| Chark said: What do you guys think about the Wii U's pricing? I mean, it is selling slightly below cost, but I think Nintendo may be taking the opportunity of being the only next gen system out to recoup damages from the strong Yen. Maybe I'm not thinking about this right, but compare pricing of the Vita. Supposedly the Vita is selling at cost, even in the US, but looking at its price in Europe and especially in Japan, it is quite high. That's probably because Sony needs profits right now so they are making some bank from Europe and Japan while breaking even to appease the fickle US market they are trying to dominate in since the 3DS is having trouble their too. With Wii U it seems world pricing is more even, making me think they are not willing to take a loss in the non Japanese markets because they don't have next gen competition yet. I expect a large price drop after Microsoft and Sony release/announce their systems and pricing if their systems are comparable to Wii U's price, just like the 3DS & Vita pricing fiasco. EDIT: Wii U's price is probably a factor in why the PS3 hasn't had a price drop too. If the Wii U was cheaper than Sony would have dropped the price on the super slim and probably will do so agressively if Nintendo does a price drop on the Wii U to undercut the PS4's sales if the PS4 isn't super expensive. Pretty careful tactics when Sony needs profits and saw what happened to the Vita due to pricing. |
MSony did drop their prices during the holidays. But it was mascaraded as holiday sales and bundles. Pretty soon here both will have a conference to introduce non-holiday related price structures as well as their hints for next-gen hardware.
Nintendo doesn't ever try to sell its hardware for a loss, so the pricing is intended to be as close to break-even or with a healthy margin at launch. 3DS of course screwed that up and as such WiiU was launched at a break-even point. (they stated a single game sell with it gives it a profit... and who doesn't buy a game with a new console)
I doubt Nintendo considered Vita when pricing the WiiU. I'm sure they only focused on other current hardware and where they think MSony will be at for their next consoles later in 2013.
It is likely we'll see WiiU go to a single sku later this year with a reduced price before MSony launch. It just makes sense, especially in US where neXtBox will do well and EU where Sony does well. Japan will likely remain with Nintendo.
