Why There Won’t Be A Wii U Price Cut Anytime Soon

20 responses to “Why There Won’t Be A Wii U Price Cut Anytime Soon”

1. 

   tdark

   February 1, 2013 at 12:37 pm

   No surprises here. It’s reasonbly priced currently. No need for further reductions really

   Reply
   1. 

      inkk_412

      February 1, 2013 at 3:40 pm

      I find it funny that the first thing I saw on Joystiq after reading this was:

      http://www.joystiq.com/2013/01/31/wii-u-50-off-at-costco/

      Reply
2. 

   Cubits

   February 1, 2013 at 12:40 pm

   In what world is 350 actually hefty? A vast majority of the consoles sold so far are of the more expensive deluxe edition, and there is absolutely no way the competing consoles will launch near that price with their supposed “confirmed” internals.

   I believe the Wii sold like hotcakes because it was the start of Nintendo’s disruptive move, it was exciting and new, and it was incredibly easy to market without using big words like “asymmetric multiplayer”. If it possessed slightly improved visuals and cost 50 bucks more, i’m sure the sales wouldn’t have been affected at all.

   Reply
   1. 

      cj

      February 1, 2013 at 12:52 pm

      As a young 19 year old avid gamer I’d fall into one of Nintendos target markets. Im at the age where my parents do buy me things anymore. 350 is more then I currently earn most weeks. I wouldn’t mind a Wii U but it ain’t happening anytime soon. (my world 😀 )

      Reply
      1. 

         kermitron

         February 1, 2013 at 1:27 pm

         Considering new consoles used to launch for $700 – $1000 though… it’s not like the Wii U is unreasonablly priced from the outset. Just because people might have to save awhile for one doesn’t mean it’s inaccessible.

         Reply
         1. 

            cj

            February 1, 2013 at 1:59 pm

            Oh no doubt I could buy one next week if I wanted. Its just a bit silly of me to do so.

            Reply
3. 

   piat

   February 1, 2013 at 12:42 pm

   isnt a new ps3 still close to this much? I don’t see why anyone would be surprised, the WiiU’s problem isn’t price, its games

   Reply
   1. 

      terrak

      February 1, 2013 at 2:01 pm

      Exactly! I mean despite the Wii U having a quite diverse launch line up, the launch library still has plenty of holes in terms of offering the variety of games for all types of gamers. To assume that the current selection of games has enough for everyone is wrong. But as the year progresses the library should improve and thus offer more games and more variety. Besides this is the same for all launch consoles (besides the Wii which could sell through its lifecycle thanks to Wii Sports)

      The only time Nintendo will be forced to cut the price is if games no longer improve sales momentum (havent really launched much software yet so it cant be this) or if the next consoles from sony or microsoft are really priced aggressively AND have software that really showcase their consoles abilities as more enticing then what is available on the Wii U. So far since we know nothing and nothing has been hyped i can only deduce that a graphical update will be all what seperates the new consoles (from sony and microsoft) from their (respective) predecessors. Of course things can changed but thats what we know so far. If a graphical update is all they can do with the next consoles i dont think that will be enough to force Nintendo to drop the price of the Wii U, even when the new consoles launch.

      Reply
4. 

   brent3000

   February 1, 2013 at 12:43 pm

   Ill buy, when some better games come out, waiting on some more Nintendo games to hit the shelf…

   Reply
   1. 

      daz

      February 1, 2013 at 5:12 pm

      People seem to forget that 3DS got a price cut AND had a heap of games released at the same time. Games are the issue here. I think the biggest issue with the WII U was NSMBU was not enough to justify the purchase of a new system. It really did nothing with the gamepad other than drop blocks. Luckily Rayman is just around the corner and seems to be what NSMBU should have been.

      Reply
5. 

   gemini

   February 1, 2013 at 12:44 pm

   Games are the issue, not the price.

   Reply
   1. 

      mightyjosh

      February 1, 2013 at 2:28 pm

      Agreed. As soon as a Zelda, Mario, Smash Bros ect hit this unit $350 is going to be chump change. Also considering that to date its sold 3+ million a massive feat. people need to lay off Nintendo.

      Reply
      1. 

         braaains

         February 1, 2013 at 5:24 pm

         The problem is that Nintendo themselves projected something like 5 or 5.5 million by the end of March, and it’s pretty unlikely they’ll get anywhere near 4 million by then. If they didn’t set the expectation so high then they wouldn’t cop so much when they failed to meet it.

         Reply
         1. 

            mightyjosh

            February 2, 2013 at 10:58 am

            They all do and not just the gaming industry. I do think Nintendo was expecting a similar launch that the Wii had, but this is not 2006 the worlds major economies are not doing the best, and there is alot of unemployment in Europe and the US. To sell 3 million in such a short time is great in this market. But on a side note people are way to critical of Nintendo, the Vita is a bomb and there is nowhere the hatred for it that I see of the Wii U and 3DS.

            Reply
            1. 

               braaains

               February 2, 2013 at 2:16 pm

               You can’t be reading too many gaming sites then. You’d be hard pressed to find an article about the Vita that doesn’t mention how badly it’s doing. And the economy is no excuse for the Wii U’s poor performance against Nintendo’s projections – they knew what the economy was like when they made those projections. It’s not like the economy just suddenly fell in a hole in the last 6 months, it’s been bad for years. Nintendo thought they’d sell to the casual market like the Wii did. But the casual market has run off to iPads etc and they’re not coming back. And until Nintendo get more of their big first party titles out then they won’t sell too many to what’s left of their traditional core market, either.

            2. 

               terrak

               February 2, 2013 at 3:36 pm

               What he means is that many companies (Apple included) always have high expectations that some times dont pan out. I mean even Apple had to revise its estimates on iphone5 sales too (Down 5 million or so). So lets not get to jumpy because Nintendo does it. I do agree they were ambitious for wanting 5 million and not achieving it, but the silver lining is that the Wii U has still sold strongly, close to Wii launch Numbers and has out sold the ps3 and 360s launches by a significant margin. So there are positives for Nintendo. Lets not forget why its not selling so fast – no freakin games for a few months. No console can sell with out a steady stream of games, and maybe Nintendo were hoping there would be a few more games out in January that just didnt make it in time.

               If all the casuals have run off to play ipads and android tablets like you claim then God help the console market. But thats really over exaggerating things a little. Cmon a dinky little app game is nothing to full experience of a console or pc game. And as long as people crave the full experience games there will be a market for it. Thats like saying that movies and cinemas will die because of Youtube (Big budget movies at high cost compared to free and cheap youtube clips). It just wont. Sure the growth will be in the cheaper apps market (and youtube if you want to keep the analogy going) but doesnt mean movies and cinemas big budget full experiences arent demanded either. Same applies for consoles, so long as there is demand for full featured gaming experiences then console and PC gaming will remain relevant.

               You forget history so easily. Remember the ps2? It had all the third party support and every game out that generation (minus Nintendo and microsoft exclusives obviously). Did all that support for ps2 instantly guarantee its successor the same level of support (ie majority of the AAA exclusives?) No. So just because the ps3 and 360 got all the third party support last time doesnt mean they are guaranteed anything in the next gen. Also by the time of the next xbox and playstation the Wii U should be around 10 million consoles sold or even more. Thats a bigger market to sell games too then the small launch numbers of ps4 and 720. So it will be alot more appealing for developers to make unique and exclusive games for. Also what will these 2 next gen console offer. So far we know its gonna be better graphics then anything available but so what? The ps3 offered better graphics then anything available and it still struggled to second place not to mention the massive losses that both sony and microsoft have yet to fully recover from. Also no more draw card from Bluray either. Move and Kinect are already out and unless there is a massive improvement that make these newer versions clearly better then before and mass market appealing like the Wiimote, (which lets face it was just the right product at the right time) then i dont see how the other consoles can be guaranteed the same level of third party exclusivity. Nintendo helped both sony and microsoft by releasing a weak graphics console with different controls (Wiimote not dual analog). The Wii U allows the developers to use standard dual analog controls and adds a new control option to the mix.

               What am i saying? While not guaranteed by any means, Nintendo has put itself in a position to offer developers a good platform to develop games on (much better then the Wii ever was). By the launch of the next consoles will have a relatively huge user base, standard dual analog controls, decent graphics (not as far as the Wii to ps3), better online capabilities (then previous Nintendo consoles) and a new control option. Nintendo needs to work hard to get those big developers and publishers to make Wii U games or even just ports so far its slowly but surely getting there. COD blackops2, Assassins Creed, Batman, Tekken, Resident Evil, etc, yes they are ports but these were games that completely missed Nintendos last home console. It just means more games like this will make its way to Nintendos console and thats a good sign. I dont imagine the Wii U to get all the third party support but even half is better then what the Wii got in its lifetime. With more games like this hitting the consoles, core gamers will have plenty of reasons to pick up a Wii U (compared to the Wii which had no such games). So saying Nintendo cant sell to the core market this early on is very presumptuous indeed.

            3. 

               mightyjosh

               February 2, 2013 at 5:51 pm

               No I was not referring that. It was in reference to the fact that the economy was in better shape in 2006, so of course the Wii had a stronger launch sales. I hate predictions, who the hell knows what Joe Blob shopper is going to buy anyway. This was never a Nintendo fanboy write up, all I was saying is there is alot of negativity towards Nintendo when in reality they are doing quite good in the current market, which is much worse when their last console got realeased.

6. 

   stu

   February 1, 2013 at 1:42 pm

   I don’t see them cutting the price any time soon. Their margins are close enough as it is. And we still don’t know anything about stand-alone Gamepads – you can safely bundle them in with “hardware” rather than “peripherals”, so they’ll have to be pretty damn close to non-profitable for Nintendo to be able to shift units as well.
   Games are key. From the sounds of things, though, that’s what we’ll be getting at E3.

   Reply
7. 

   linepaper

   February 1, 2013 at 2:34 pm

   Needs more games, that’s the only reason why people would be asking for a pricecut. Atm I see very little reason to get one

   Reply
8. 

   mikka

   February 2, 2013 at 12:28 am

   Bought my premium from Big W for $379, so I’ve had my price cut back in November

   Reply