Ok, then, if they were going to make $1M either way, doesn't it stand to reason they've made more "profit" by serving less? But my point was that with any 2 pricing points, you have a break-even point based on sales.

Wii Sports isn't a full game, right? By that, I mean that Baseball is just pitching and batting, and tennis is like a mini tennis game. I'm pretty sure they said that you don't even control the players, you only control the swinging, and the matches are not normal tennis matches, much shorter.

Fair point. I just wonder how many of those people they lost 10 years ago use emulators though.

I use them, and planned on buying VC games and still do. But at what the prices look to be, I'll be much more selective in what I buy.

I have $200 in gift cards at BB, but I may hit up Sam's club as they are more than likely going to include an extra controller and some other add-in and save me $20 or so. Now I just need to come up with the cash to cover it if I go that route.

Just for shits, lets compare the Costco 360 pack with the Wii:

Premium 360 + Extra Controller + Game (PGR3) + Play'n'Charge = $455

Wii w/ Game(Wii Sports) + Extra Controller + Component Cable + SD Card = ~$375

In both cases you get a game you may or may not want, the difference being PGR3 has some (well not too much) resale value. If you are buying this for your kids for Xmas you will need another game. Nintendo option another $50, 360 option $20-60.

(One could argue that if you are getting it for the kids you wouldn't need the component cables or SD card, but a the same time, you wouldn't need the premium 360 either)

I was mainly looking to get this for my son for xmas, now I am not so sure. I definitely have the means ($350+ store credit), but now I am wondering if I would be better off spending some of that on 360 games and just picking up a couple Cube games for my son and waiting until next year.

But who's to say that Nintendo won't do level downloads and other add ons for games like MS and Sony down the road, which could require a large SD card(s) for those that want them.

But that's moot as his point isn't whether it is needed, but rather that such thigns have to be factored in when calculating the "bang for the buck" on the systems.

Wii with a pack in is $250. The premium 360 is $400, but has the hard drive and the HD cable packed in. And hell if you really want to get into specifics some will say you get more processing/graphics power for the money.

So the point is while there is $150 difference and a "game" included in the Wii, that won't seem that appealing to some, namely those that don't want Wii sports, and those that care about HD and the storage space, and those that care about graphics a lot.

To me, the $150 is still a big savings, as I don't care about HD, the hard drive, graphics, or downloading add on crap. But I can see the point others are making. And the point those are making that don't want wiisports for singleplayer.

$60 for their controller is fucking ridiculous. I think Nintendo is taking advantage of the PS3 pricing and selling the Wii and its accessories for more than they had originally intended. I still believe Nintendo was going to announce pricing info at E3 but backed off when they got word from Sony camp on the PS3.

Let's face it, the Wii is nothing more than a upgraded GameCube, the only thing that's attracting gamers, like myself, to the console is the controller, which will provide a different gaming experience. I'm with the guy who said they need to sell Wii Sports seperate and charge $199 for the system. As for the controller, $40 is reasonable...I was expecting to pay what a Wave Bird costs. And what's up with no black?!! Ugghhhh! This is exactly why I didn't buy a DS Lite when they launched. Luckily for Nintendo Zelda is a launch title and I'll buy a white one anyways just to play it.

Nintendo had an opportunity to really establish themselves as the console of choice this Holiday season and they just didn't do that. I came away dissapointed from it.

There isn't going to be an issue with VC other than a select few people that will settle for emulation. The game store I go to here is the only place locally that has old game stuff and they get someone in EVERY DAY asking about Super Mario 1, 2 or 3 or numerous other NES games. They can't hold an NES or SNES system in the store for more than two days and they're selling them at $50 and $70 respectively. They sell Mario 2 and 3 for $20 and are sold within two days at that price. It's going to be a cash cow for them.

People are turning this into a "Serenity Syndrome" where they see a few people harp about it on the internet incessantly (oh I can steal these games for free!) and think that translates 120% to the real world. At $5, $8 and $10 most of the games they're going to be putting on VC those prices are probably cheaper than their cartridges (SMB1 and SMW notwithstanding as they were pack-ins and quite abundant).

What if they gave away wiiSports with a Wiimote/Nunchuk combo instead of the console? Buy the extra controller and get the game(for a limited time of course). That is more logical than what they announced.

If there are variable costs to production, yeah, but if there's a set cost regardless of how many sales there are, it should be pretty much the same profit either way. I'm guessing the cost of someone downloading a game is almost nonexistant.

I think I see what you're saying, but probably would've picked different numbers. i.e. Would they rather sell 200,000 at $5 or 500,000 at $1? Whatever the actual, real world numbers are, I have to think that the announced pricing scheme is higher than what would maximize their profit. I think they're overestimating how much most gamers will pay for virtual console titles. Who knows, maybe I'll be proved wrong. I know personally, I'd probably spend a greater total amount on the virtual console if the games were priced something like $3/$5/$7.

I did see on another forum that there is another set of sports games coming in Japan that will be packed with a Wiimote (didn't mention of the nunchuck was included).

I didn't do any digging around to see if it was real or not.

I think the real question is, would you rather have 200,000 @ $5 each, but be very selective about what games they buy, or 1,000,000 @ $1 each, but buy anything that might be of interest.

I think with their current structure they are going to see a lot of sales on their most wanted games, and next to nothing on the others.

I think to some extent you are doing the same thing by thinking those people that wander into those types of gamestore are numerous in the general population. I strongly doubt that, most people don't have much interest in buying old games. They want the latest and greatest new games with fancy graphics etc.

While I agree Nintendo probably won't lose THAT much business to emulation. I do think with higher prices it will be harder to get "impulse buys" from the typical gamers that have nothing more than a mild curiousity about old games.

People that are into retro gaming probably still have their old consoles hooked up and won't buy many games (like you said about yourself) or are already into emulators. So the higher prices will cut down on people in these categories buying VC games for convenience etc. as well.

It just seems like on pretty much all fronts, cheaper prices would sell more quantity, and they'd do better to think more about finding a price that will maximize $$ per title and number of titles sold. It doesn't seem like the current structure does that. But time will tell.

Exactly, and related to my point above.

You have to find the price point that maximized $$ per game and number of games sold. In addition to losing customers, you also risk limiting the number of games sold per customer that uses the VC as you point out.

Looking back at my prediction, the only things I didn't get were Duck Hunt and the light gun shell. I'm trying to figure out why I'm so pissed off when I should have been expecting it. The only points I can come up with are the date being later than they promised and the surprise that controllers are so expensive. I wonder why they're selling them separately instead of together for $50 or so.

Eh, well. I'll be in line November 18th just the same. I'll probably need to use up 3 vacation days that week and just have a marathon through Thanksgiving :P

The controllers are the main thing for me. I was expecting Wiimote/nunchuck combos to run around $30. So $60 is hard to swallow.

The release date doesn't bother me as I'm swamped and don't have much time for games this semester anyway. So closer to the winter break when I'll have a bit more time to play Zelda is fine with me.

The other factor is the hype. There was so much $200-250 with wii sports, 2 controllers and possibly and SD card included buzz that we all set ourselves up for dissapointment.

The Japanese getting it for $215 without Wiisports puts a bad taste in my mouth too, as it makes Wiisports not a bonus, but rather us having no choice but to pay $35 for a game many of us don't want.


But you are right, given initial talks months ago, and the price of the competition, we shouldn't be complaining so much. :D

Microsoft seems to be doing just fine with XBLA and it's in the same price range ($5-$10).

What the hell pricing were you people expecting for a wireless, motion sensing, rumbling, speakerfied controller? The GC Wavebird is listed at $34.99 right now. And I'm sure you won't need the nunchuck for Wii Sports.

Not sure if it was posted earlier, but you can watch the conference here:

http://www.gamespot.com/events/wiilaunch/live.html

It's a classic crash and burn. They had such a high point at E3 and people have had four months to over-speculate on everything from the tiniest detail, not to mention a lot of sour news from the PS3 camp only increasing excitement for the Wii side. Unless they had said the system was free there was going to be a lot to come down from. They never promised an October date, did they? Everything has always been "Fourth Quarter 2006" which is October through December.

They controllers are probably separate because I think there's going to be a lot of games that only use the main remote.

One could argue that some of those sell due to the online play (street fighter, uno, etc) or due to be original games (geometry wars).

It remains to be seen if someone will shell out $5 to play offline a crappy looking old NES game. The Mario games, zelda games etc. will sell. But at those prices I'm not convinced that people will give the less mainstream games a shot, where as they might if they are priced lower.

Maybe with any luck 3rd parties will be able to set lower prices, or to put things on sale if they don't sell well.

That's what I said earlier, the thing is a lot more complicated that the controllers of old. It's just hard to swallow when you first hear it because of what we've been used to. The Wavebird was $40 when it first came out, the 360 controller is $50 and you can bet your ass the PS3 controller will be at least $50 as well.

Many people check out the XBLA games for the achievements as well.

I'm disappointed. I was really hoping for something other than Wii sports to be a pack-in. For example, I would really, REALLY be into a package containing the remote's gun shell and classic Duck Hunt or a few other VC games. I went from purchasing on day 1 to waiting until I can get a better deal around Christmas time. For me, the VC was the main reason i am into the Wii. I don't have the scratch to buy new games regularly (or the time to get my $'s worth via play), but I'd be all over collecting some older games and not have to deal with having a bunch of carts laying around and putting more wear and tear on my NES (I'm not as worried about my top-loading SNES).

that's 15 average-sized N64 games WOW!

Since you were comparing the features/price to the other consoles, you have to compare similar hardware.... Nintendo has significantly less disk space and in order to compare properly, you';ll have to consider expanding the memory. Downloading VC games is going to use up that space quickly.

I'm a nintendo fan too, but give it a break.. you know this is a dissapointment for many people, it's obvious, stop teying to convince us otherwise.