Main > Consoles
Nintendo Wii
shmokes:
--- Quote from: shmokes on November 09, 2006, 02:42:31 pm ---
Playstation was presumably sold at a loss, considering it was more powerful than the Saturn, which was selling at a loss, and they brought it to America at $299 while it was $499.
--- End quote ---
Didn't finish that sentence for some reason. It should read at the end: while it was $499 in Japan.
So the Saturn was selling for $399 in America at a loss and then the Playstation, which was going for $499 in Japan, came over with a more power system and undercut Sega by $100. That's why I say PS1 presumably went at a loss.
And just to clarify, it's not you who claimed that it was coming at an unheard of low price. It was Nintendo. Instead of fixing a price at E3 they were all winks and smiles, saying they couldn't reveal anything yet, but it was going to be a mainstream price. Their entire philosophy behind developing an underpowered machine is specifically to give us an extremely inexpensive machine. Tokyo Game Show we get nothing but deflections and winks on price. Liepzig gives us nothing but winks and grins.
Then they give us a completely traditional price that is only $50 less than the MUCH more powerful Xbox 360 for a system that is barely more powerful than the Gamecube that currently sells for $100 and I think got as low as $80 at one point.
It should be more powerful or cheaper.
Okay . . . I'll stop being a broken record. I think you know how I feel about it by now :P And it'll still be the first of the next-gen systems I own and would be even if it were $299 -- the same price as an Xbox 360. I'm just disappointed in Nintendo. I think this is a mistake that will cost them market leadership once again. They could have gone head to head with MS and beat them hands down IMO. Now they will be profitable, but they will not regain market dominance.
SirPoonga:
Depending on the price :)
I think it is a smart move. Remember the NES coming with SMB. you jus tneed to buy one package. It's a smart move considering the launch is right before the holidays.
AlanS17:
Who buys the cheap XBOX 360 package? I don't know anybody who has. And PS3's are crazy expensive. By comparison, you get a complete, fully functional game system for less than anyone else out there.
A product's price affects its perceived value. I would be wary of the new Wii if it costed $200. I'd say, "What a piece of crap that thing must be!" Know what I mean?
Plus there is the matter of exclusive titles. It's one of the things that's kept Nintendo afloat for a long time. Mario, Zelda, Metroid... these are games you can't find anywhere else. What would a Mario game with mind-blowing realism look like? How would the world react if they start seeing the Nintendo characters they've grown to love over the past 20 years turn into something life-like. Personally, I think it would be kind of odd. Excuse me if I like my Nintendo characters to look al ittle cartoony.
Also keep in mind all the things a Wii can do that other systems can't do at ANY price level such as emulation. Want to get online wirelessly with your XBOX360? I hope you've got another $50 to shell out for a wireless adapter. Want integration with your handheld game console? Sure you can do that, if you buy a $500 PS3. Want a motion-sensitive controller? The only other option is the PS3 with their very weak motion detection. What the Wii can't do in horsepower, it attempts to make up in features.
I'm hardly a Nintendo fanboy. I haven't bought a Nintendo console in 15 years. It wasn't just the features of the Wii that made it so likeable, though. It was the price.
How many people saw a $400 XBOX360 and said, "Dude that sucks"? How many people won't even buy a PS3 for a couple years because it costs too much? Now, how many people are gonna look at a Wii and jump at the chance to own a next-gen console at a very reasonable price?
</rant>
shmokes:
A #1 - I guess PS3 wins with the highest perceived value. Actually, in pure economic terms, PS3 is probably the best value because Sony is taking subsidizing so much of the cost so you're getting $900 of hardware for $600 or some such rot. Of course there's a lot more to value than simply how much a thing costs.
B #2 - The last two movies I saw in the theatres were The Departed and Monster House. The Departed was pretty realistic and Monster House was pretty cartoony. Having the capability of producing life-like graphics obviously does not preclude your ability to produce cartoony graphics. Hell, look at the difference between Ocarina of Time/Majora's Mask and Wind Waker. Wind Waker was on a far more powerful system then the previous two and had far more cartoony graphics than the previous two.
C #3 - I'm pretty sure that the 360 also has a lot of emulated content in its LIVE Arcade.
D #4 - You don't need to sell me on the Wii. I'm damned excited about the controller and about the console itself (though, only because of the controller, of course). I've been evangelizing for the system for ages and still do. I want it to be the most successful system of the three because I've thought for ages that gamepads were an incredibly primitive input and control methods weren't advancing nearly as fast as audio and video and physics and AI, etc. I'm all about the Wii. I just think it could and should be better than it is for the price.
tommy:
--- Quote from: shmokes on November 09, 2006, 01:07:36 am ---
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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I don't agree. The first few consoles ever made were made to bring the arcade games that people of all ages enjoyed and went to an arcade to play able to play at home. The games we now consider classics that were originally only played in arcades were the first to be offered in any home console and did end up killing the arcade.
People of all walks of life, kids and adults played ms pacman and once offered at home on the Atari took the arcade home for all to enjoy, not a small percent as you seem to think.