Nintendo Won’t Sell NX at Loss

With the Nintendo NX confirmed for March next year, the rumours have turned their focus to the specifications. So far, rumours have pointed to a decently strong console featuring an AMD 14nm Polaris GPU, perhaps in an AMD Soc. Today, a new report has clarified the market positioning Nintendo plans to take with the NX. According to the rumour, Nintendo will not be selling the NX at a loss.

The change in strategy makes the experiment with the Wii U an anomaly. Unlike previous Nintendo consoles, the Wii U was sold at a loss to encourage sales and make it more competitive. This meant Nintendo was taking a gamble, hoping that Wii U users would buy enough games to make up the initial loss. Unfortunately, the Wii U didn’t perform well at all, dragging down Nintendo’s finances.

With the NX being sold at least at cost, this allows Nintendo to make money on hardware as well as software. As long as enough consoles are sold to cover the R&D and initial costs, Nintendo would be guaranteed profit. Given how the Wii U has sold, the NX shouldn’t have any problem breaching that level. It also leaves room for discounts in the future to make the console more competitive throughout the generation.

The only major issue is in regards to pricing and performance. One concern is that being sold at cost would make the console more expensive. The other concern is that performance might suffer if Nintendo puts out an underpowered console in order to compete on price. Given how Sony and Microsoft are also selling their consoles at near cost, these shouldn’t be problems and I trust the NX should be competitive enough. Either way, Nintendo has just about 9 months to figure it all out.