We have seen the sales of the Wii slow down considerably over the last 6 months, and with the price it must cost Nintendo to produce the Wii now, wouldn't it make sense to do a price drop in Japan, to rejuvinate sales of the Wii there?

It seems like the Wii hasn't hit the non-gamers as hard as the DS has in Japan, and I think price might be a factor for some, especially as things are right now with the economy.

Like Nick and Jay a little much there ?


Anyways price isn't a factor as much as games are... I say this because the ps3 is supposedly selling close to 50.000 units this week despite the massive difference in price.

Maybe the wii has hit it's saturation point in Japan.. This gen is definately a lot different to the past ones. Especially.. in Japan.

Depends on wether they're making more profit with a higher price point and fewer sales (and software sales) or with a lower price points and more sales. And wether there production is high enough and where they need to ship them for the most profit.

This is an exaggeration. The Wii sales have been off and on depending on situations. And just because the PS3 had a spike for one week, it means trouble for the Wii?

I guess the question is how is Nintendo with supply world wide, and do they make more in Japan or less compared to other parts where supply is tighter? I think supply is less of an issue now, but I haven't really checked much lately.

Isn't a holiday week coming up for Japan that should boot all consoles?

Wii is down cause PS3 is up due ot some good games coming out this week in japan.

I would worry about a price drop if the PS3 keeps outselling the wii for the next two months.

Normally, I'd be along with a lot of people in denial, claiming that Wii sales are fine. But one only needs to look at year over year sales to see that that's really not the case. A big game like Monster Hunter could provide a long-term boost for hardware sales, but something like a price cut would be far more reliable.

Irregardless of the current performance of PS3 and even 360, the Wii has been dropping year over year since launch. The price difference is also much closer in Japan than other markets.

Nintendo made a misstep with Wii Music and the unevoled Animal Crossing: City Folk - they failed to ignite or maintain interest in the Wii and there's no other significant software out to maintain the hardware sales.

I'm sure Nintendo expected better from Wii Music but with it flopping I do not think they can safely wait for Wii Sports Resort and Wii Motion plus to keep the Wii engine going. People are fickle and lose interest easily.

At this point, in this severe recession in Japan, with no software coming out in the next coming months, Nintendo should indeed drop the price or face the prospect of PS3 becoming the new darling of the masses.

Conversely, once June hits Wii will have WSR and then Monster Hunter 3 both of which should be huge boosts to sales but I'm not sure what PS3 has to counter those between now and FFXIII.

Should be an interesting year in Japan.

I'm with Montana on this one. Without a steady release of games Wii sales won't increase on a long-term basis. The Wii is facing a game draught just like the N64 and the Gamecube did - with the difference that is Wii Fit (and Mario Kart Wii).

I even doubt Monster Hunter and Wii Sports Resort will be enough to make the Wii sell like crazy this year (I know you didn't say that Montana ). They may be enough to stop sales from decreasing even further but what the Wii really lacks is a stream of decent games.

If things continue like this I'd expect the Wii to sell between 2 to 2.5 million concoles this year in Japan. Which is way below the PSX, PS2, DS, GBA, SNES... (well you get it) in their third year.

The Wii needs new colours along with the MH3 release, then it might experience a similar effect to that of the PSP's.