Walmart knew that the promotional Wii and the 100$ price tag would draw millions of gamers into their local Walmart. Nintendo wouldn't have taken a hit to promote Walmart and it would appear they had no intentions of taking a hit at all this holiday season, with 3DS losing money Nintendo needs every dime it can get.
What Walmart did dozens of big box retailers have done. When they see other retailers signing big deals with manufacturers and stuff to sell stuff at a cheap price they need something to draw shoppers to their store. So while every store had a major Kinect and 360 deal where Microsoft actually helped the retailers sell the device cheap. Nintendo on the other hand was not as fourth coming.
It makes sense for Walmart to go out of its way to get the Wii at 99$ on its shelves. That deal brought in customers who in turn bought other products at a profit for Walmart. Its all about getting people in the store, you use the door busters and promotions as bait to get the customer in your store. Then you sell that customer as much as possible at a profit.
In the end I am sure Walmart didn't lose a dime on any sale. Every Wii they sold was probably accompanied by another product which they turned a profit on. Its very smart marketing and Nintendo did a lot of the work themselves, the Nintendo product sold tons of stuff for Walmart.
-JC7
"In God We Trust - In Games We Play " - Joel Reimer
