Shane Satterfield: Wii U will cost $299

I was hoping it would be $250... because it would be $50 less we have to pay lol.

But $300 has always been the predicted price. I just hope NintendoLand is packed-in with that. It has to be.
 
If it comes in at $299 with one of the best launch lineups I have ever seen then I expect Nintendo to have an absolute banner year.
 
carfo said:
Seems like the Wii U should have come out along side the Xbox and ps3, it just feels so late, not really early.
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It's a huge upgrade for Nintendo's system. If third partys were smart. they'd bet on WiiU heavily rather than trying to move onto a more graphics heavy PS/MS platform. All that's going to mean is costs are going to go up and they can't afford it. They can barely afford this gen and even then most can't.

A big graphics bump on PS4/720 would be a huge mistake for the industry. I'd buy it but I don't really want to see all my favorite companies go out of business trying to be "next gen."
 
Einbroch said:
People seem to forget this fact. It's competing against the PC, 360, PS3, and yes, even the Vita and 3DS lineup this fall. Throw in smartphones if you want. If the lineup of those other systems was garbage, then people would have a point. For a launch lineup, it's not bad. However, it's not competing against other launch lineups.
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Launch lineups almost never compete with eachother directly and yet they are almost always bad. This launch lineup isn't bad by launch lineup standards. The point is that when a new console launches, the bulk of its launch are going to be ports and thrown together games since the devs haven't had a lot of time with the hardware. In WiiU's case some of the unique games it's getting at launch actually look worthwhile. PS2's main launch game was Fantavision ffs.
 
Aselith said:
It's a huge upgrade for Nintendo's system. If third partys were smart. they'd bet on WiiU heavily rather than trying to move onto a more graphics heavy PS/MS platform. All that's going to mean is costs are going to go up and they can't afford it. They can barely afford this gen and even then most can't.

A big graphics bump on PS4/720 would be a huge mistake for the industry. I'd buy it but I don't really want to see all my favorite companies go out of business trying to be "next gen."
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What? PS4/720 will hit hardware that is pretty close to what top end PCs are, the differences in development budgets between target hardware isn't going to be a big change there. The next hardware jump isn't going to cause the big development cost increases we saw in the last generation. That was more of an issue with ramping up projects to compete at a AAA regardless of target audience and developers fumbling around trying to manage such large development teams. Development costs will be pretty level.

Besides, most art assets are already created at much higher resolutions or poly counts than what we see and are either used to generate bump maps or down rezzed for actual use in games.
 
Kaijima said:
I think anyone who was expecting $250 + something like a pack-in game was very much mislead, and/or bought in to that "LOL WII U IS 2005 TECH IT SHOULD BE 99 BUCKS" nonsense.

I expected $300, but *with* Nintendoland turned into a pack-in game. I think Nintendo would be very misguided to forgo a pack-in after the Wii. Wii U has to appeal equally to hardcore gamers, and everybody else.

If it's $300 with no pack-in or any other kind of special incentive, then it's a bit much / presented wrong.

Of course, the hitch may be that Nintendoland requires an m+ wiimote for some of its games, so Nintendo would have to be packing in a wiimote + game.

It is always possible they'll go hardcore old school and pack in NSMB U. Now that would be something to see.
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At $300 with a pack-in, I'm inclined to buy it on release. However, Nintendoland has to be a pack-in. The game just will not sell otherwise. I don't mind Nintendoland, I'm curious enough that I'd be happy to own it, but I wouldn't go out of my way and spend $60 on it either. I imagine most gamers feel the same way. I'm completely willing to go out of my way and buy NSMBWiiU, though.

I'm also excited to have some of my current Wii games upscaled.
 
RagnarokX said:
Launch lineups almost never compete with eachother directly and yet they are almost always bad. This launch lineup isn't bad by launch lineup standards. The point is that when a new console launches, the bulk of its launch are going to be ports and thrown together games since the devs haven't had a lot of time with the hardware. In WiiU's case some of the unique games it's getting at launch actually look worthwhile. PS2's main launch game was Fantavision ffs.
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Very eloquently put.
 
Alchemy said:
What? PS4/720 will hit hardware that is pretty close to what top end PCs are, the differences in development budgets between target hardware isn't going to be a big change there. The next hardware jump isn't going to cause the big development cost increases we saw in the last generation. That was more of an issue with ramping up projects to compete at a AAA regardless of target audience and developers fumbling around trying to manage such large development teams. Development costs will be pretty level.

Besides, most art assets are already created at much higher resolutions or poly counts than what we see and are either used to generate bump maps or down rezzed for actual use in games.
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I don't see that happening, with Sony's money problems and Microsoft wants all the casuals to be on their side meaning the prices of both consoles will have to be cheap, $350 at highest, of course they can take a huge loss but that's not smart at all.

We know the WiiU/PS4/X720 architecture is very close to each other so it will not be like Wii vs PS3/360 next gen.
 
Meelow said:
I don't see that happening, with Sony's money problems and Microsoft wants all the casuals to be on their side meaning the prices of both consoles will have to be cheap, $350 at highest, of course they can take a huge loss but that's not smart at all.

We know the WiiU/PS4/X720 architecture is very close to each other so it will not be like Wii vs PS3/360 next gen.
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I should have prefaced with "the biggest jump we could hope for". And yes, the hardware architecture will be a big bonus for keeping development costs under control.
 
$300 is reasonable. If it comes with a pack in game or like $20 in WiiU currency for buying WiiUware games (like they did with DSi).


If no pack in I think $250 is the sweet spot.


I thin the Lauch window lineup looks awesome so I will be picking up day one. Zombie U was fun at E3 and cant wait to see it with a few more months of work.
 
hopefully with nintendoland or something packed in.

Wario64 said:
He also said the Wii U launch line up is looking pretty damn good. Yep
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so now the WU's launch lineup isn't good? man, some elements of GAF are really tripping over themselves in these threads.

Bleepey said:
POS does not even play Blu Ray. Give me a break.
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yeah, that's really disappointing cause nintendo's always been about huge multimedia devices, they really dropped the ball here
plus you know that's really gonna be an important feature in the coming years too
 
Alchemy said:
I should have prefaced with "the biggest jump we could hope for". And yes, the hardware architecture will be a big bonus for keeping development costs under control.
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Exactly, and if people are against $300 for the Wii U than they won't be happy if the PS4 and 720 are $400 lol.
 
Forsaken82 said:
People who currently own a 360 and/or PS3 think the lineup is bad yes... Wii only owners have a lot to look forward to however.
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How soon we all forget the amazing launch lineups of Perfect Dark Zero, Kameo (alright), Resistance (actually good) and Genji lol
 
I've set aside $450. I'm good. Pro controller in black. Console in black. And 1-2 launch games (probably NSMBU and Darksiders II)
 
evilromero said:
Kind of curious. What made you think $250? Seems unrealistic considering the hardware and controller. $300 seems about right to me.
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I didn't think it was $250, that's just all I'm willing to pay.

Also, care to provide a cost breakdown of the hardware? I'm curious as to what Nintendo has to price it at to make a profit.
 
Meelow said:
Exactly, and if people are against $300 for the Wii U than they won't be happy if the PS4 and 720 are $400 lol.
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Well under the best case scenario, the PS3 and 720 should at least be close to a generational leap, while the Wii U is very comfortably on par with current gen systems from all examples given. My expectation is that the Wii U will have slightly more VRAM for higher resolution textures (not extremely higher), and enough extra horsepower to push the pad controller and maintain 720p.

If we're paying $300 for current gen++ in the WiiU, $400 is fairly reasonable for a PS3/720. But honestly I only expect Sony to give us an actual next gen gaming system because the 720 is going to have to deal with the Kinect 2's overhead.
 
Even at 200$ I would still hesitate to buy it. The spectre of the wii still haunts my wallet.

The only title I'd be interested in is ZombiU, but it's not a system seller for me.

When a few more games I want come out, I might bite.
 
Sandfox said:
I'm kinda surprised that people expect the Wii U to cost $200. They are going to be disappointed when they see what prices Sony and Microsoft try to get away with in the next year or so regardless of the device's power.
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They will trick themselves into thinking that the value is there same way people were doing with the PS3...
 
Alchemy said:
Well under the best case scenario, the PS3 and 720 should at least be close to a generational leap, while the Wii U is very comfortably on par with current gen systems from all examples given. My expectation is that the Wii U will have slightly more VRAM for higher resolution textures (not extremely higher), and enough extra horsepower to push the pad controller and maintain 720p.

If we're paying $300 for current gen++ in the WiiU, $400 is fairly reasonable for a PS3/720. But honestly I only expect Sony to give us an actual next gen gaming system because the 720 is going to have to deal with the Kinect 2's overhead.
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Yeah but the Wii U is not on par with PS3/360, it's more powerful, if the sources and rumors are right the power will be...

Wii U = PS2
PS4/720 = Gamecube
PS4/720= Xbox

It won't be that bad, and the Gamepad helps it, if the PS4 sticks with Duel Shock 4 than it could hurt it more than help it.
 
Wii U not playing Blu-Ray movies is a totally different deal than when the Wii couldn't play DVD's. In a few years time it's going to be all about Digital HD movies and Streaming content, it's a smart choice by Nintendo when you think about it.
 
Zeer0id said:
is this what people even want? I still watch blu-rays, but more often than not I'm mocked for it. seems like Netflix and Hulu are what everyone's into these days.
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If the Wii U had Blu-Ray playback, it would be another feature that would strengthen the value of the Wii U since PS3 is the only console to have it. I find it silly for them to have the technology but not use it to put something as simple as playing a DVD into the console. Now Wii U is going to have to play catchup with Xbox and Playstation as they both already have Netflix, Hulu, Vudu, BBC Player, ESPN, etc. This fall is going to be interesting to say the least.

Trevelyan9999 said:
Wii U not playing Blu-Ray movies is a totally different deal than when the Wii couldn't play DVD's. In a few years time it's going to be all about Digital HD movies and Streaming content, it's a smart choice by Nintendo when you think about it.
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No it's not. Physical media is not going away anytime soon and certainly not in the next few years. Besides, most of the United States is nowhere near connected internet wise to support such a massive jump to streaming and digital downloads. The potential is there but it's not going to overtake physical media not for a while.
 
Sarcastic Response said:
If the Wii U had Blu-Ray playback, it would be another feature that would strengthen the value of the Wii U since PS3 is the only console to have it. I find it silly for them to have the technology but not use it to put something as simple as playing a DVD into the console. Now Wii U is going to have to play catchup with Xbox and Playstation as they both already have Netflix, Hulu, Vudu, BBC Player, ESPN, etc. This fall is going to be interesting to say the least.
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I just don't think anyone cares about blu-ray playback. Certainly not enough people to warrant paying all that licensing bullshit to Sony and other parties.

Even with the Wii and DVDs, they omitted it because everyone had a DVD player already. I think by now, those who actually want a blu-ray player have one. Everyone else has accepted the digital/streaming future.
 
Nintendo consoles have never played anything but games (aside from the Japan only Panasonic Q) so it would be silly to expect them to start doing differently now.

I already have 3 Blu Ray players so I couldn't care less, but I can definitely see why people would want it there. It's nice to have
 
Alchemy said:
If we're paying $300 for current gen++ in the WiiU, $350 + 2 years forced subscription is fairly reasonable for a PS3/720.
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fixed

and no

if anyone really thinks that a super powered 720 with gimmicky kinect 2.0 will cost just a little more than the Wii U, then he is out of his mind. It will rather be not that overpowered or it will be really pricey. Of course, they won't put a 600$ sticker on it. They will put a 350$ sticker on it and add 2 years subscription. So people will think it's pretty "cheap".
 
Zeer0id said:
I just don't think anyone cares about blu-ray playback. Certainly not enough people to warrant paying all that licensing bullshit to Sony and other parties.

Even with the Wii and DVDs, they omitted it because everyone had a DVD player already. I think by now, those who actually want a blu-ray player have one. Everyone else has accepted the digital/streaming future.
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Yeah personally, I'd rather not have the Wii U play Blu Ray movies. I already have one so I see no reason for Nintendo to force their consumers to pay extra for a feature they already have.
 
Sarcastic Response said:
If the Wii U had Blu-Ray playback, it would be another feature that would strengthen the value of the Wii U since PS3 is the only console to have it. I find it silly for them to have the technology but not use it to put something as simple as playing a DVD into the console. Now Wii U is going to have to play catchup with Xbox and Playstation as they both already have Netflix, Hulu, Vudu, BBC Player, ESPN, etc. This fall is going to be interesting to say the least.
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this makes no sense. the system's pushing DD, and wii already had netflix & hulu. you're not really following their strategy of cost effectiveness here - the wii barely played DVDs out of the box, do you think that "weakness of value" hurt sales? this isn't exactly a new element to their philosophy here.
 
Sarcastic Response said:
If the Wii U had Blu-Ray playback, it would be another feature that would strengthen the value of the Wii U since PS3 is the only console to have it. I find it silly for them to have the technology but not use it to put something as simple as playing a DVD into the console. Now Wii U is going to have to play catchup with Xbox and Playstation as they both already have Netflix, Hulu, Vudu, BBC Player, ESPN, etc. This fall is going to be interesting to say the least.



No it's not. Physical media is not going away anytime soon and certainly not in the next few years. Besides, most of the United States is nowhere near connected internet wise to support such a massive jump to streaming and digital downloads. The potential is there but it's not going to overtake physical media not for a while.
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I could be wrong, but wouldn't Nintendo have to pay Sony to use/allow blu ray playback or discs? Don't expect next Xbox to use it either if this is the case
 
Trevelyan9999 said:
Wii U not playing Blu-Ray movies is a totally different deal than when the Wii couldn't play DVD's. In a few years time it's going to be all about Digital HD movies and Streaming content, it's a smart choice by Nintendo when you think about it.
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Netflix streams in HD and with Blockbuster and Amazon Video pushing for day and date DVD/Blu Ray parity Blu Ray playback and the royalties that goes with it would be useless. It's a cost cutting measure.
 
Drago said:
Nintendo consoles have never played anything but games (aside from the Japan only Panasonic Q) so it would be silly to expect them to start doing differently now.

I already have 3 Blu Ray players so I couldn't care less, but I can definitely see why people would want it there. It's nice to have
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This ^. I don't want to be more for the Wii U because of added licensing fees to play blu rays when the console will support streaming apps like Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube while I also have 4 other blu ray playing devices in my household.

I buy video game consoles to play video games.
 
This is the price I think most people expect the Wii U to be. I'm guessing though at least some of the negative responses are taking this literally and not assuming a pack in game. Until we hear DEFINITELY differently I'm going to assume Nintendo Land is a pack in game.
 
Sarcastic Response said:
No it's not. Physical media is not going away anytime soon and certainly not in the next few years. Besides, most of the United States is nowhere near connected internet wise to support such a massive jump to streaming and digital downloads. The potential is there but it's not going to overtake physical media not for a while.
Click to expand...



I disagree, since at the end of 2011 40 million US households already owned a Blu-Ray player: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/story/2012-01-10/blu-ray-sales-2011/52473310/1

Not to mention that it will become more common to buy a Blu-Ray movie and have the digital copy to go with it. I just don't believe it's much of an issue at all for the Wii U to not have Blu-Ray play-ability.
 
Drago said:
Nintendo consoles have never played anything but games (aside from the Japan only Panasonic Q) so it would be silly to expect them to start doing differently now.

I already have 3 Blu Ray players so I couldn't care less, but I can definitely see why people would want it there. It's nice to have
Click to expand...

Well even Wii and 3DS have netflix. The point is as you say in your second paragraph; Nintendo knows that anyone who wants these things will already have devices that do them, so why would they increase the cost of their product for no good reason?
 
Rayman Legends
NintendoLands
ZombieU
Pikmin 3
New Super Mario Bros U
Some usual ports (Mass Effect 3, Darksiders 2, Madden etc)

Pretty good for launch IMO.
 
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