Wii profitable from day one
Reggie sticks it to the others.
Nintendo will make money from every unit of Wii hardware and software sold, according to Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime.
"We will make a profit on the entire Wii proposition out of the box--hardware and software," Fils-Aime told Reuters.
"That really is a very different philosophy versus our competitors. We are a company that competes only in the interactive entertainment space, so we have to make a profit on everything we do."
Nintendo is also confident of manufacturing and shipping four million units worldwide by the end of December, with a further two million heading to stores by the end of March 2007.
In contrast, both Microsoft and Sony are thought to be losing a significant amount of money per hardware unit, and both have endured manufacturing problems.
In Sony's case, shortfalls in the blue diodes that support its Blu-ray disc drive technology mean only 500,000 units will be available cumulatively for the US and Japanese launches in November, with the European launch of the console pushed back to March.
Nintendo Wii will go on sale in the US on November 19th, priced US$ 250, with the Japanese launch taking place on December 2nd at a cost of 25,000 yen per unit (around US$213).
Nintendo will announce its plans for Europe at a press conference taking place in London this lunchtime.