Nintendo Wii Fanboy

So the Wii is two years old now. Huzzah! But looking back, with everything you might have bought for your system (excluding games), do you feel like it was a bargain? It was the cheapest of this generation's home consoles, after all, and the bargain aspect was played up by a lot of people. At this point in time, do you feel like you got a good deal on your Wii? Even if you don't, was it/is it worth it?

Mito Securities analyst Yoichiro Watanabe has weighed in on the buzz surrounding tomorrow's Nintendo Media Summit, suggesting that a Wii price cut is unlikely. Frankly, it's hard to disagree with the man. As Watanabe points out, demand is still through the roof, and the Holiday season is only going to ramp up Wii fever to ridiculous, hair-pulling levels.

More controversially, Watanabe thinks Nintendo should force us all to add to our growing collection of plastic doohickeys and controller shells, on the basis that adding new peripherals to the Wii has worked well for the company. That's not exactly a move we're in favor of (our living rooms are now mostly plastic), and Iwata has already stated that new add-ons are unlikely.

[Via Gamasutra]

Nintendo just sent us a press release confirming our darkest fears: Wii Fit is going to cost almost 1/3rd the price of a Wii at $90. Ouch, our wallets!

Of course, we all pretty much knew this was coming, but it's one thing to think something and another to have it told to you. That sound you hear? It's our wallets breathing a sigh of relief, for they know that us lowly bloggers cannot afford such a costly package.

With the bundle costing so much, we wonder if it'll do as well as some think it will?

Nintendo did say that Wii Fit would come in at under $100. According to (a blurry snapshot of what looks like) a Gamestop release list, American gamers will be shelling out $89.99 for the game and the included Balance Board peripheral when it releases on May 19th. According to this semi-mysterious source, the preorder deposit for the game will be $10 instead of the normal $5.

$90 is certainly a lot less than Europe and Australia will be paying for Wii Fit, and it seems like a fair price for the program and the hardware. But we can't help but feel slightly amused that we (and so many others) will gladly shell out almost $100 just to have our game consoles call us fat every day.



[Via GoNintendo]

Though Europeans will get their hands and feet on Wii Fit as soon as April 25th, a month before us Yanks, they'll pay a premium for that privilege -- £69.99 (approx. $138) in the UK and €89.99 (approx. $133) in the rest of Europe.

These price points are a stark contrast to the results from a recent IGN poll asking readers how much they would be willing to pay for the exercise software and balance board peripheral. Of the 6116 people surveyed, 27.6% stated that they would not pay above $49.99, the lowest-price poll option, 15.9% claimed the same for $59.99, 18.9% chose $69.99, 22.5% set their limit at $79.99, and 7.4% still showed interest at the $89.99 and $99.99 marks.

It can be argued that European gamers are used to paying much higher prices than their North American counterparts and that Guitar Hero III bundles were also priced at £69.99/€89.99, but that's still a lot more expensive than how much we expected. At the recent Game Developers Conference, Nintendo of America mentioned that the Wii Fit bundle would be under $100 for the US.

Do the prices of Virtual Console games seem high to you? They do to us, as well, but it turns out that they may not be as bad a deal as they look. JJ Hendricks compared some recent secondhand sale prices for vintage games with their VC price, and found that for almost every VC system, you save money by buying the virtual version -- if you buy every game. With the exception of the NES, the aggregate cost of every VC game for each system was lower than the cost of physical copies. In the case of the Turbografx-16, the difference is especially dramatic: when calculating the difference between total cost (which was already $883 in favor of the Virtual Console), JJ couldn't find a recent price for the super-rare Dynastic Hero. One of those just ended on eBay for an initial bid of $350.

Of course, with the Virtual Console, you don't get a physical item. That may be important to you, and used to be for us, but these days, with limited storage space and unlimited desire for things, we find it slightly distasteful when something takes up space. In that regard, virtual copies are a bonus for us.

Where this really falls apart is buying individual games. You're unlikely to buy every game using either method, and while you save on something like Shining Force ($31.99 out in the real world vs. $8) you lose on more common stuff like Soccer (which you shouldn't be buying anyway). But the point stands that the Virtual Console pricing is not ... one hundred percent terrible.

Of course, you could always just use this article as a guide to which games to buy on the VC and which to buy from eBay. Be a smart shopper!

We didn't think much of Michael Pachter's suggestion about selling the Wii without Wii Sports at a fifty dollar discount, and from the comments, you didn't either. There just doesn't seem to be much reason to change anything when the consoles don't sit on shelves long enough to get comfortable. But what we really wanted to consider this morning is a slightly different question: is Wii Sports worth $50? Sure, for a lot of us, it gets just as much play as our more hardcore games, especially when there are extra people in the house. The same friends who used to set up extra televisions and drag over their 360s for a few in-room sessions of Halo team play now just move the table and do a little bowling instead. It's fun and engaging, and even our nongaming friends don't usually mind joining in for a few rounds. Even we Wii Fanboys here are sometimes surprised by how successful the Wii has been with the people we know, and Wii Sports is a big part of that. But even with all of that taken into consideration, do you think Wii Sports is worth the price of a new, non-budget title?

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick has some ideas on how things get done in the industry. To him, price is critical to the success of a console, he explained to Reuters. And, while we agree that a lower cost is going to help a console on the shelf, ultimately we believe the console's games and features are what help it stand out the most.

Bobby K (as he's lovingly known here around the offices) said "The Wii at its price point is now setting a standard and an expectation, and people say, well, the Wii is less complex technically. I don't think that really matters as much to the consumer." He went on further to discuss Sony's PS3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360 systems, stating "In the next 24 months they all will need to be at that $199 price point, and you can imagine Nintendo will be down to the $129 price point over the next few years."

Now, obviously Nintendo has no reason to cut the price on their system since, well, not even the folks working the assembly lines can seem to find one (we imagine they disappear in a cloud of smoke upon completion at the factory). But, that doesn't mean that we won't entertain opinions on when you think the console will lower itself in price.

So, what do you think?

[Via NeoGAF]

Just yesterday, we were discussing the insane prices for Wiis on eBay, but the online auction service isn't the only place anxious consumers will pay through the nose for a Wii. Bundles at many stores, even with multiple games, are more than they should be for all the components included, and all the Amazon marketplace sellers are charging crazy amounts for consoles. As the month wears on, how high do you think prices will go -- and how do you feel about the phenomenon, particularly in regard to retailers overcharging for bundles?

Those of us interested in exploring the (fake) ocean depths won't need to dive too deeply into their wallets. The price for Endless Ocean has dropped from $39.99 to $29.99, putting it squarely into "impulse purchase" territory when it releases on January 21.

It could use the advantage; the first couple of months of 2008 are actually going to be pretty heavy on releases, with Smash Bros. and No More Heroes clamoring for our money, and smaller stuff like Blast Works pushed back into that period as well. We'd like to support unique games like Endless Ocean, but we can't do that if we're out of money. Luckily, by virtue of being a smaller number, it's easier to come up with $30 than it is $40! Good move, Nintendo. We love this new trend of discounted first-party games.

[Via NeoGAF]

With the holiday season right around the corner, this is the time when everyone in the industry talks price cuts. The Xbox 360 has cut its price down, the PS3 has (multiple times, it seems) and everyone is looking at the Wii and wondering if Nintendo too will follow suit. According to company president Satoru Iwata, Nintendo has no plans whatsoever.

"We're still focusing on how to meet booming demand," Iwata stated, as the company has had several issues with getting its product out onto store shelves and keep it there for consumers to pick up. "We're absolutely not considering a price cut," he adds. And, really, why should they? Nintendo has the most popular console on the market and it's still the cheapest, as well.

Though some would argue that €30 (approximately $43, thanks to the devalued US dollar) isn't much to ask for Nintendo's official Wii Zapper and Link's Crossbow Training, when the same bundle will be selling for less than half that in North America, Nintendo of Europe's price point starts to sound like a rip-off.

But that's how much Europeans can expect to pay if they hope to pick up the Wii Zapper set. According to NintendojoFR, the overpriced accessory ships out this December 8th, just in time to rob you before the holiday season. For those of you in the US and planning to pick it up for $20 this November 19th, would you spend $43 on the bundle?

Wii games are available at a variety of prices, from the cheapest Virtual Console offerings, to budget new releases, and on up to the newest non-budget games ... and that's without even considering waiting a few months for games to hit the used or reduced-price bins. Of course, every system has its pricing tiers, and lucky us -- we get a break on new games. But even with that in mind, the costs can really mount up! The sensible gamer, however, can usually keep things within the realm of a reasonable budget.

Still, with all of the people reporting yesterday that they hunt for bargains, we wanted to ask: how do you feel about current game pricing, from downloadable titles (on the Wii and elsewhere) to the prices of new retail games? Do you feel like you're getting your money's worth when you buy a game?

Probably not. Even though the PS3 is cheaper and the Xbox 360 dropped its price a little while ago, the odds of the Wii dropping its price are pretty slim. Still, that hasn't stopped the rumor mill from churning out its usual volume of "you know what."

So, let's hear your opinions on this whole price cut thing. Are you of the mind that Nintendo needs to do this so that it can better compete this holiday season? Do you think the Wii's $249.99 price tag doesn't need to be lowered? Price cuts are eventual, but do you think this holiday is the right time for it or perhaps a later date is more appropriate?

Whoever said the cost of living is high never lived within the confines of a video game. Turns out, the price of a life trapped inside of a disc is rather reasonable, as Rockstar's Manhunt 2 will only charge you the small sum of $39.99 to get in on its action.

Since we were interested in the game anyway, this news only causes our anticipation for gesture-based homicide to grow that much more. We do wonder, though, if any of you skeptics out there are brought down from the fence?