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
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."
58 Comments on Nintendo Wii U Costs Around $300: Sources
I think them cutting costs is a cause for concern. Those tablets not having their own processors is also a concern, because it means they are cheaper, but are infinitely less capable, and put more strain on the system. As I said in the past, it basically means anything displayed on the tablet is processed on the console, and then sent wirelessly to the controller. This means there is tons of information being streamed to and from the system and controller, making dropped signals more common and a huge hinderance (several dev blogs have mentioned this but people are just taking Nintendo's word for it).
I expect the Wii U to be a pretty big failure. If they really are cutting costs expect a weaker GPU and CPU than originally detailed, and the controllers to feel really flimsy and cheap.
-LoZ: Twilight Princess
-Super Mario Galaxy
-Super Mario Galaxy 2
-Super Smash Bros Brawl
-Kirby: Epic Yarn
-Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
-Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn
-No More Heroes
-Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World
-Pokemon Battle Revolution
To get:
-LoZ: Skyward Sword
-Xenoblade Chronicles
-The Last Story
-Pandora's Tower (if released in NA)
PS3 games:
-Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe
-Mortal Kombat
To get:
-Tales of Graces f
360 games (before I sold it):
-Gears of Wars 2
-Tales of Vesperia
PC games:
-A lot
you seem to forget, how much of the market we enthusiasts actually comprise - it is small. even if every one of us bought new hardware every year, that would not be enough to keep the companies making this hardware afloat, and they will go under.
enthusiast pc building will still exist, but it will be much simpler, with less choices and less variance between those choices then there are today.
I just pointed out that it is an opinion stemming from pure ignorance, which it is.
2. Never said the Gamecube was not considered a flop did I?
Did you even read what I typed because I did not correct you on that point at all as it is fact that everyone considers the gamecube a flop.
as a bonus, they actually made money on each hardware unit sold, whereas xbox lost the first year and sony the first few. it's only the last year or two they began to be able to make a profit on hardware too.
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.
I think it comes down to the audience. Nintendo is targetting families and "casual" gamers, meaning they want to sell them a really low budget system, and make a massive return on the system, and maybe a couple games, since these people don't sit down and play a lot of games. Sony\Microsoft are targetting "hardcore" gamers, so they sold their system at a loss, and then bank on the consumer to buy dozens of games once they have the system, and continue to do so over the entire life of the system.
Look at the difference between the 2 charts you posted, Nintendo's share of the $10.3B dropped 15.1% from the previous year. This all happened while Sony's share went up 4.6% and Microsoft's an astonishing 10.6%. The next chart probably shows an even split of ~33% for each company. I even would go so far as to say Nintendo will be pass by at least one of those companies. Wii sales have been dropping hard, and they just don't have the game catalog to make up for it. Looking at VGChartz, the Wii has been selling around 70,000~80,000 units a week, compared to 150,000~200,000 for the PS3, and 100,000~150,000 for the Xbox 360.
It is clear Nintendo needs to have better Software if they want their system to continue selling through the entire life cycle. That's what made the PS2 so successful. To make their system more attractive to developers they need to not only sell a lot of units, but be able to make sure the developers are well supported with adequate hardware, and a userbase that will actually buy their games.
Then it was "The Wii controller is just a gimmick. Its a fad". Then MS and Sony tried to knock it off and they sucked.
Now there is a RUMOR the WiiU will be under powered and everyone takes it as fact when SO MANY developers have already signed on and are making games for it. You people just don't get it. Doesn't matter about hardware. Its all in the marketing. Want an example? Call of Duty.
Also if you have the WII 720P HD cable this game looks beautiful!
If this isn't stronger than either of those, than we might as well starve for another 8-10 years of crap ports. It's the same as being another Wii, still weaker than PS3 and XBOX 360 :eek: Maybe or maybe not, I don't know. However, fact of the matter is that Nintendo will use their strategy of innovation in their own way to achieve maximum sales the way they have always been. Appealing to the little kiddies up into their teens.
Me for one, I hope that developers will make games based on the 3 main platforms, the PC, PS4 and the new Xbox and port over to Nintendo's system because it will eventually be the weakest link in the hardware department...goodbye :laugh: