Friday, September 08, 2006

Wii to launch late November in the UK for $280?



Apparently, the Wii will launch in the UK shortly before November 24th for a price of £149 (which equals €220 or $280). British trade magazine MCV claims to have the inside scoop.
MCV believes that Nintendo has chosen to launch its next generation console at £149, a figure that falls slap bang in the middle of the varying estimates that have been discussed for months. This makes Wii £50 cheaper than the Core Xbox 360 Pack and an estimated £275 cheaper than PS3. (...)

Senior industry sources have confirmed to MCV that Wii stock availability will not be an issue in the UK, with plentiful supplies anticipated for both the November launch and the Christmas run-in. This should eradicate any pre-order woes and will be enough to satisfy demand across retail.


This rumour may be the most likely one, coming from one of the most reputable industry magazines. They correctly predicted a global launch for Wii back in October last year, though then they believed in a September 2006 launch. They also broke the story about E3 being cancelled two days before anyone else picked up on it.

However, they predicted key details about Wii at GDC, which didn´t quite turn out. At least, Iwata´s GDC keynote was confirmed only four days after MCV´s predictions. So they did get his speech right, after all.

Again, it´s important to remember that a UK price tag of £149 would not directly translate into Euro and US Dollar prices (€220 and $280, respectively), since consoles are usually more expensive in the UK. On the basis of the rumoured UK price, I would still expect a €199 price tag for Europe and perhaps $249 in the US.

Either way, this will, hopefully, be the last launch date and price rumour we have to put up with. We will find out everything we want to know next Thursday and Friday.

EDIT Wow, quick rebuttal of those figures by UK Nintendo boss David Yarnton, courtesy of Games Industry:
The claims, which appeared in an article by trade publication MCV, are "only speculation, and definitely not fact," according to Yarnton.

"They're not far off, but they're definitely not right," he told GI.biz.
Sources: MCV, Games Industry
Thanks to: SomeGermanGuy, Raphael

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm certain the Wii won't even cost as much as $249 in the US.
I mean a DS Lite costs $129 in the US and €149 in Germany.
€149=$189
That means if you just look at the numbers there is a 46% difference.
So if you do a bit of maths and take 46% off the $280 you have $192.
So I'm guessing the Wii will cost $199 in the US.

Correct me if I'm wrong. ;-)

*somegermanguy*

Anonymous said...

Your math is correct, but this price is merely speculation, so basically we aren't any closer to the final price than we ever were. The 14th can't come soon enough.

Anonymous said...

Well, one thing is for sure. Nintendo always denies rumors.
It's funny how quickly Mr Yarnton replied to the price speculation.
He must have a bad conscience, wondering how the hell MCV got hold of that information. I can smell fear... as if he's scared to get a whacking from Reggie himself.

Falafelkid said...

Hey SomeGermanGuy.

Nintendo always denies rumors.

This one is different, though. They normally just say they don´t comment. This time, they actually explicitly deny that (start jingle) "the price is right."

Anonymous said...

Hey Fal, here's a quote from an interview with Yarnton from 25/1/2006:

"Can you categorically rule out then that you'll have a DS redesign announcement at E3?

-That's been rumoured, I don't know for how long, but we haven't got any plans at the moment. Nothing I know of."

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=14269


Just another example of how Nintendo people handle speculation.

RGB said...

Keep in mind also that UK and Europe have VAT which I believe is around 17.5% (in the UK).

RGB said...

Yeh but he never said it wasnt true, only to what he knew of which can mean anything you want it to mean.

Dont compare to that some gamerguy, this time he said it is a fact.

RGB said...

Grandmaster B said...
Yeh but he never said it wasnt true, only to what he knew of which can mean anything you want it to mean.

In reply to Somegamerguys comment, not the current comment from Yarnton.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, fact alright. We've know for months now that Wii won't cost more than $250. In that sense there is nothing to deny. Yarnton can't admit the price speculation otherwise there's no surprise on the 14th. So his answer is pretty obvious in my eyes.

Anonymous said...

i think they should launch on November 17th in the UK just to stick it to sony :)

-"superfan" tactics.

Anonymous said...

The price point sounds spot on with what the majority of gamers were speculating. Though I'm hoping the console will launch earlier than MCV stated.

Sickr

Cyriel said...

I hope the price will be 199 euro's
works good for me :)

RGB said...

Anonymous said...
i think they should launch on November 17th in the UK just to stick it to sony :)

-"superfan" tactics.

Heh good one.

Anonymous said...

but if i'm not wrong, in the us you have to add the tax afterwards, while it's already included in most (all?) countries of the eurozone

Anonymous said...

you need to keep on the the word dude..

price and release date have been aprroved.. go on any message board or game site and its ALL over..




it is 249.99 and ships on november 19th.