Wii Fit: How much is too much?
Thursday, October 11th, 2007 at 10:01am by Jack
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata told the world yesterday that Wii Fit would descend upon Japanese fitness aficionados on Dec. 1 for about $75 (8,800 Yen).
First of all, having a release date and price in hand is a great thing. Next stop, U.S. and Europe,pricing and dates, please. But there’s the rub, at least for me–what are we Yanks willing to pay for the Wii Balance Board and Wii Fit? Don’t approach that question as a “Am I going to buy it or am I not,” but instead be a little more open about it. Ask, “should someone buy something like this for $75?”
But there’s another rub (a lot of rubbing going on this morning… don’t know how I feel about that just yet). When Japan gets something for $75, we don’t pay that price in the U.S. or Europe–especially Europe, because you guys get hosed on pretty much everything except beer, in my opinion.
For example, the Wii goes for about $213 in Japan, and other various video game things and electronics are usually cheaper there and more expensive here (GameStop listed the board at $99 as recently as September, but that page is 404′d now). Understandable. This pricing adjustment happens; it’s nothing new. But the Wii Fit bundle is a rare exception. It’s unproven. It’s freakishly new and involves Yoga. With the U.S. markup, I’m not so sure about this Wii Fit thing anymore. I like taking care of myself, and I love Nintendo, but $80 and above is pushing it. $99 is just plain out of my price range for something that could easily become the next Virtual Boy.
Once upon a time I paid $80 for Final Fantasy 2, so I could probably do that again with Wii Fit. It’s a weird cost/principal of the thing combo with me however. I’m still undecided, so I’ll revisit the question above: Your personal opinion aside about how “fun” Wii Fit looks, is $80 to $90+ too much for what Wii Fit offers?
October 11th, 2007 at 10:10 am
$75 seems reasonable to me.
Guitar Hero bundles, now, for $90-$100.
DDR bundles for $70.
$75 for a game and peripheral(a damn good one) is pretty good.
If we were talking $100, though, I’d have to reconsider, just like Guitar Hero.
October 11th, 2007 at 10:46 am
When you say the Wii is $213.00 in Japan, don’t forget they have to buy Wii Sports separately, which is about $40. So it comes out pretty even. I wouldn’t expect Wii Fit to be more than $80. I’m actually going to go with $69.99. And hey, good to know I wasn’t the only one to pay $80 for FFII!!!
October 11th, 2007 at 10:47 am
Yeah, as long as it’s cheaper than Guitar Hero I’ll buy it. (And wii in Japan doesn’t come bundled with wii sports, that may explain why it’s cheaper there).
October 11th, 2007 at 10:58 am
For me, I’m going to wait and see if other developers use the Balance Board and if they do, whether or not they do it successfully. I think Wii Fit looks like a lot of fun, but, I’m not sure whether or not it’s worth shelling out however much it ends up costing over here in the UK for if all it gets thats half decent is WiiFit.
Hopefully developers will see what can be done with it and develop some kickass games for it - even if it means making it optional to maximise sales.
I think the install base for it will greatly affect how many more games are developed for it. Which means I suppose, I should buy it in order to increase chances of getting some kickass games.
Hmmm, catch 22 :P.
Games I’d like to see use it? Tony Hawks, 1080/SSX, Some sort of Boxing Game and a shooter where you can strafe by leaning etc. Could work really well if it was on rails, but really in depth to make it work.
October 11th, 2007 at 11:54 am
Bottom line: $100 is too much for me to buy Wii Fit. $75 isn’t that bad at all.
October 11th, 2007 at 11:59 am
Based on what I’ve seen and played so far (I’m looking at you awsome skii jump minigame) I wouldn’t pay more than $60.
October 11th, 2007 at 1:18 pm
I would be willing to pay $75 as well, but I will wait to see what other games use it. It is too much to ask to pay that much for just WiiFit. If Nintendo and third parties use it in a variety of games, it will be a worthy investment. SSX and Tony Hawk games come immediately to mind. Tony Hawk needs some major innovation.
October 11th, 2007 at 1:49 pm
I really regret not getting Mario DDR.
I would rather get that game than what this has to offer.
Maybe when more games come out for it. I’d rather play a multitude of the other game coming out.
October 11th, 2007 at 5:04 pm
Who says you have to pass up Mario DDR? On ebay it’s about the same price as we’ll end up paying for this.
October 12th, 2007 at 12:01 am
$75 is a reasonable price for something I know I will use frequently.
October 12th, 2007 at 2:23 am
“$75 is a reasonable price for something I know I will use frequently.”
Not if you weigh too much.
October 12th, 2007 at 3:19 pm
I bet they produce a special “obese Americans” version of the pad. But yay me, last year I wouldn’t have been able to use this and this year I can.
October 12th, 2007 at 8:48 pm
Has any of you actually been to a gym before? seems you really don’t know much about equipment prices. What might seem to you as a SSX snowboard is a very high tech weight scale with software to use it. If Soloflex was selling this thing it would at least be $500.
October 13th, 2007 at 4:08 am
Well seems cheaper than a gym membership, and as us Americans are willing to shill out for late night weight loss products that will not see the light of day for very long, I would pay for this as I know I would use it because I would be using my Wii.
+ I could always restrict myself to I must use the Wii Fit and then can play other cool games on my Wii after I work out.
I think it a great price.