Author Topic: Wiis are now selling near PS3 launch prices! (Read 5394 times)

Chozo Ghost · « **on:** November 27, 2007, 04:11:03 AM »

Link to Neogaf

This is insane. Whoever heard of a console being so popular and still sold out a year after launch???

IceCold · « **Reply #1 on:** November 27, 2007, 11:55:34 AM »

I've asked this before, but what's the record for the length a console has gone before its initial price-cut? Because the Wii is on pace to shatter that.

GoldenPhoenix · « **Reply #2 on:** November 27, 2007, 12:16:57 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: IceCold
I've asked this before, but what's the record for the length a console has gone before its initial price-cut? Because the Wii is on pace to shatter that.

The Nintendo 64 DD? Lol

Khushrenada · « **Reply #3 on:** November 27, 2007, 04:57:07 PM »

I believe it may be 3 years or even longer than that. It should have been set by the NES. As I recall, Nintendo was brought to court on allegations of price-fixing due to the fact that the NES had been on the market for a long time yet the price for the console was still the same as it was when it was first realesed. Normally, the cost for electronics decreases the longer it is on the market so people began to question why it was still priced so high. That and the court case eventually led to them lowering the price for the console.

But I did no fact checking for this and just based my answer off memory and intuition. That makes this the best kind of answer.

DAaaMan64 · « **Reply #4 on:** November 27, 2007, 05:08:22 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Khushrenada
I believe it may be 3 years or even longer than that. It should have been set by the NES. As I recall, Nintendo was brought to court on allegations of price-fixing due to the fact that the NES had been on the market for a long time yet the price for the console was still the same as it was when it was first realesed. Normally, the cost for electronics decreases the longer it is on the market so people began to question why it was still priced so high. That and the court case eventually led to them lowering the price for the console.

But I did no fact checking for this and just based my answer off memory and intuition. That makes this the best kind of answer.

I wonder who Nintendo price fixed with? I don't recall them having competent competitors in the NES days.

anubis6789 · « **Reply #5 on:** November 27, 2007, 05:27:26 PM »

I thought that the price fixing litigation occured only in Europe, but like you I am basing this off memory and intuition, so take that as you will.

BlackNMild2k1 · « **Reply #6 on:** November 27, 2007, 07:49:36 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: DAaaMan64
Quote
Originally posted by: Khushrenada
I believe it may be 3 years or even longer than that. It should have been set by the NES. As I recall, Nintendo was brought to court on allegations of price-fixing due to the fact that the NES had been on the market for a long time yet the price for the console was still the same as it was when it was first realesed. Normally, the cost for electronics decreases the longer it is on the market so people began to question why it was still priced so high. That and the court case eventually led to them lowering the price for the console.

But I did no fact checking for this and just based my answer off memory and intuition. That makes this the best kind of answer.

I wonder who Nintendo price fixed with? I don't recall them having competent competitors in the NES days.

I just had a case of De Ja Vu...

Chozo Ghost · « **Reply #7 on:** November 28, 2007, 07:00:06 AM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Khushrenada
I believe it may be 3 years or even longer than that. It should have been set by the NES. As I recall, Nintendo was brought to court on allegations of price-fixing due to the fact that the NES had been on the market for a long time yet the price for the console was still the same as it was when it was first realesed. Normally, the cost for electronics decreases the longer it is on the market so people began to question why it was still priced so high. That and the court case eventually led to them lowering the price for the console.

But I did no fact checking for this and just based my answer off memory and intuition. That makes this the best kind of answer.

There is no such thing as price-fixing. There is only supply and demand. The NES was insanely popular for a VERY long period, so why shouldn't the price stay the same?

The bad thing about that time was there was no serious competition, but that wasn't really Nintendo's fault. They were just the only ones who made a console with games worth getting. Remember, this was back in the days of Atari where the market was flooded with crappy games like E.T.

Kairon · « **Reply #8 on:** November 28, 2007, 08:09:36 AM »

I thought that the price-fixing came because Nintendo wouldn't send stock to retailers who had a sale and sold the NES for cheaper than MSRP. Nintendo would then shift stock to the competing store chain that ratted them out. Or at least that's some of my hazy recollection of David Sheff's Nintendo history book Game Over.

Crimm · « **Reply #9 on:** November 28, 2007, 01:05:48 PM »

I think it's absolutely ridiculous that Nintendo can't find a way to get around this. How long will it take? 18 months? Two years? Three years?

If you intend to make a console for "every home" you better damn well have production that goes beyond what is generally regarded as needed for a "gamer" device.

Strell · « **Reply #10 on:** November 28, 2007, 01:13:58 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Crimm
I think it's absolutely ridiculous that Nintendo can't find a way to get around this. How long will it take? 18 months? Two years? Three years?

If you intend to make a console for "every home" you better damn well have production that goes beyond what is generally regarded as needed for a "gamer" device.

Are you kidding?

Of course Nintendo could get around this. And I'm positive they know how.

They just don't want to. And the big reason is because of money. To Nintendo, it is far less economic to open up a factory to produce another 500K units a month that might only be used for 2-3 months at the most. There is NO telling if and when - according to all the retarded fanboys and "industry evaluations" crap - the Wii will finally subside in terms of popularity.

I mean, hell. No one thought it would sell out last year at launch. And then everyone said it was going to die down in a few weeks. And then everyone said bla bla bla bla bla.

There's been a never ending string of excuses and justifications as to why the Wii has sold so well, but none of them are ever positive, and NONE of them give Nintendo any credit. I've heard everything from "just the fanboys buy it" to "it's a manufactured shortage" etc etc. It's like everyone was trying to find six degrees of explaining why the Wii could ever hope to sell, as if they were trying to figure out which movie it starred in with Kevin Bacon.

The point is that it is selling very well, and while Nintendo could easily commision more systems made per month, they don't want to front the cash. It's that simple.

Crimm · « **Reply #11 on:** November 28, 2007, 01:18:24 PM »

They need to move the units while they're still hot. Nintendo has enough money to afford temporary production increases, but maybe...just maybe they DO need to produce more units for the long term.

Blue Ocean folks.

UncleBob · « **Reply #12 on:** November 28, 2007, 01:32:25 PM »

Remember, they *did* increase the production once already, from 1.2 million units/month to 1.8 million units/month. That may not sound like a lot, but that's a 50% increase. We're talking about producing the same amount of units as Microsoft has in half the time. This, of course, is in addition to the large amounts of DS Lites they're churning out (in record numbers, apparently).

Is Nintendo milking the "shortage"? Possibly. But the fact remains, they're shipping (and, of course, selling) more Wiis that just about any other system *ever*.

Kairon · « **Reply #13 on:** November 28, 2007, 01:39:55 PM »

Nintendo's doing great. Their failure is in not anticipating just how great they could be doing. I guess that isn't too bad a failure though is it?

Crimm · « **Reply #14 on:** November 28, 2007, 02:13:24 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: UncleBob
Is Nintendo milking the "shortage"? Possibly. But the fact remains, they're shipping (and, of course, selling) more Wiis that just about any other system *ever*.

That is their stated mission with the Wii. Create a system that will reach an audience WAY beyond what video games have reached to this point. They were going to ride the wide blue ocean for sales the likes of which the industry has ever seen. The fact they are only producing Wii consoles at the scale of the PS2 makes me wonder if they believe the Blue Ocean themselves.

Chozo Ghost · « **Reply #15 on:** November 28, 2007, 02:25:23 PM »

I agree Nintendo needs to ramp up production and probably be churning out another 600,000 units a month or something. There is some old saying about striking when the iron is hot, and I think this applies here. Nintendo needs to strike by selling as many units as possible while the Wii is hot. If they wait until it is cool then they'll have shot themselves in the foot.

GoldenPhoenix · « **Reply #16 on:** November 28, 2007, 03:29:02 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Crimm
Quote
Originally posted by: UncleBob
Is Nintendo milking the "shortage"? Possibly. But the fact remains, they're shipping (and, of course, selling) more Wiis that just about any other system *ever*.

That is their stated mission with the Wii. Create a system that will reach an audience WAY beyond what video games have reached to this point. They were going to ride the wide blue ocean for sales the likes of which the industry has ever seen. The fact they are only producing Wii consoles at the scale of the PS2 makes me wonder if they believe the Blue Ocean themselves.

Do you realize how silly that sounds? Nintendo is churning out 1.8 million a month, few companies could ever dream of churning out that much per month for an electronic device. I know people like to use the PS2 as a comparison, because it is an easy straw man. "Well golly, the PS2 is 5 years old. That means all Nintendo needs to do is throw in some screws and other material, and POOF easy hardware has appeared" but things are not that simple, any console or device takes work to develop, no matter what the processing power it has in it. Not to mention one component, that people are also forgetting, the Wii is made up of parts from different brand names, it isn't just Nintendo that makes it, it is a group effort and some companies may be pushing their capacity already, especially ones that are creating other products.

IceCold · « **Reply #17 on:** November 28, 2007, 04:38:57 PM »

Quote
There's been a never ending string of excuses and justifications as to why the Wii has sold so well, but none of them are ever positive, and NONE of them give Nintendo any credit. I've heard everything from "just the fanboys buy it" to "it's a manufactured shortage" etc etc. It's like everyone was trying to find six degrees of explaining why the Wii could ever hope to sell, as if they were trying to figure out which movie it starred in with Kevin Bacon.

The truth in this paragraph is uncanny.

Quote
That is their stated mission with the Wii. Create a system that will reach an audience WAY beyond what video games have reached to this point. They were going to ride the wide blue ocean for sales the likes of which the industry has ever seen.

It was exactly that - a mission. After being bit bad by the GameCube (and having only so many manufacturing factories because of its poor sales), and taking one of the biggest risk the videogame industry has known, do you honestly think Nintendo would pump out millions and millions more Wiis from the outset? The demand for the console is nearly impossible to forecast. Nintendo has always been a conservative company, and what they did (and are doing) is much, much better than having millions of excess inventory. That would be a huge problem for both retailers and Nintendo.

GoldenPhoenix · « **Reply #18 on:** November 28, 2007, 04:45:28 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: IceCold
Quote
There's been a never ending string of excuses and justifications as to why the Wii has sold so well, but none of them are ever positive, and NONE of them give Nintendo any credit. I've heard everything from "just the fanboys buy it" to "it's a manufactured shortage" etc etc. It's like everyone was trying to find six degrees of explaining why the Wii could ever hope to sell, as if they were trying to figure out which movie it starred in with Kevin Bacon.
The truth in this paragraph is uncanny

I have grown tired of all this complaining, it is like people refuse to believe that Nintendo is actually wiping the floor with the competition. When you sell 1.8 million or so systems in a month, that is stunning, but NOOOO that isn't good enough, even though it is becoming the fastest selling console EVER (Excluding handhelds).

Crimm · « **Reply #19 on:** November 28, 2007, 06:17:57 PM »

It isn't good enough. Not if you could sell 2 million a month.

Kairon · « **Reply #20 on:** November 28, 2007, 06:28:34 PM »

Geez, it's not a crime to not have a crystal ball.

Crimm · « **Reply #21 on:** November 29, 2007, 09:06:39 AM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Kairon
Geez, it's not a crime to not have a crystal ball.

It was; you witch.

Plugabugz · « **Reply #22 on:** November 29, 2007, 09:15:54 AM »

Given that Nintendo is producing 1.8 million Wii's a month how far can it keep going upwards?

Doesn't anybody remember this time 2 years ago when Nintendo had to CEASE gamecube production because there was too much unsold stock?

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Author Topic: Wiis are now selling near PS3 launch prices! (Read 5394 times)