Calls for Wii U price cut begin after Nintendo financials

[Cheebee]

Gamerace said:

Cheebee said:

I think Nintendo's fine. Cutting WiiU's price SO soon would be crazy. And definitely very bad when you take into account consumer and investor trust and confidence.

Besides, another very important point you ought to take into account (imo) is that Sony/Microsoft's next consoles will be more expensive than WiiU currently is, presumably by a VERY significant margin.

So when those release, WiiU will suddenly look a lot more affordable, especially taking into account that by then it will have a very attractive library of big games appealing to different audiences (NSMBU, Wii Fit, Mario Kart, Zelda WW, 3D Mario, Pikmin 3, that X RPG, Game & Wario, Yarn Yoshi, plus 3rd party stuff like MH3U, COD, Lego City, Just Dance 5, Wonderful 101, Bayonetta 2, all most likely released or soon to be, by then).

And that's not even taking into account a lot of new games surely yet to be unveiled, and e-shop stuff.

Some people think WiiU's expensive, but when PS4/X720 come out, costing $400-$500, with a tiny library (mostly consisting of games that won't matter either, as with all new console launches, ever), WiiU will be in a very comfortable position, I should think.

And should Nintendo feel the need, THEN they could take measures. Like dropping the Basic bundle, and lowering the Premium WiiU to $299, offering it in black and white. This shouldn't cost them as much, and WiiU should be quite profitable by then, anyway. Such a move, a year after launch, would be very acceptable in the eyes of consumers and investors, and not tarnish trust and confidence. Doing it now, or in a few weeks/months, would, and not be seen as very acceptable. Imo.

I would like to believe this and it's a intelligent argument.  However, I doubt Orbis/Durango will be over $400.   Based on the latest spec rumours people are estimating a $350 price point for PS4 (loss leading but not anything crazy like PS3 was) and 720 will be heavily subsidized by MS 2-3 year subscription model and could even sell for as little as $249 potentially (probably at a small loss).   This would completely screw the noticably underpowered WiiU which, even with a $50 cut would still be $300.

I agree. Those are indeed possibilities. We'll have to wait and see, I guess.

There've been so many rumours going about concerning Orbis and Durango and their eventual pricepoints... It could go either way, but I doubt either of the extremes will happen. Meaning, $400 seems like a very likely and probably price for both, imo. Anything over that would be too dangerous, as in this economy it would be a very tough sell, and anything under $350 would, imo, be too low as to be profitable. It's likely they'll both sell at a loss, but I'm finding it very hard to believe that loss will be very substantial, especially in Sony's case.

So should Sony/Microsoft's systems come out at $399, then a $299 WiiU will still seem like a very good deal, I would think, especially taking into account the points I mentioned in my earlier post (mainly the games). Also, while the new systems will obviously more powerful, I think we've come to a point where that won't make too much of a difference the majority of people who buy game systems. If people get to play 5-player Mario Kart U in HD, it won't matter that there's a LBP-Karting or anything similar for that matter, with better lighting, a greater draw-distance, superior textures and tessellation going on.

3rd party games won't matter ayway, 'cos it's painfully obvious by now that Nintendo never will get the kind of support from 3rd parties that their competitors do. It's all on them to bring the games, as it always has been and probably always will be.

Gosh I'm ranting. :p Like I said, we won't know for sure until we'll find out!