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DC was pretty high-tech gear back in 1999. Wii is a GameCube with a remote. Like I said all this shit is probably costing them $75 to make.Quote:
Originally Posted by magnifiedplaid
Wii is indisputably a blatant voyage for money hats. The initial cost, accessories costs, VC costs ($8 for a SNES game? GFY), etc. The pricing is outlandish.
I hate $50 controllers.
Stolen from Magic Box Forums who stole it from Wired:
• Will the Wii be region-free? Yes. Like the Nintendo DS, the Wii will be able to play games from other regions, such as Japan, without any restriction. Kaplan implied there might be a region lock that publishers would be able to flip on, but it doesn't sound like the first-party titles from Nintendo will be restricted.
• Will games downloaded from the Virtual Console store be tied to an account like Xbox Live or a one-time-only download like iTunes? Tied to an account. Kaplan discussed a scenario where a player's Wii was broken or destroyed, but would be able to re-download titles they had previously bought to a new Wii machine. Because my left leg was burning from an accidental Zippo oil spill, I neglected to ask if a user would be able to log into friends' Wiis and play their Virtual Console downloads away from their home machine.
• Will Wii users be able to add storage via USB hard drives? No. The Wii's storage will be exclusively via flash memory storage, such as SD memory cards, at least at launch. Kaplan said a hard drive addition could be in the future, but that sounds more like a "Sure, why not?" response than one based in any immediate plans.
• How much will Opera cost? Unknown. No price has yet been set for the download-able Opera web browser, but it sounds like it could very well be free, once Nintendo finishes discussions with Opera.
The Dreamcast was new technology when it came out.Quote:
Originally Posted by magnifiedplaid
Would you pay more now than you paid five years ago for a five-year-old computer except now it comes with a laser motion-sensor mouse?
As they say on another forum I frequent, suckers are going to be paying $250+ for an Xbox 0.8.
So Wii's region free, was that confirmed? And is Metroid going to be a launch title or not?
It's going to be the hot item this Christmas. Nintendo's going to ride that "we'll sell out no matter what" gravy train until Microsoft announces their inevitable price drop in the spring, when Nintendo will do the same. The Wii will be at $149 within 18 months.Quote:
Originally Posted by omfgninjas
Besides, aside from its spec-value proposition, I don't see that $249 isn't appealing to the masses. The people who can't afford that are still playing N64 on RF connections wherever IronPlant lives anyway.
The technology is not in the system, it's in the controller, and I can't imagine R&D for that thing was anywhere close to cheap. Where did you expect them to recoup the costs, exactly?Quote:
Originally Posted by omfgninjas
There's more to gaming hardware than the CPU and GPU.
I can really see your point there. The DC was a huge technological leap over the N64 and PS1 at the time. I remember being super impressed the first time I saw "Ready to Rumble" and "Soul Calibur" running at the EB.Quote:
Originally Posted by Diff-chan
The Wii doesn't really "WOW" me visually like the DC did back in 1999. Then again, the visual leap from the Xbox to the 360 hasn't impressed me as much as the DC originally did either.
Honestly, I think I would be a little irritated about the price on all these accessories as well if it weren't for the fact that I like the Nintendo DS so much. In fact, I might have skipped buying a Nintendo console this generation if it weren't for the innovations of the DS renewing my interest in gaming. So, I am just hoping that the Wii will offer the same innovation as the DS, and if it does, I can look past the last gen visuals.
So then why is the controller only $32 sold separately?Quote:
Originally Posted by sethsez
I can see your point about recouping the costs on developing this technology, but the Gamecube is $100 now and they make a profit on it, so with the Wii being $250, I can't see how it would have cost over $150 per buyer to work on the Wii remote.
The $250 price would have been more acceptable if they had sold the Wii Sports system bundle with two sets of Wiimotes and nunchucks. I agree with the fronting on the price.
And $50 for each game? $60 possibly for third-party games? Nintendo knows how to ruin a party.
Because they could bump the price up on controllers $10 or $15 each and hope everyone buys 3 more controllers, or they could bump the price up on the system $50 and get the money up front.Quote:
Originally Posted by omfgninjas
Hmm...this is another really interesting argument. I have never really looked at the Wii in this light before, but I suppose you have a very valid point. I certainly would not pay more for the same computer with a laser motion sensor mouse. I guess I'll just be a sucker though and pick up a Wii, because there are lots of games in the launch line up that look interesting to me.Quote:
Originally Posted by omfgninjas