ShareThis
Listen carefully, and one can hear the chorus of gaming journalists and retailers the world over calling for a Wii U price drop. Nintendo has responded to this request, and while they might not be deaf to them the company obviously disagrees.
“The Wii U is a great value. With great content coming, that will drive the hardware installed base.” said Scott Mofitt, executive VP of sales and marketing at Nintendo of America. “We’ve gone from being the highest-priced console on the market to now being a great value with the announcements from our competitors. The perception of our price has changed, but what’s also changed is that people now see what great content is coming.”
Mofitt’s point is quite simple; Wii U is going to be the cheapest option for people shopping for new consoles this holiday season. Also, we might talk about the slow trickle of quality games for Wii U, but the games currently on it, plus the games coming over the rest of the year, add up to a library of games that easily trump the launch titles for Xbox One and PS4, and compared to previous console cycles their selection is actually pretty decent.
Personally, I agree Wii U would benefit greatly from a price drop, but it doesn’t make sense to do it now. Yes, Nintendo could move a fair bit of inventory with a price decrease, and even if it was enough to entice more third party support it is too late for that support to arrive by the holidays. And let’s not forget that Nintendo will be able to squeeze the full price out of those folks currently waiting for Pikmin 3 before investing in the console. Some time this holiday season, before the release of Xbox One and PS4, is what makes the most sense; that way they will be able to further differentiate themselves from the competition in terms of price, and it would be all the more significant if they can come in a full $100 (or more) under the PS4’s $400 MSRP.
Source: Nintendo Life
All it takes is another horrible holiday season from late Fall to early Spring to change their minds.
i think the wiiU needs a 50 dollar price cut, i mean if the 3ds being a portable got an 80 dollar cut, why not thake the risk?
I can understand their argument, but at the same time part of the Wii’s success came from its aggressively low pricing. I think a price drop now would really couple well with the slew of games that are going to be coming out.