Wii U pricing

[harv]

Yup, the gits have cancelled it

[jman]

lol... as I thought.. doesnt mean the price is technically wrong even though they cancelled it.. but I suspect it is...

Nice try though 

[harv]

I'm expecting the price to be between 250 and 300 myself, particularly now that a GPGPU has been confirmed. Probably won't see many titles utilising it properly until after the PS4 and 720 are released though. Am really surprised that Nintendo have been so forward thinking, it's looking like all 3 next gen consoles will have the same sort of architecture with GPGPUs doing all of the floating-point work next gen that the Xenon and Cell have been doing this gen...more akin to the relationship that the CPU and GPU have in a PC as it goes.

Going to be interesting to see if Sony and Microsoft are going to go for a DSP as well, both the Xenon and Cell have been partially crippled by having them deal with sound. I think we can OoOE CPUs as given though so the next gen CPUs from both Sony and Microsoft will be more efficient than their current gen processors.

[AVFCRoss]

Am really surprised that Nintendo have been so forward thinking, it's looking like all 3 next gen consoles will have the same sort of architecture with GPGPUs doing all of the floating-point work next gen that the Xenon and Cell have been doing this gen...more akin to the relationship that the CPU and GPU have in a PC as it goes.

So, the U has gone from being the best thing since sliced bread, down to the best next gen console, and now it's gone down to looking like it'll be on par with the other 2?

What odds can I get on it slipping further down than that?

[harv]

Am really surprised that Nintendo have been so forward thinking, it's looking like all 3 next gen consoles will have the same sort of architecture with GPGPUs doing all of the floating-point work next gen that the Xenon and Cell have been doing this gen...more akin to the relationship that the CPU and GPU have in a PC as it goes.

So, the U has gone from being the best thing since sliced bread, down to the best next gen console, and now it's gone down to looking like it'll be on par with the other 2?

What odds can I get on it slipping further down than that?

I haven't stated any of that. I've said right from the beginning that the U is going to be the least powerful out of the two. As I've said, on paper it should be around 3 times more powerful than the 360: 3MB of eDRAM for the 1MB for the 360, 1.5GB of usable RAM (with 512MB reserved for the OS) compared to 512MB of RAM and 32MB of eDRAM for the GPU compared to 10MB.

The PS4 and 720 will probably be 3 or 4 times more powerful than the U, we'll have a gen similar to the previous one with all 3 consoles being in the same sort of ballpark in terms of power and Nintendo's choice of GPU should make it easy for developers to port code to and from the PS4 and 720. Like I've said, it's forward thinking and is a bit of a surprise tbh.

Microsoft have gone a bit insane apparently, they're squeezing 12GB of RAM into their dev kits and they're targeting 8GB for the retail console. And the vast majority isn't going to be used for games either, they're still continuing with this media centre nonsense and are planning on having DVR functionality whilst gaming. They'll probably also have the thing running Windows 8 which is going to be resource heavy. I think they've totally lost the plot tbh, we'll be looking at a console costing around 600 quid which really worked out for Sony this gen lol

We're probably looking at the U's CPU being clocked at less than 2GHz but that doesn't mean it won't have any less processing power than the Xenon or Cell which are clocked higher. It's the architecture that's important, not the clockspeed.

[Late]

If you can't be arsed to read Harv's post I'll summarise it for you.

The U is significantly less powerful than it's rivals, which is incredible forward thinking by Nintendo.
Microsoft are giving their console more ram than they need now, but which will invariably be very useful in a couple of years' time, which is insane of them.
It'll be really easy to port games from the microsoft and sony machines to the wii because one of the components is similar (but all others are way behind).

[harv]

Not what I was saying at all.

Having a GPGPU with compute shaders most certainly is forward thinking. It basically means that it's going to be easier for developers to port code to and from the PS4 and 720 than it will be to port code to and from the PS3 and 360.

And when did I say that the U is going to be 'way behind'..? You'll have the PS4 and 720 being around 3 times more powerful than the U, even the 720 with its ridiculous amounts of RAM thanks to the majority of it not being available to developers. We're going to have another PS2, Gamecube and Xbox situation again, with the U being the PS2 equivalent.

And Microsoft really have lost the plot, unlike PC RAM console RAM is expensive. You're going to be looking at a console to be retailing at well over 400 quid. If Sony can keep the retail cost of the console between 300 and 400 quid they're onto a winner and Microsoft will end up with a console failing miserably like the PS3 did for the first two years of its life. Microsoft really have lost the plot

[jman]

This whole discussion is subjectable to any kind of confirmed fact I would like to point out 


Although I have to agree with harv here... nintendo are really forward thinking... I actually have proof of that...



 

[Late]

And when did I say that the U is going to be 'way behind'..?

You've indicated your belief, numerous times, that that the next Sony/Microsoft machines will be about 3 or 4 times as powerful as the U.

If the U was only 80% as powerful as it's rivals it'd be below the curve. If it were only 60% as powerful as it's rivals it'd clearly be the runt of the litter. But you're estimating it to be around 25%-33% as powerful as it's rivals. That doesn't just make it the number three console in a field of three. That makes it an embarrassment. (And that's based on YOUR estimates and assumptions i.e. that the sony/microsoft machines will be only three or four times as powerful as the wii. I imagine the difference will be more than that, but I'll stick with your figures for this post.)

And Microsoft really have lost the plot, unlike PC RAM console RAM is expensive. You're going to be looking at a console to be retailing at well over 400 quid. If Sony can keep the retail cost of the console between 300 and 400 quid they're onto a winner and Microsoft will end up with a console failing miserably like the PS3 did for the first two years of its life. Microsoft really have lost the plot

£400 is a lot of money. A LOT of money.
Still - it's better to pay £400 for a great console than to pay £280 for a half-decent one, regret your decision, then spend £400 on top of that to get a great console...

[jman]

So who's having a guess at the price then.. Price is Right stylee... if your over - your out..

Im going in for £239.99 and the console to be bundled with a tech demo game...
Stand-alone gamepads to retail at £69.99

[Late]

We're talking RRP? - cos you know retailers will all have their own bundles...

I reckon ShopTo's initial punt is about right, so £269.99 for the console with one gamepad, bundled with a party/minigames disk, similar to the Wii's "Wii Sports" - something that would stand alone as a budget game, more than a demo, so you can get some play in the first week before forking out for a game...

I'm hoping the gamepads will be cheaper than most folk expect so will go with £54.99.

[harv]

£249.99 with NintendoLand packed in. Don't think they will sell GamePads separately until later on but if they do I reckon your price is bang on the money.

[jman]

Yeah RRP of a base model.. i'll stick by my £239.99.. going by what nintendo said.. "learning lessons from the 3DS" and all that baloney.. I dont think they will try and overprice the console again.. anything over £250 for the Wii U is overpriced... Im unsure if they will throw a game in on a base model.. not many consoles normally do that... but I'd expect a tech demo of the things you can do with the gamepad.. (the london bus/taxi ride thingy for instance, or the bird demo maybe).

And yep, I expect the gamepad to be as expensive as a balance board.. nintendo are usually rip-offs when it comes to accessories and the sort and there will be no MadCatz or similar 3rd parties making alternative gamepads so nintendo can charge what they want really... they will have to sell seperate gamepads from launch in case someone breaks one, which could easily happen if someone dropped one and cracked the screen for instance.

[Late]

Nintendo is holding a press event for the Wii U this Thursday, in New York. Should reveal USA pricing and release date, what's included (eg will you need to fork out for a proprietary hard drive), and hopefully they'll give some more solid details of launch window titles.

Hopefully we'll get some idea of European price/release date then, too...

Still not really interested in the U, as it's closer to current gen than next gen (guesswork/opinion - don't bother arguing, Harv) but if it's less than about £180 I might take a punt on it. I still think it'll be more than that, though. Lots of speculation about it being $249.99 or $279.99 over the pond, which equates to about £155/£175, but we always get stiffed of course.

[harv]

You won't need a proprietary hard drive, any USB drive, flash drive or SD card will do. And if you're expecting a next gen console for less than 200 notes then you're going to be very disappointed mate. This isn't another Wii situation, it's not going to be cheap.