Everyone knows that Nintendo plans to introduce the Wii this fall for a consumer-friendly cost. Although an exact price is not yet known, Nintendo has announced that it will not exceed $250. The final pricing details and launch structure for the Wii will be announced before September 2006. In addition to making the Wii affordable to consumers, Nintendo wants to make Wii development kits inexpensive for game developers also. Third-party developers will have the opportunity to snatch a development kit for as low as $1,732.
On the inside, Nintendo has large plans for Wii support. President of Nintendo, Iwata Satoru, has stated that the company,s budget will rise to expand the Wii,s research and development advancement. This is because Nintendo doesn,t want the Wii to see a similar game drought that the GameCube saw within the first year of the console,s release.
Nintendo has mentioned that they have already begun getting in touch with game developers to aid them in turning their ideas into games. The results of this will be seen in full force at the beginning of 2007. Nintendo,s goal is to ship out six million Wii hardware units and seventeen million Wii software units during the current fiscal year that ends March 2007. These high-set goals insure us that Nintendo believes the success of the Wii isn,t just a daydream, but instead a reality that will prove its coexistence with the world soon enough.
Iwata said that he has no regrets about the name of their next console. "I am one of the people who have decided this final product name," he informed. "Of course, I am not the only person to make this decision, but I have never thought that it was a mistake to name it, ‘Wii., I understand that a great many people have already accepted this product name. When someone has some hesitation today, we’d like to make efforts so that they will come to like this name in the end.”
Iwata also stated that, concerning problems, his top priority was to put an end to the Nintendo DS shortages in Japan. The problem comes from producing the bicolored moldings found on the handheld. As soon as all of the troubles are smoothed out, Nintendo plans on shipping upwards of two million DS units each month in Japan.
In conclusion, Iwata accredited Microsoft,s potential plans of entering the portable gaming market. He said that such competition would not alter Nintendo,s current paths or change any of their future plans.
