My views usually tend to sync with Malstrom nearly 100% (not including his occasional political "predictions"), but I think he went a little too far in this one. While I do agree that Nintendo timed this price drop at an odd time (when NSMB Wii and the holiday season would have propelled Wii sales up regardless of a price drop), I disagree that this devalues the console.. PROVIDED that Nintendo rides this $200 price point out for a long time, unlike Sony who's price seems to be dropping in freefall. I mean, the Wii has gone the longest in history without a price drop in terms of consoles. It was bound to occur sooner or later.. The consumer sees a lower priced console at a higher value, period. Doesn't matter what the Blue Ocean says.
However, Nintendo NEEDS NEEDS NEEDS to shift their focus on a stronger game library for 2010 with games that show the true potential of the Wii and the motion + now that they've used the price drop card. This is absolutely critical to Wii keeing any momentum. If they fail to do this, they could run into some problems in 2010. IF they think they can ride out the Wii's success mainly on price cuts, bundles, new colors, etc rather than focusing on games, they will be in for a rude awakening. However, I'm confident this won't be the case. 2010 is already shaping up to be a pretty good year for the Wii's library, parcicularly in the 3rd party dept.
Even in the worst case scenario in terms of Wii's success, it'll probably end up with sales higher than NES, Nintendo's previously most successful console, which is still quite an accomplishment. However, I strongly believe the Wii has far greater potential, to reach sales of the PS2 or even beyond. It just comes down to how nintendo markets it and the amount of quality games they and third parties crank out.
