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Wii3: Apocalypse Redux

M

MrSardonic

The nerdiest nerd of all the nerds in nerdland
Avutta1978 said:
wait and see, this is not the first time they have done last min changes in price.
Click to expand...

sigh6pf.jpg
 
B

bachikarn

Member
He has a point. I remember Craig-IGN said that DSL was originally coming out for $150 but they slashed it to $129 like a month before. I don't think they will, but it isn't uncharacteristic of Nintendo.

BELIEVE
 
T

TiVo

Member
Can someone in NY comfirm that the Wii is now a permanent display/fixture at the Nintendo World Store?

Secondly, if the Wii sports doesn't have and advanced mode or uprgrade mode to allow manual movement with the nunchuck no worries because Mario Golf, Tennis, Baseball, etc most assureldy will.
 
L

LakeEarth

Member
bachikarn said:
He has a point. I remember Craig-IGN said that DSL was originally coming out for $150 but they slashed it to $129 like a month before. I don't think they will, but it isn't uncharacteristic of Nintendo.

BELIEVE
Click to expand...
You're right. The N64 was suppose to be $250 too and then became $199. Nintendo has a track-record of this stuff happening, so I hope it will this time as well. There's still two months to go.
 
P

Particle Physicist

between a quark and a baryon
kojacker said:
It's all how you perceive your value. I mean the tard pack costs more but, to me, you get value for your money. However I'm still not bothering with the 360, and I wouldn't get the tard pack if I did.
Click to expand...


thats all good and fine. but i was talking about the cheapest console.

the wii by itself.. out of box.. allows you to save and play a game.. in order to do the same with the tard pack you have to buy a memory card and a game.. are memory cards still crazy expensive?
 
S

Shard

XBLAnnoyance
LakeEarth said:
You're right. The N64 was suppose to be $250 too and then became $199. Nintendo has a track-record of this stuff happening, so I hope it will this time as well. There's still two months to go.
Click to expand...

That isn't going to happen unless Sony does a price drop like they did the last time around, so it is basically not going to happen.
 
PkunkFury

PkunkFury

Member
Guys there won't be a price drop. The whole reason they are bundling Wii Sports is to justify pricing the console closer to the competition. If you really want to hope for something, I guess you can hope they bundle an extra controller, but the price is pretty much stuck.
 
K

Krowley

Member
PkunkFury said:
Guys there won't be a price drop. The whole reason they are bundling Wii Sports is to justify pricing the console closer to the competition. If you really want to hope for something, I guess you can hope they bundle an extra controller, but the price is pretty much stuck.
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couldn't they remove the bundle? or offer a core version?

edit// Even if they dropped to 230, at least i would feel that i was getting a deal on the game instead of being forced to pay full price for it (it might even be more than full price since wii sports is 40 bucks in japan and the system price of 210 includes tax over there)..

what's the point of a bundle when the game included raises the price by 50 bucks?

Answer: to line nintendo's pockets... That's the only reason for including wii sports. Being outraged about it is very justifiable, but i can't summon much outrage when i look at the price of the ps3.
 
J

John Harker

Definitely doesn't make things up as he goes along.
TiVo said:
Can someone in NY comfirm that the Wii is now a permanent display/fixture at the Nintendo World Store?
.
Click to expand...


I can confirm that you are wrong. There wasn't a single display for the Wii - and I was there yesterday.

A video rolling in the corner - the first video every released, no game play. That is all.
 
PkunkFury

PkunkFury

Member
Krowley said:
couldn't they remove the bundle? or offer a core version?
Click to expand...

No they couldn't. Please reread what I posted. The whole reason we have a pack in game and Japan doesn't is because NOA feels they NEEDED to make the console more expensive. Offering a core version would work against this as well as confusing customers.

They will likely remove the game in Spring of 07 and drop the price to a clean $200 at that point
 
K

Krowley

Member
PkunkFury said:
No they couldn't. Please reread what I posted. The whole reason we have a pack in game and Japan doesn't is because NOA feels they NEEDED to make the console more expensive. Offering a core version would work against this as well as confusing customers.

They will likely remove the game in Spring of 07 and drop the price to a clean $200 at that point
Click to expand...

they could change their mind and decide they NEED to make the console cheaper. I would not expect them too, but i wouldn't be shocked if they did.

I totally understand what you're saying, but i don't think anything is nessecarily set in stone, considering their history.
 
W

wave-E

Banned
I played wii for three hours last night in LA. I'll post a full recap somewhere when I'm home in front of mine own PC. There was lots of good, no fatigue problems ( :p ), and a fair share of frustrating to downright bad (wii boxing...I may be wrong, but I doubt it). Plenty more good than bad though; I walked away more confident than I had been. The games at this wii ambassador event were Wii Sports, Zelda, Trauma Center, Wario Ware, Rayman Raving Rabids, Excite Truck, and Madden which they took down after 10 minutes. I think that was it, no mario and no fps's to try out.
Also, our nintendo rep Tim promised to talk to Reggie (or someone at least - he said he was four offices down) about the region situation and get back to TSA (our wii ambassador for the event) with the info.
 
F

Fourth Storm

Member
I'm still trying to figure out why they are launching so late, when every indication was that they could have gone for October. Perhaps they're counting on people walking into a store attempting (in vein) to buy the PS3 and then catching their eyes with the Wii Kiosk (which they need to get into as many stores as possible. Just chain the controller! It's not rocket science). I have a feeling you won't be able to get a PS3 for a while after launch if you're not lined up on the first day, so the main competition will likely come from the 360. Launching the Wii right after PS3 may prevent it from being lost in the shuffle on PS3 launch day. It will be the "newest" next gen system with the most advanced controller, even if it's not the most powerful. And the closer to Black Friday they launch, the more sizzling hot it will seem in the insane eyes of shoppers.

Then again, maybe they just want to give developers/manufacturers as much time as possible to ready things. People need to be able to walk into a store and buy this thing without jumping through hoops if their strategy is going to work.
 
PkunkFury

PkunkFury

Member
Krowley said:
edit// Even if they dropped to 230, at least i would feel that i was getting a deal on the game instead of being forced to pay full price for it (it might even be more than full price since wii sports is 40 bucks in japan and the system price of 210 includes tax over there).. what's the point of a bundle when the game included raises the price by 50 bucks?
Click to expand...

The point is to make the console seem like it's worth more. They don't want to sell it at 200 when their competition sells at up to 600. Pricing it at 250 makes it look like a deal over the 360 core pack. Pricing it at 200 makes it look like it is missing features (which it is) so the idea is add somtehing and jack up the price.

NOA is under the impression that the Gamecube launch was lackluster because people thought they were getting less since it cost less. To this day most clueless individuals will insist the Gamecube is the weakest of the 3 current gen systems. They think it was the weakest because it cost less.

Bundling Wii sports was a 3 pronged marketing tactic:

It raises the price on a device that will sell out anyway. They aren't losing sales, but they are establishing a higher initial value for the console. When prices drop later, they are hoping people will still remember the Wii being priced at 250 initially, and decide it must be that much closer to the 360.

It gets a game out that shows off the system. We've heard lots of rumors that in store demo units won't be easy to manage with the Wii. It's obvious they'de demo Wii sports if they could choose any game to demo. They don't need to sell this machine to people who want Zelda, they need to sell it to people who don't want games. Bundling Wii sports will get the game into the hands of people who will show of the system to others. Of course this bundle should include an extra controller for maximum effect, but the controllers have real manufacturing value and would be a lot harder to write off in any sort of packaged deal, than a peice of software composed of tech demos.

It leaves room for a very easy price drop as soon as sales slow. Pull the game, drop the price, or just leave the game in if it has made back its $ anyway.

We know it is marketing, and a carefully calculated choice, becausre it isn't happening in Japan. Japan trusts that people there will want Wii sports. NOA is reading message boards and understands that in this territory, the game won't move until all the Zelda fans are out of the way.

I'm not saying you should like any of this. It's marketing, and early adopters get the short end of the stick. I'm just explaining why you guys shouldn't hold out hope for Wii Sports to be removed or for the price to drop before launch. You may as well keep waiting for the name to change too if that's the case.
 
PkunkFury

PkunkFury

Member
maxmars said:
No.
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I'm a huge Wii supporter. I've been behind it since day one. But it is most definitely missing features that the 360 and PS3 have. How could you say otherwise? There's no hard drive, no DVD Playback, no HD support, and weaker processors/graphics chips. There is a reason it costs less, and it should.

All I'm saying is that NOA doesn't want people to dwell on that. They are trying to make the price higher so people won't stop and search for those missing features. Japan is 100% certain with their product. They know the Wii will sell because people are sensible and do not buy things simply because they are the biggest/best. NOA is not so confident that the American audeince, and juding buy the posts on message boards, I think they are right.
 
D

DefectiveReject

Banned
PkunkFury said:
I'm a huge Wii supporter. I've been behind it since day one. But it is most definitely missing features that the 360 and PS3 have. How could you say otherwise? There's no hard drive, no DVD Playback, no HD support, and weaker processors/graphics chips. There is a reason it costs less, and it should.

All I'm saying is that NOA doesn't want people to dwell on that. They are trying to make the price higher so people won't stop and search for those missing features. Japan is 100% certain with their product. They know the Wii will sell because people are sensible and do not buy things simply because they are the biggest/best. NOA is not so confident that the American audeince, and juding buy the posts on message boards, I think they are right.
Click to expand...
but can the 360 waggle?
Also Wii doesn't have a ring of death, nor does it need more vents.

Wii is a second console for 360 or PS3 to have, to try something different. Its not a 360 nor a PS3. why have 3 of those? Have one of those and something else.
There's nothing more to it.
 
PkunkFury

PkunkFury

Member
DefectiveReject said:
but can the 360 waggle?
Also Wii doesn't have a ring of death, nor does it need more vents.

Wii is a second console for 360 or PS3 to have, to try something different. Its not a 360 nor a PS3. why have 3 of those? Have one of those and something else.
There's nothing more to it.
Click to expand...

Tell that to NOA, not me. They want to increase the perceived "value" of the package while at the same time drawing the price closer to the competition. They packed in a game to make that work. Japan did not. There is a reason for this.
 
D

DefectiveReject

Banned
PkunkFury said:
Tell that to NOA, not me. They want to increase the perceived "value" of the package while at the same time drawing the price closer to the competition. They packed in a game to make that work. Japan did not. There is a reason for this.
Click to expand...

The reason for the no pack in in Japan is that they'll sell it at full price and sell millions of copies of it forever, whereas people from USA and Europe are less likely to buy Wii sports as they always buythe respective versions of those games from EA and the like, due to the looks etc.
The Japanese love this kind of party game and will buy it, therefore there is no need to pack it in.
The price is the price it is because Sony are launching at $600/$500, so Nintendo know they can sell it to the hardcore now, and sell it to the mainstream later as worked with DS.
Nintendo if they can sell 4million this year, and then hit 6m by March they can drop to $200 release Mario Galaxy then follow on from that with SSBB, and away they go. And have a much better start than the GC had, and if they can appeal to the Japanese audience as much or even half as much as the DS has, then they'll do well.
 
M

maxmars

Member
PkunkFury said:
I'm a huge Wii supporter. I've been behind it since day one. But it is most definitely missing features that the 360 and PS3 have. How could you say otherwise? There's no hard drive, no DVD Playback, no HD support, and weaker processors/graphics chips. There is a reason it costs less, and it should.
Click to expand...

I understand what you say and I appreciate critical thinking, but I feel compelled to respond to this point of view whenever I see it in threads because I think it's dead wrong.

Firstly, we don't know about USB disks yet for sure. It's been ruled out, if I'm not mistaken, only because Perrin Kaplan said so. Since this thing can have the internal software upgraded, it may even be that they add support later.

DVD, you have a point, although you will agree it's rather moot. It lacks the feature of not being a movie machine.. Then again it doesn't do Expresso either (and please note, I have three DVD players and no expresso machine at home, so please, console makers, if you have to add anything be it the caffé feature).

HD is quite like internet gaming for consoles five years ago -- great on paper, but needs a few more years cooking before it's really widespread to the point where it's an insult not supporting it.

All the "missing power" stuff I can't accept it. Mario Galaxy screens and Metroid Prime 3 videos say that the machine is powerful enough to allow for visually beautiful and awe inspiring games. At the same time it is not as noisy as a whole server farm during the servers mating season and is not as fragile as a flute chalice from the XII century; it is quickly forgotten, but it's a bitter taste when you have to pack in the console you've bought a few weeks before to send it back to the manufacturer (only to have a different, refurbished one back with scratches and a heart sign titled "Lou loves Lola" carved with a knife on the left side).

While we're at it, lets not forget wireless connectivity, actually useful features in software (photos, news, weather, how come nobody thought of it before coming out with nerdy stuff like Achievements?) and internal storage bundled with the machine.

No, you can say that is underpowered, fine if you do, but you can't say it lacks features.
 
C

careksims

Member
If they want us to believe there is value to it. Pack in a extra controller! Like say for a short time like how the 360 Premiums had the DVD remotes.
 
D

DefectiveReject

Banned
maxmars said:
All the "missing power" stuff I can't accept it. Mario Galaxy screens and Metroid Prime 3 videos say that the machine is powerful enough to allow for visually beautiful and awe inspiring games. At the same time it is not as noisy as a whole server farm during the servers mating season and is not as fragile as a flute chalice from the XII century; it is quickly forgotten, but it's a bitter taste when you have to pack in the console you've bought a few weeks before to send it back to the manufacturer (only to have a different, refurbished one back with scratches and a heart sign titled "Lou loves Lola" carved with a knife on the left side).

While we're at it, lets not forget wireless connectivity, actually useful features in software (photos, news, weather, how come nobody thought of it before coming out with nerdy stuff like Achievements?) and internal storage bundled with the machine.

No, you can say that is underpowered, fine if you do, but you can't say it lacks features.
Click to expand...

one of the only things i hate about my 360 is the damned noise it makes, and having to put that damned power brick in a place it can get ventilation.
 
S

SuomiDude

Member
PkunkFury said:
I'm a huge Wii supporter. I've been behind it since day one. But it is most definitely missing features that the 360 and PS3 have. How could you say otherwise? There's no hard drive, no DVD Playback, no HD support, and weaker processors/graphics chips. There is a reason it costs less, and it should.
Click to expand...

Wii has built-in memory, XBox 360 core pack doesn't have any storage. Wii doesn't play DVDs, but I don't know anyone without a DVD player anyway. No HD support is no big deal in Europe. Weaker processor/graphics is equivalent to XBox 360 not having any new control mechanics. Also Wii has that extra stuff like photo viewer/editor, weather channel and free online, so it's not like Wii doesn't have anything new (especially compared to previous gen consoles, Xbox still costs 150€, so why is 100€ more (with a game included), with new technology so bad price...)

Ok, I personally hoped for 200-220€ (being realistic), without a game, otherwise the same as we will get now. So it isn't that much more, though 250€ is the definitive maximum price I'd ever pay for any console ever.
 
B

BorkBork

The Legend of BorkBork: BorkBorkity Borking
As an aside, I'm kinda glad they didn't go with the 2 SKU strategy. One bundle and one price (regardless of if you like the game or not, that's another issue) is a good thing.
 
S

Sunski

Member
I think we are really lacking in a lot of hands on impressions at the moment. Why is this? Did the media just go and play the same Zelda and Mairo demos rather than letting us know what the never before played or niche titles are like?

Were games like Forever Blue even playable? Why have they not reported on the likes of Domino, HAMMER, Dog Island etc?
 
waxer

waxer

Member
DVD, you have a point, although you will agree it's rather moot. It lacks the feature of not being a movie machine.. Then again it doesn't do Expresso either (and please note, I have three DVD players and no expresso machine at home, so please, console makers, if you have to add anything be it the caffé feature).
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Na that would suck.Youd need to have it plumbed in.+ ive already got a full sized cafe machine.
On the dvd front the 360 does upscale.How many of your dvd players do that.(although its ltd)
I think there may be a price drop before launch or extra pack in like a remote.360 sales arnt phenomenal.It wouldnt be teribly amazing to see the core pack reduced in time for christmas.Again its a perceived value thing.(even if you have to buy a memory card)If you walk into a store and see a 360 running gears of war in hi def and red steel on another at the same price....Then you look across and theres some of the new ps2 games running.Which catagory would most people associate it with.
Thats all beside the point really anyway and only something that would effect it down the line after the initial buzz is over.
 
T

TTP

Have a fun! Enjoy!
Himuro said:
Can someone please tell me what Nintendo points are? Nothing covers them in the first post.
Click to expand...

Their Microsoft Points basically. You spend them to buy stuff online.
 
T

Taichu

Member
I belive you purchase Virtual Console games for "Nintendo Points" or "Wii Points" or something like that instead of directly money. Like, an NES game may cost 500 points as opposed to 5.00 dollars. Presumably, you can buy points with money, or earn points by registering your games.
 
K

kaizoku

I'm not as deluded as I make myself out to be
Scalemail Ted said:
I wonder if they're doing this way in order to keep all VC games @ the same amount of wii points in all territories?
Click to expand...

its because millions of customers dont have credit cards etc to buy via the interface. this way kid can walk into a store, buy points and go home to buy a vc game.

also you have more options i.e. give some points away at times or something like that.
 
T

trh

Nifty AND saffron-colored!
Himuro said:
Online tournaments?
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Yeah, can't remember if it was precisely "online tournaments", but it was definitely something along the lines of that. Don't know where I read it, but it wouldn't surprise me if you would find it somewhere within this thread.
 
K

kaizoku

I'm not as deluded as I make myself out to be
miketrav87 said:
Anybody know if the Wii will be able to access the net using the Nintendo Wi-Fi USB Connector that the DS uses?
Click to expand...

I heard it can.

guys i was wondering....why on earth is the memory not expandable? I dont WANT to buy a 4GB SD card. A HD would have made sense considering the things Nintendo are offering.

Say for example Animal Crossing - wouldnt it be great if you could just more or less save your town on the HD? That way you dont need to have the disc inserted when people want to visit your town while you sleep. Or are we supposed to put it on some kind of "bark" mode, and insert disc - open town gates before we go to standby mode? That almost defeats the "accessible" motif.

Also things like Brain Training or Big Brain Academy - wouldn't they be infinitely better as DOWNLOADS? They're small basic games, played in short spurts on a daily basis. If you have to walk over to your Wii and keep changing discs for little games like this - well the wonderful channels interface is suddenly ....less wonderful.

Just turning on your Wii and having these options built in would be a huge improvement - brain training games, even wii sports.

btw I think we have a lot more in store regarding wii channels - see how the shopping channel isnt called the VC channel? they probably plan to sell us other things.

which brings me back to my original point. why no option for better storage! will SD cards even serve the functions I mentioned above? i.e. purchase and download brain training from shopping channel and load onto your 2GB SD card?
 
P

Particle Physicist

between a quark and a baryon
kaizoku said:
I heard it can.

guys i was wondering....why on earth is the memory not expandable? I dont WANT to buy a 4GB SD card. A HD would have made sense considering the things Nintendo are offering.

Say for example Animal Crossing - wouldnt it be great if you could just more or less save your town on the HD? That way you dont need to have the disc inserted when people want to visit your town while you sleep. Or are we supposed to put it on some kind of "bark" mode, and insert disc - open town gates before we go to standby mode? That almost defeats the "accessible" motif.

Also things like Brain Training or Big Brain Academy - wouldn't they be infinitely better as DOWNLOADS? They're small basic games, played in short spurts on a daily basis. If you have to walk over to your Wii and keep changing discs for little games like this - well the wonderful channels interface is suddenly ....less wonderful.

Just turning on your Wii and having these options built in would be a huge improvement - brain training games, even wii sports.

btw I think we have a lot more in store regarding wii channels - see how the shopping channel isnt called the VC channel? they probably plan to sell us other things.

which brings me back to my original point. why no option for better storage! will SD cards even serve the functions I mentioned above? i.e. purchase and download brain training from shopping channel and load onto your 2GB SD card?
Click to expand...

all they said was that there will no official nintendo harddrives at t he moment.. we still dont know if usb harddrives will work or if they can be enabled to work through a firmware update..

so.. heres hoping.
 
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