Bobbuffalo said:
Maybe but many people doesn't see that. Many gamers (both wii owners and not ones) think that the only way to gain sales is with price cuts and not software (the same dudes that say that wii sold because the control or PS3 will kill xbox if it has a price cut). If there's is no sofwtare that customers care they won't buy any console no matter the price. |
Well to be fare one of the major reasons Nintendo doesn't need a price cut is because their competition was so grossly over expensive that the average casual gamer that Nintendo was targeting wasn't willing to spend the extra 300$ on a console. Nintendo has made most of their money off of casual gamers who wouldn't be willing to shell out more then 279.99$ a console.
If Nintendo had launched the Wii at 599.99$ like Sony and Microsoft. It would have had to have had a price cut by now in order to compete. Even the unique controller wouldn't have been able to save the Wii at 600$. Its budget pricing can be credited with most of Nintendo's continued success.
Why will Nintendo not need a price cut for the next few years? Because the competitions hardware is only now becoming as affordable as the Wii. But by now the Wii has a massive installed user base. It is software now and will be increasingly software that sells the Wii. I feel that the Wii no longer being the budget console will have to rely heavier on its first party catalog. Or the fact that all games released on Wii are pretty much exclusives.
Its becoming a software oriented war. But you can't deny pricing is and was a major factor in the Wii's success. Had Wii cost 600$ coming out of the gate or the 360 costing only 279.99$ coming out of the gate we would have a seen a drasticly different war!
-JC7
"In God We Trust - In Games We Play " - Joel Reimer
