Why the Wii needs a price cut right now
It's your turn.
With both Sony and Microsoft dropping the price of the PS3 and the Xbox 360 Elite, the Wii is beginning to look like an overpriced console. There a few reasons why Nintendo needs to drop at least $50 off the company's best-selling home console and fast.
The shortage is over
Anyone who wants a Wii has one by now. Consumers in the market for a console will no longer look to the Wii for its affordability over the competition. In fact, an Xbox 360 Arcade can be had for less than the price of a Wii already.
The competition
Now that the Xbox 360 and PS3 battlefield has been leveled, the Wii stands alone with arguably less value. If the Wii remains at $250, it will be only $50 cheaper than two gaming consoles that offer high-end HD graphics, huge internal storage, and video marketplaces. Even the soon-to-be released PSP Go--while considered expensive--matches the Wii's $250 price tag.
The incentive
Consumers are concerned with value more than ever. At $250, the Wii does not offer enough of an added incentive packed into the box. Don't forget that this is also the console with the most accessories for sale. At least include MotionPlus, Wii Sports, and Wii Sports Resort in the box to sweeten the deal.
Maybe Nintendo is satisfied with the Wii's performance and will keep the console's price where it stands now. It's by far the best-selling console of this generation, so maybe there's nothing left to prove. That said, we can't imagine that console sales will continue to remain consistent when there's two consoles that offer so much more for only an additional $50.
If there was ever a time for a Wii price drop, it's now. If anything it will put Nintendo back in the news after what seems like months of nothing but Sony and Microsoft rumors, announcements, and SKU changes.
What do you think? Should Nintendo drop the Wii by at least $50?
Before covering games and gear for CNET Reviews, Jeff Bakalar dabbled in film and video production. An avid writer, reader, and gamer, Jeff is also an obsessive New Jersey Devils hockey fan. Catch him live every day as the co-host of CNET's infamous podcast, The 404. 
In you opinion it was too much, but it nonetheless did not keep the Wii from outselling the Sony and Microsoft devices.
Your opinion would appear to be wrong.
From a sales standpoint - the Wii isn't clearing the market right now, it's not the flashy new toy it was at launch and the technically advanced competition is on par with price. Nintendo risks losing the mindshare of 'current market leader' if they doesn't drop the price. I also think the list of add-ons for the Wii are going to hurt it in the long run, the niche it carved with non gamers is going to be turned off to the nickel/dimed factor.
I think the original posters amount - $150 probably isn't too far off. $200 probably isn't enough. My guess is that it will be $175 for Christmas shoppers.
This doesn't make sense! This blog, or article, or whatever it's called...IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE!!!!
If I'm selling cookies for 2 dollars and 50 cents, and people buy my cookies regardless of the fact that my cookies are smaller, less tasty, and probably cost less than a dollar to make...
...and my competitors are lowering their prices to compete with my cookies...
Then why should I change?!?! My customers are obviously quite comfortable with buying my cookies at my price. They weren't going "2 dollars and 50 cents??? Eh...that's too high...". They know my cookies are lacking many, many things...yet, they still pay retail for my cookies and sell me out constantly!
This is just idiotic to the fullest. Until the Wii has a sharp decline in sales, it'd be a dumb business move to shave off 50 dollars when I'm confident the same amount of people will buy a Wii at that same price! If you NEED a price decrease to crack prices, then you weren't a legit customer in the first place! It'd be like me saying "If Lexus dropped one of their new cars to 15k....I'd buy one...."
See what you are not understanding is that the sales of your "cookies" are slowing down, not many people are going to buy this time around. They are no longer in high demand and when that happens prices usually drop to generate some interest in those people who think " I want a Wii, but its just too much for me right now"
Say that I'm offering "cookies" that have all kinds chocolate chips and M&M's in them, while yours are plain. for $.50 more, I offer a better deal. The consumer come to me because I have what goes better with their milk, lol.
In other words, the Sony/Microsoft offer a better deal and a better price, people will start noticing and start buying. They offer more for a good price. The Wii is still the same price and will most likely not sell as well as they did last year when it was higher in demand.
Your statement "If Lexus dropped one of their new cars to 15k....I'd buy one...." is kind of a contradiction I'm pretty sure that if Lexus dropped the cost of a vehicle by $15,000 they would see a raise in sales. People want a nice car, but they are going to compare costs and features. Its pretty much the same with the Wii.
Because of that, I think I have got my moneys worth out of the Wii. I refused to by the PS3 until it dropped in price... so when it hit $299 and Best Buy had the slim line last week, I couldn't pass it up. It's a great system for $299, but in the $400 to $500 range, I just couldn't justify it when I do most of my gaming on a PC anyways. Oddly enough, I spend more for video cards than what the overpriced PS3s were going for ;)
Oh yeah..and this small concept known as a PROFIT.
[CNET editors' note: Personal attack deleted.]
The company needs to make a profit in order to survive, grow and continue to innovate. The market will determine what the price point will be, not the cost alone. It's called a free market, capitalism, and it's very exciting stuff.
As for people getting dumber, kinda harsh, but most mainstream media and universities are trying to teach us that all capitalism is bad, and that all PROFIT takers are evil.
Really, it's not all bad. If it weren't for capitalism, we wouldn't have all these cool gaming devices in the first place!
I'll admit that the library isn't the largest, but you do have to actually try before dismissing it completely.
So the other group of people probably find gaming consoles still too expensive. So the best would be to lower the price. Nintendo already charges you for all the extra peripherals, they could afford to lower the overall console price. The 360 and PS3 are by far the better value at this point. Plus with all the great titles being released for them Nintendo must do something in order to even keep people interested.
I have a launch 60 GB, and for 600 dollars (admittedly a lot), this is what I got (broken down in how much you get things for today)-
PS3- $300
PS2- 100
blu-ray/dvd/cd/mem card reader- 200
Overall- 500 dollars. Comes up short...but for how things were then (minus PS3)-
PS3- 300
PS2- 130
blu-ray- 300
total-730 dollars. Great deal!
Plus, it has tons of great games and, when connected to my awesome sound system, a great music server. All in all, glad I didn't wait to buy one!
~Jack
P.S. Hard finding intelligent people on here-thanks!
Even when their sales do drop, they probably won't drop the price, but instead offer new colors first with new games and accessories packed in. After the sales boost from that new offer dissipates, THEN they will drop the price.
It would probably be a good idea to go ahead and drop the price, e.g. plan ahead, but I doubt they will, since they still hardly produce enough to stock stores anyway.
How ridiculous to hear the endless bleating about what people are entitled to as consumers--a company lowers its price to push more volume and compete with others. They in turn lower their own prices (or justify higher ones with better quality) to attract more customers themselves.
This has a limit, as prices have to cover costs. They're not going to cut prices lower if people are still willing to buy or until they're taking a loss, any more than you'd volunteer to pay more than they're willing to sell for.
Wii - 729 mhz / 243 mhz / 24 MB - 64 MB (1TSRAM GDDR3) - 3 MB cache
Gamecube - 485 mhz / 162.5 mhz / 24 MB - 16 MB (ARAM) - 3 MB cache
Front-side bus bandwidth / main memory bandwidth / CPU DMIPS / cache
Wii - 1.944 GB/s / 3.888 GB/s / 1691
Gamecube - 1.3 GB/s / 2.6 GB/s / 1125
Texture cache bandwidth / framebuffer bandwidth / z-buffer bandwidth
Wii - 15.52 GB/s / 3.888 GB/s / 7.776 GB/s
Gamecube - 10.40 GB/s / 2.6 GB/s / 5.2 GB/s
Every Playstation launched has sold at a loss. The PS3 is STILL losing money.
Microsoft didn't pioneer anything in this area.
Wii isn't a competitor and nothing is competing with the Wii. I do not know of a single person who has said "oh, I bought a Wii INSTEAD of a PS3 or Xbox", nor do I know of anyone who would consider doing that.... It's a bit like comparing portable DVD players to HDTVs. Sure they both have lovely screens, but they aren't in the same class or the same sort of market category so why would one affect the other's price?
Since they don't compete, the market is actually a different market to the one you are referring to in this news story. That's why the price will remain the same. Wii is a monopoly in fun, family oriented, casual (and now also online) gaming with an innovative control system that's so easy to use my grandma can do it.
She would not have the same success (or the same interest) with a PS3 or a Xbox....
Thanks.
@jbakalar, I sincerely hope you are not a marketing consultant. Dropping the price in response to Sony and MS would tell the world that Nintendo DOES see itself in competition. Responding to competitor moves is a way to signal that you have a competing product. Even if they do think that, they should certainly not send the signal to the market.
People who call the Wii a "value" console still don't get it. STILL! All the MS and Sony screamers are right to point out that all the attachments (more remotes, more nunchucks, MotionPlus, etc) end up costing a lot of money. That's because the Wii is offering play experience through the control peripherals, not the graphics or hard drive. Now that MotionPlus is out, those are high-end peripherals!
I just replaced my stolen Wii system and peripherals last weekend, thankfully with insurance money. But yeah, I ended up spending more than $500, because of the peripherals. Wii is a high margin product, appealing to a casual gamer market that had been neglected for a long time. When nobody wants to compete with you for your neglected customer segment, you get a little monopoly, and you therefore get to make a lot of profit and charge high prices. And since Sony and MS don't deign to compete for the casual gamers, there is no reason for Nintendo to play those companies' pricing games.
Apparently the writer either missed this point, or he wants the price to go down so he can purchase a few for Christmas gifts.
When I first read the title of this article, I thought that Wii actually had some competition. But I was fooled into reading it. Well done Jeff.
I'll have to go with U. Tripps as well; your comment (jbakalar) here makes absolutely no sense. I've re-read it 3 times, still don't get it.
The Wii was never about comparing specs and competing in that horse race; it was about being different and innovative. Why should they change tactics now?
Even though the Wii's sales rate has been declining, it's still very good. For all the people who say they'll buy one when it reaches something ridiculous like $89--well, Nintendo knows you will never buy one so they have no intention of reacting to your rash requests because they are in business to make money and maximize shareholder value, not appease posters on message boards.
And for people who don't think the Wii is competing for market space with the 360 and PS3... are you blind? Yes, people have to make tough choices with limited dollars. For many people, it is a matter of one or another. Anyone who says differently perhaps does have any financial responsibilities to worry about.
Don't for one second assume you can pass your own value on the technology onto every other person out there. You may share an opinion with a relatively small demographic, but that doesn't mean the world agrees. Just remember, living in ignorance doesn't make you right to anyone else, just to yourself.
If I were in the market for a console right now, I probably would go for the XBox 360, but that's only due to my preference in gaming, not because of price. However, if I had kids that were old enough (like a hand big enough to hold the remote LOL), I would get a Wii to get them off the couch, play with them, and give another way to bond. I've enojoyed gaming over the years and want to give my kids the chance to enjoy it if they want as well.
The XBox 360 and PS3 are different from the Wii in my eyes. I play more RPGs than anything else, and there are just more for the 360 right now than any of the others. But if I had kids I'd go for the Wii, hands down. :) It all comes down to preference . . . I don't see them as directly competing because of that. It's like apples and oranges, and it wouldn't make a bit of difference to me if Nintendo lowered their price.
You fail, fanboy.
$249 for a Wii or $299 for a multipurpose console with more potential next year? I'd spend the extra $50 for a multipurpose console. Now, if you tell me $149 for the Wii, it would be very difficult for me to pay double the price for one of the others.
It's been three years since the Wii came out. Price of computer parts drop every year, so they should do something. Or are they trying to make up for the GameCube?
I have both a Wii and 360, so it doesn't really matter to me.
What will they do? Maybe they'll settle at $179.
To get the price to drop, the demand needs to drop suddenly. For example, everyone stops buying the Wii and spend their money on XBOX 360 or PS3.
That will force Nintendo to look at their price point.
I've been hoping that Nintendo and Factor 5 would actually release the Kid Icarus game that was once rumored to be on the way, but that's looking more and more like vaporware.
If, by some miracle, it were to get released in the near future, and get favorable reviews, I could be swayed to pull the trigger on that purchase.
Right now, though, there's just not much I'm interested in.
- by JLBer August 27, 2009 12:26 PM PDT
- We have two Wiis in the house, one for the kids, one for me. (Play "No More Heroes" or "Madworld" on the family TV? I don't think so!!) But Nintendo needs to drop the price and change the marketing.
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Showing 1 of 5 pages (140 Comments)With the Virtual Console and more adult-oriented games on the way, a price drop would be a great lure to the middle-age folks who would love to play their nostalgia games but don't want to be restricted to the kiddie-ware titles that dominate the Wii. But $250 just can't cut it with an awesome gaming console/media server (and even Blu-ray) for only $50 more.
Nintendo is reaching a plateau in the hardware, but a $100 price cut could easily change that.