NGC.

In conclusion - yes it should be cheaper, by a long shot.

And for those wondering, no I'm not a $ony or M$ fanboy I do own a Wii. If it wasnt chipped it would be in the bin! but of course after completing SMG!!

 

[Firtermish]

To me the only good reason to get one right now is the imminent release of SSBB . I haven't ever had a chance to own a gamecube ( it was incredibly unpopular and unknown in my country in favor of massive popularity of the PS2 ) so the fact that Wii can play GC games is a selling point in my humble opinion.

I think that as of now, I have way more NGC games that I'd be interested in playing ( SSBM , Viewtiful Joe, Zelda the WW and TP , Batallion Wars , Starfox Adventures, Eternal Darkness, etc. ) than Wii games. UR MR GAY must be an awesome experience ... but then.. I could play TP in a GC as well.... and I'm not very interested in many other Wii games ( maybe Wario Ware ).

Anyway, point is, Wii being " an oced NGC " has the best backwards compatibility out of the three current generation of consoles. For people who haven't had the chance of playing cube games or that still enjoy playing GC classics, that alone plus being able to renew your gaming library with upcoming Wii titles is a good enough reason to crave for one.

 

[Hitto]

ITT : butthurt sony and microsoft fanbois.
How I love playing on my overclocked gamecube. With my friends. And my girlfriend.

These last two things I suspect a lot of the fanfags do not possess.

 

[GeekyGuy]

Well, Nintendo's MSRP for the Wii system (alone, not bundled) is, I believe, still $259.00 (USD), or thereabouts. The reason we're seeing so many ridiculously priced and, in most cases, unwanted / unnecessary bundles is because of the shortage. But even if you were to buy a Wii system by itself, it ain't cheap when you add it all up. Here's an example of what it cost my family to have this system...

Family of five:

1 Wii system / $259
1 WiiPlay (for the extra controller) / $50
2 extra Wii remotes / $100
3 extra nunchuks / $60
2 Nyko chargers (with battery packs) / $60

Total: $530 (not including tax)

How much are the 360 and PS3 again?

Seriously though, it comes out to about the same as those other systems for an average family like mine to choose the Wii as their home console. This is not, of course, including games, which will be an additional $150 for us to give them three games this Christmas. I'm not complaining, but people shouldn't be fooled by the actual cost of owning a Wii.

 

[cubin']

ITT : butthurt sony and microsoft fanbois.
How I love playing on my overclocked gamecube. With my friends. And my girlfriend.

These last two things I suspect a lot of the fanfags do not possess.

It's usually people with neither a girlfriend nor friends who say something like that.

My friends are bored of my Wii and I'm sure if I had a girlfriend she would be too.


edit: I just got mario galaxy and my Wii is getting used again for the first time in 10 months.

 

[raulpica]

ITT : butthurt sony and microsoft fanbois.
How I love playing on my overclocked gamecube. With my friends. And my girlfriend.

These last two things I suspect a lot of the fanfags do not possess.

It's usually people with neither a girlfriend nor friends who say something like that.

My friends are bored of my Wii and I'm sure if I had a girlfriend she would be too.

I play with my Wii a lot. I have a lot of games and I still haven't finished a lot of them. I need more free time

 

[ziddey]

wii = 250
wiiplay = 50
wiimote = 40
nunchuk = 20
nyko = bullshit

440

wii sucks

 

[mkoo]

In Turkey, We dont have Wii shoratge Wii has a buyer shortage.
Seriously, They are selling wii for 800 ytl which makes 675$ (games are 85$ each)
There is shortage at all.
My point, Wii is expensive..

 

[VmprHntrD]

Family of five:

Total: $530 (not including tax)

How much are the 360 and PS3 again?Â

Seriously though, it comes out to about the same as those other systems for an average family like mine to choose the Wii as their home console. This is not, of course, including games, which will be an additional $150 for us to give them three games this Christmas. I'm not complaining, but people shouldn't be fooled by the actual cost of owning a Wii.

You're making some big excuses there aren't you?

For starters you over priced the controllers by $10 a piece, the system by $10, the nunchuks by $10 too. Also the rechargable nyko mess is optional, so remove that too. So that's already $110 saved down to $420 for four people fully set up.

Let's try a 360 write-up though. For that you'd need a $400 or $300 if you get the arcade unit. Next 3 controllers for $150, and of course you'll need at least 1 game since Wii comes with it already so that's another $50-60 depending what you buy. So you have a range from $500 to $610.

So pal...are you going to tell me that the Wii is more expensive than the $500-610 tag vs $420 given each has 4 full controller setups and 1 game + the hardware itself?

I'm not going to even bother with the PS3 because that on the low end will match the 360 right in the middle for the crippled system with less stuff and no PS1/2 support, and the fully realized system would go nicely above the 360 setup in total.