Famed Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter believes Nintendo’s forthcoming Wii U will be a great success for Nintendo but only if it is priced competitively against Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Kinect bundles. Strangely Patcher failed to mention Sony’s PlayStation 3.
As for Nintendo’s upcoming Wii U, Pachter said the system has great sales potential, but only if it’s “priced competitively with Xbox 360/Kinect bundles.” He warned that Nintendo “has conceded a large first-mover advantage given the release of Kinect and Move last year.”
That sounds great, but are we talking about current prices or after a price drop? The kinect bundle sells for $400. That seems to be a good price for a new system. If MS drops the price of the bundle to $350-$300, then it would be too much of a risk. Don’t expect the next PS or Xbox to cost the same as the current systems.
Ladies and Gentleman, I give you Michael Pachter, the man who has never in his life been able to analyze the video game industry accurately, and who assumes that the 360 and the PS3 are the systems that the Wii U is going to be competing against.
Anyone with half a brain and who has even been remotely eyeballing the industry can see that the other companies have been trying to follow Nintendo’s ideas every step of the way. The fact that Nintendo beat the next gen offerings of both Microsoft and Sony with a vastly inferior system for several years, and that those systems are copying the Wii’s principles, just goes to show how blindingly obtuse Mr. Pachter is.
People still need to see that it’s actually worth buying and price is a factor in their decisions. So if Wii U is selling while Microsoft is selling Kinect, technically they’re competing, which means the Wii U must convince consumers that its worth getting their system rather than an already impressive 360/Kinect bundle.
kinect is not impressive at all to me. my brother got it for a birthday present and traded it in to gamestop.
Impressive? Totally objectively, my Kinect i thought was better than Move, (which is hard to say coming from an ex-Sony fanboy) but that’s not saying much. In 2012 vs. an old red-ringer, my $1000 of Nintendo stock says Nintendo wins again!
^ ex-sony fan? more like ran out of money. only poor ppl. like ninty plastic trash.
btw you come across as a little bitch fag and no I don’t hate gay ppl. but your a fag.
You trash-talking Ninty? You’re such a dumbass hater obviously. I pity you. Why are you here? If you ain’t got nothing more sane to say shove it and start sitting on your hands when reading this site or go somewhere else fanboy!
… I see what you’re saying though and I hope it is competitively priced, but I definitely have faith in Nintendo in that dept. not so much as in the PS3’s original pricing..yikes.
Um, the 360 and PS3 are the systems that the Wii U will be competing against, at least until 2013. So if it isn’t competitively priced when it comes out, it may well flop. Pachter knows what he’s saying for the most part.
Also, I would argue that the Wii isn’t vastly inferior. Its the innovation of the control scheme that sold it, and power isn’t the only defining factor of a console. Yes, the other two consoles have caught on to this, but that’s not really relevant to what Pachter was saying…
Patcher wasn’t wrong the wii u has to be within a price range of the competition or risk being a total flop it needs to appeal to people in all ways including price, its crucial that they don’t price too high or people will go to their competitiors.
Depends he means by ‘priced competitively’.
If he means that the Wii U has to be cheaper than the Xbox/Kinect, he’s an idiot. The Wii U is a technologically superior machine that’s capable of doing more, and is newer. Consumers will see that and will e willing to spend a bit more to get that.
However, the difference in price cannot be disproportionate to the difference in technology and innovation, or people will not fork over the money (well, many still will). If this is what he means than he is right, but this is incredibly obvious. Well done, Pachter, you’ve discovered that people don’t like paying for things when the thing in question is a rip off.
Yeah, but I wouldn’t say that he was saying either of those things. The Wii U obviously isn’t going to be cheaper, but that’s not what competitively priced means. What Patcher’s trying to say is that people aren’t gonna buy a Wii U if it’s too much more than the 360/Kinect bundle. This isn’t necessarily a rip-off, but a price that people wont understand when there’s another console that seems similar but is much cheaper. I’m talking about the more casual market here, as gamers will usually understand what a reasonable price is.
The wii fit bundle was $250 200 for the fit part and that was $450. That out sold both hd machines. Around 20 million plus for a while. That was just casual sales.
Price matter but software matters way more to casuals. They valued the wii branded games a lot. Nintendo needs meaningful sequels and new experiences in their next batch of game.
well when consumers see the controller really connects with everything, as well as tablet like touch and streaming, It’ll be a hit. Especially if they hear there will still be the wii casual tradition along with all wii controller connectivity. I doubt Nintendo would prcie it that high
oh will you please shut up! you sissy
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Is this a joke?? Pachter, what is going on in your mind. The Wii U is a whole other thing than kinect and a way better thing IMO like that you can’t have accuracy with kinect because it doesn’t have buttons.
I think you’ve misunderstood. He’s not saying it will have to compete with the Kinect in terms of technology, but in pricing. The Kinect is hugely popular in the East at the moment, whether or not you like it, and Nintendo are going to have to take its price into consideration when they release the Wii U. If you were a casual consumer, looking at two consoles (one of which lets you be the controller, which is honestly a huge selling point for people that don’t know what they’re looking at) and the Wii U is $150 more expensive, which one are you gonna buy for your grandson? Nintendo are going to have to play this very carefully, seeing as they’re releasing first, making them a generation ahead for a while.
yeah cuz ahead means using outdated tech,hd and a bluray disk that ps3 used 6 years ago.
nintendo welcome to the party, your late as usual.
They’re using 2008 tech, which is more powerful than the tech in PS3 (which was before-2006 tech). Besides, they’re not using Blu-Ray but they’re using a disc with similar space. Besides, it’s a hell of a lot more powerful and is getting 3rd Party developers falling head over heels for it. From a gamer perspective, it’s a system you’ll want.
He’s not a gamers he’s a fanboy.
I say the price should be around $350-400.
no $350 will be better it will atract more coustmers.
clearly reading online information and reciting as your own makes you an expert…fucking stupid ass!
weel if nintendo still wishe to be sucessful with Wiii U is havve it priced at eith $300!!! or $350
it will discourage coustmers from buing it, if it is priced at $400
If Nintendo stickd to a low price of either $300 or $350 that will defently be nintendo’s biggest way to make Wii U a sucess (have a a lot of coustmers). If Nintendo wants Wii U to FAIL then they should price it at either $400 or higher. if theye price it under $400 theen they will sucessed along with great launch titles.
I just want one already!! ahh 2012 needs to come already!
Surely it can’t compete on the price of the Xbox360 and Kinect next year. They won’t make any money because the Wii U would have to be about £100 and that ain’t gonna happen!
I think it’s going to be at least 400 it’s newer hardware 3d capable and has a 6 inch touchscreen built into the controller..
Dude, all of the current systems (sans Wii) are 3D Capable. And the touch screen is resistive — NOT capacitive like, say, the iPad — which is incredibly cheap to make. That controller is not worth more than $50 to me. You can get 16″ monitors for that price, let alone 6″, which leaves added funds for the gyroscope (which is cheap), the camera (which is a measly 0.03 MP (cheap!)), and the controls themselves (again, cheap). If they use that controller as an excuse to jack the price up to $400, they WILL fail. Their target demographic cannot afford that price. Most people already own a 360, so if the casuals want something new, they can just grab a Kinect by itself pretty cheaply.
And the hardware isn’t really all that new. It’s using chips from several years ago. :/
I agree with what you say but the casual people would pay anything for it. Don’t forget they buy ipads like their candy bars and their 500$. The average person doesn’t know this is 4yo tech or how cheap it is to make it to them it’ll look like its top of the line. If they build it they will come. Don’t forget the average person is stupid.
True. Can’t argue with you there.
A company said they made 8.0mp cameras for it and no way a camera as weak as you said it is could facechat! and i thought the chip was only 4years old… it still shouldn’t cost that much, i just hope they decide to go with multi-touch touchscreens.
Couldn’t face chat? The DSi has in-game face chat, and it has EXACTLY those cameras. 0.03 MP. Look it up. The 3DS also has face chat with certain games, and, guess what, it uses the same 0.03 MP cameras. So don’t you dare come on here and tell me you can’t face chat with 0.03 MP cameras, ’cause you most certainly can. It sucks, but it can, and has, been done.
They aren’t doing multi-touch screens, they already made this clear. It’s resistive, so you can use a stylus and draw on it with accuracy and such. Basically, it’s just a larger DS screen.
The chips ARE that old, and yes, that is several years old, as I said. They’re cheap because of this, and a far-cry of the kind of power we have access to now. In the tech world, Moore’s Law takes effect. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore%27s_law ] Four years is a very long time in the tech world. That’s how long most laptops last. XD
Make that 0.3 MP. My point still stands though.
Let me rephrase you can’t face-chat like what they showed at e3 with a camera that weak thats forsure. and hahaha 4 years is old as hell! it all goes back to cost, no way this thing should cost THAT much! And i asked nintendo if they were considering multi-touch and they didn’t give me definite no they said that they were looking into all different kinds of tech, i’m still pretty sure they aren’t going to do it. There is no reason in the entire world a wiiU should ever be priced above 350 that would be suicide, it would end them! their best plan is to do 350 then reduce to 300 once the competition gets to the next gen. 1-2years later. They would destroy their competitors!
an 8.0mp camera probably cost them like 3.50 and a .03mp probably 53cents I wonder what kind of deal they may have cut. A cheap 8.0mp laptop camera is 9.70 online they might be getting cameras from a different company.
whats multitouch.
and resistive? are they the same thing?
No, they are not the same thing. Capacitive touch screens allow multitouch, which means the screen registers more than one point of input simultaneously. Resistive is a different kind of technology that only allows one input at a time.
Example: The DS is Resistive. The iPad is Capacitive.
i agree it would be a bad move by nintendo if they make Wii U’s price $400 or higher. i hope they do the smart desciton and make it $300 or $350.
I wouldn’t send any more then $10 on an XBox, yet without any hesitation I would gladly spend $1000 for new Nintendo hardware.
Man, i love nintendo too but not that much! i got a 360 after my wii betrayed me (stopped making good games). I’m going to sell my wii to get the wii u. Not the 360 because games like gears3 and halo4 are on the way, i’m a gamer not a fanboy.
I guess you like buying retro toys.