greenmedic88 said:
If it looks like Nintendo will miss their projections by a significant margin, you can bet the company they'll have an appropriate response. And at this stage in the game, new colors just won't cut it.
As far as bundles go, about the only one I could see as being a huge hardware mover would be a Wii Fit/Wii Sports bundle at $299, or about $40 less than purchased separately.
Assuming the balance board/Wii Fit is profitable at $90, and I'm almost certain that it is, it would cost Nintendo less than a $50 price cut off the base $249 Wii Sports bundle. A Wii Fit bundle makes the most sense considering it is the package most extended market consumers have been buying.
The other option Nintendo has, albeit less favorable, is to do the opposite and unbundle Wii Sports, offering the basic console at $199 and selling Wii Sports for $20-30. Presumably, many new Wii consumers would skip Wii Sports and simply pick up Wii Sports Resort instead, which still translates to a $250 initial sale for Nintendo.
Or Pachter could be right this time and we may well see the same Wii Sports bundle being sold in November at $199 which would likely spark a buying frenzy as would be expected with the first price cut since debut. Nintendo has been building up a LOT of unsold inventory this year and those who think consumers will blindly snap up all of them with out any significant game changers are probably kidding themselves. And no, New Super Mario Bros. and Wii Fit Plus are not significant game changers.
If the latter happens, I'd like to see who mans up among those who are swearing up and down that the idea of a price cut is impossible/unnecessary and says "Wow. Could I have been more wrong?! Pass me the Crow!"
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If Nintendo had thought they would miss their marks they would have cut them last quarter, but they stuck to them as well as saying no price cut, and they are a conservative company so they probably know sales will lift for the fall if they stuck with their projections
Predictions:Sales of Wii Fit will surpass the combined sales of the Grand Theft Auto franchiseLifetime sales of Wii will surpass the combined sales of the entire Playstation family of consoles by 12/31/2015 Wii hardware sales will surpass the total hardware sales of the PS2 by 12/31/2010 Wii will have 50% marketshare or more by the end of 2008 (I was wrong!! It was a little over 48% only)Wii will surpass 45 Million in lifetime sales by the end of 2008 (I was wrong!! Nintendo Financials showed it fell slightly short of 45 million shipped by end of 2008)Wii will surpass 80 Million in lifetime sales by the end of 2009 (I was wrong!! Wii didn't even get to 70 Million)
