Eat Some, Double A: Wii Price Drop Coming in October

Rumor.

Advance retail listings forwarded to Kotaku indicate that Nintendo is planning to issue its first price drop on the Wii, with a less expensive version of the console—currently priced at $249 USD—coming the first week of October.

That listing comes from an early version of a Walmart ad that loosely dates, but does not price a "rollback" for Nintendo's console. While the ad is not official confirmation of a price drop, the timing makes sense, as the Wii is about to enter its fourth holiday shopping season at its original price.

Should Nintendo announce a price drop prior to October, it has a venue at which to do it. The company will be participating at the Kyoto Cross Media Experience 2009, a multimedia event that runs September 26th to October 4th, overlapping with the Tokyo Game Show.

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata just recently said that the company is not planning on announcing a price drop. "Right now," Iwata said at a recent investor Q&A, "there aren't a lot of discussions going on about what exactly to do about hardware pricing."

Of course, that "right now" was from early August and plans may have changed. Sales of the Wii in the U.S. are down by almost half from last year during the summer quarter. A price drop and upcoming marquee software releases like Wii Fit Plus and New Super Mario Bros. Wii may turn things around.

With Microsoft and Sony recently issuing their own price cuts on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, Nintendo may be wisely following suit.

Due to the unofficial nature of the price drop info, we're labeling this rumor for now. We've been in touch with Nintendo of America and Walmart to get comment, but have not yet heard back.

Update: The official response from NOA, as expected, is "Nintendo does not respond to rumors and speculation."

This thread tastes of corpses and murder and strange men and abuse.

It'll need a $150 price drop (or a new Zelda) to get me interested, and a price drop like that isn't happening for a long, long time. There are lots of good games on it, but non that are worth skipping ahead of line on my "to play" list.

lol@title. Sorreh, I'm not hungreh.

And yeah, it seems the Wii may get its pricecut after all.

Then again, there was a Malstrom article recently saying that Nintendo could just un-bundle Wii sports along with the pricecut, so the value of the hardware itself doesnt fall. That is, just a wii and mote+chuk for $199.

Why? Because Resort renders its predecessor almost completely obsolete, so unbundling Sports could help Nintendo promote Resort. Also, in theory Nintendo's profit would see little effect, if any.

edit:

Nintendo wouldnt pricecut SOLELY in responce to Sony and MS. Nintendo doesnt play in the Red ocean.

Still just rumors, huh?

It doesn't make sense for the Wii to cut the price now, with New Super Mario Bros. Wii at the doorstep. It certainly doesn't face up to Nintendo''s Blue Ocean strategy either. Nintendo should know that the decline of sales is due to a lack of software, not pricing.

Sounds fishy to me

Did you not see my post?

It shows how Nintendo could make the Wii cheaper without cutting its perceived value or contradicting the Blue Ocean Strategy... I think.

But then again, a Black-colored Wii would eclipse Sony and MS's pricecuts

I saw your post, but removing Wii Sports isn't exactly gonna cut the price of the console now is it? It'll just make it cheaper because there would no longer be any bundle.

Yeah, but theoretically, more people would buy a Wii since they have to pay less to get their hands on one. Also, dropping the price in conjunction with dropping Sports won't lower the value of the hardware.

Also, by making it easier for people to get a Wii (by dropping Wii Sport and dropping the price), they also make it easier to adopt Resort and increase the WM+ install base (always a good thing). All they need to do is wipe Sports from the face of the earth and heavily promote Resort. They're gonna wipe the Wii from the face of the earth when their next console arrives, so why can't they start small?

Also, it probably won't affect Nintendo's profits much.

Though I don't expect something like this for another year at least, what with all the Resort, NSMB Wii and Wii Fit +.

Originally Posted by Double A

Yeah, but theoretically, more people would buy a Wii since they have to pay less to get their hands on one. Also, dropping the price in conjunction with dropping Sports won't lower the value of the hardware.

Also, by making it easier for people to get a Wii (by dropping Wii Sport and dropping the price), they also make it easier to adopt Resort and increase the WM+ install base (always a good thing). All they need to do is wipe Sports from the face of the earth and heavily promote Resort. They're gonna wipe the Wii from the face of the earth when their next console arrives, so why can't they start small?

Also, it probably won't affect Nintendo's profits much.

Though I don't expect something like this for another year at least, what with all the Resort, NSMB Wii and Wii Fit +.

You're trying way too hard.

HOP THE **** ON NINTENDO

Originally Posted by Double A

Yeah, but theoretically, more people would buy a Wii since they have to pay less to get their hands on one. Also, dropping the price in conjunction with dropping Sports won't lower the value of the hardware.

Also, by making it easier for people to get a Wii (by dropping Wii Sport and dropping the price), they also make it easier to adopt Resort and increase the WM+ install base (always a good thing). All they need to do is wipe Sports from the face of the earth and heavily promote Resort. They're gonna wipe the Wii from the face of the earth when their next console arrives, so why can't they start small?

Also, it probably won't affect Nintendo's profits much.

Though I don't expect something like this for another year at least, what with all the Resort, NSMB Wii and Wii Fit +.

How is Wii Sports worth 50 bucks? Your logic fails.

Originally Posted by Dark Wyrm

How is Wii Sports worth 50 bucks? Your logic fails.

His logic doesn't fail just because the price example he had was 199$.

Originally Posted by Double A

Yeah, but theoretically, more people would buy a Wii since they have to pay less to get their hands on one.

That's the mindset behind a price cut.

Again, it doesn't match Nintendo's Blue Ocean strategy.

Also, dropping the price in conjunction with dropping Sports won't lower the value of the hardware.

No, the hardware's value will be the same, that's kinda what I was saying with my last post. And yes, Wii Sports has been made obsolete with Resorts. However, I hardly see the removal of the bundled Wii Sports as much of a price cut, unless you want to make the bundle worth $50.

Though I don't expect something like this for another year at least, what with all the Resort, NSMB Wii and Wii Fit +.

So, uh, you saying:

And yeah, it seems the Wii may get its pricecut after all.

was just a joke because a price-cut wouldn't happen in October this year but rather next year? I agree that it would make more sense for a price cut after NSMBWii, but I'm honestly confused what you're trying to say.

Originally Posted by Double A

Yeah, but theoretically, more people would buy a Wii since they have to pay less to get their hands on one. Also, dropping the price in conjunction with dropping Sports won't lower the value of the hardware.

The hardware isn't worth anywhere near $250 as it stands now.

Originally Posted by squall24

The hardware isn't worth anywhere near $250 as it stands now.

OH IT'S BEEN WORTH $250 FOR ALMOST THREE YEARS NOW.

Cutting out Wii Sports saves Nintendo a couple dollars per sale at the most. They've already more than made back the development costs for Wii Sports, and actually packaging and distributing it costs less than nothing.

Originally Posted by squall24

The hardware isn't worth anywhere near $250 as it stands now.

Please rid this thread of your opinions. Just like you wouldnt pay $249 for a console where you get treated as a second-class customer (i.e the wii, which makes the PS360 of more value to you), the mainstream wouldnt pay $300 for a console where THEY get treated as second class. Hence, the Wii is of more value to them.

Originally Posted by Abyss Master

No, the hardware's value will be the same, that's kinda what I was saying with my last post. And yes, Wii Sports has been made obsolete with Resorts.

Thats what I'm saying. The value of the hardware doesnt fall, and Nintendo potentially get more sales and a chance to boost the sales of Resort, and WM+ as a direct result, leading to greater WM+ support.

Originally Posted by Double A

Please rid this thread of your opinions. Just like you wouldnt pay $249 for a console where you get treated as a second-class customer (i.e the wii, which makes the PS360 of more value to you), the mainstream wouldnt pay $300 for a console where THEY get treated as second class. Hence, the Wii is of more value to them.

See, I don't really care about all that when I typed what I did. The Wii in itself is not worth that kind of money no matter how you look at it. While people may be willing to pay that much for it, doesn't mean it should cost that much. Oh I know I'll get flamed for this, but whatever...

I can get a get a Gamecube for about $30 or so. The wii is not much stronger then one no matter what you want to believe, they didn't up the hardware that much. Sure they added in some motion sensing, but do you really think that added that much to the price?

Again, just because you are willing to pay $250 does not mean the value of that item is $250.

Hmmmm...

That price cut's probably looking very attractive to Nintendo right about now.