Wii U Launches On November 18th Priced At $299 and $349

[The 1 2 P]

Because you know the Wii U audience is before a single system is sold right.....

It's basically the same audience as the Wii audience, just perhaps not as mainstream. So unless you want to pretend that M rated games are huge sellers on Nintendo consoles than my point should be pretty obvious The fact remains that historically third party M rated games don't sell as well on Nintendo's consoles as other platforms. But as I also said, if it makes the launch window it has a much better chance of success and could even break a million sales by region.

Do you mean just to flip if they sell out or something?

I was actually thinking of doing the same thing, just not as an investment. No matter how many millions of these things they produce this year they are bound to be sold out during the holidays so I imagine quite a few people will be doing the normal scalping routine on ebay, amazon and craigs list. So somebody will be making atleast alittle extra money flipping them.

[WCP]

I actually thought the price would be higher.

Why would the price be higher ?


The power of the Wii U is barely up to Xbox 360 and PS3 standards. In fact, while the GPU might be better than the 360 or PS3, I've heard that the CPU is way underpowered compared to the 360 or PS3. You can buy a brand new 360 for like $199.99 right ? By the time the Wii U is actually on store shelves, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to see the PS3 also at $199.99. That's a full $100 cheaper, for a system that might even be slightly more powerful than the Wii U. Yes, I know the tablet controller adds to the overall cost basis, but at the same time, it's not like it's a multi-touch screen. It's not like it's some high resolution screen. I think they are coming in as high as they can possibly get away with.

[Jaruff]

Keep it as an investment? What would be the point? They are going to produce millions of them and I'm certain there will be rechargeable batteries or maybe even disposable batteries packed in with the controller, so those can explode or leak after storing them for years. Do you mean just to flip if they sell out or something?

I would sell it during December most likely. Hopefully get enough to buy everyone in my family nicer-than-usual Christmas presents. People tend to get crazy at the last second so their child isn't upset on Christmas morning and I anticipate a lot of kids wanting a WiiU to replace their Wii.

I do plan on buying one eventually if the library receives quality third-party support. Verdict is out on that one though.

Why would the price be higher ?


The power of the Wii U is barely up to Xbox 360 and PS3 standards. In fact, while the GPU might be better than the 360 or PS3, I've heard that the CPU is way underpowered compared to the 360 or PS3. You can buy a brand new 360 for like $199.99 right ? By the time the Wii U is actually on store shelves, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to see the PS3 also at $199.99. That's a full $100 cheaper, for a system that might even be slightly more powerful than the Wii U. Yes, I know the tablet controller adds to the overall cost basis, but at the same time, it's not like it's a multi-touch screen. It's not like it's some high resolution screen. I think they are coming in as high as they can possibly get away with.

I expected $349 and $399 prices on everything. Aren't there two tablets coming with each system? That's what I recall reading anyways. I think Nintendo might be taking a loss on the hardware early on like Sony did. Not only do you have hardware costs, you have R&D and all of that good stuff that needs to be earned back.

Quite honestly, I expect $149.99 PS3's this year and possibly $99.99 4gb 360's. Last year the basic 360 bundle was $149 and I bought my PS3 bundle for $199. I'm sure Nintendo will temporarily lower WiiU prices during Black Friday too, if only by $50.

[The 1 2 P]

Aren't there two tablets coming with each system?

Nope, just one tablet for each Wii U console. Do you want to know why? Because each tablet will cost around $173

The tablet controller will retail separately for the relatively high price of ¥13440 ($173/£107). A "pro" controller, which closely resembles an Xbox 360 pad, will be available for ¥5040 ($65/£40).

[Jaruff]

Nope, just one tablet for each Wii U console. Do you want to know why? Because each tablet will cost around $173

I hope we get humorous stories regarding those. I always chuckled at the tales of Wiimotes "flying" into television screens.

[RPG_Fanatic]

Guess the Wii U game prices are finally catching up to 360/PS3 prices of $60.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/wii-u-games-60-6396444

[Rob2600]

FYI:

Wii U
2 GB RAM
25 GB discs
22.5 MB/s disc read speed (vs. the PS3's 9 MB/s disc read speed)
built-in wi-fi (of course)
supports 1080p video and 6-channel PCM audio via HDMI
8 GB (basic) and 32 GB (deluxe) internal flash storage
New Super Mario Bros. U confirmed for day-one launch

Nintendo's official Wii U tech spec page:
http://www.nintendo.com/wiiu/features/tech-specs/

[Greg2600]

Is the U a way to trick parents that it's an educational toy? Ha ha ha. I think you're getting a great system. The U Pad is neat but I think it was unnecessary. What do you need it for? Doubled the price of the system. I expect 3rd party will be like it was for the Gamecube, which is complete. The developers are not going to ignore a system in this day and age. As for sales, honestly beyond the people who have a Wii, why buy it? If you're an Xbox or PS3 gamer, there's no reason to switch. The casual gamers are not going to drop $350 or $300 on this, and most of them drew tired of the Wii after a couple years max. Nintendo made a ton of money on the early years of the Wii, but they killed themselves with the next generation of gamers. The Wii was too weak compared to the 360/PS3 and the kids want the coolest systems.

[M.Buster2184]

I understand people's doubts, and I'm not sure on when it's coming out, but Rayman Legacy for the WiiU is fantastically fun.

[BHvrd]

I'll look at this the same way I look at my 60gb PS3. My Ultimate Nintendo backwards compatible unit.

My PS3 can play PSX and PS2 games which makes it a definitive console. Now that Wii U is HD I consider it definitive as it will play old Wii games and all the most popular classic games via downloads, Nes, Super NES, N64, Gamecube etc.

Even if you don't look at this as a new console with must have launch games you want "which i'm sure they will come" it's still hard to resist from a collectors and retro standpoint. It's a perfect meeting point and the price is right.

[WCP]

I'd love to own this thing, but in this economy, with everything else the way it is, no way on God's green earth I would pay anything close to what Nintendo is asking. For me, it would actually take a $199.99 price, along with a good game packaged in. Pikmin 3 or Zombie U. Those are really the only circumstances that would get me off my butt to go buy it.


Now, if they had some super amazing 3D Mario game, or even a 2D Mario that used true sprites, I'd be all over this thing, but alas... The 2D Mario they do have, is just another rehash of NSMB Wii, and it has polygons and all this other crap that doesn't feel anything like Super Mario World. Honestly, I would like nothing more than Nintendo to use the exact same game engine as Super Mario World, and just create a new Super Mario World game, that just has all new levels and music and such. Just like if somehow we went back in time to 1993, and Nintendo had another Mario World game that was coming out to follow up the pack-in. That would make my dreams come true.

Either that, or a stunning 3D Mario that was the equivalent of Super Mario 64, except in Next-Gen high def with all the bells and whistles. A stunning Next-Gen Zelda might do the trick as well.

Unfortunately, Nintendo doesn't have anything at all like this, and it appears that they don't have anything like this coming in the near future. A brand new 3D Mario or Zelda could end up finally coming out in 2014, but that's a LONG time from now

[swlovinist]

Gosh, I have tried to think about the news of the Wii U. At the end of the day, I have to say that I am going to pass. I played the Unit at Pax Prime, and thought that some games were okay, while others looked bad. After today The price and direction of the console so far has demonstrated to me that Nintendo is going to just continue to do what they did with the Wii. Bear in mind the Wii had some gems, but for a Nintendo console, I was overall disappointed. I just think that the market for their system is all wrong. I think that the gamers are going to wait for the gamer nintendo franchises to hit, and the families and moms that bought the Wii...have now moved on to facebook, phone, and other social media stuff. Its like the Wii U is trying too hard to be a next gen thing, showcasing slightly enhanced graphics and features that can be found on other devices that people ALREADY HAVE. Nintendoland is a confusing pack in. If you dont own additional wii controllers, you really only get to play part of the game. What I saw of the game, it really did not showcase the wow factor that Wii Sports offered six years ago. Sadly, I have to say that this might be a big miss for the big N.

[Andy]

I thought it looked impressive. The games announced so far are very tempting, and I won't deny that I've missed playing Mario and the other franchises for the past couple of console generations. Plus, I've never been a Playstation fan and Microsoft is not impressing me of late, so I'm starting to feel that my next generation options are basically either sticking with my PC, which I'd be happy to do, or giving the Wii U a shot. As for the price, I haven't bought a system at launch since the Xbox but I remember paying more for that than $350, so the price isn't fazing me much.

I'm not saying I'm totally up for it, but I'm more receptive to it than I was for the Wii.

[The Adventurer]

I wasnt expecting to get excited about the Wii U. I'll be the first to admit the Wii was a minor disappointment in terms of software. Don't get me wrong, there are some seriously great games on the Wii, and motion control is still a pretty cool as a game enhancing tool. But during its entire lifespan there was that one nagging disapointment that it wasn't an HD console.

Between HD support, more robust online integration, and the innovation the Wii U Gamepad promises this is shapping up to be one slick console at a really good price point. Add on the promise of a new Smash Bros over the horizon, a new 2D Mario game at launch, and some promising third party support. I have faith the Wii U is going to rock face.

My only problem is the price point of the Pro Controller. For something that you're going to want four-of $50 each is just nutty. Should have been no more then $35 IMO.

Oh, and everyone bellyaching about Bayonetta 2 being Wii U exclusive. You better thank your lucky stars. Sega was about to cancel development when Nintendo stepped in as publisher to save it.

[Leo_A]

While I see no reason to want one at launch, I'm in one of these days. Mario platformers, the Zelda series, Metroid, and Mario Kart are all it's going to take to justify this purchase.

But with nothing of the sort on the horizon anytime soon other than a plain vanilla NSMB release that recycles for the 3rd time now what we first saw years ago on the DS, I'm perfectly happy to wait.

[duffmanth]

So now that we know the answer to these two questions has your decision to get one at launch changed? I personally think it was smart of them to follow Microsoft's two sku strategy and $299 is a good start price.

The two SKUS is a good idea I think, choice is always good! The system itself actually looks pretty cool, I hope just Nintendo can deliver with great games this time around?! I wanna have a reason to buy a Nintendo console again, as the last one I bought was a SNES about 20 years ago. Mario, Zelda, and Metroid are still great series, but for fuck sakes come out with some NEW IP's!!!!

[kupomogli]

FYI:

Wii U
2 GB RAM
25 GB discs
22.5 MB/s disc read speed (vs. the PS3's 9 MB/s disc read speed)
built-in wi-fi (of course)
supports 1080p video and 6-channel PCM audio via HDMI
8 GB (basic) and 32 GB (deluxe) internal flash storage
New Super Mario Bros. U confirmed for day-one launch

Nintendo's official Wii U tech spec page:
http://www.nintendo.com/wiiu/features/tech-specs/

You forgot two bullet points.

Plays Wii games in 480i so they'll look like crap on your HDTV.
Doesn't play DVDs.

Also, I like how Nintendo spun off the fact that they only give you 8GB and 32GB of storage, because they allow you to purchase your own hard drive and don't want to force a hard drive size on you. Of course, all the Nintendo fanboys are going to get a hard on for this just because it's Nintendo, but all they're doing is cutting costs by not including a hard drive and having everyone purchase their own. They're not making money off the hard drives so they can get their consoles as cheap as they can giving the allusion that you're getting a good deal. With first party published titles almost never dropping in price, you're never getting a good deal with Nintendo.

Good thing I don't purchases much digital content.

[Dr. BaconStein]

If anything, my interest in the Wii U has gone down incrementally with each conference it's been shown in. I guess my main problem with it from the start is that it lacks focus. I feel like Nintendo is trying to do too many things at once without really putting that much thought into each individual aspect of it. I know people will hate me for this, but I have to be honest - it really just looks like they took one look at a 360 and an iPad and decided to slap them together without really deeply considering how it's going to work practically.

Yes, it looks cool on a novelty level, but what are you going to do when that new car smell wears off? When you really dig past the surface details, what is it that really separates this system from everything else released within the past ~7 years? What if it's really just the same games, with an extra (possibly unnecessary) screen?

Again, being totally honest... All the Wii U really did was give me a newfound interest in tablets (particularly the Chinese game tablets, with physical buttonns) and mobile gaming. I guess you can't really compare the two, since the Wii U is supposed to be strictly a home console (and one made in direct competition to Microsoft, apparently - I couldn't really tell, given the number of accelerometer mini games and mandatory non-gaming/web 2.0-centric baggage).

I think I'm just going to sit back and wait until one of these new systems has enough new games I'm interested in to warrant a purchase. It's not like there's any rush or anything. I have enough games as it is (plus the occasional retro/clone/tablet goodies here and there, considering there is just so much out there for a fraction of the cost) to keep me occupied for a very long time. Right now the only game for Wii U that really piques my interest is Nano Assault Neo, but it's going to take a lot more than that to actually make me want one.

[Bojay1997]

You forgot two bullet points.

Plays Wii games in 480i so they'll look like crap on your HDTV.
Doesn't play DVDs.

Also, I like how Nintendo spun off the fact that they only give you 8GB and 32GB of storage, because they allow you to purchase your own hard drive and don't want to force a hard drive size on you. Of course, all the Nintendo fanboys are going to get a hard on for this just because it's Nintendo, but all they're doing is cutting costs by not including a hard drive and having everyone purchase their own. They're not making money off the hard drives so they can get their consoles as cheap as they can giving the allusion that you're getting a good deal. With first party published titles almost never dropping in price, you're never getting a good deal with Nintendo.

Good thing I don't purchases much digital content.

You must have a really cheap/poor quality HDTV. My Sony displays Wii games just fine over component connections. While the resolution isn't Xbox 360/PS3 clarity, it still looks great. Really with the DVD? You can walk into any Walmart or Target in America and buy a DVD player for $30. Why would you ever want to use a game console to play DVDs in today's cheap DVD player world?

On the first party stuff, Nintendo games on the 3DS have been going as low as $5 - $10 through various retailers if you wait a while. That doesn't even include the inevitable B2G1 sales Best Buy, Amazon and TRU have every year. Nintendo's days of never having their first party titles drop in price are long over.

[The Adventurer]

Why would you ever want to use a game console to play DVDs in today's cheap DVD player world?

Well it does save a hook up on your TV, which can be useful if you have a lot of things.