Topic: Wii Price Drop in the First Week of October?

[Flames_of_chaos]

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/blogArt.cfm?artid=19934

 

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.

[that Baby guy]

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.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

ON SNAPS

[kraken613]

It must cost just about $100 to $150 to make a Wii now. Its about time.

[GoldenPhoenix]

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.

Two years overdue? They were selling out last holiday season! Not sure how much more demand you need it has been stomping the other consoles in sales.

Though I do agree it is probably time to drop the price. What I would do if I was Nintendo is drop the price to 199.90, and make a combo disk with Wii Sports/Wii Sports resort.

They could also trick all of those casual gamers by releasing a black version of the console at the reduced cost with "Wii Sports System 2!"

[Mop it up]

$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.

[GoldenPhoenix]

$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.

Well economically the original price should match the demand, they showed that at $250 the demand was there. The point is that it is simple economics of supply and demand, at $250 they obviously didn't have the demand problem though they had a supply problem for well over 2 years. It should be interesting to see how the supply/demand scale shifts if it is lowered to $200. But it is quite clear it did not balance out until this year so it would be wrong to say they should have lowered the price when demand was exceeding supply for so long.

[Mop it up]

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? All I care about is not paying too much for something I want. I feel the Wii is overpriced at $250 considering what's really in the box but obviously most people don't share that sentiment.

If the Wii didn't include Wii Sports then it would have been $200. That was my point. Wii Sports isn't "free", you pay $50 for it.

[that Baby guy]

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.

[NWR_pap64]

The truth is that regardless of the price there was a demand for it. Nintendo had no need to lower the price since the console was still selling despite what everyone else was doing. But now that demand has lowered and the PS3 has seen a new design and price I do think its time for them to lower the price, and perhaps focus on brand new games and accessories.

[Jonnyboy117]

$200 with Resort/MotionPlus would be a wicked deal for the holidays, but I don't think the new SKU will be that lucrative.

[GoldenPhoenix]

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.

The steep decline is not really true either, the Wii's sales have slowly slowed down but STILL beating the competition.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Righto, Wii sales went from "insane" to "strong," as in #1 and still ass kicking with inferior hardware to boot.  The industry has a short memory, and has a "new" idea of what "good" sales rates are.

[KDR_11k]

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.

At a loss of at least 50$ in revenue per unit sale permanently and maybe a gain of 300k sales for a month or two, is that really worth it? Pricedrops are extremely short-term boosts unless you're under pressure from a competitor which Nintendo is not (noone's deciding between an HD console and a Wii based on the price, they'll either decide they like or don't like the Wii's games and therefore get or not get a Wii independent of whether they get an HD console). Are you trying to pump and dump the stock or what? It's much healthier for long term revenue to keep the hardware price and just wait for those new games to drive the demand up instead. It might also help to read up on the business strategy of the company you invested in, the Blue Ocean Strategy does not work like that.

[AV]

$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.

[UncleBob]

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

3.) Why include these on a disc?  Why not make them channels as well?  Discs cost money.
7.) No points card - make it like the DSi - buy the system, bring it online, get 1,000 points for doing so.  This would keep someone from buying the system, selling the points card, and never bringing it online.  Wouldn't stop them from "gifting" the games, but they'd still have to bring it online for that.

[TheBlackCat]

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.

[NWR_pap64]

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.

I doubt they will lower the price of the controllers, but I would be happy if they did. I didn't mind the Wii Remote, but I thought 20  bucks for the nunchuck was too much.

[BwrJim!]

Lets not forget that Nintendo is a big fan of the 29$ adjusted range in the United States.   For a price drop that doesnt change anything, I could easily see a wii price of 229 then have a following up a month later with new colors.  That way they can tap the slightly cheaper market, and then drive the demand a month later with new colors. 

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.

They should add a poll to the topic that has guesses on where people think the price point will be.  (not want)

[BlackNMild2k1]

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.

Then what does a $200 price drop(X360) and a $300 price drop(PS3) mean?
$50 hardly seems like much in comparison, especially after almost 3 years.

[Jonnyboy117]

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.

[stevey]

It's not all that likely that the Wii will have a price drop before the holiday season. Now right after while people still have some holiday cash leftover is the sweet spot.

$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.

That's way too overboard

1 Possible
2 Will happen in black
3-4-5 Nintendo HATES demos, and by all mean if there is one it will be just one game for god sakes.
6 If you have internet than you can just download. (Death to preloaded software)
7 Slim but it will be preloaded into the shop channel.
8 Never Happening.

[Mop it up]

I don't think they'll change what comes in the box, it seems very unlikely with how well all of their games and accessories sell. If anything happens, it will be a price drop, and probably not a $50 one either. I say this because of the DS. Everyone thought it would drop to $100 but instead they cut $20 and priced it at $130. I expect a cut like that, maybe $30 for Wii which would put it at $220.

[brian577]

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. 

[BwrJim!]

TO BNM:   Where does that put ps3 and 360? I believe that would make them the 2nd and 3rd players.. hence the struggle and the need to drop the price.   so a 200 and 300 dollar price drop is simply just trying to stay in the game for the next generation.

Looks like Mop is thinking the same way as me, nothing different just 20-30 dollars cheaper..

I dont want DVD playback, but with the growth of the media market and downloads, nintendo should just make a pc channel for media.   The homebrewers already have this, so why not just deliver it.  Streaming media through my consoles is the right move.  The industry has been pushing forward (computer industry btw) for the convergence of the home systems (read computer and tv).  If nintendo would release a media channel, it would satisfy my dvd and other media needs along with staying on the curve thats happening in the former comment.   


Now, you want to see some fun colors on your wii for about 2 dollars max..   Go out, buy the 3d glasses for crayola chalk paint and enjoy.