| Mummelmann said: It's too late for anything like that; consumer products that are moving really, really slowly don't suddenly become a lot more popular simply for being cheaper; if there was potential for a 5 million selling year we'd have seen signs of it in the year where Mario Kart and Smash released. It was the same with the Wii's price cut once it had started to slide; it did nothing to put it back on top and the fall continued. The Wii U is quite simply not a popular product and this is due to its design and aim (or lack thereof) and not the price tag. Lowering the price will help any product; it will not produce miracles. |
This post is so spot on.
The Wii U at $299.99 is a reasonable price as is (considering it even comes with 2 free games) and is the cheapest of the "new" consoles. If people really wanted one they'd be buying one. But they're not, they're buying the more expensive Playstation 4 or XBox One instead in droves. Mario Kart, Smash Bros., and Mario 3D World have not shifted that dynamic one bit.
I think it's fair to say the formula of just relying mainly on Nintendo franchises and pushing a family friendly style console just doesn't get you any more than 22 million-ish or so. The GameCube was $99.99 for the entire second half of its lifecycle and it still couldn't crack 25 million. People still overwhelmingly chose the Playstation 2, even kids.







