Since its November 2006 release, the Wii has maintained its original price point of $249.99.
Kotaku received an early version of an October Walmart advertisement that announces a Wii price drop. The advertisement specifies that it isn't a temporary "price rollback" which are often advertised.
Unfortunately, the early version of the advertisement doesn't specify the new price point or if anything will be omitted, such as the Wii Sports pack-in game.
Nintendo will be attending the Kyoto CMEX 2009 event, which could provide for the opportunity to formally announce a price drop. The event runs from September 26 to October 4.
It's about time, two years overdue, IMO. Seriously. As a stock holder, this whole stubborn pricing, with Nintendo refusing to lower the price in order to increase demand, drive up interest, and keep the Wii on the forefront of consumer's minds has been moderately painful.
Your overconfidence is your weakness.
$200 should have been the original price, I think. There was no reason to break the trend of $200 Nintendo systems and the only reason they could get away with was because it included a game.
GP, you know how it can work... If for one moment it seems the market is saturated with the product, interest can drop dramatically. Proactive, albeit minimal drops in pricing can help interest remain intact without a sudden, steep decline. $20-30 a year isn't a very big drop when you consider Wii Sports had paid for itself by then, and the manufacturing costs surely would have gone down, but it would have had a dramatic effect on Nintendo and it's competition.
It's about time, two years overdue, IMO. Seriously. As a stock holder, this whole stubborn pricing, with Nintendo refusing to lower the price in order to increase demand, drive up interest, and keep the Wii on the forefront of consumer's minds has been moderately painful.
Your overconfidence is your weakness.
$200 with Resort/MotionPlus would be a wicked deal for the holidays, but I don't think the new SKU will be that lucrative.
3. Include a demo disk that has the following: playable demos: New Mario wii, Mario galaxy, smash brothers, metroid trilogy, zelda twilight princess, carnival games Videos: Wiifit, The Conduit, Rabbids go home, Silent Hill Shattered Memories, Wii Sports Resort, Madden 10
[...]
7. make up a 1000 point Nintendo points card. Put in all the boxes
I hope they drop the price of the controllers as well. That is the main sticking point for me, I am not willing to pay $160 to get 2 more controllers, especially not if I think have to shell out another $45 to play wii sports resort. That is over $200 just in controllers.
a 50 price drop would be to dramatic for the wii. Its selling and they would be chopping off limbs at the rate of a 50 dollar drop. A 50 dollar price drop is for floundering/failing consoles, and I am sure that Nintendo wouldnt want that image on the wii.
$200 with Resort/MotionPlus would be a wicked deal for the holidays, but I don't think the new SKU will be that lucrative.
I don't know about that jonny. Nintendo needs to give them an incentive to buy more and new software. Most of the casual gamers may only buy the game for wiisports, and than get wiiplay, and wiisports resort, and maybe wiifit. Nintendo knows software is where profit is really made and they need to get them into the stores to buy more, more , more.
My idea.
1. $199.99 price tag
2. More console colors: Black, Pink
3. Include a demo disk that has the following: playable demos: New Mario wii, Mario galaxy, smash brothers, metroid trilogy, zelda twilight princess, carnival games Videos: Wiifit, The Conduit, Rabbids go home, Silent Hill Shattered Memories, Wii Sports Resort, Madden 10
4. 5 minute demo of Super Mario Brothers 1 on the Wii menu: Virtual Console. - Have a video: Want more download it at wiishop channel
5. 5 Minute demo of Tetris Party on the Wii menu: Wiiware - Have a video: Want more ? Download it at wiishop channel
6. Include internet channel in the main menu
7. make up a 1000 point Nintendo points card. Put in all the boxes
8. Add DVD movie watching channel
I think doing all those things will make for a worthy new package.
I've always thought something should be priced at what it's really worth, not what a company can get away with, but then again I've never had a capitalistic mindset. What do I care about supply and demand? Why should I care if Nintendo turns a profit?
I've always thought something should be priced at what it's really worth, not what a company can get away with, but then again I've never had a capitalistic mindset. What do I care about supply and demand? Why should I care if Nintendo turns a profit?
Companies that don't turn a profit tend to go bankrupt, no profit, no Nintendo, simple as that.
Actually, I can see $199 with a Wii Sports / Play combo disc and two Remotes. The Wii Points card seems reasonable as well, since they want people to go online and spend more money.
I've always thought something should be priced at what it's really worth, not what a company can get away with
By "what it's worth" I meant the material cost.I've always thought something should be priced at what it's really worth, not what a company can get away withThere is no difference.
Morari, that's the first thing you've ever said which I agree with. Amazing.
By "what it's worth" I meant the material cost.I've always thought something should be priced at what it's really worth, not what a company can get away withThere is no difference.
Right, because $17 billion isn't enough of a safety net. And if Nintendo actually spent money on the development of hardware then the Wii wouldn't be a repackaged GameCube.
I'll never understand why people try to defend corporate greed.
Speaking of greed, how many video games do you own, Mop_it_up? Look at all those kids out there without video games...I find this comment to be pretty hypocritical considering I've seen you flaunt your collection more than anyone else here. How many Wii Points do you have again?
Speaking of greed, how many video games do you own, Mop_it_up? Look at all those kids out there without video games...I find this comment to be pretty hypocritical considering I've seen you flaunt your collection more than anyone else here. How many Wii Points do you have again?
Mop_it_up: I think you have a somewhat valid point, but I think you have written it poorly.You're probably right about that, I've never done too well at expressing myself.
Fortunately, markets actually do work that way Mop_it_up, but there are exceptions and you can't take away on the concept of perceived value and the desire for many consumers to buy more expensive products for the status of it.I've always thought that is pretty stupid, but sadly it is true. It's similar to the whole greed thing, how everyone is so self-centered and focused on personal gain, but that isn't something I should get into.
Mop_it_up: I think you have a somewhat valid point, but I think you have written it poorly.You're probably right about that, I've never done too well at expressing myself.Fortunately, markets actually do work that way Mop_it_up, but there are exceptions and you can't take away on the concept of perceived value and the desire for many consumers to buy more expensive products for the status of it.I've always thought that is pretty stupid, but sadly it is true. It's similar to the whole greed thing, how everyone is so self-centered and focused on personal gain, but that isn't something I should get into.
UncleBob: I'm disappointed that you chose the route of borderline personal attacks. I expected better of you.
But profit isn't bad or evil, and greed is a perhaps an inaccurate word to through around.Just to clarify, I never stated that profit was bad or evil, nor do I think this. That said, I still think greed is appropriate.
Right, because $17 billion isn't enough of a safety net. And if Nintendo actually spent money on the development of hardware then the Wii wouldn't be a repackaged GameCube.
Actually, I'll disagree with that one, UncleBob. Nintendo's initial idea with the Wii was to create gaming hardware that was fun to play, but would be affordable. The Wii is intentionally not "HD" so consumers can afford it.
Actually, I'll disagree with that one, UncleBob. Nintendo's initial idea with the Wii was to create gaming hardware that was fun to play, but would be affordable. The Wii is intentionally not "HD" so consumers can afford it. Had Nintendo had the $17 Billion Dollars, we would have merely seen more games available for the console upfront, and early on.
And I think that's what surprises us, as gamers: We're not seeing an increased amount of games geared toward the traditional Nintendo gamers. Essentially revenues generated by Nintendo's expanded audience is being invested into generating more revenue from that audience. The same could be said about Nintendo's original audience, and the games created for them. So if you don't appreciate both types of games, you won't see the full effects on Nintendo's new-found revenue growths. The initial lack of funds is what created the "droughts" we saw in classic Nintendo games early on in the Wii. Now, they're practically separate branches, most likely.
But the HD angle wasn't because Nintendo was trying to save money for consumers...but save money for developers and in effect help the industry grow and become healthy again. Look at how many companies filed bankruptcy and died after a few average games that didn't sell well. HD gaming isn't really that much more expensive for gamers...but it is a hell of a lot more expensive for developers.
Wii was never going to be HD because Nintendo saw it more important to help and protect developers instead of going towards the HD consumer.
Actually, I'll disagree with that one, UncleBob. Nintendo's initial idea with the Wii was to create gaming hardware that was fun to play, but would be affordable. The Wii is intentionally not "HD" so consumers can afford it.
Wii launched at $50 less than the 360 Core. It launched a year later (when tech prices likely fell). It could have been "HD" without being quite as powerful as the 360 - and could have still been affordable.
I don't know if I quite follow that angle either. Look at how many companies folded in the NES, SNES, N64 and GCN eras as well. I think it's pretty well known that the video game development industry is volatile. One bad game and you can do a lot of damage to even the best company.
It seems to me that Nintendo went the direction they did because they knew they had to do something different than Sony/MS if they wanted to continue past this generation.
Rather their cash reserves limited them to only developing the Motion Sensing tech vs. HD Tech, I don't know...
stuffs
But I don't go around accusing other people of being greedy...
Pot to Kettle: "Black".
A Toys R US ad is showing that the new Wii price will be 199.99 in October :)
Besides Nintendo is giving their customers what they want, because if they didn't want a Wii for $250 they wouldn't buy it, and certainly not 55million of them. Supply and demand. Demand at that price is there, so the supply at that price is there. plain and simple.
I think Nintendo is afraid of appearing "cheap," really. It's something they've had go against them with the Cube, and so they're trying to avoid that comparison, as well. The truth is, a great bundle can keep the price up, but add a lot more value. You through in another Wii Remote, the motion plus, and Wii Sports Resort, and all of a sudden, the consumer is going to be getting a lot more for $250 than he did before. People would notice, and the average consumer would probably start seeing Nintendo's competition, with the price bottom falling out, as the cheap competition instead, right?
I've seen *numerous* customers zip straight to the clerk, grab a Wii, and leave. I'm not excluding the slow decision-making browsers from the realm of possibility, but the "quick" ones have shown up in force.
History has already shown what they've walked out with. They might have just been buying for someone else, but the final conclusion probably wasn't hard to arrive at (To Waggle or Not to Waggle). I can't agree this is the customer type you're trying to generalize.
The customer I'm trying to describe is the source of "insane" sales rates. The value-hesitators are just bumps on the sales charts.
QuoteI think Nintendo is afraid of appearing "cheap," really. It's something they've had go against them with the Cube, and so they're trying to avoid that comparison, as well. The truth is, a great bundle can keep the price up, but add a lot more value. You through in another Wii Remote, the motion plus, and Wii Sports Resort, and all of a sudden, the consumer is going to be getting a lot more for $250 than he did before. People would notice, and the average consumer would probably start seeing Nintendo's competition, with the price bottom falling out, as the cheap competition instead, right?
I think the graphics capabilities makes it such though that the other consoles don't across as cheap. Most stores have all three consoles hooked up to in-store demos. If someone looks at all three they're going to very quickly notice that the visuals for the other consoles noticably better than the Wii's. Keep in mind that a store like Best Buy is going to have these things hooked up to big ass HDTV's, partially to drive HDTV sales.
Most people can put two and two together and assume that improved graphics comes from more advanced hardware which would logically cost more money to produce. Back when the PS3 cost $600 I don't think people assumed that Nintendo was offering the same thing for less money. The assumption was that the Wii didn't have as pretty of graphics but this was a suitable trade-off to have a more affordable price. Yeah PS3 games looked really good but no console was worth that much money. So I don't think people would associate the $300 PS3 as "cheap". Remember that the Gamecube wasn't just cheaper but it also didn't play DVDs and essentially wasn't online. It was missing features and cost less. That is a cheap product. But the PS3 has all sorts of bells of whistles the Wii doesn't.
Though a different bundle is a fine idea. Something needs to be different and it doesn't necessarily have to be a price drop.
Here in Canada the price difference between a PS3 and a Wii is only 20 bucks. There is effectively no price difference anymore. The Wii no longer has any price advantage. For a consumer now it's "which console best suits your needs?"
I got my PS3 for £179. The exact same price as i paid for my Wii. I bought my Wii on launch day, December 8 2006 for £179. So effectively in inflation terms, the Wii's price has increased over these years.
While I'm happy with both the 3 and Wii i'm amazed at how Nintendo have boxed themselves in with the DSi. The same logic Ian uses for the Wii and PS3 is identical to that of the Wii and DSi.
Should i spend £149 for a DSi or 179 for a Wii? The DSi loses that "its £90? BOUGHT!" spontaneity to its price point because they think an SD card slot, modern-capable WiFi and a camera (that probably costs no more than 50p per unit to produce) is worth another £60.
Malstrom has an article on it (http://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/2009/09/17/never-believe-a-word-behind-a-nameless-rep/) and from the sound of it he sees this as the beginning of the downfall for Nintendo because pricedrops are a MASSIVE mistake while Nintendo is failing to properly address the Wii's primary problem: Insufficient games!
