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Nintendo Wii
shmokes:
Is your Mom going to buy herself one? How about people you know who have never "got" videogames.
They're supposedly aiming to expand the market by introducing millions of non-gamers to the joy of gaming. I can tell you right now that not many non-gamers are going to be sold by the new controller to the tune of $250. I know my mom sure ain't.
AlanS17:
The reality is that Nintendo (the company as a whole) is focusing on a younger market segment. They has been doing this for a long time. Look at titles from the Mario and Pokemon series for proof. This younger market segment is less sensitive to things like graphics and more sensitive to overall "fun factor". A new controller would probably go over well with them.
When they talk about being accessible to people who didn't play video games before, I think they probably mean either kids that were otherwise to young to play or people in the 18-35 age segment who just don't care about video games.
As for being "expensive", it's all relative. Compared to the other new systems, this one is cheap. It's much easier for kids to ask their parents for a Wii for Christmas than for a PS3 or XBOX 360.
Nintendo finally hit a homerun with the Nintendo DS. It's a console that appeals not only to the younger crowd, but to adults as well. I don't think this will carry over well to the Wii. That being said, it'll still be successful enough to keeping them from turning into Sega (by getting out of consoles and just making games). I was convinced that was going to happen at the end of the upcoming console generation if it didn't go well for them. I'm pretty sure they'll be safe now.
shmokes:
--- Quote from: AlanS17 on November 09, 2006, 09:54:16 am ---
It's much easier for kids to ask their parents for a Wii for Christmas than for a PS3 or XBOX 360.
--- End quote ---
$50 easier to be precise.
AtomSmasher:
--- Quote from: shmokes on November 09, 2006, 02:02:46 am ---Is your Mom going to buy herself one? How about people you know who have never "got" videogames.
They're supposedly aiming to expand the market by introducing millions of non-gamers to the joy of gaming. I can tell you right now that not many non-gamers are going to be sold by the new controller to the tune of $250. I know my mom sure ain't.
--- End quote ---
My Mom wouldn't buy one if the system only cost $50, neither would anyone else I know that have never "got" videogames. They see this system as just another gaming console, something they have no interest in regardless of the price. How cheap do you think the system should be? I can't imagine them selling it for less then $200 and I really don't think $50 is going to change too many peoples minds.
And you do realize that the 360 requires a harddrive for several of its features, which means even if you bought the $300 version, you'd still want to buy a $100 harddrive on top of that. Not to mention the fact that Wii games cost $10 less then 360 games, which means the Wii is cheaper in the long run for gamers as well.
Zero_Hour:
--- Quote from: shmokes on November 09, 2006, 01:07:36 am ---The fact is, Nintendo is not taking a loss on the hardware. Therefore you aren't getting a bargain on the hardware. You ARE getting a bargain on the PS3 and Xbox 360. The Wii is cheaper than the other two, but Sony and MS are losing hundreds of millions of dollars to give you their hardware at the price they are giving it to you. Nintendo is making a profit on their hardware.
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And MS has yet to turn a profit on XBOX, which were it not for their other divisions would make this conversation moot. Contrary to popular belief video game consoles have not been historically sold at a loss.
--- Quote ---And, for what it's worth, the Atari 2600 and Intellivision were not aimed at mainstream consumers. They were aimed at a small niche of gamers and they carried high price tags that mainstream consumers wouldn't even look at.
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You are so wrong here it's funny. Ataris were bought largely by parents for their children. The only videogames that really predated them were pong variants and the woefully undersold Odyssey. There were no nice gamers in that era. The price was a factor of new technology entering the mainstream market. Kind of like VCRs in the same era. The reason that videogames are still viewed as 'kids stuff' by a signifigant portion of America, is because for them, that's what they were.
--- Quote ---Supposedly that's what Nintendo's big thing was, opt out of the hardware arms race to offer the first console that was designed for and priced for mainstream audiences. They opted out of the arms race, as is evidenced by the screenshots above. But they gave us a box that is $50 less than the Xbox 360. $50? You mean to tell me that the only thing separating MS from this mainstream nirvana is $50?
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Nintendo's big thing was a mainstream price AND profitability. Not everyone has a monopoly in operating systems and office software to prop up their losses in video game console sales. Sony is in a similar position. They can sell at a loss due to their entertainment and other consumer electronics divisions. Nintendo is making the correct business decision, in my opinion.
--- Quote ---Dell doesn't make money for every piece of software you install on your computer. Dell has to make a profit on hardware. Nintendo take a piece of every game sold for Wii, regardless of who publishes it. This is how console makers get away with selling hardware at a loss. They take a loss on the hardware because it's a Trojan horse into your living room and they make up for the loss and then some because of all the software you buy. In the past console makers have understood this. Sony and MS still do. If Nintendo, who again is making a profit on every Wii sold, wanted the Wii to have a mass market price it could be A LOT cheaper than it is now.
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You are wrong again. There is no evidence that consoles were sold at a loss prior to XBOX. If you can find me some, I'd love to see it. Nintendo is wise to not take a loss on hardware. And Dell can sell on razor thin margins because they ship an insanely large number of systems. even if the Nintendo Wii dominates the marketplace, they can never hope to sell the kind of volume Dell can, because fortune 500 companies are not going to be putting game consoles on our desks at work anytime soon.
--- Quote ---I'll get a Wii before either of the other systems. If I can be called a fanboy for any company it is Nintendo. But for $250 it should be a lot better than it is.
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I'm getting one too, and I'm no fanboy - I had a used NES in the late 80's and that has been my only Nintendo purchase thus far. Your desire for Nintendo to follow a dubious, and still unproven business model for console sales does not diminish the potential of that console.