Wii for Europe: £179, 8th December

naa i cant see it working, couple of games of wand waving and the fuss will be all over ;)

I'm still tempted... but this price has stopped it from being an impulse buy. Going over £150 is crossing a physiological barrier and its now in a position where it’s in direct comparison with the 360 Core System.

is it just me or did we get ripped off?

Subject: Disappointed - Nintendo Wii UK (Over-) Pricing

To whom it may concern,

I am writing to express my disappointment with Nintendo of Europe's decision to price-gouge the UK market, with the announced release details of the new Wii games system, by charging £179. I will state, before going further, that I will almost certainly still be buying the new system; however, this decision is the difference between me doing so happily and begrudgingly. I have been a videogame player since the mid to late 1970's, I have seen a lot of changes in that time, but the recent "progress" hasn't seemed to deserve that term; the Wii has changed that, to say the least, I have become bored and I was looking forward to seeing whether my excitement could be re-ignited.

Instead, this has dampened my enthusiasm, by deciding to just see us as a cash-cow once more. It's odd, I was under the impression Nintendo are supposedly following a new marketing strategy; Blue Ocean advocates charging only what is necessary, at product launch, not what you feel you can get away with.

So, let's see what Nintendo are trying to get away with, here. I will use the current exchange rates, as of time of writing.

Japanese Price:

I believe that Nintendo still have the policy of including sales tax (5%) in their quoted prices, which means that 25000¥ is 105% of the base price; this works out to 23810¥, when rounding up. Either way, I will compare the price using both of these.

25000¥ = GB£112.85 + VAT @ 17.5% = GB£132.60 a difference of GB£46.40

23810¥ = GB£107.45 + VAT @ 17.5% = GB£126.25 a difference of GB£52.75

USA Price:

Well, I at least know that USA prices are quoted without sales tax, so let's just work from the US$249.99 price.

US$249.99 = GB£133.26 + VAT @ 17.5% = GB£156.58 a difference of GB£22.42

Euro Price:

This is the baffling one, for me; Nintendo of Europe's recent history has shown a sensible € to GB£ conversion, usually choosing a "psychologically" rounded price, to find a price which seems reasonably close to the straight conversion, even if it means a slight loss on occassion.

€249 = GB£168.09 a difference of GB£10.91

Why on earth is the UK price not GB£169?

Australia Price:

I'm not sure if Nintendo include 10% GST in the quoted AU$399.99 price, after reading up the matter indications are that it should be, but I'll work on both possible values; the base value would be around AU$363.63

AU$399.99 = GB£160.20 + VAT @ 17.5% = GB£188.24 surprisingly, a difference of -£9.24

AU$363.63 = GB£145.82 + VAT @ 17.5% = GB£171.34 a difference of £7.66

Would someone, at Nintendo of Europe, care to explain the reasoning for charging more for the Wii in the UK than everywhere else in the world, barring the slight possibility of Australia?

Yours

Adam Gurney

Dear Customer, thank you for your e-mail.

I am sorry that you feel disappointed but Nintendo have no control over the amount of import duty that is imposed, the sales tax (VAT) that is imposed, the transport costs to get product here from Japan, the distribution costs to individual retailers or the amount of profit margin demanded by them. These have to be paid by someone and unfortunately it is the customer

Kind regards,

Your Nintendo Team

Hmmmm, I'm not quite seeing this.

You're asking £10 more for the system in the UK, when VAT equivalents in the rest of Europe range above and below the UK's 17.5%. The UK, as part of the EEU, surely follows the regulations that control unfair import duties above and beyond the rest of Europe, the whole idea is that it is a single trading market.

Are you also telling me that the retailers in Japan do not have distribution costs and profit margins to be met? I can accept the extra shipping costs to the UK, but have trouble seeing it being around £50 per unit, somehow. Under that economic model international trading would have ceased to exist before it even got started.

I'm afraid you'll have to be more specific with your details, with genuine examples, before I can believe your statements, I'm afraid.

Yours

Adam Gurney

Dear Customer, thank you for your e-mail.

The import duties cover the whole of Europe and this is why it is a European wide price. This is the price that has to be paid for bringing products in from outside of the EEC. The transport costs cover everything from source to retailer including warehousing, distribution and marketing within Europe itself. You make no reference to the profit margin demanded by retailers and this is higher in the UK than almost everywhere else but it has to be costed somewhere. As I am sure that you are aware, the VAT has to be paid on everything and the higher the original price the more the VAT goes up being a percentage of course.

I am sorry that you are unable to accept my statements at face value but I am not prepared to provide more detail or specifics in this matter. If this is unacceptable to you, then I apologise again but that is as far as I am going with this subject.

Kind regards,

Your Nintendo Team

Actually, if you read my previous reply, I did at least allude to profit margins of Japanese retailers; I will bold them for you in this reply, so you can read it a little easier.

So, you are confirming, for me, that Nintendo are purposefully charging consumers more for buying the same product than the rest of the world, rather than take a small reduction in profit? I'm pretty sure that's what you have stated here and which is what I was wanting to know. I know Nintendo have a policy of making profit, unlike their competitors, on their hardware; I just wasn't aware they were ignoring their new business ideology to do so, thus risking the loss of support and the consumer mindset failing to perceive them as a possible mass market leader.

Oh well.

Yours

Adam Gurney