Zavvi looks like the first UK retailer to slap a Nintendo Wii U price tag into its books and, if you want our humble opinion, it's insane.
The Wii U product page over at Zavvi lists Nintendo's new console at just shy of £400 which, considering it's going up the PS3 and Xbox 360 here, would price it right out of the market.
We know that the corporate definition of value often differs to our own but we think even the Ninty execs would laugh at £400. Wouldn't they?...
Comments
34 comments so far...
jsb115 on 8 Jun '11 said:
If that's even slightly close oto the final price, Ninty will have screwed themselves over. No point turning up to the HD party 7 years late (by the time it releases) and then charging over the odds for it. Sony learned that the hard way and they only released the PS3 just over a year after the 360 launched.
KesMonkey on 8 Jun '11 said:
I want one, I really do, but not at that price.
olrodlegacy on 8 Jun '11 said:
Bear in mind that the 3DS was originally rumoured to weigh in at around £300, and I've already seen it down as low as £140. Nintendo would not make it extortionate.
veato on 8 Jun '11 said:
No way will it cost that much. My guess is £249-£299 at launch or less (depending on the official specs)
rbt2 on 8 Jun '11 said:
Put these words in order..
The Taking p**s Are Zavvi.
roland82 on 8 Jun '11 said:
I know we're doubting how much actual new tech is in this thing but they put a £220 rrp on the 3DS and this will have to be more.
We all know Nintendo only sells hardware to make a profit.
freaky_seb on 8 Jun '11 said:
Clearly Zavvi are going for the high end of the price range for the moment. A lot of online retailers do pre-order price promises, that the lowest price they offer will be the one you pay.
If Zavvi came out at £250 and the RRP was revealed to be £299, Zavvi would have to honour those who pre-ordered if they had a price promise on the pre-order. It will come down to reflect the official RRP when Nintendo finally tell us.
me4pd on 8 Jun '11 said:
Zavvi are the ones that went out of business on the high street right?
milky_joe on 8 Jun '11 said:
Yeah, and you could pre-order an NGP earlier this year for $999.99...
yerbluesjohn on 8 Jun '11 said:
To be honest I'm tempted to put an order in. If they had a firmer price I'd do it.
TOKEN on 8 Jun '11 said:
Im looking to sped 5-£600 at launch and thats with £299 and £300 on games and online points.
EB Australia have priced $600.
creamerybutter on 8 Jun '11 said:
Exactly, they are being overly cautious until an official rrp comes out, this means absolutely sod all.
Well a company called Zavvi did have retail stores and did go out of business but the name was sold to a different company and relaunched as a web only retailer. Aside from the name this Zavvi has nothing to do with the one that went bust.
charliecheswick on 8 Jun '11 said:
I'm thinking £299 too and would gladly pay it after seeing the hands~on Zelda demo on IGN. The tech is amazing but i'm wondering the price for the controller alone. I would've thought around £65!?! Was a bit WTF at first as i saw Wii Sports Plus but that Zelda demo blew me away,not just the game but the interaction with the controller. Amazing. Can not wait for this to launch.
JakeyBaby on 8 Jun '11 said:
The iPad certainly sold didn't it? Apple and Nintendo certainly have a way with the magpies, so I'm sure they'll do well in middle class, white homes, happy smiles families like they appeal to in their adverts.
z_surf_z on 8 Jun '11 said:
hehe I paid that much for a 3DO console back in xmas 1994, and £399 is probably more like £500 in todays money, and all i had to play on it was pebble beach golf and demoliton man. How times have changed lol
TOKEN on 8 Jun '11 said:
Iwata in an interview i just read on go intendo.com has said 20,000 yen/$250 USD,id say £250 on samish 360/spec but if it has say 1GB ram slightly faster cpu £299.
Laughlyn on 8 Jun '11 said:
I'd expect it to be similar pirced to PS3, nintendo usually wait till tech is reasonably priced before making a machine that uses it so they can keep price competetive. Also it doesnt have an internal HD which will help keep cost down compared to 360/ps3. bare minimum xbox is less than £200
infernoxXx on 8 Jun '11 said:
its coming out next year (probably winter aswell), no way they would have the price decided yet. i dont even think the hardware is set in stone yet.
gavedge81 on 8 Jun '11 said:
Sorry Zavvi? I think ill wait until a serious retailer lists it!
djreplay on 8 Jun '11 said:
Surely it won't be priced that high, it doesn't even have a hard drive so it should be about £250.
dm_1782 on 8 Jun '11 said:
For everyone that might be mislead by this post may i be the first to cry bull@%$*. Nintendo have already said it will be priced to match its competition and being that it seems to be using tech that match its competitors which is what 3-4 years old it can't be that expensive to manufacture parts for. I think the most expensive thing will be the controller. Fear not I can't see this costing more than £300 if that.
wwinterj on 8 Jun '11 said:
I wouldn't be shocked if this price was true. I'd have thought it would be around £250 - £300. The issue here is the control pad will possibly cost quite a bit to make.
There is no way in hell I'd buy a Wii U at £400. The Wii U would be my third console. Xbox 360 been my second and PS3 been my first. The games on Wii U like Arkham City and Battlefield I can already play on my 360 or PS3 this year. The point is paying £400 for a few exsclusives isn't a wise move and the reason the Wii did so well was because it was cheap. I'll wait and see something official before I boycott it though.
Agent75 on 8 Jun '11 said:
Nintendo consoles have rocketed in price recently. At launch, the DS with a game was only £99, the DS Lite without a game was £99, the 3DS without a game was £219 (around £249 with a game), so I can see a price of easily £299+ because there's enough people out there who are willing to pay it (I can honestly see it being more closer to £399). Forget about how much consoles cost years ago, the cost of a console is all based on greed. I'd hate to think how much extra controllers are going to cost what with them having a screen and camera built in. As for the tech, the Xbox 720 and PS4 will trample it. The Wii U matching the Xbox 360 and PS3 will be short lived.
charliecheswick on 8 Jun '11 said:
Aye,the next gen consoles from Sony and Microsoft will more than likely have better spec but i think that's the point. When you have photo-realistic graphics ect,there's not much more you can do. What Nintendo is doing with the Wii U and what they've already done with the Wii is to change the way you interact with the software. The biggest problem the Wii had was that the best game producers wouldn't touch it due to the limited specs. Well,now they've got some power to play with they appear to be very interested in developing for a Nintendo console ( loved what the Epic guy said about "fish,meet water" ).
I've posted before that i'm not in love with the PS3 & 360 exclusives,so providing Rockstar bring their big guns aboard the Wii U,that's the only console i'll need.
kimoak on 8 Jun '11 said:
My Neo-Geo CD cost me that much. Worth every penny, it was.
alan666 on 8 Jun '11 said:
thats crazy, it will be £250 i would think, well it will have to be to be able to sell, Nintendo said it would be able to compete with PS3 & Xbox so it has to be around the £250 mark.
roynluc on 8 Jun '11 said:
It's websites like Zavvi that kind of dictate the price. They speculate a price point so they can put it up on their website for pre-order, then the companies look and think to themselves, I reckon we would get away with that price point and sell it as such.
Web retailers should not be allowed to put stuff up on their sites until an RRP has been signified.
cooloneuk on 8 Jun '11 said:
They only probably listed that price just to cover themselves. Once a company lists a price and it ends up priced higher, the company has to honour the original listed price they placed. I seriously doubt the console will be priced anywhere near that price.
It's only early days and Nintendo have not made an official announcement on the UK RRP just yet so wait and see.
roynluc on 8 Jun '11 said:
Not entirely true. It would come with a bit of small print, stating that price point is speculation and can go up and down where necessary.
cooloneuk on 8 Jun '11 said:
I can see the point you are trying to make, however even with the small print they can only change the price by reducing it not increasing it.
You see, when you pay a deposit to pre-order a console or game you are entering into a contract. Any increase in price after the contract has been drawn will break the terms set by the contract itself and will be in breach of the Trade Descriptions Act, so therefore the company in question could face prosecution and/or a heavy fine.
The latest example of this I can mention is when Game (or was it Gamestation?) advertised the PSVita preorder for only £229.99. £50 less than the retail price will actually be, but the few people who have already pre-ordered the handheld before the company realised the mistake will be the lucky ones to only pay the £229.99 price tag
Good for them
roynluc on 8 Jun '11 said:
I can see where you are coming from, but then, I don't shop at websites where you have to pay for the goods when pre-ordering. All those that take the money out when your goods are being despatched, tend to have a disclaimer that the price is subject to change, even on a pre-order.
Websites that take the money out, months before the product is released, take the p**s, as they then gain interest on all those orders. That interest is more suited to my bank account. It might not amount to a lot of money to them, but it's free money to them all the same.
SpandexArmstrong on 8 Jun '11 said:
Im actually surprised that CVG actually posted this as a headline. Dont care anyway, ill be getting WiiU for sure:)
AJDarkstar on 9 Jun '11 said:
Meh, I just bought an iPad for that price, then bought a case and keyboard to go with it. I'd happily pay that, though I would expect it to drop to £300 or thereabouts. Ultimately, Zavvi know nothing we don't about the price, they just want to get someone's attention... and it worked.
sambrox on 9 Jun '11 said:
Is that some kind of dirty slang...?