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cobaltgrc

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Rumor:

When Nintendo announced last week that the Wii would not exceed 25,000 Yen in Japan (or $250 in America), most people were expecting a finalized price point of $199. After all, without expensive internal technology, Nintendo wouldn’t need to worry about recouping the kind of massive manufacturing costs Microsoft and Sony are experiencing. Surprisingly, though, the Wii may be even more affordable than that.

According to QJ.Net, Japanese retailer PC-Success had the Wii listed as costing 18,000 Yen at launch, hinting at a possible $149 price point in the United States. PC-Success has since taken down the price, but curiously, fellow Japanese online store Kakaku.Livedoor still has the same price up.

 

Nintendo’s staying completely silent on the topic of the Wii’s price point, and rightfully so; revealing their launch price plans certainly didn’t do Sony any favors at E3 earlier this month. It’s likely that Nintendo is still finalizing what they’ll package in with the system, and as such, the cost that Kakaku.Livedoor and PC-Success have published could be an estimate.

 

Iwata and Co. are keeping this information close to their heart, but with the system’s launch planned for late Fall, they’ll have to reveal it soon. The Tokyo Game Show in September would be a good opportunity, but it could happen sooner. The only thing we know for sure is that a $149 tag, being only a quarter of the price of the PS3, could do wonders for Nintendo at launch.

 

In other launch-related news, a recent blog post at Jeux-France states that GameStop has sent out documents claiming an October 2nd release date for three Wii launch titles: Rayman Raving Rabbids, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and SpongeBob SquarePants. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that the console will launch on the same day; the Xbox 360, for example, wasn’t available publicly until a week after launch software went on store shelves.

 

Furthermore, while the early launch date would secure Nintendo some thunder to steal from Sony (who wouldn’t be releasing the PS3 for another month and a half), it may be too early, as games like Red Steel are still slated for November, as explained by Chris Kohler. These release dates are always subject to change, and taking that into account, it remains much more likely that Nintendo won’t launch the Wii until November. Again, we’ll have to wait and see.

 

Stay tuned to PGC as more on these stories break.

 

http://www.planetgamecube.com/rumorsArt.cfm?artid=11675

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