“Free” Wii remote covers cost Nintendo $18 million
Tuesday, October 2nd, 2007 at 4:23pm by Jack
As Mel Brooks famously once said, “It’s good to be the king.”
For now, Nintendo is the current king of console sales, and that newfound wealth has led to some flexibility in the wallet, as David’s Wiimote-themed post from earlier this morning points out.
Case in point: Japan’s Ashi newspaper, via IGN, confirms that the Big N dropped over two billion yen ($18 mil) on the freebie Wii remote rubber covers, and expects to send out about 20 million of them globally when all is said and done (I’m not sure if this includes all the ones they’re packing into new Wii boxes and Wiimote packages, as it doesn’t say).
Nintendo reps said the multi million dollar giveaway will have no effect on the company’s bottom line. Must be nice.
October 2nd, 2007 at 5:03 pm
Apparently it DOES print money.
October 2nd, 2007 at 5:22 pm
This is a very clever way to avoid future lawsuits by stupid gamers who likes to crash Wiimotes on TV screens. Plus, as a Nintendo fan, i feel like they are caring for me(deep inside i know this is only corporate BS, but who cares)
Some will say that´s ugly as hell, but at least they are free, so i´ll get some as soon as they are available.
October 2nd, 2007 at 5:22 pm
That is part of PR, baby.
October 2nd, 2007 at 5:41 pm
Those people who already have their Wiis can fill out a form to get them for free. It’s similar to the way they did with the new Wii straps. Go to http://www.nintendo.com and click on the correspoding link.
October 2nd, 2007 at 6:13 pm
“Nintendo reps said the multi million dollar giveaway will have no effect on the company’s bottom line.”
I.E. Don’t worry shareholders, we’re not screwing you over. Time for some creative accounting…
October 2nd, 2007 at 6:25 pm
18 mil? Come on! Still that’s less than what they’d lose from some uncoordinated person saying that their Wiimote caused a death, and taking that claim to court.
Like I said before, Nintendo is just trying to make the Wiimote “lawsuit free.”
October 2nd, 2007 at 6:52 pm
Or “Idiot proof,” Brian.
October 2nd, 2007 at 7:38 pm
Mel Brooks reference = instant win
Thanks for the heads-up; this is the first I’m hearing about these Wiimote covers (Work work work, work work work..)
October 2nd, 2007 at 10:41 pm
18 million? I doudt it costed Nintendo that much to make or spend ..I dont think it cost them a dollar each to produce them … maybe it cost NINTENDO 15 cents to make that rubber cover.. if they spended 18 mil thats more than enough they blew that money…… Nintendo couldve use that money on somthing more useful like on a harddrive or on a new game or in perfecting their online service or investing that money on upgrading the wii’s menu interface …
if you still break the latest 3.0 strap and the WII-MOTE slips out of your hand and smashes the tv’s screen, there has to be somthing wrong with you….that or you have to be drinking some good juice.
October 2nd, 2007 at 11:58 pm
I’ll get these. Not for myself, but for when I have my little brother and sister over… Also, it’ll be good for making fun of friends: “Here, dude, you need to put the rubber thingy on your wii-mote.”
October 3rd, 2007 at 5:38 am
[...] via Infendo [...]
October 3rd, 2007 at 8:26 am
I tried to order my 4 replacement jackets last night for my Wii. The first time I did it I got some generic “cannot load page” type of error message. I re-tried last night (and again this morning) and now I get the following:
“Our records indicate that your request for additional Wii Remote Jacket(s) has exceeded the maximum quantity allowed per Wii serial number.”
Has anyone else had this problem? I never got to enter any name/address info so I don’t know how the order could be completed. I emailed them this morning, but I haven’t heard back.
October 3rd, 2007 at 9:26 am
mrdctaylor, Nintendo has good customer service. Based on my past experiences with them, I’m confident your e-mail will get answered to your satisfaction.
October 3rd, 2007 at 11:35 am
I had that same problem. I just went back thismorning and re-ordered them.
However, now I have a confirmation for 8 of the jackets, two separate orders of 4…
Not sure how that’ll work out.
October 4th, 2007 at 5:13 am
@BlockSS
You’re probably right about what Nintendo payed for each Wiimote cover, but then you have to make account for the shipping costs and for the people payed for taking/shipping the orders!
Also I agree with people saying that Nintendo wants to keep at bay too many lawsuit filled by some “smart” players!!!
I won’t get these though, as I don’t have any kid running around playing this stuff and my mates are grown up enough to play cautiously!