I concur. :nod: The $250 price tag is ridiculous. As is the region-locking. What the fuck is Nintendo thinking?
they re thinking that if they got away with it with the DS, they can probably pull it off with the Wii.
They are thinking $$$$ Also, wasn't it Nintendo that named a certain console Revolution to begin with? I like Nintendo games, but I agree with some of what is being said here. The price of the console is too high considering that it is just a tarted up Gamecube with a new control system. Nintendo are making a profit on the hardware this time around by their own admission, while Sony and Microsoft are taking quite a hit in the pocket. With those machines I at least feel I am paying for something new a high tech, but with the Wii? Not really. Especially after supporting the N64 and GC in Europe and seeing the software line up dry up to almost nothing after a year or so of release. The same will likely happen to the Wii, so it is too much to charge for something that most people are considering a second machine for this new generation.
I remember recieving a phone call about this from Gamestop. They had it planned that they were going to have a Halloween midnight sale for it (even though the date wasnt *official*) It went something like this "...Zelda Twilight Princess for the Wii will be released on November 19th, and the Gamecube version will be released on December 14th..." I can understand the Wii version not coming out until when the Wii actually comes out, but delaying the GCN version is a downright insult. Its already been delayed NUMEROUS times and this last "delay" is merely Nintendo trying to squeeze every ounce of money out of the franchise that they can get. Come on Nintendo, don't act like Sqauresoft (or even worse, Capcom).
Well the GC probably sell for what, 100$ now? Now lets make that more compact, faster, a better drive (GC couldn't do dual layer discs and god knows what else they cut to cut cost), the far more expensive controller. I'd say that could add up to over 100$ pretty easily, plus they force the Wii Sports on you which they need to make money on. I don't think the price is that bad. Only if you're used to the 360 and PS3's taking a loss for the company so you can have more cutting edge hardware for cheaper. I do think Nintendo should have pushed it further, I really do. I don't believe a 729mhz CPU is enough of an upgrade, or a 243mhz GPU. I'm not convinced that their nearly 128mb of RAM is enough either. I mean if you design the game fresh for the Wii, it'll work, but there are limitations that don't exist on the other two consoles. I can live with the DVD storage. But really, would it have killed them to go for a faster CPU and faster GPU with more RAM? I think they should have atleast went for double the CPU clock (1.4ghz or so) and somewhere around a 1.5x faster GPU, as it doesn't need to be on the level of the 360 or PS3. And 256mb of ram minimum would have been better. Like I said, I agree they don't need ubber specs, but I think the gap is a bit much though I hope I'm proven wrong.
Two things. Back in the days of the pre-release of the gamecube, someone from the IBM team was asked whether or not the CPU could be faster. He promptly answered that yes, it could be near double the speed, but it wouldnt come in the nice box it ended up being (i.e it would need a better cooling solution). on this point, it is known that the gamecube's main processor is more efficient that the XBOX's celeron, as the XBOX is in comparison a thermal triumph (from an engineer's point of view), and the only real advantage of the XBOX CPU was the 733Mhz speed, not its architecture. (performance per clock speed measured) Recently, Nintendo said that they made the gamecube's CPU more efficient with its new manufacturing process, which allows it to have lower temperatures, thus the increase and yet the small size of the case of Wii. In other words, what I mean is that the technology behind the Wii is old. It's part of the R&D of the GC with minimal effort to better it, beyond the clock speed - which is also a product of previous experimentation during GameCube development , by IBM engineers. The final price of the Wii should be about 200 dollars, but nintendo is pushing the unit with Wii Sports - a game that i doubt would sell 1:1 (units:wii sports) if offered stand alone. In that way , they profit from the console and Wii sports, a game forced on every US and EU consumer that buys Wii. Alot of shiny pennies for Nintendo. Damn are they greedy. I don't doubt that the new controller had alot of RnD gone into it (but no where near the cost of 360 RnD or Ps3)and that it probably costs as much as the console's motherboard, but it is just too big of a leap in actual technology between the 360/ps3 and the Wii, and the price gap isnt analogous to that.
So then, don't you agree with me that for 250$, the CPU & GPU should perform faster and there should be more memory? Not just for our money, but because of the large gap between Wii and 360/PS3 that exists now.
I do agree. Just the overhead of professional packages for next get stuff is larger than last time around. In the light of this, nintendo is indeed using last generation's tools, and it wants developers to focus on making a game as they would in this generation of games, and not the next. For the casual developer, there's no room for fancy graphics out of the box (unlike x360 or ps3 perhaps that can handle better textures and more polygones easier to say the least) unless they squeeze power out of it like capcom did with resident evil. This is just an alternative version of the gamecube, with emphasis on the controller this time (and a beautiful packaging). It's hard to swallow that i have to pay for a gamecube , 5 years later, more than i paid for a gamecube the first day i bought one.
I know it seems "hard to swallow", but some things that might make it easier are that the GC was underrated to begin with. The main limiting factor of the GC was in my opinion a lack of memory. Not enough Disc Capacity, and not enough RAM. The Wii will have plenty of disc capacity, not sure about RAM, but still alot more than GC. Again though this something we'd like to have had last generation, but this is put into a small compact low power box which is harder to do than making it a regular beast, and it's not that expensive. The hardware certainly doesn't scream power and top end performance, but it is compact, friendly, and not overpriced. The 360 and PS3 are large, power hungry, and costly. The software is what makes the real difference. I mean really I spend my time on my 360 really just playing games that game fun solid gameplay. I don't have HD-TV, though I appreciate detailed graphics to a certain point. But the fact is I had as much fun playing games like Perfect Dark Zero as I did Perfect Dark on Nintendo 64. It's all about the playing experience and not whos scene has more polygons or more realistic phsyics. I don't mind paying that 250$ for the Wii, so long as Nintendo keeps its shit together and high quality software comes out for it. But at the same time, I'm going to be buying some Xbox 360 games like Gears of War, Lost Planet, and Resident Evil 5. I really wonder though if we will all be stunned by Nintendo tapping a huge new revenue source of previous non-gamers with the Wii. It certainly could happen.
This isn't true either. The controller is almost exactly the same as the controller producted as a wireless pointer/mouse by the company they bought for the technology.
I'm a little suprised. You guys keep goin on about the systems cost but are not bringing up the cost of games. $50-$60 is a freaking rip off. Alot of Wii games in development are already very simular (mini games or racing that is almost the same). Wii game development definantly did not sky rocket over gcn at all. So I dont see the merit in a $10 hike in prices.
To be fair, that is more or less the 3rd parties doing that. Nintendo already announced that all of it's titles are going to be $50, a acceptable price. However, publishers such as EA I dare say will tap into the $60 price range, which isn't right.
Yup. But most decent publishers will probably keep more inline with Nintendo. EA tends to make alot of shovelware/toilet paper games anyway. 50$ is not a ripoff for Wii games, atleast not all Wii games. Remember that producing video games these days is expensive, even on the GameCube and the Wii. However the Wii should cost them less to develop for than the 360 or PS3. One thing I would like to see the Wii get are some of the few 2D games recently produced like Metal Slug 6 and KoF XI. Games like Red Steel and Zelda I'll surely pay 50$ for, however games such as Elebits I'm not sure it's deep enough for the purchase. However if by buying it I encourage Konami to further invest into the Wii, it would be worth it.
Agree 100%. Is like SEGA came to the party with a new console which is nothing but an overcloked, overhauled Naomi2 but at twice the price the Dreamcast had. I was a SEGA guy but no way I'm buying that. Honestly I think a lot of Wii's hype is due to the endless rants coming from fanboys all over the world. Theres a lot of forums were anything nintendo is almost sacred, thus any criticism is an invitation to a flame war. Indeed, thanks for bringing the suject to this discussion, it totally went unlooked. Even at 50 bucks is a ripoff since even when current Gen development is anything but cheap we all know costs will go down and the nextgen comes to the market. Thus, 1 or 2 years from now Wii development costs will be half or less than those of X360 or PS3. But be sure games prices wont be like that....
If you had read the official components analysis of the controller you would realize that the company they bought (gyration) has nothing to do with the new controller. Inside the new controller the parts used are from another gyro manufacturer that nintendo does not own (that means they don't use gyrations products for the Wii). I remember digging out this information based on the press kit site about the time of the last E3. I remember making a topic or post on this - can't remember which. Try searching on the e3 topic , i think it was there. It may easily have been that they thought of motion sensitive controls after they acquired Gyration.
Actualy nintendo anounced that range for game prices (well they did for europe). Sure I understand zelda being $50 but most other wii titles are not even close to being worth that. 1st party xbox 360 & ps3 games will be $50. Considering 1st party gcn titles were $40 originaly, I don't see why the up in price. 360 & ps3 yes will need larger teams but I can bet you right now most wii games will have near gcn or smaller dev teams (since there will be more enphisis on gimmics or mechanics then graphics, so teams wont need to be so big). Plus alot will just continue with their already built gcn engines (mostly upgrade them a bit). So there is no need for expensive R&D to build new engines. :noooo:
You can see that in the screenshots. Hell, the WiiSonic (secret rings or something, dunno) looks exactly like sonic heroes on the GC. And mario galaxies characters looked an awful lot like the ones in mario sunshine (not the levels but again, those were considered bad even at that time)
I was very displeased with the 250 dlls price point....for about two days. I realize now that the Wii is not literally a GC. It has all the parts of the GC (four controller ports, two memory card ports), plus 512 flash memory, plus two usb ports, plus a port for SD cards, plus wireless connection for Wifi (the gamecube didnt even have an Ethernet 10/100 port!), plus the 60 dollars controller and a full game, plus a new User Interface with added functionality (Mii, channels, etc) all in a smaller,thinner better looking case. And let's not forget the R&D for all the new stuff. Got to get that money back. I'mean it's not like Nintendo is opening refurbished Gamecubes, ripping the motherboard, overclocking the Gecko, and inserting them in Wii cases, right? 250 dlls for a new and complete experience is good enough for me, anyway. The price of the games, tough, that's another story...a sad story.
All that stuff is cheap as hell nowadays, reason why even the DS has WiFi. You can get a 512 flash card for $50. And the SD card reader? dude you can even make one yourself! Plus when talking about accesories you've to remember the MSRP is way higher than the real cost. Games and accesories are the real revenue source coming from consoles. To make it short, the wiimote real cost is $15, and the nunchuk half of that or even less. MS is going to bundle PGR3 with the X360, while WiiSport isnt a full game at all, but a series of mini-games any indie developer could code in no time. So for ninty is way cheaper to bundle this tech-demo (lets be honest, thats what it really is) than to lower the price to let you buy a normal game. After all, they got some bitch-slap critics against the lack of bundled games in both N64 and NGC. Not really but they may be reusing some parts like the controller I/O board, and even some spare GPU chips since its just slightly overcloked. But what I think is a real shame is that they are still using the same lame-ass G4 without velocity engine (gekko) while they could very easily use a G5 which is compatible. Man, the least they could do is add the damn VE, which was taken out of the NGC due to costs issues.
Yea, wifi is cheap as condoms these days, yet microsoft only has an 10/100 adapter on the 360 charging premium for the wireless adapter. Hats off to nintendo on this one "Although Link is [traditionally] left-handed, at E3 we noticed people seemed to be using the right Wii controller to swing his sword. That's why we decided to make Link right-handed. The interesting this is, on the GameCube Link is still left-handed; because of the mirror mode the game map is reversed." quoted from IGN in an interview with Miyamoto. Lazy bastards mirrored everthing instead of redoing the model?
