sremick

Well, it would've added to the price. And Nintendo is ridiculously and insanely concerned about price, since unlike all the other gaming consoles which people compare them to (for having DVD playback when Nintendo doesn't), Nintendo has the distinction of actually turning a profit on every console sold.

Nintendo did the research and determined that $250 was the magic price for selling the Wii. They also knew that it would give them $X of profit. Adding DVD playback would've cost them $Y of licensing and support per console, and $X-Y wasn't suitable for them. And they knew that DVD playback, while a nice convenience, wasn't a crucial aspect or deciding factor for a gaming console. And considering that Wii's still fly off the shelves as fast as they appear today... guess what? They were right.

Self-entitled consumers need to step back and realize that Nintendo isn't a charity. They are a business and need to make money, and not including DVD playback was a calculated, wise (and very accurate) business decision that has proven to be right on the money.

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Skorp

There's the slap in the face I was hoping for.

Sorry man.

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Wiinter

There is no proof as what effect DVD inclusion or exclusion would have done to demand on the Wii. Your listing of sales figures could just as easily prove that there would have been no effect of a +10$ price or -10$ worth of initial stuff on demand, given that at the $250 price point with present features, Wii is still sold out virtually everywhere. Demand for the Wii is so strong, even if you could prove that $10 would kill some sales (since you apparently refuse to account for the increase in demand brought on by the feature itself), you can't prove it would kill enough demand to prevent a near permanent sell-out status of the Wii and thus have any effect whatsoever on profits. Further, you haven't proven that in the initial stages, they gave serious consideration to DVD inclusion. For all you know, the decision was made on a whim without any calculation as the benefits and costs. It could have been as thoughtless as some 3rd rate engineer saying "Uh, I already have a DVD player." Which is hardly the cold, cool business calculation that you presume they made.

The persistence of these types of threads indicates that the feature would have a positive effect on demand, perhaps one that would even completely outstrip the negative effects of a negligible price increase or decrease in other features. I don't claim that it would have--simply that your "evidence" doesn't favor either scenario more than the other.

Nintendo's genius was in console design. It has covered for a host of other business mistakes--like the massive idiocy of not being able to predict demand and provide for it. Do you know how many millions of dollars they've missed out on by not having hardware where it needs to be and when? That's a mistake (one they've repeatedly admitted to), and the fact that they have a great console doesn't undo it. They certainly hope that all demand will continue indefinitely and they'll still be able to pick up all those lost sales later, but there is no guarantee.

Nintendo's idiocy in Online Features also isn't justified by selling out the console. It would be ludicrous to argue that if Nintendo had a more fully featured online system or child restrictions that better protect children without screwing core gamers, it would drive away sales of consoles and games. They could have a system that gives them an equal reputation of protecting kids, and earns that reputation better, and still allows 20 and 30 year olds to play as they please. The present system wasn't chosen for lower costs, just because Nintendo has bad judgment in the online gaming market. A system with similar costs that is better designed could reap far more money for the company in hardware and software profits.

You, attempting to use those sales to cover for what may or may not have been a mistake in design (lack of DVD playback) makes as much sense as using them to covering for Nintendo's other mistakes (which, like every other business, they've made some of). Yeah, they turned a profit. Congrats to them. What's to say that they couldn't have turned a bigger one? You certainly haven't offered any proof of that.

Nintendo is allowed to ignore anyone they want--whether it's a smart business decision or a stupid one--but telling a consumer to shut up and give homage to company that's ignoring their wants isn't a very free market or pro-business perspective. Consumers not getting what they want won't advance their interests by being quiet. Businesses don't gain anything by not knowing what their customers want.

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matrix57

I remember them saying it would but I never owned one so You know best.
I may be thinking or the second generation 3DO which never happened, just a lot of hype for nothing.
Guess at that time the Saturn was the bully of the bunch with SVCD.

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Got rather tired of the Xbox games and wanted to go back to my roots, I am astounded by the Wii.
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sagema

Clearly people ignored what I wrote earlier. So here it is again. Nintendo would have to pay companies that own DVD fees, copy rights, license fees, copy rights, license fees, it's a monopoly, monopoly, pay copy rights, and license fees. You CAN'T make anything that plays DVDs without obtaining copy rights, license fees and being a part of the monopoly. Go cry to DVD and not Nintendo for wanting extra cash to use their exclusive technology.

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matrix57

Wiinter is right, We looked all over for a Wii and everyone was sold out.
I finally looked at a Wal Mart store in Kansas City which carried very little electronics and behold they had one behind the counter, hidden, not in the display case. The guy working there had hidden it for his cousin.
Very hard to find in stock at local stores.

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Matrix57
Bailey Computer Solutions
THE "Old" from Xbox Live
Got rather tired of the Xbox games and wanted to go back to my roots, I am astounded by the Wii.
ATI has done it up right.

matrix57

We all know that putting in DVD compatibility would have cost an arm and a leg, just some people will never get it.
Thanks for the post it should clear up some of these peoples $10 extra stuff.
Personally I like my RCA Surround sound DVD player, sounds and looks great for $69.

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Bailey Computer Solutions
THE "Old" from Xbox Live
Got rather tired of the Xbox games and wanted to go back to my roots, I am astounded by the Wii.
ATI has done it up right.

hal2814

Funny, when you edit a post a nice little message pops up at the bottom like this: "Last edited by hal2814 : 04-02-2008 at 08:28 AM."

I did edit my 4/2 post shortly after posting it. I wanted to clean up language in my first sentence. But curiously enough, my 4/1 post that you raised such a huff about has no message like that at the bottom of it. Nice try, but no cigar. That post wasn't edited. You just didn't read it carefully and went off on a half-cocked rant in response to what you didn't really read. Remember, the first step to overcoming a reading comprehension problem is to admit that you have a reading comprehension problem.

Skippy

Another thing that would bump the cost up would be to include audio processing that can deal with dolby digital surround and/or DTS. The Wii only has left/right analog audio output, which at best can only ouput Dolby ProLogic II. To be a feasable DVD player for home entertainment systems, they would need to include a digital coax or optical audio output.

wezeles

Thats not even really needed though, only higher end DVD players even have that today, Most t.v's and cheaper surround sound systems don't even fully support current technology standards.

Truth be told the majority of electronics consumers could care less about quality and care only about price. Thats why you do see so many cheepo DVD players with simply composite and component inputs. Aswell as a good percentage of t.v's. Even some of the cheaper HDTV's dont support HDMI/DVI inputs, just old school composite/component and s-video.

Bare nesessities thats all most consumers buy.

Link02

This post is gonna end up pointless like stated above and by Nintendo the Wii is a video game console, if it doesnt play DVDs well thats too bad i would rather spend my time playing good games like Brawl or Metroid prime 3 than sit down for 1 hour and a half watching something you might not watch again for a long time.

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K LoLo

Expected based on what?

Nintendo has never done what the others have. N64 used cartridges when SONY used discs. PS@ and X Box used regular discs and GC used smaller ones.

Only X box and PS used DVD and CD capable hardware (for the current generation) and Nintendo never has.

So why would it be expected? Because you wanted it to be there?

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sremick

I don't have to prove squat. Talk to Nintendo. You're being very naive if you don't think they didn't research the hell out of this exact feature (along with 1000 others that didn't make the cut) and ultimately made a cost/benefit decision that didn't include your precious DVD playback.

The "proof" is in the pudding, as they say. Nintendo is making money hand over fist with the Wii turning a nice profit with every console, they don't survive on the shelves more than a few minutes a year and a half after release, and they are currently the most-popular and most-desired gaming console.

No, these threads just mean that a handful of people can be really vocal on online forums. Most Wii users don't bother hanging out on online forums, and certainly are not here at Wiichat. If you're taking these few people making a fuss on Wiichat as somehow being representative of the majority of Wii customers, then once again you're being naive. Nintendo, who has a lot more experience and credentials when it comes to marketing and console design than you, disagrees with you... and seems to be wildly successful from their decision.

So let me get this straight: just what problem of the Wii not selling like hotcakes should Nintendo have included DVD playback to solve? I must be missing something.

I'm not presenting "evidence". This is just business common sense and standard practice. Businesses are about making money, not throwing in every possible feature into a device that every possible user might want then selling it at a loss. Product design isn't a democracy... it's a carefully thought-out process of pros and cons, weighing the cost-benefit factor of every feature, every modification. So your DVD feature didn't make the cut. So what? Nintendo determined (probably after spending several times what you make in a year researching it) that the benefits didn't justify the cost. You know what else? Lots of great movies get lots of great scenes cut and left on the editing room floor because it'd just make the movie way too long and it wouldn't work in theaters. Music is the same way. That's just the way it works.

And adding more features and complexity to it would've helped this how?

Way to get sidetracked. We're talking about DVD playback here.

Why do I need to prove that adding more features, cost, and complexity to something which as-is is selling faster than Nintendo can make them would in any way benefit them? It's common sense to me and anyone else who understands how business works. It was also common sense to Nintendo, who's goal was to produce the minimal gaming console at as an affordable price as possible with just enough innovative features to blow away the competition. "Gaming console" doesn't mean "DVD playback", and playing DVDs is not "innovative".

There's always going to be someone who'll buy just about anything at some price. Look at the PS3 at launch date. That's not Nintendo's design philosophy, though. Nintendo has a business formula that works, and you're working yourself up into a lather because your pet feature didn't make the cut.

You're wrong. It's a totally free market. You're free to not buy a Wii if it doesn't suit your needs. Apparently it doesn't. So why are you here?

If you don't like the sorts of products Nintendo makes, then you're not one of the consumers they're interested in. They make certain types of products. Apparently those products don't suit your fancy. So be it. Like I said, there's a 100 people behind you to buy the Wii that you're jumping up and down complaining about that it doesn't have X feature. So go buy something else and get out of the way.

And customers are naive if they think that product design is a democracy. Not every feature desired by a certain customer demographic is going to go into the final product. You're naive if you think Nintendo didn't know that customers wouldn't mind DVD playback. But you know what else Nintendo knew? That DVD playback, while being a useful and desired feature, was not a critical feature that would tip the scales for most consumers whether they bought a gaming console or not. Sorry that it was for you, but you're not most Wii consumers. As proven by the sales numbers, Mr Proof.

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Wiinter

Really? As noted repeatedly, Some DVD players themselves don't cost an arm and a leg (one bargain unit in England was selling for $18 last year), and that includes the cost of the hardware itself, whereas Wii already has the hardware and just needs the DVD fees.

Who? All I see are people willing to pay.

That's a solution to a problem that hasn't been broached to my knowledge. If people were whining about the cost, this would make sense as a solution (well, it's still dumb, but it at least speaks to the concern at hand). No one is whining about it not being free, just saying they wish it was offered.

DVD deserves compensation for their product as much as Nintendo does for theirs.

It's more likely to be used as spare DVD player, and unlikely to be used by audiophiles or videophiles. I think what would feasible for the target market could easily be downgraded.

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EffeKt

Oh noe, I have to use my dvd player to play dvds. C'est dommage.

Wiinter

Nintendo doesn't have a technical problem producing Wii's. They CAN make them faster, they just aren't. Lisencing fees don't add time to production, and the software needed to provide DVD protections and region encoding are a one-time thing.

You don't have to prove anything. But if you're going to try, like you did before ("Great Sales means Nintendo was RIGHT!!!!!"), your proof will be questioned if fails to prove anything. Sales figures proving the Wii to be successful have no bearing on whether or not DVD playback would help or hurt the console.

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esoterika

Someone could have told me about the DVD fees in the beginning instead of trying to be an asshole. Obviously I wouldn't expect my Wii to toast bread or give me lasik surgery, but a disc fits in the Wii and I know its capable of playing a DVD. It would just seem that DVD player is such a basic feature, especially since they have included it in Playstation systems. They obviously didn't mind the few bucks to add a nice convenient little feature. Of course I can afford a damn DVD player, everyone is missing the point here.

I'd be happy to buy it on the Shop channel if they ever get their license or something. Why shou