Okay.. the wii is officially mainstream / mass market now
I'm at a tax practitioner's conference.... and the wii was mentioned briefly. Wtf? You know nintendo has a huge hit on their hands when it gets mentioned at a tax course!
Comments
How many times can gaming go mainsteam?
you're twisting the point.
Last week I was working in someones house, and they weren't home. They had a Wii, so me and my buddy tried it out. That was the first time I ever played it. We played the Wii Sports games. Man, that thing is AWESOME. I have to get one now!
In the UK, a Wii would set you back £179.99 in an Asda over here (Asda is part of the Wal-Mart family), so $360 in US terms.
~~NGD
Unless I'm mistaken, the price hasn't changed. So 250.
Damn an extra $110 over in the UK for a Wii, thats just obscene. It costs exactly the same to produce so why rack the price up for Europe.
Mind you though, a PS3 over here is costing around £350 - £400 at the moment so around $700 - $800. Its well overpriced
I agree that the US gets it too cheap compared to other countries but part of the exchange differential there is the recent slide of the US dollar. For example when the wii came out it was 250 in the US or about 280 here in canada. That was roughly the exchange rate then. Now, the canadian dollar is worth more than the US, but its still 280 here, and 250 there. Fair? No, but they can't change the price of everything every time the exchange rate fluctuates. And if it had gone the other way I'd be benefitting.
So I guess what I'm getting at is that when they originally set the wii prices in domestic currencies, the US/UK exchange rates were different than they are now. And they can't go changing msrp every five minutes - a) its a hassle b) the countries were the prices should go up (hello US) would just be pissed off anyways.
This is not a problem unique to the wii - I wonder how long the exchange rate can slide before the US starts feeling some inflationary pressures. Although I guess the US doesn't do that much trading, but still. Would be an interesting question for the economist types, if we have any, on the boards.
Unless I'm mistaken, the price hasn't changed. So 250.
Damn an extra $110 over in the UK for a Wii, thats just obscene. It costs exactly the same to produce so why rack the price up for Europe.
Mind you though, a PS3 over here is costing around £350 - £400 at the moment so around $700 - $800. Its well overpriced
Yeah this is true, the dollar to pound ratio has been climbing for awhile now to where it is at ~$2 per £1, but before that the ratio used to float around $1.7 per £1 and using those figures the £180 PAL Wii would cost ~ $306, a good $50 more which is not as bad but still it should be more equal.
A interesting thing I find is that most of the ebay.com auctions I bid in I win: I put this down to the fact that even with shipping from the US to UK, the auctions in the US turn out to be a lot cheaper than the UK equivalents. For instance I bought a complete unboxed NES from the US a few months ago and it cost me about £17 priority shipped to the UK. If I wanted to buy the UK equivalent I'd be looking at atleast £25 - £30 + £10 postage. This is why so many people chose to buy an NTSC console and import the games, and the bonus is the games are released a lot earlier generally in the NTSC regions.
I envy the US guys for these facts, do you think theres any room in the US for another nintendo nut?
My copy of Phantom Hourglass was sent out to me today, its release date is 19/10 over here (10/19 for the US guys), I bet some of you guys have already completed the main quest!!!
~~NGD
I beat it nearly a week ago
This is an obvious topic hijack but NGD, is it a tough game to control considering you use the stylus rather than a control pad etc or is it a good way of controlling our green clothed friend?
~~NGD
The controls work very well. I enjoyed the game alot and continue to play it even though I have already beaten the game. You will love it if you are a Zelda fan
Thats music to my ears, I just hope the hero of time doesn't take his time in the damn postage system!!!