You said the 3DS was losing them money. It is not. They sell each one at a profit. The problem was software sales weren't good for the 3DS, less people bought a Wii, and less people bought Wii games. Yes Nintendo lost money this year, but they aren't losing it on every 3DS sold as you suggested.

Nintendo has never sold hardware at a loss. Even their least successful console (Gamecube) sold only 24 million units, but each console sold made Nintendo profit (even when it got slashed to $99 in 2005ish) which means they made more money than Microsoft did with the Xbox 1, as that was never profitable in it's 4 year lifespan.

Which goes back to the point that started this all; Nintendo will not sell the Wii U cheaply at a loss ever. It will sell at break even point or higher.

Apparently you and nintendo have not been living in this recession. There's reports all over the net showing nintendo currently losing hundreds of millions. If current xbox360 controllers are about 40-50 with no touchscreen, imagine the cost of nintendo's new controller. It's practically an iPad/ereader, and the average anywhere from $80-$200(low-end) and nintendo controller uses NFC, adding to cost. Not to mention the Wii U itself is probably a $300 machine. There is no way Nintendo is going to try and sell a console to the masses for $500. In this environment Nintendo will have to take a loss per unit(at least for awhile). Sony and Microsoft has done this not because their stupid, but because they actually made next Gen consoles and had to except the price that came with it. Nintendo lagged behind using cheap hardware but good games to push the console. They can no longer get bye alone on this anymore. They are starting to see xbox 360 sales sore and theirs plummet. The only model is to build a big bad ass machine load it with features and put it on the market and hope that the games sell the machine. Microsoft and Sony took losses because they wanted to build something bigger and better than Nintendo, in hopes that the games would make up for the losses in the long run. It worked(for Microsoft at least, Sony is really taking a beating from losses of Ps3). Nintendo has now built something bigger and better and to compete in this environment there will be losses.

Agreed. Nintendo wont be able to sell this system for $500. But, even Nintendo's most powerful consoles for their time were always affordable and profitable. The wii u tablet doesn't need any silicon chips in it, as the console does all the streaming. The only thing that costs a lot is the touchscreen (which is resistive so it's cheaper than OLED). The Upad might be $80 and the console itself may cost $300 so around launch I expect a $400 price tag.

Don't get me wrong, as a consumer my wallet would love for Nintendo to sell this at a loss so I could afford it and used the saved money for mor games.

I agree 100%

Just wanted to post that they do and they have taken losses on consoles. If Nintendo believes they can make up for any losses, they will take a loss. I don't believe they have taken the PS3 heavy loss-leader approach with any of their consoles though. If Nintendo's DD services become as lucrative as LIVE, I can see some chance of Nintendo taking losses on their next console (if they decide to go a very high-end route).

Remember Virtual Boy?......big,big,big LOSS:(

No they didn't. They lowered their profit margin. It only costs $101 to manufacture a 3DS. Nintendo probably earns $10-15 on every 3DS sold whereas before they were earning 20-25 bucks a unit. They aren't selling at a loss, just not gaining as much profit as before.

What? You're saying it yourself. LOWER PROFIT MARGIN. That's taking a loss buddy.

lol. Profit is not losing money buddy. As long as they make a profit they are making money. Taking a loss means losing money on each unit sold. For example, the PS3 cost around $800 for Sony to build in 2006, and they sold it for $600, meaning for the first year Sony took losses of $200 per console, whereas Nintendo made a profit on every Wii sold (about $8 on each one for the first few years).You guys are so dedicated your not good. Read the following link. It's filled with the word losses. They have taking a L before. Stop being so stupid and read up suckas!
http://mobile.pcmag.com/device2/article.php?CALL_URL=http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2399375,00.asp

$399.99! Nintendo will take a lost on the console but not on the touch screen controller. That would split it in half; Controller $200, Console 200(losing around $100 per console).

Um, Nintendo never takes losses on their consoles, never have, never will.

They did with 3ds

Chrono Trigger rpg with over the top online multiplayer support with none stop DLC.......and killer instinct:)

I have a feeling that square button by the power button is for connecting multiple controllers. Kinda like how you do that with the Wii Mote when you press 1 and 2 at the same time.

Or switching from Tv to WiiPad view.

i want to see exclusive games: first and third parties. wii u specs, and online feature specs. and change where they put the plus, minus, and home buttons. it looks like you would have to stretch extremely far to hit them.

but, that's what i want to see. all they really need to do to have a successful E3, is to show off GREAT exclusive games.


p.s. i would love to play my ds and 3ds games on the wii u!

Nintedo allowing third-parties to shine a little with heavy emphasis on hardcore titles. Then, stealing the spot light back with Revolutionary IP'S of their own.

I don't think that their going to change the name at all.  If you watch the unreal 3 demo from gdc the beginning of the demo shows a wii u logo so that must mean nintendo has already decided to use it as their trade mark logo. In every interview even up til this very day, developers haveThat Zelda demo was gorgeous and we can do even more than that with Unreal Engine 3. I think it will do great." been calling it wii u. I believe that someone would have at least start referring to it as Nintendo's new console or something to that effect hinting to us that the wii u name was not going to remain. However, in just about every interview or rumor, it is referred to as the Wii U. Let's face it, NES had SNES, Gameboy had Gameboy Advance, DS had DS Lite, Slim, XL, Naco Supreme, ect, and now Wii is going to have Wii U. Nintendo keeps it in the family people.

It might not be as far fetched as you guys might thing / and this is the continuation of the speculation towards proving the power behind it, hopefully anyway it goes the "over 1000 GFLOPS" remains true over the course of time ... it would be rightdown stupid if not totally wasteless of the potential behind such a console to be less powerful but offer such array of services that this rumor promises.

Now lets get into detail, these kinds of rumors written in such way historically are valid, but to understand it ... thats the key, its shocking and thats why it seems unbelieveable.

But remember, this rumor is very significant to what you people have responded yet, I am so at a loss that i cannot post on neogaf to share these, anyone on neogaf plese copy all this qute there, but it shouldnt be what the other guys like bgassasin know, im just going to explain the rumor now, for others who might not see the significance in this, however this is still speculation so dont blame me but its high probablity that we bet on.

Lets see why this rumor actually could fit with the whole final thing of a rumored 1TF capable console, first its the rumors source, the manufacturing ... that information is likely to be someone that works in a factory like foxconn or where the GPU and CPU chips may have been made, but since the scope of the rumor is weider that might indicate the source is probably at the factory where the consoles get their final assembly since he knows surprisingly a lot of thing besides the hardware, no idea but if for some reason a chance is that this source is from a GPU or CPU factory that has his own knowledge of details he purposelly did not share might even confirm the idea of GPU and CPU being manufactured closely the so called fishkill partnership ... (your going to follow my posts im not going to explain what we know all over again about fishkill) So we can eliminate this idea since the probability is very low to the rumors scope that it shows us otherwise about the origin of the source ... this kind of rumor is a textbook one and mostly gets out from the packagin plants, the person behind it know the FACTS but he is not completely necessary for this person to be a super TECH DETECTIVE geek so the description that he gives is subjectively DISTORTED, parts of the rumor might appear contradictory to what we all hope for, thats why i so pointed it out last big post, if you do not have the experience to analyze the rumors you will percieve them wrong.


This specific part i can point out is when he says that the "CPU and GPU nintendo choosed are economical" in this case the source might have further knowledge of the specifics but the describes it as such, this does not mean that the hardware is bad, the source describes it as such compared to something he knows but not that we know what he's comparing it to specifically, one thing is for sure, he definitely doesn't compare that to current generation and if he does that would speak he has no idea about tech but the source has idea about tech he just lets a bit out without revealing too much as that would also confirm exact location of the leak and much easier for nintendo ninjas to pinpoint.


The next example is "Cutting production costs to maximize profits is Nintendo’s main concern with the Wii U" - notice the "production" word ... it is very important what production signifies, it does not indicate that all the performance will be cut back ... this proves the historical nintendo's policy, the smalles process possible so that the production of the chips is as efficient as possible that might also back up the far fetched 28nm node while i won't go that far my self so im still settling on 32nm from the fishkill theory looks more plausible than one single rumor about 28nm which is a quite old now though i frogot exactly the tech he mentioned was something that was not compatible with other rumors.
So don't think that this means they would cut all hardware and make the thing dumbed down and crappy ... nope, one of the most significant production costs reductor is the process node because the smaller you're chips are the more you can fit on a signle waffer, nintendo's quality design=better yields(percent of how many chips actually work fine, per waffer), faster supply, less waste, less time to meet demand.


The 300$ mark comes as to no surprise - heavily predicted by myself and others. For those who still don't understand, the capabilities of the system would push the console to 350, but nintendo choosed to not repeat 3DS scenario so it goes back down to 300$ and if that means not making profit, so be it, nintendo hinted this them sefls. They might not be making profit in the early launch period of some months but it definitely will be worth it for 1 year leap and boost as well as later cheaper tech such as NFC tech dropping by 400% in the near future as well as the production overall, chips and LCDs and all that comes down a bit for a nicely timed price drop around PS4720 launch. They obviously won't loose that much money, the system will cost probably the same number in euros , so 300€ is 406$. The more dollar is useless the more europeans passively suffer for it, stupid planet we live in, blame the banker elite.

"Nintendo got a bargain price on the custom GPU and CPU that the Wii U uses." - This could be significant, because it may prove the fishkill partnership of CPU and GPU being manufactured at the same facility with partnership of GlobalFoundries(AMD), IBM and ATI(AMD), as well as the low production costs of the chips as they developed them to be, the word custom just adds on what we know. Might sound far fetched, but the bargain might come because IBM might actually use GloFo fab to make those CPU chips as AMD would use to make GPUs and normally there wasn't any connection with the IBM and AMD , but it looks like that im merely speculating, looks like GloFo is pleased that AMDs connection with the GPU also brought in another customer IBM ... so somethings fishy going on there, i won't say its exactly like this i need to think about it more, but looks like some big win was accomplished for the newly opened plant at fishkill - Also AMD made GloFO with an indie saudi tech investment company, the investment company then bought out AMDs share and GloFo became fully independent, still AMDs ties are there, however some executives were leaving GloFo ... which might not mean anything bad, maybe they weren't good and were replaced, but if this is good for nintendo then great!


"They are cutting costs in the Wii U’s hardware to build back confidence in investors" - that's a silly statement, they don't work for the "apple hippie investor" that jumps on and off thinking the company will break and make a quick buck , they don't understand nintendo. The investors will have to wait and have patience, nothing is done to please their impatience, nintendo will never sacrifice them selfs for some stupid analyst. And that's why nintendo is my favourite company.
Thats what the source thinks ... but his opinion here is weak, and first of all, cutting back on the hardware doesn't mean anything to be concerned with, it could be a plastic we all know it'll be a balance, we all know it'll not be the super duper 599$ console, and nobody of the tech guys expects wiiu to be more powerful in the next gen, we should expect to know it'll be the least powerful but the still open question is, by how much. Who the heck cares about 20% ... first-parties will finally get what they deserve no matter what.
What i understand from this, that nintendo won't PIMP the console where theres no need for, there won't be any cuts in the CORE hardware that we all heard it got bumped up and Epic's push for more RAM rumored this year.


"Nintendo wants investors to view Wii U as a less risky proposition" - dismiss this, this is a subjective assumption, it might be wrong, it might be correct, or somewhere in the middle - it's the source "pimp" words on what he thinks, not a real leak of what would nintendo say. Moving on ...


"There is a bigger focus on downloadable content, applications, video content, digital distribution, and services to create a stream of revenue." - This is again the pimp words, a summary, to make the whole rumor more something, or a mere re-confirmation of what we allready know so no surprise here but good to hear. The whole thing sounds more likely a good info but also pimped with buzz words for the investors them selfs, this rumor for the investors actually - the stupid investors who can dig anything up and belive on the get go so ... the cutting down means nothing for us, it's a statement that makes investors feel good as they might think theyll get more profit from it - dismiss this, it does NOT mean CPU and GPU would be crap - and investors won't get that much since we all suspect it'll not be that profitable on launch.


The 180$ cost is materials only - marketing, research, packaging , mass production, retail, shipping, box contents, etc etc etc. So it's not that far fetched - as i said, the source signified only the stuff the investors would go "ecstatic" ... and for a stupid apple investor seeing 180 cost and 300 sell point - "oh that would mean great profit ya ya ya" .... that's just to get the stock price up for E3 HYPE! whoever done this rumor ... god knows - no such profit at all people, don't buy the shock buzz, look what the source is saying "between the lines" as i explained, this is one of those rumors ... textbook example that can confuse almost everyone.

Aswell the info might be handed around and other people might added those parts of views - do not see this rumor as something that one person planned it in his booknote and then released it - taking every sentence as separate is the key aswell.

Wow. You lost me at GPU. Get this people, Nintendo did not buy a custom gpu. They choose a gpu to use as a base for their on gpu. Nintendo and an AMD team together would have to work on this. Noone inside of any manufacturing plant would have vast knowledge of the functionality of a "Custom" gpu(not anyone at the lower level at least). Plus the part about Nintendo wanting to cut cost to show investors they can make a profit(or what ever you were babbling about) is total CRAPPPppppppppp!!!! Investors watched the Wii make a killing only to later be forgetting about by third-party developers who were taking their blockbuster titles, running on their sofisticated engines to Microsoft and Sony missing out on the chance to make money off of blockbuster titles like MW3. I dont think investors are going to put their money into anything that's only going to be undone once the competition release their next consoles. The Wii U won't be cheap. $300-350 price after taking a loss which will have nothing to do with the cost of the parts inside. If this person has actually sat down and taking the complete Wii U apart including the WiiPad(buttons and screen included) and the price of the software installed was included in his part by part break down which includes the numerous technologies that Nintendo has licensed to put inside the Wii U, comes up with $150, I'll by everyone on this forum a Wii U.

I think the WiiPad/gun accessory would be perfect for COD. It's coming to Wii u. Activison is already tight lipped.

http://m.officialnin...say-activision/

The ninjas are keeping close watch.

They should separated the next console from the wii by establishing a edgier name for it's new console. We may even see it this summer.

Read this:
http://www.nintendoe...as-this-summer/

am i the only one that thinks that this:

looks almost nothing like this?:

I agree

You can watch your favorite teams while playing with your favorite teams <br />
<br />
</p>

Me likes that

You can watch your favorite teams while playing with your favorite teams <br />
<br />
</p>

Me likes that

Buying 2 at launch. One for myself and One for my boys(9-10 y/o). Now I can watch my to 4 favorite teams(bulls,bears,whitesox,Blackhawks) on the big screen while running threw hell(darksiders11) on my WiiPad. I hope Wii U has some sort of in-game skype app that allows you to play and communicate visually with people online. I wouldn't mind meeting some of you. If they have this sort of app I look forward to meeting and beating some of the forum members online.

Now thats what I was hoping for, skype powered chat. I use skype for when playing on either PS3 or Xbox 360, its just a lot more useful to me and better quality, to have it integrated into the system would be great. Pretty much all of our game chat is on skype, kinda unfair on game mode like search and destroy on CoD but oh well. Thats what I hope for, and integrated always running chat client. No just some "app" that you have to use and cant play games. I doubt nintendo could or will but I wish they would allow you to run a game and another app in the background. Such as voice chat completely seperate from the game. On xbox live some games dont allow party chat to be used, which I find annoying.

Totally agree

There's an option missing: I know a shop that sells things a week early, I will buy one week before release.

Share your info... Where can I get it a week early?

It's a risk that the stores take and it hasn't affected them to this date, they've been around for more than 10 years and have been doing this for ages.

As long as it doesn't violate my warranty I'll be willing to pick one up early.

Playstation doesn't use Direct X, it uses a variant of Open Gl and it still has Crysis 3.

Rumors(and I know there just rumors) has it that the xbox720 will use bluray(Sony owns the most patents and receives more money for licensing fees) and the PS4 will be utilize DX11(Microsoft license). Maybe the to companies have some kind of tech swap agreement. Idk I just know that Crytek is big on graphics. DX11 is the shiznits right now for developers. If they feel that DX11 will make their game superior graphically(which they do), then Crytek is going with DX11. If Nintendo could get them to do the game utilizing someother middleware that is that produces  same quality visually I still don't think that Crytek would start from scratch on another system. Nintendo is not going to pay licensing fees to Microsoft for use of DX11. Sony may have already nogotiated some kind of a deal. It's easier to port a game if they are all using they same API(at least I think).

Not a fat chance he's giving any info up on Wii U(NDA). The Ninjas are watching. I'm willing to bet money that it will be at E3 on Wii U.

Crysis 3 use's DX11(microsoft).NINTENDO is not going to pay for anything Microsoft

How does that tie into the topic ?

Are you kidding?I've said it many times before, Nintendo won't pay licensing fees to Microsoft. DX11 designed by Microsoft(the One's who make Xbox). Crysis 3 is using DX11. Get what I'm saying. Nintendo takes it's beef seriously. They won't pay Microsoft/Crisis 3 will have some sort of Microsoft/DX11 logo during the credits of the game. Can you imagine beating Crisis 3 on Wii U, and then watching A Microsoft/DX11 logo show during the credits...NO! Nintendo can't imagine seeing it either. That's how it ties into the topic Homie!