Nintendo have confirmed that the successor to the Wii, the Wii U, will be sold at a loss for the Japanese based company.
With the high price of the console for consumers, some may find it shocking that the console won’t make Nintendo a penny to begin with. While those customers may find the initial point of entry for the Wii U high, it’s worth thinking that it could have been a great deal higher if Nintendo were to sell them at a profit.
Satoru Iwata, Nintendo President and CEO had this to say at the second-quarter financial results briefing:
“In addition to the yen’s continuous appreciation, the Wii U hardware will have a negative impact on Nintendo’s profits early after the launch because rather than determining a price based on its manufacturing cost, we selected one that consumers would consider to be reasonable. In this first half of the term before the launch of the Wii U, we were not able to make a profit on software for the system while we had to book a loss on the hardware, which is currently in production and will be sold below cost. Our loss has therefore widened during the second quarter in spite of bringing the Nintendo 3DS hardware back to profitability. Although we expect our financial performance to be revitalized, under these circumstances, unfortunately we cannot say that we will achieve “Nintendo-like” profits within this fiscal year.”
This is a good move on Nintendo’s part, keeping the price as low as possible for the end-user as well as a strong list of launch titles is going to be the best way for the Wii U to start life and hopefully enjoy a successful launch.
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