The price of Nintendo Wii tumbles in the UK

[dolemit3]

It looks like the UK retailers are dropping the price of the Wii to make the product move at its current pace.

Console sells for £25 less than RRP, but there’s been no price cut

The price of the Nintendo Wii has tumbled at retail.
MCV’s research, which monitored the sale of hardware across 25 leading UK retailers, shows that the average price of Wii is now £155.56.

That’s £24.43 (13.6 per cent) less than its expected price of £179.99.

WHSmith is selling the Wii for the lowest price – at just £120 – as it closes down its games department.

That’s followed by ShopTo with a price tag of £134.85, followed closely by Sainsbury’s at £134.99.

These attention-grabbing retail initiatives have been joined by a number of hardware and software bundles designed to drive interest during Easter trading.

But there has been no official price drop of the console. A Nintendo spokesperson confirmed to MCV: “We have not made any adjustment to the UK trade price of Wii since our announcement of the reduction in October last year.

“Nintendo does not set prices for its consoles or games, and retailers are free to price any of our products as they see fit.”

The Wii originally went on sale in December 2006 at £179.99. Nintendo raised the trade price to £199.99 in March last year but lowered it back to £179.99 in October.

Nintendo’s console has sold more than 67m units globally, and broke the 6m barrier in the UK late last year.

Wii Sports, which is bundled with the console in some territories, is also now the world’s best-selling game, with over 60m copies sold.

WII-FOR-ALL
The top ten Nintendeals:

1. WHSmith – £120.00
2. ShopTo – £134.85
3. Sainsbury’s – £134.99
4. Grainger Games – £139.00
5. TJ Hughes – £139.99
6. Morrisons – £144.00
7. Simply Games – £144.89
8. The Hut – £149.73
9. Zavvi – £149.95
10. Amazon – £149.98

mcvuk

It's probably a good sign that Nintendo will make another price cut some time this year. Their sales expectations will give us a clue.