Guillemot complains the Wii U is 'too expensive'; he has a point

Digitally Downloaded writes: "Ubisoft CEO, Yves Guillemot has come out and said that he believes the Wii U is too expensive. This has ruffled a few feathers, given that Ubisoft is perhaps the most ‘friendly’ third party publisher to the Wii U at this stage. But you know what? He has a point."

[corrus]

I know that he has a point is so expensive cos Nintendo know their fans that they will do anything for them

[brish]

Brish42 complains Ubisoft games are to expensive; I have a point!

Seriously, I understand he wants cheap hardware so it will sell more thus creating a larger install base meaning there is a larger pool of potential customers for WII U games.

The problem is the WII U is being sold at a loss so he appears to want Nintendo to lose more money so he can make more money.

I wonder how open he would be to selling Ubisoft games at a loss to encourage more sales of the WII U?

[MattS]

Hardware never makes much money, even when sold at profit. It's an expensive business to be in.

That's why hardware manufacturers sell their hardware at a loss, because the money comes from licensing and first party software development. You need hardware for those two revenue streams to exist.

Ubisoft's only revenue stream is in software. If it loss-lead with software where, exactly, would its revenue come from.

That is the difference between Nintendo and Ubisoft. They are entirely different business models, and even trying to compare them is like asking why a beer manufacturer doesn't have the same business model as the White House.

[KnightRobby]

This is definitely true. I find it interesting how the gaming industry works. In a way, it is sort of similar to how the Unreal Engine is licensed our to many developers. I can't imagine how much money Epic Games makes off of the licensing. Heck, Batman: Arkham City used the unreal engine and it did extremely well - this is of course just one example.

[Realplaya]

So he doesn't want Nintendo to get any money?He has to understand and I'm sure he does Nintendo has to make money both ways.

[Stroke666]

You can't hav your cake and eat t too. Its a NEW system being sold cheaper than it should be. If nintendo were to make another system like the wii the complaint would be its not powerful enough. Its always something. Developers epect nintendo to make there company "nintendo" money. Just make a game that sell the system and stop depending on the system to sell your lackluster games. If the wii u did absolutely everything the ipad did and sold at the same price there $100 more epensive it'll be perfectly fine. People won't be satisfied until nintendo is giving their shit away for free and giving developers all profit from the games.its on the market with older systems by the time early adopters get their systems and the launch wndow passes, at least one competitor will announce their next system and that will deter anyone who was going to buy their old system in prospect of the new one. And with two NEW systems out the last out the box will have a hell of a time playing catch up. U really think in 2013 with wii u out and Xbox720 out people would still get a ps3? Or if its ps4, that people would still get a 360? Ipad has a completely different fan base, gamers would not buy and ipad ffor the games. Its a bad comparison. And a poor point made.

[yavorsv]

Let's see what he has to say when the other consoles come. :)

[Legend_Killer]

$300 for a new HD console which will deliver a unique experience with AAA games is too expensive? if it hurts u so much just go buy the Ouya and play Cut The Rope in HD

[Amondel]

But 70€ for a fucking game is allright? Sigh.. Im fine with Wii U being 450€ suck it up.