From 1up.com

Nintendo Wii: Secretly More Expensive than Xbox 360? -- blog by Jeremy Parish

Quote:
"$250!?"

Text on the Internet is a silent medium, but you could still feel indignation of a million nerds today, and all through the sheer force of their interrobangs. Apparently the cost of the Wii is just too high, especially if you suffer from an unusually high sense of entitlement and believe that the games industry is a charity. Which you probably do, through no fault of your own. It's just part of being a nerd on the Internet.

Me, I'm not bothered by the base cost of the Wii -- at $250, it is more expensive than any other Nintendo console in history, true. But it offers a lot more out-of-the-box functionality than any console they've ever offered before, what with its channels and wi-fi and Virtual Console and such. No, the problem I have with Wii comes from all the other costs. SD memory, Opera, optional peripherals... and, of course, the insane price of extra controllers.

When you add it all up, a fully-kitted Wii may well be muscling in on Xbox 360 territory. Let's see... a Wii with three extra controllers with nunchuk attachments is $430. Let's assume $20 for Opera, an extra $20 for the optional Retro controller to make use of those Virtual Console games, and presumably another $30 for component cables so you can enjoy progressive scan output (it's the next best thing to HD! And Nintendo never includes the best-possible connection type for free). That brings us to $500 even. But that 1GB of SD memory isn't going far once you start downloading VC titles, using Opera and letting your friends muck around in your Animal Crossing town via 24Connect while you're asleep, so you'll want at least a 4GB SD card. That's another hundred bucks, bringing us to $600. Suddenly Wii is much less of a bargain.

Compare that to the 360, which has 20GB of memory built right in and comes with component cables. That's $400. And three wireless controllers is another $150. There's no browser to pay for, although Xbox Live Gold will set you back $50/year. Of course, if you want a wi-fi connection that's another $100 for the adapter. So we're up to $700 now. And toss in a sports game to equal WiiSports for grins, which brings us to $760.

So I guess Wii is ultimately cheaper after all. The lesson here? The hidden costs of gaming are downright rapacious. Switch to a cheaper hobby, like collecting rare coins. They keep their resale value much more effectively.

Oddly enough, this isn't really an issue for Japan -- Nintendo is taking the slightly distasteful approach of of pretending 100 yen = 1 American dollar, meaning the $250 Wii is ¥25000 -- actually about $220. And The Virtual Console games are priced at ¥500, ¥800 and ¥1000, which isn't $5, $8 and $10 but something more akin to $4.25, $6.80 and $8.50. Of course, WiiSports isn't included in the box in Japan, which could account somewhat for the difference... but that doesn't explain why the Wiimote and Nunchuk are priced even lower in yen than in dollars (¥3800 and ¥1800 respectively, or $32.30 and $15.30, versus $40 and $20). And when you take into account the fact that Japanese consumers are used to paying much higher prices than Americans -- for instance, PS2 games there typically cost $50-70 -- the relative cost of Wii in Japan vs. America is even less.

Unfair? Sure, but here's the Rosetta Stone to understanding Nintendo's very different regional strategies:

They don't really care that much about the U.S.

And even less about Europe! (Sorry, dudes, but you know it's true.) Wii has to be a success in Japan, and only in Japan, in order for Nintendo to consider it a job well done; success in other territories is just gravy. And to capture the Japanese market, they need to appeal to casual gamers, just like with DS -- and a great price is an easy way to do that.

In the U.S., they'll worry about the casual market later. The early adopters here -- which is to say, the bulk of the people who will actually be able to find a Wii this holiday amidst the inevitable shortages -- are more hardcore types. And hardcore gamers have no common sense when it comes to money. Search your feelings; you know it to be true. (Which is to say, you probably ran out to buy the Star Wars original-Original trilogy DVDs this week, even though you already bought the original trilogy on DVD last year.) And you'll gripe about Wii being overpriced, but you'll still line up to preorder one anyway. Once Nintendo has made its mint off of you, there's plenty of room for price drops next year to appeal to a broader market.

You're being played for suckers, American gamers. And if you still need some sort of written confirmation that your priorities (i.e. buying fun things while still being able to afford your rent and meals) are different from that of the people who create and sell games (i.e. making obscene gobs of money regardless of what it means for you, the consumer), look no further than:

* Reggie Fils-Aime reaching around to pat himself on the back (possibly as a new application for the Wiimote) for the fact that the Wii's higher-than-expected price means fat, fat loot for Nintendo from the word go.
* Third-party publishers getting cranky at the prospect of WiiSports cutting into sales of their own products. And here you thought it was good that Nintendo was reviving the art of the pack-in. Silly you. Turns out Nintendo is actually staffed by terrorists who want to destroy the economy.

Ah, the cold, hard glare of reality.

Me? I bought a nice TV and a 360 last month and I still pretty much just play portable games. So I'm in no rush to buy yet another console just to see it sit disused. Join the portable revolution! We'll sit back, play some Contact or Castlevania, laugh at all the people standing in line for hours and getting stuck with unwanted software bundles for their trouble. It'll be fun!

Aw, who am I kidding. There's no region lock on Wii, so the minute Super Paper Mario hits Japan there'll be a Wii gleaming on my television stand. Frailty, thy name is Geek.

(Yes, I totally put the wisdom of Jon Stewart to work with that misleading title.)
Suddenly the PS3 doesn't sound so bad...

...ok...the price of PS3 still blows...but the thought of spending $600+ just on the Wii and accesories...

Nintendo had the ball...they got cocky...and they may have just dropped it.

"Growing up my dad was like 'You have a great last name, Galifianakis. Galifianakis...begins with a gal...and ends with a kiss...' I'm like that's great dad, can we get it changed to 'Galifianafuck' please?" -- Zach Galifianakis