Pachter: Wii PRICE CUT to $199 no later than November!!

[greenmedic88]

RolStoppable said:

greenmedic88 said:
If they only take a price cut as an "emergency tactic" that means any price cut is an open admission that the platform has peaked at best or is in a tailspin decline at worst. Looking at the YoY numbers, it's looking like the latter.

Is that really the message they want to send?

This is the point at which one has to stop quoting a theory, successful up to this point or not, and start reacting directly to changes in the market rather than ignoring them because "the theory's been working fine so far."

There are ways of dropping price on a product without sending the impression it's a panic induced drop to unload excess inventory and hit projections. SCE has done a pretty admirable job of doing this since the PS1 and nobody interpreted their price drops as "panic" but rather passing savings on improved efficiency/reduced hardware production costs directly to the customers.

A €200 price drop about six months after launch can very well be interpreted as panic move. Then again, consumers didn't see it as such and picked up a PS3. So I don't see any reason why a €50 price drop on the Wii after three or more years on the market could be seen as "panicking".

It wouldn't be.

That was a response to:

"What we are saying is that it goes against their strategy and the way they view the market. A price cut will only be taken as an emergency tactic, at least this is what will happen if Iwata continues to follow the Blue Ocean Strategy and doesn't make a panic move."

I don't think Demotruk speaks for everyone in this regard.

Like many others, I believe the Wii is currently overpriced based upon current production rates, production costs, available inventory, a significant reduction in sales rates and length of time on the market at current price. A price drop is due and Q4 2009 would be the perfect time to introduce one to reignite sales and hit Nintendo's projections for the year.