Who is making the right decision? Microsoft or Nintendo?

[fleischr]

Seece said:

So Xbox One and WiiU, their perceived negatives being very similar in a lot of ways. Price being too high, an accessory that shouldn't be bundled with every system ect.

Nintendo have chosen the route of stubborness, deciding not to ditch the gamepad, and not give a meaningful price cut (debuted at $300, it's still $300 ....) whilst Microsoft are releasing a Kinectless sku and dropping the price $100 along with it.

Now obviously when talking sales, Microsoft is making the wise decision. But for the user ecosystem and what makes these systems what they are, who is making the right choice?

Nintendo has cut the price, but they've gone more the route of bundling in more stuff.

At launch $300 got you the basic set Wii U set (8G, white). And that was it. $350 got you the Deluxe with Nintendoland.

Now compare that to more recent offerings

$300 gets you the Mario and Luigi bundle. That's $70-$80 worth of game comared to Nintendoland being worth only about $50 at launch, maybe $20-30 new today. It's pretty common to find $25 and $50 given with each of these bundles too. You also now get a 10% discount for buying games digitally.

$330 gets you the Mario Kart 8 bundle. For that extra $30, you get an extra $100 worth of stuff (extra free game in addition to MK8 + controller + wii wheel).

If Nintendo had done nothing, you'd have to pay over $400 to really get into gaming on the WiiU today.