Report: Nintendo wanted $100 Wii (gamespot)

- gamespot -

Veteran game designer Shigeru Miyamoto tells BusinessWeek that the original plan was for a super-cheap console.

The Nintendo Wii, to be launched in the US on November 19 (in Japan on December 2 and in Europe on December 8), is built around a unique motion-sensing controller, but the interface wasn't the only part of making a console that Nintendo rethought. At £179 ($249.99), it is also the cheapest of the three next-gen options, but the console was originally meant to be even cheaper, to the tune of $100 a unit, according to game designer Shigeru Miyamoto.

Miyamoto told BusinessWeek that the Nintendo Wii was made very much with mothers in mind. He said, "Our goal was to come up with a machine that moms would want--easy to use, quick to start up, not a huge energy drain, and quiet while it was running... Also we thought a low-cost console would keep moms happy."

The designer said that the $100 mark was his original goal for the Wii but that using NAND flash memory to store data and incorporating other "pricey parts" torpedoed that idea.

Power isn't everything for a console. "Too many powerful consoles can't coexist. It's like having only ferocious dinosaurs. They might fight and hasten their own extinction," Miyamoto added.