Worldwide Wii Day (Sep 14/15): the official thread *Released Nov 19 for $250 (US)*
- Thread starter darkblu
- Start date
$249.99 plus VAT is £156.50, so I'd say £164.99 is the best we could have expected.
Or less for most cases.
Why on earth should Wii games cost less then last generation games?
Because the tools needed to develop the games and master them onto DVD are cheaper than they were 5 years ago. As well they have a huge back catalog of tools, textures, models, a lot of which can be reused for Wii games. It is the same reason why a PS2 game released today should be less than $50. Of course since they are aiming to squeeze profits this will not happen.
scooby_dooby
Legend
Not to mention they are targeting a different audience this time and many of the games seem like 'lite' games, to only be $10 cheaper than full next gen PS3 and 360 games seems kinda strange.
I think there are some more dynamics to consider when they price the Wii games.
* To account for an expected (not small) increase in marketing expense for Wii. I believe Ninty will need to do more aggressive campaigns around the world this time just because at this early phase people need to be iinspired, or even experience Wii first hand.
* Also with a potentially smaller software volume to boot (because it's a new, risky thing), they may charge more per game to earn enough cashflow (to fund further activities).
* Since Xbox 360 and PS3 has moved to USD60 per game, they will adjust accordingly upwards. If it doesn't work at USD50, they can lower it later. Raising it later would be impossible.
* To account for an expected (not small) increase in marketing expense for Wii. I believe Ninty will need to do more aggressive campaigns around the world this time just because at this early phase people need to be iinspired, or even experience Wii first hand.
* Also with a potentially smaller software volume to boot (because it's a new, risky thing), they may charge more per game to earn enough cashflow (to fund further activities).
* Since Xbox 360 and PS3 has moved to USD60 per game, they will adjust accordingly upwards. If it doesn't work at USD50, they can lower it later. Raising it later would be impossible.
That's been true for this entire console generation, and games have cost EUR 50. What do you think Renderware was?
In other words, you've read that Wii games will cost about the same or slightly more than current-gen console games to make, almost all of which retailed at EUR 50, which seemed to be the price necessary for profitability. And even then, a lot of game publishers went under. Since the cost of production isn't going down, it doesn't make sense to cut price. "Some guy on a forum thinks this isn't fair" is a pretty bad economical justification. It's not like Final Fantasy XII is going to sell for EUR 30, or Madden 2007 on the PS2 retailed over here for $35. Current-gen price for a new game is $50/EUR 50. It's not going down just because Lair has much better graphics than Ninja Gaiden Black.
MS doesn't pay licensing fees to itself.
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Launching in Australia before Europe...harhar...The brits getting extra shafted at 179...harhar...
That's an exact exchange ,much better than how MS gouges us for the 360 over the exchange.
Some new screens (8 each):
Mario Strikers Charged
Metroid Prime3: Corruption
Excite Trucks
Battalion Wars II
Some Zelda impressions:
Mario Strikers Charged
Metroid Prime3: Corruption
Excite Trucks
Battalion Wars II
Some Zelda impressions:
http://planetgamecube.com/impressionsArt.cfm?artid=12081
inefficient
Veteran
Is the Wii region locked?
There're conflicting stories on this. Wired News was the first to report that the Wii is indeed region-free.
http://www.gamespot.com/news/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=24981977
IGN ran also the same story. Now there's a new article
http://wii.ign.com/articles/732/732982p1.html
So far, we can only conclude that there's the possibility of a region-lock. But it's not sure if it will be used or not. I am sure we're going to hear more pretty soon, though.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6133447032518637786&sourceid=docidfeed&hl=en
New Perrin Kaplan interview. Is it just me or does it seem like she dislikes doing interviews.
New Perrin Kaplan interview. Is it just me or does it seem like she dislikes doing interviews.
Wow, one entire day early, this is indeed a proud day for Australia!
Seriously I suppose its just easier to distribute the few thousand English only consoles that Australia needs for its launch. Europe is a vast undertaking in comparison.By the way how does sales tax work in Europe and Australia?
I guess you mean continental Europe, last time I checked the UK was still in Europe, despite Tony Blair's valiant efforts to relocate to Northern America.
It's different from country to country and from product to product. Consumer items are usually 20% VAT in Austria. Germany is currently increasing the tax, from 15 to 18%, I think starting with 2007.
Well of course I realise we're still considered to be European (even though we're pretty much seperate in every way). I was referring to continental Europe and even more specifically to countries supporting the single European currency. I wasn't sure if perhaps the single currency had also brought a single sales tax.
To my next question, does the Euro price for Wii include tax or is tax paid later like US sales tax? Same question for Australia.