The prospects of seeing the Wii going for a retail price of $100 could have been a reality, said Nintendo director Shigeru Miyamoto in a recent interview given to Business Week.
Miyamoto revealed that the original plan for Nintendo,s next gen game console was for it to retail for around $100. He said, "Originally, I wanted a machine that would cost $100. My idea was to spend nothing on the console technology so all the money could be spent on improving the interface and software. If we hadn’t used NAND flash memory [to store media such as graphics and games] and other pricey parts, we might have succeeded."
He then went on to explain the heart of the idea for developing the Wii. "The consensus was that power isn’t everything for a console. Too many powerful consoles can’t coexist. It’s like having only ferocious dinosaurs. They might fight and hasten their own extinction." Nintendo,s decision to go against the common logic of developing a next gen machine in being substantially more powerful than its predecessor has gleaned its share of critics and doubters. But Nintendo stayed the course and realized that one of its very own game machines, the handheld DS, was key to the development direction of the Wii.
He explained, “The DS’s unique interface had traction with non-gamers. That made us think we had a shot at reaching a broader audience. But if the DS had flopped, we might have taken the Wii back to the drawing board."
Nintendo,s contrary approach to designing its machine will soon prove itself either as a marvelous success or something less than what Mario and Friends expect, but early indications of the popularity of the Wii seem to indicate that Nintendo has indeed made the correct move and can breathe a little easier.
