Nintendo president Satoru Iwata says company has no plans to reduce price of new system; Google StreetView, TiVo delayed.
Gamers holding out for a Wii U price cut are out of luck. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said during a recent financial call that due to the system being sold at a loss, a price cut is off the table.
"With Wii U, we have taken a rather resolute stance in pricing it below its manufacturing cost, so we are not planning to perform a markdown," he said. "I would like to make this point absolutely clear."
Iwata also admitted that Nintendo has not done the best job communicating "the value of our product." The executive said Nintendo will try to correct this before it launches upcoming marquee Wii U titles like Mario Kart and Zelda, among others.
Iwata added that unlike the original Wii, consumers have had difficulty instantly understanding the appeal of Wii U. He said those who have purchased a Wii U have shown a "certain degree of satisfaction" with the system, but this has not yet spread to the wider gamer populace.
"But since its value by nature is something that takes time to appreciate and hence cannot be spread amongst society instantly, we have yet to communicate its value to the wider public," he said. "To put it another way, we delivered Wii U to those consumers who we thought would be the first to buy it, but information has not successfully been passed on to those consumers who we think will be the next people to buy it. This must be one big factor with which Wii U could not maintain its momentum."
Also during the call Iwata confirmed that Google StreetView compatibility for Wii U has been delayed. To be titled "Wii Street U," the service was announced in December and was expected to launch this month. It is now targeted to release in mid-February so Nintendo can spend "more time on final development work."
Another service yet to launch for Wii U is TiVo. Previously targeted to launch in January, Nintendo has confirmed with Polygon that the feature will not release until later this year.
Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.
Yeah right Nintendo can Keep it cheap tech its not even worth $149.00.
Sony has cracked...and they might release the true next gen system soon they will make an announcement on 2/20/2013 6pm est."future of PlayStation" didn't Kaz Hirai said it was a good idea to let the competition come out first.... and yet Sony makes it move first Microsoft might make their move soon as well let the 2 sided console battle begin
R.I.P. Nintendo
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Do I care if you're taking a loss? No. I care about what I get for my money, and what I get when I buy a Wii U is not worth $350 to me. It's really that simple. Besides that, consoles being sold at a loss when they are first released is pretty common practice nowadays. Those losses are made up by selling overpriced games. That's no secret. It's no different than Verizon giving you a smart phone for a penny in exchange for a 2 year contract. They lose a few hundred dollars at first, but more than make up for it over the next 2 years.
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Too expensive, bad marketing and games. Always Mario, Zelda and Donkey Kong. But when (if) the new PS and Xbox came out it will be more cheaper and will have good success. Like always Nintendo wins in Japan and Sony will be at 3rd place. Sony will have great success in South America like always, Second place Xbox. And in North America and worldwide sells the king will be Microsoft, as always.
If they don't announce an exclusive RE etc, then they need a price cut to even make me consider buying one. Maybe the old school RE they are talking about will be on Wii U..
People don't like the Wii U for a number of reasons. Despite being barely more powerful than their competitor's current-gen systems, many are put off by the (rather bulky and uncomfortable) tablet controller that serves as little more than a gimmick. At the moment, it has virtually no library and will be competing directly with much more powerful offerings within the next year (potentially sooner). Unless the Big N can put out some serious must-have titles that showcase the system and come out with a revised controller design that is more comfortable (and is used in a more innovative manner), they're going to lose the next-gen console war before it really starts.
Although derided by critics, I actually enjoyed the occasionally (read frequently) frustrating game that is Yoshi's Story. It's unfortunate that Yoshi's much anticipated return, by me anyway, to the home console appears to be in the form of a rebadged Kirby's Epic Yarn. More innovation in game design would have been appreciated.
The game is being led by Tezuka, the one who made Yoshi's Island so while it has the art style and probably some similarities to Kirby's Epic Yarn, expect gameplay elements from Yoshi's Island mixed it.
"Nintendo has not done the best job communicating the value of our product. " That's also what Nintendo said shortly before price cutting the 3DS to the ground. Also, any company that announces "No Price Cuts!", ironically price cuts. Sony has proven this before.
I'm not poor by a long shot, but I believe buying stuff that's worth the money. I want this but I will buy it when it drops to less than $ 200. It WILL drop eventually.
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Wii U is a toddler toy! http://youtu.be/5_Fc9yLJ25U Sorry nintendo is loosing it. The proof is in the song!
No shit, the are already selling the console at grossing costs.
Only doing the GamePad costs to Nintendo 140$ per unit, it has to have only 1/60 of second latency, streaming capability, 1gb of ram, 720p video and other shit.
Even if the console costs 100$ dollars to do, they sell the basic set at 300, they can't low the price.
Second of all: i buy a console for it's games. I'm out this site.
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Even if the Xbox and PS come out at the high side of 400, if the Wii U is still listed at 300 it will sell zero units.
Yes because all gamers care about is power and graphics, nothing else matters. Remind me again which systems were the best selling of their generations?
Nintendo's only hope are its first party titles, without them, they would've been bankrupt ages ago
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they're gonna be forced to price cut really soon like it or not. PS4 and xbox720 on the way and with cloud gaming expanding and steam box entering the market soon. WiiU still offers ps3 graphics at best + a pad, nothing revolutionary, it's outdated and it's 8 years late.
At best? So in less than a year developers have already mastered the hardware of the Wii U?
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@abHS4L88 @Lazy_Marine To be fair no one ever really mastered the hardware of the Wii and it's tech was old even when the console was new. Nintendo itself came close but even the Wii Motion Plus controls for it's newer games like Skyward Sword were somewhat flaky. To really get the most out of this console is going to to take serious dedication which I'm sure Nintendo has no problem with but you can't say the same for 3rd party devs, and it's yet to be seen how important 3rd party games will be to the Wii U's success.
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why buy a wii u when anyone can play mario/.zelda on the nintendo ds for a cheaper price it''s commonsense :)
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this thing is a joke. love zelda....but 1 game cant save a console. With nothing Next Gen about this console other than the tablet why get it if you own a 360 or ps3 ? the graphics are just on par if not worse than the other systems with no great titles other than something mario , or zelda based
@slonekb05 You're right. One game can't save them but Nintendo's full collection of IP's, which is pretty vast, just might. Besides Zelda there's always Mario (3D Mario, 2D Mario, Mario Kart, etc.), the Metroid series, Kirby, Smash Bros., Star Fox, Punch Out!!, Kid Icarus, Donkey Kong Country, Pokemon... and they just keep adding on.
Now, this won't make them shine in comparison to Microsoft and Sony for this upcoming console generation but those IP's can definitely help recover a lot of those lost sales. It's become quite clear that Nintendo will need much more 3rd party support, some new life breathed into old IP's, and innovation out the wazoo (even by Nintendo's standards) to come close to approaching the success of the Wii.
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I wanted to make something absolutely clear as well. I would not buy that crap even if they reduced the price. Hell if you want something casual then you might as well get a kindle fire HD. It's cheaper and you can do more with it. Nintendo has lost touch with the casual gamer. The last worthwhile system they made was the SNES. Everything since then has been crap. They have strong market appeal but that can only last so long. It no longer is a value to buy a nintendo product. 400 dollars to play mario game! No way.
@moncealyo Your ability to comprehend and understand numbers is awesome. If I use your system of numerical values I would be paying almost 400 for a ps3.
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People don't know what they are missing. 100% of people I personally know who have it or have played it love the system a ton, myself included.
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No, Iwata... Consumers know the "value" just fine. They just think the better value is to keep that money in their pockets. It would've been better if Nintendo made that controller... pad... thing... into a tablet that could function as a real slate away from the Wii U. They could've installed the Android OS on it and it wouldn't have cost them shit.
On a related note... why the HELL are they installing Google Street View on the Wii U? That's meant for navigation purposes. so you know what your destinations vicinity looks like. Seems like a very strange thing to add to the Wii U and, to my knowledge, has no real purpose other than that.
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BTW, Costco USA has slashed the WiiU pice by $50 for both versions. I don't know if it's a limited time sale or what.
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They need to fire Iwata and Miyamoto to replace him.Iwata is very out of touch right now imo. Most people do not even know the system is a completely new and different sustem than the regular Wii. They think it is a Wii with a gamepad controller. I know this for a fact from people I have personally talked too. This system should have been named the Wii 2 instead.I am not saying it is a bad system I would not mind owning one,but I am NOT paying the price they are asking for a system that is about the same as my 360 no not happening until I see games that really make a difference play wise:P
@JasPlun I've been thinking that for awhile. People are confused about difference between to two systems minus the obvious controller, especially since if they go to some place like Target and see a Wii box and a Wii U box side by side, they'll most likely just go for the cheap one, being the Wii, plus it seems like Wii had more advertising overall.
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I honestly don't think people are THAT confused, though. The simple fact is that regardless of branding, the Wii U isn't the Wii. If Nintendo has done nothing else with the system, they've proven at least this much from a perspective of initial impression. Regardless of if the average consumer is aware that the Wii U is a new console or not, it just doesn't have a lot of mass market appeal right now. If anything the Wii branding should be HELPING it more right now in that regard.
This is the 'message' Nintendo has struggled to send, but as of right now, it doesn't look like they have anything to change that in the near future. It has already used the sequel to a 30+ million-selling Mario game to no avail, and now, it's just trying to make a stand by insisting that a price drop isn't coming. The problem is that things are only going to get worse at this rate, regardless of it the masses know that the Wii U is a new system or not. It needs to give the average person a reason to even pay attention to it.
I gave in and got a 3DS, but there's no chance I'm getting a Wii U. Honestly, I'm ready to take up pc gaming anyway.
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The Wii U price is fine. It just needs some more software to come out, which are coming.
@Flint247 I wonder what software is that, that u talking about? Just to name a few, there's No - Metal Gear, dead space 3, Bioshock Infinite. Soryy I'll pass
@Flint247 More importantly, it needs better marketing. The Wii U already has some really good game, but the advertising hasn't been up to snuff.
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improve wii lil bit + throw in a gimmick tablet = wii U. my left hand has more games then wii U.
nintendo should of went with a similar approach that the wii had and making it more unique rather than a tablet controller like the ipad
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