Nintendo Puts Ceiling on Wii Price
And the company talks about how many consoles we can expect at and after the launch too.
We may not know how much the Wii is going to cost, but at least we're getting a better idea of what it's not going to cost. Nintendo already said that the console would not sell for more than $250 (£135) in the US or ¥25,000 (£115) in Japan. Now comes word that the company is using similar maths for Europe.
"The price has not been decided yet, but I expect it to be... less than 250 euros," Nintendo's Bernd Fakesch told Reuters, after his speech at Nintendo's press conference at this week's Games Convention in Germany.
The price difference ($250 in the US versus $320 in Europe) would largely come down to the VAT already tacked on to the European price.
There's still time for that time change, though. Fakesch told Reuters that final decisions on the launch date and price have yet to be made. Nintendo said earlier this year that it'll announce the final details by September.
Fakesch did touch on the kinds of shipment numbers we can expect. He said Nintendo is planning to have 2 million units ready by the time the Wii goes on sale, with another 2 million ready by the end of the year and a further 2 million by the end of March.
If that sounds familiar, it's because that's the exact roadmap Sony is working off of for the launch of the PlayStation 3, which arrives in mid November.
Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games
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