Should Nintendo produce a digital-only Wii U?

[fleischr]

Dusk said:

So you are saying... The retailer is going to sell codes for a higher price than what is available on the eshop. Would you go to a store to purchase a game code for a game at a higher price point than purchasing it off the eshop, or buying eshop cards to purchase the game off the eshop. Again. There is NOTHING for the retailer to benefit from, so they will just stop carrying the Wii U unless Nintendo rents shelf space. 

It is a single piece of equipment and these machines are put together by machines. It's removing one part of it. It's not some magical cost saving initiative. As I mentioned earlier, the OS is designed for the SSD, so change that to a larger HD or SSD or have a hybrid of them still doesn't save any money. 

Nope. Retail and eShop prices remain the same. Nintendo would still give a royalty to the retailer in the event the download code was purchased in-store.

Download codes at retail are much like gift cards. They can't be valued as inventory until a transaction to buy it is processed.

If you give a retailer a chance to have comparable or better sales volume with lower inventory on the books, you immediately have their interest. It's substantially better for the retailer. As it is now, the Wii U's proposition to retail is piss poor.

There's nothing magical about the cost savings. If you would have taken a financial accounting, operations management, and finance course in college you might just understand.