Mike Gwilliam of Forget the Box is reporting that, supposedly, “the total cost of materials to manufacture the Wii U console (includes cost of controller) is estimated to be around $180″. If the source is to be believed, the console “will be no less than $300 retail price when it launches”. What’s a little worrying, though, is that:
Cutting production costs to maximize profits is Nintendo’s main concern with the Wii U. They are cutting costs in the Wii U’s hardware to build back confidence in investors. Nintendo wants investors to view Wii U as a less risky proposition.
…and:
Nintendo chose an economical GPU and CPU that could keep up with the performance of today’s current consoles, but keep hardware costs down to maximize profits. Nintendo got a bargain price on the custom GPU and CPU that the Wii U uses.
But, what could be a positive is that there is, apparently, “a bigger focus on downloadable content, applications, video content, digital distribution, and services to create a stream of revenue.”
Like always though, this is a rumour.
View and comment on the full article at Wii U Blog
