Thoughts on the Wii Price hints....

So yesterday Zam told you guys about how the Wii is going to be “under $250”. Well, I’ve been thinking, and there are some serious problems with that. They were acting like they were going to wow us with $200 or less, but $250 doesn’t do it. First of all, that’s $50 less then the XBOX 360’s Core System. And of course MS will give us a price drop around X-Mas, which could potentially put the 360 under $250. Not very good for Nintendo, because I think more casual gamers want 360s then Wiis. Also, the 360 has a much larger library already. So what I think we’re looking at is $200 or $150.

And if you think about it, it’s only a supercharged Gamecube, which costs $100. The Wii shouldn’t cost $150 more. Though, if they’re going to make it $250, they could be bundling in a second controller and a copy of Wii Sports. What they could also do is, release it at $250, because all of the people who buy it at launch wouldn’t mind that price, and then in a year when regular people can pick them up, drop it a bit.

The big thing I noticed is, they are aiming for non-gamers, and I don’t know about you, but I can’t see a non-gamer paying more then $150. Even $200 would probably get quite a few people. For some reason, $250 seems like a monstrous amount, but $200 seems okay. Probably because that’s half of the 360’s price and 1/3 of the PS3’s

What really matters for me is the price of the virtual console downloads. If they’re like $1 a game, then I don’t care about $250 for the console. I’m just going to wrap it up with a few final thoughts. I remember Peter Moore saying “You can buy a 360 and a Wii for the same price as a PS3”, so it sounds like if anything, Microsoft might want to work with Nintendo to get Sony out. Smart for MS, because the PS3 is their biggest competition. That’s also good for Nintendo, because it would mean MS wouldn’t be trying to undercut the Wii’s price from the get-go. Well, now I’ll tell you that Nintendo released the Japan price. 25,000 yen. That’s $220 US, and the US consoles are usually a little bit less then in Japan. That cuts out a $250 price. Halleluiah.

One other thing. People are beginning to wonder if the Wii will really be ready in November. I mean, they couldn't even ready a few real Wiis for E3. That could be proof that they're behind. Either that or they want to keep the real Wii firepower secret. If that's true, and it's more powerful then what we saw at E3, damn, the graphics will be great on the final product.

Ton, out.