When will the Wii U get a price drop and how much?

[Scisca]

QuintonMcLeod said:

Scisca said:

The problem for both Wii U and XO is that after their price drops they STILL are too expensive. XO costs the same as PS4, but it's common knowledge that it's an inferior console. Why get less for the same money? Wii U is only $100 cheaper, but is closer to PS360 than PS4One in terms of performance. People look at this and can't see the value for the asking price. It's not just about cutting the price for the sake of it, it's about setting it on the proper level.

 

1) It's your own uninformed opinion that the Wii U is a console closer to the power of the PS360. There's already plenty of evidence that proves that the Wii U is several generations ahead of the PS360.

The Wii U isn't as powerful as the PS4 and the Xbone, but that doesn't mean it should be priced similar to those older machines because of your misinformed opinions.

The problem with Wii U is that it's impossible for Nintendo to improve the value to truely compete with PS4One, cause 3rd parties just won't care about it and, quite frankly, the gamers wouldn't care about any multiplats, as they'd be heavily gimped due to console limitations. Nintendo 1st party is great, but it's not better than 3rd parties +Sony/MS 1st party. This is why, I believe, they need to show a pricetag that makes their product a no-brainer. Its only chance to get any real traction is to become "the second console" that everyone who owns a PS4 or XO needs to have. But a secondary console can't cost as much as the primary one.

2) This is your opinion. It's not impossible to add value to any product. Look at the PS3 and the 3DS. Both of them got off to very rocky starts. Both of them received an initial price drop just like the Wii U did. After that, they were given good games - games that added value to the systems they were on. 

I'm starting to realize that economics isn't exactly your strong point.

So to sum up my argument - I'm all for Nintendo improving the value of the product, it's essential, but it is absolutely impossible for Wii U to have value similar to PS4One. Thus, as long as the price remains in the same ballpark as the price of PS4One, it won't be worth the value. Nintendo can't take on the whole world with a clearly inferior product and charge you almost the same price.

3) You must be very very young. I feel like an old fart right now. I say this because your argument completely ignores the video game market's history in its entirety. First off, the system with the best graphics nor the cheapest system was the system that won a console generation. It was the system with the best and most compelling software. This has been proven time and time again, over and over and over and over. 

The NES won the 3rd generation, despite the Sega Master system being a superior system. The NES was more expensive and it was weaker than the Sega Master system, but it still outsold that system. Why? Because of it's software library. You can argue that the PS4 has more 3rd party support, and therefore, provides a better library than the Wii U. However, nowadays, there are very few exclusive 3rd party games this generation. Multiplats have never really made or broken a system. The exclusives are what sets a system apart. Sony knew this with the PS1 and the PS2. It had the most (key word here) 3rd party _exclusives_. The PS2 was a more expensive and inferior system compared to the Xbox and the Gamecube.

To me the price is the most important factor keeping me from getting a Wii U. I'm thinking really hard about that MK8 bundle (it's 300 Euro here), but after comparing what I got from my Wii and my PS3, I'm really unwilling to pay this much.

4) Price has nothing to do with it. Even if the Wii U was free, you still wouldn't buy one. This could have more to do with bias or perhaps the Wii U's library doesn't feature games you want to play. Whatever the case may be, price has nothing to do with it.

I'm sorry, but this post is so full of ignorance, I find it hard to believe you really think this way. You seem not to understand at all what you're talking about.

@1 - wtf? It's several generations ahead? PS4 is one generation ahead of PS3, how can Wii U be several generations ahead of PS360? It's a generation ahead of the Wii, which basically was two Gamecubes duct taped together. It's not a generation ahead of PS360, just like Wii wasn't a generation ahead of PS2/Xbox/GCN - all in terms of performance obviosly. Wii U is more powerful than PS360, but it's not even close to PS4One. Look at what multiplat games look like - they are just a little bit better than the PS360 versions, and are nowhere near PS4One versions. This is fact.

If you think that PS360 cost $230-250, then you are obviously the misinformed one (duh!). FYI - a brand new PS3 costs 135 Euro in Europe.

@2 - Both these consoles were in totally different spots than the Wii U is, so you can't put them as examples for Wii U to follow. PS3 was cutting edge and had all the Sony 1st party games and all multiplats. 3DS became dirt cheap and got a constant stream of games (1st and 3rd party), which were easy to develop thanks to how simple the graphics are on the system. Wii U? It's the most inferior console, gets next to no 3rd party games and will only be getting less of them in the future, on top of that Nintendo struggles like hell developing 1st party games, cause they ignorantly underestimated what HD development means. And it's not even cheap.

I have no idea how knowledge about economics fit into this argument of yours - care to enlighten me?

@3 - You can check my age in my profile, old fella It's cool you know the history of the industry, pity that you don't understand it, even the stuff that you wrote here. You know that the key is library? Good. Now take a look at the Wii U's library. It's only Nintendo games and only a handful of them. The future looks rather bleak, as the few 3rd parties that were present on Wii U thus far are leaving it. Look at the competition - it's Sony/MS games AND 3rd party games. Every console in history that won its generation had 3rd party support. Even Wii had many 3rd party games that sold millions. You know which console was in a similar situation to Wii U? Dreamcast. It was the least powerful console, 3rd parties have left it, it pretty much only had 1st party games - which were great, but still the console ended the way it did.

The library is and always will be a problem, it will never be on par with PS4One - no matter what Nintendo does. They can't take on the whole gaming world. On top of that, the casuals have left home consoles and are now on tablets/smartphones. The only thing that Nintendo can do is turn the Wii U into a companion second console that core gamers buy only to play Nintendo games. But in order to convince numerous gamers to go that way, the console has to be cheap on top of having great games. These two things come together, one just won't suffice.

All this is obviously true only if we assume that Nintendo still wants to invest in Wii U and believes it can turn it aroung, at least to some extent (+/- GCN sales). If they made the decision not to commit and just wait this generation out with minimum loses, then they obviously should always be selling Wii U at a profit. But if they do that, they'll never get anywhere near GCN sales.

@4 - I'm struggling really hard not to call you an idiot here, but it's tough. Try to think this over again. I have bought the Wii as my first consoles last gen, for the full price. I have a DSi and have never owned a PSP. Now please take back and stop with your ridiculous "bias" bullshit or the absurd "you wouldn't take a free Wii U". It's just pathetic.

I see that you are so pro-Nintendo that you ignore reality, but this is the truth - if Wii U cost around 200 Euro, I'd already have it, especially since my gf wants me to buy one ever since Nintendo killed online in MK Wii (I have even made a thread on it ). It may be hard for you that I'm neither a Nintendo fanboy, nor a hater either, but a person who just likes their games and as a result sees the reality the way it is.