Nintendo Rakes It In... But For How Long?

[Joelcool7]

Lets see will this year see a major dip in sales?

I highly doubt it with titles like WiiFit,MarioKart,SmashBros:Brawl all starting off the 1st Quarter I have very little doubt that Nintendo will see a dip in sales. Profits will likely be maintained if not exceeded this year thanks to the Balance Boards appearance as fresh hardware.

Don't forget we have no clue what Nintendo has instore for us this fall. For all we know their line-up could mirror the big fall line-ups of the last two falls. Donkey Kong, StarFox, Kid Icarus , Animal Crossing are all very real possibilities not to mention Nintendo Touch Generation games.

In the end I don't see Nintendo's profits dipping this year. They might begin to dip next year as this year is expected to be the generations peak year. Considering Nintendo hasn't made a hardware price cut in two falls and appears intent on not cutting the prices this year I expect to see profits continue to grow at a steady rate.

Hardware is getting cheaper, Microsoft has been able to reduce their hardware prices substantually and so has Sony. But Nintendo with the cheapest hardware that at launch according to EA and Sega only cost 170$ to manufacture hasn't cut its prices at all. I remember the GBA:Micro had a manufacture estimated price of 25$ a unit when it launched.

Nintendo is know for profiting off of its hardware despite strong competition. I believe Nintendo will maintain its current price untill the competition matches it. Even once the PS3 and 360 have matched the 279.99$ price tag I could still see Nintendo not budging. Though I think at that point a price cut will be neccesary!