706 replies to this topic

[111112oo]

The CPU/GPU will be dirt cheap. Even at the high end of the potential specs they won't cost more than $30 each. 4GB of laptop DDR3 ram is $20-ok that isn't the world's best ram but it's about 4 times more than will be in the Wii U. That's $80. The controller cost is hard to judge but I don't see it been over $100- the iPad screen was judged to have cost less than $100 18 months ago and the Wii U will have a far smaller one and isn't as high quality. That's leaves $70 everything else which is easily achievable.

You're telling me you haven't seen what the Wii U is capable of yet?





Now what do you think?

Edited by 111112oo, 10 December 2011 - 05:42 PM.

[Andy]

You're telling me you haven't seen what the Wii U is capable of yet?

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4SGjPLV5mw"]http://www.youtube.c...h?v=z4SGjPLV5mw[/url]

Now what do you think?

Those were made with early dev kits. We have no idea what the real Wii U can do.

[111112oo]

Those were made with early dev kits. We have no idea what the real Wii U can do.

I know, but they were better than what he was describing it as.

EDIT: But the Wii U is still capable of those graphics/performance, like I said... "what the Wii U is capable of"

Edited by 111112oo, 10 December 2011 - 06:48 PM.

[aaron]

You're arguing about what you think it is capable of, that is not pricing it anyway, possibly 300 dollars.

[Banzai¥]

You're arguing about what you think it is capable of, that is not pricing it anyway, possibly 300 dollars.

I would say they'll launch it at $449 in North America, mainly because of the controller. After a few months it would then drop to $399, possibly releasing a cheaper version (Say without the controller) for $299-319.
Like it or not, the controller will be a big reason for the high-price. Even if they're cheap to produce, I would suspect the controller to be priced around $69-99 for a while.

[aaron]

I would say they'll launch it at $449 in North America, mainly because of the controller. After a few months it would then drop to $399, possibly releasing a cheaper version (Say without the controller) for $299-319.
Like it or not, the controller will be a big reason for the high-price. Even if they're cheap to produce, I would suspect the controller to be priced around $69-99 for a while.

Thank you, we wanted to hear prices and you gave the prices to us in detail, very good.

[Andy]

After a few months it would then drop to $399, possibly releasing a cheaper version (Say without the controller) for $299-319.

Why would you want a Wii U without the controller?

[Banzai¥]

Why would you want a Wii U without the controller?

Possibly, as in you never know what could happen. Really I have no reason for why it wouldn't have one, but who-knows, old videos showed that the Wii-controller works on a number of Wii-U test titles.

[Andy]

Possibly, as in you never know what could happen. Really I have no reason for why it wouldn't have one, but who-knows, old videos showed that the Wii-controller works on a number of Wii-U test titles.

While it's true that the Wii remote works on the Wii U; most if not all Wii U games are going to require use of the Wii U controller in some way. Selling a model without the controller would be a all-around horrible move.

[Medu]

I know, but they were better than what he was describing it as.

EDIT: But the Wii U is still capable of those graphics/performance, like I said... "what the Wii U is capable of"

I only gave my predicted pricing!
GPU/CPU are expensive to design but cheap to make. A wafer of 40nm chips is ~$5000 and Nintendo will probably get between 350-600 chips per wafer(depending on specs). Even at the VERY high end(800SP- I believe it will be 400SP) the cost per chip is only ~$15 plus they will probably have to pay a few licensing fees. I went with $30 to be on the safe side.

[10k]

I priced out some comparable computer parts that the wii u is rumored to have and with retail markup included it came in at around $372. That's without the controller which will probably be around $100 so it's save to say $450-500 is a good bet of a launch price. I have pics to show along with specs

Edited by Tenkay23, 12 December 2011 - 05:55 PM.

[Link707]

I priced out some comparable computer parts that the wii u is rumored to have and with retail markup included it came in at around $372. That's without the controller which will probably be around $100 so it's save to say $450-500 is a good bet of a launch price. I have pics to show along with specs

Shouldn't their be a possibility of Nintendo being able to get these parts at a lower price since they are a company. I always tended to believe company's could get parts at a lower price then available on market or is it just me?

[10k]

CPU: Quad Core AMD 3.0GHz, 6mb of L3 cache (also known as the eDRAM ppl are mother doging about, which the processor from IBM can hold a maximum of 4mb a core, 32mb max). Nintendo will most likely have 16mb of eDRAM (they are getting it customized after all)

GPU: ATI Radeon 5870 512mb GDDR5 (there is a 1GB model but I think Nintendo is going to share the ram between the CPU and GPU and I think they won't dedicate more than 512mb of video memory

RAM: 1024mb (1GB)

Motherboard that works with AMD processor and on board six channel sound (six channel sound was announced for Wii U)

And a 380w power supply to handle all these functions.

Basically the Wii U should have 1.5GB of total RAM shared or 1gb system memory and 512mb dedicated to the GPU. A lot of ram is needed to steam two wii u tablets. 16mb of eDRAM will help the CPU processing immensely and allow for better AI and quicker load times. This GPU (the 1gb version at least) was benchmarked with Cyrsis with AA and 1080p at around 30fps so it can handle some crazy games.


The green and blue bars are the closest resolutions to 1920x1080p

Shouldn't their be a possibility of Nintendo being able to get these parts at a lower price since they are a company. I always tended to believe company's could get parts at a lower price then available on market or is it just me?

Like I said, Nintendo would get it for cheaper. But Nintendo will charge these prices to us to markup the cost and pass it to us. Markup is usually about 20%. So 80% of $450 is around $350 to make a wii u and tablet. Nintendo always sells consoles at a profit so you won't see a wii u sold for less than $400

Edited by Tenkay23, 12 December 2011 - 06:06 PM.

[Merchiodos]

It would be more likely that the wii u will over $400 maybe over $500. Who knows. If the 360 and PS3 was over $500 maybe the wii u will be the same. I really don't want the wii u to be over $400 because people who don't have money won't buy it cause it to expensive and most people don't like the wii anyway and brining the wii u out at a price thats good for us will bring all the old nintendo fans (who hated the wii) back. I'm thinking that the wii u price will be over $400 but less then $500

[Medu]

Guys, that's not how hardware pricing works.

As I said earlier, designing chips is expensive, make them isn't. The chips in the Wii U will modified AMD/IBM chips, not new chips that were $500m each to R&D. Take the 5750 GFX card, it has a 170mm2 chip inside it. A TSMC wafer costs between $5000-6000. AMD get 370 chips off that wafer with maybe 85% yields, so 315 working chips. That puts the price of a chip at a maximum of $19- but it's unlikely that Nintendo will go for the 5750 chip and the cost of 40nm wafer's will probably drop sharply over the next few months as all AMD/NV chips move to 28nm. There are other factors to be included but the final cost will be much closer to the $30 I predicted than $150 for the GPU.

The reason the PS3 was so expensive at launch was because it was using far larger chips that had much worse yields+ they also spent hundreds of millions in R&D for the Cell CPU.

[CaptainFalco311]

All the people who are saying that the Wii U will cost more than $400 have forgotten one critical thing: THEY'RE NINTENDO! Especially after the disaster that was the 3DS launch and even Reggie going as far as saying that they've "learned their lesson", plus the fact that Nintendo has never priced a console more than $300, I highly believe that the Wii U will be less than $300. With the latest rumors saying that the Wii U is about as powerful as a 360, theorizing that the Wii U will cost more than $300 is ludicrous. Here are my main factors as to what the Wii U will cost:

• The Wii costs $149. Yes, I know it's dated hardware, but Reggie has been quoted to say that the Wii will remain on the market for a decent amount of time and that Nintendo is trying to make a "tiered" pricing scheme between the two consoles. What "tier" costs at least twice as more than their lowest option?
• The 360 costs $199, and God knows how much the 720 will cost. Nintendo is the industry's biggest fan of competitive pricing, and with the 720 rumored to hit as early as next year, Nintendo will need to stay competitive. And while the 360's been out for 5 years and its hardware has become pretty cheap to produce because of that, if the Wii U will have similar specs to a 360, then how could the Wii U possibly cost upwards of $400?
• The controller will NOT cost $100 to produce. Trust me, I know what the Chinese electronics manufacturing market is like, and making a New Controller will NOT cost $100 to produce for several reasons. It has a resistive touchscreen. It doesn't have a fast CPU nor lots (if any) of RAM (I'd imagine this would be the case, but nothing's confirmed). It doesn't have Wi-Fi (as far as we know). It doesn't have a MicroSD Card slot. Plus, the controller will be produced by the millions, resulting in a lower price. This Android tablet, for example, has all of the above features that won't be in the New Controller and only costs $58 for one unit (http://www.aliexpres...holesalers.html). The controller may cost Nintendo as low as $35-$45 to produce.

[GeneralCraezy]

The controller doesn't even need to be very powerful does it? (thats actually a question ) Cuz it can just get all its power from the actual console, right?

[Soul]

I would buy it in the price range of 0-300

[The777brown]

I would buy it in the price range of 0-300

yeah, i'm in the same range, i dont think i would buy it if it topped the 350 mark. (nintendo is probably going to sell it at 349.99 lol)

[Soul]

Ya, I have no money.