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“Wii has been one of the most successful consoles in history. Nintendo will need to adapt their pricing strategy as demand slows down due to the competition, difficult economic conditions and the fact that it’s not quite as innovative and fresh as it once was. I suspect, though, that Nintendo will not be as reactive to recent price drops as we might like.” - Bethesda MD Sean Brennan
“If Nintendo wants to regain the edge that they had previously, a price cut is something they have to look at. It’s known that the Wii isn’t as graphically advanced as PS3 or 360, but they’ve always had the unique advantage of the hardware being less expensive.” - Codemasters MD Jeremy Wigmore
Well, Codemasters and Bethesda are putting the pressure on. Is Nintendo going to answer the call? Here's what a Nintendo rep had to say...
We feel with their current configurations Wii, DS and DSi all offer fantastic value for money. Competitor activity, as ever, will have no impact on our plans.”
Ah Nintendo, stubborn as ever. Even if they were going to cut the price of their platforms, we'd never hear of it before the official announcement. We all know how good Nintendo is when it comes sto keeping secrets.
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and codemaster the one with the bad outsourced port to sumo digital ?
the wii is already 50millions strong, ONE good game from them would have brought them plenty of success
Why should Nintendo devalue their system by price dropping it, especially when the price isn't the problem, disinterest is?
Okay, maybe Overlord...
Sony is not losing money on the PS3 price drop. They got manufacturing cost down to 250$ per system.
I believe Kaz Hirai admitted in an interview that they still make a loss on consoles sold.
They are still losing money per system. They never stated how much money it cost to make the system, people took a highly vague PR comment and came to a conclusion.
@Al3xand3r
The Wii is not directly competing with the 360 or PS3. This is why 360 and PS3 price drops haven't harmed their sales and never will, and why Nintendo refuses to do one. Wii sales slowed down because of lack of interesting motion controls software.
We actually don't know how the price drops of the other systems have affected sales yet.
We probably won't really know until the NPD numbers come in for September, so another month or so to see the actual price drop affect.
The 360 however has been cheaper than Wii for quite a long time, and it didn't affect it.
The elite became cheaper now, but it's only while stocks last, last I read, so it probably won't even have a big jump in 360 sales, than affect Wii sales also.
Plus Codemasters doesn't really have place to talk either. They talk a good game about how 3rd Party developers should take the Wii more seriously and put out better games on the system. Than they crap out Dirt 2 that looks like a freaking N64 games, so you loose all your talking rights as well Condemasters. Put your money where you mouth is guys and stop trying to tell Nintendo what to do with their money!
I think this bodes well for everyone. From a price point of view, the playing field is equal. Now it's the game developer's job to make fun games that people want to buy
I hope developers will concentrate more on making fun games. Let the console makers do their job to grow the install base
The Wii's problem isn't price, but a price cut is really the only thing that will make the console desirable at this point.
Think about it. It's a $50 difference between Wii and 360/PS3 now.
Wii has such a shallow game pool because Nintendo seems to not care about companies putting shovelware out, and throws in a few of their own for lulz with some random quality titles, and it seems like companies forgot that making commercials and ads and viral marketing for games helps sell them and think everyone in the world is going to buy games through word-of-mouth.
If you don't already own a Wii, the only thing that would pull you to it is if you are into Nintendo franchises, and honestly, most people who fit that description already own one.
If you're a normal gamer who has no loyalties to a company, you're not going to feel like "Well, Wii is the most affordable" anymore.
You'd think they'd learn, cockiness is what got them into the s***-hole that the Wii pulled them out of in the first place.
If they really take a hit this holiday from the competition, that'll hopefully be a wake up call for them. And if they can get by without a price drop this holiday, I suspect they won't be able to come next holiday when I expect the Natal and PS3 wand will come out.
Desirable to who? You? We don't care about you. The system still sells more than the PS360 so, why price cut? You're talking crazy and think you're sane. LOL.
It's just the curse of being the most popular system (in terms of sales), but also the cheapest to develop for.
What are you even talking about? I already have a Wii and bought it at launch.
The PS3 JUST got a price cut and you're saying "It still sells more". No crap. They have to catch up, and with only a $50 difference, and everyone expecting this generation to last for 10 years, they are going to if Nintendo stays at $250.
It's like having a computer and there's another computer that's only $50 more and it has more features and better hardware. Why would you settle for something less over $50?
Besides that, PS2 sold more than Gamecube and Xbox and it still had price cuts and it continues to sell games even now.
Almost everyone who wanted a Wii has one already. Sales are going to level out, if not drop, anyway. With or without software. People aren't going to buy ANOTHER Wii.
@drdark
Yeah, but the PS2 saw price drops despite being the most popular.
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