Yeah I had that in mind too, Wii slim which isn't less powerful but has cheaper tech, so they can sell it for $130.

A wii price cut would be ... desperate?

Not even 360 and PS3 have cut prices 2 years in a row (AFAIK)

I dont think we will see a price cut, but anythings possible.

I'll probably get flamed to death for saying this but.......we may be seeing the effect of Nintnedo relying on this new demographic. Industry loyalty, IE: "core" gamers will always be there however this new demographic that Nintendo has tapped may need to be fed stuff to keep them coming back. Im by no means saying its a fad, but theres a lot to be said for a dedicated userbase/demographic in this industry. This is why MSFT was able to come in and in 1.5 generations establish itself as a serious player, they tapped into that dedicated market of users who will be constantly interested in this industry, its a reliable base in the long run.

But Nintendo is arguably the most innovative company in this industry so it if anyone can come up with a way to get a fleeting demographic to turn their heads back to the Wii, its them.

Why? They didn't manage that with the gamecube, and (excluding the wii) havn't all their consoles since their first, declined? Seems to me they don't know how to hang on to the core crowd

1983 - NES - 62 mill
1990 - SNES - 49 mill
1994 - N64 - 33 mill
2001 GC - 22 mill

Maybe it's because Nintendo new president sorted things out, Iwata made wii and DS succesful.

To the core crowd? we will never know how much of the Wii's userbase is split between casuals and core.

I'm not sure a price drop would help Wii all that much.   They have drifted too far from the 'core gamer' base and casuals are gradually losing interest in it.   They need another Wii Sports/Wii Fit type hit to really reignite demand.  Wii Party will help and will sell well, but won't move systems like Wii Fit or Wii Sports did.

I don't think Move or Kinect will kill the Wii either.   I think they are two years, too late for the party.   They'll just sell to wives/girlfriends of HD console owners but otherwise will get a largely collective yawn from the masses - been there, done that.

I'd say Nintendo needs a new killer IP - Wii Vitality???  Or a new console in 2011.

Last year we said the same: new colours, bundles and so on...did Nintendo do that? No, they just bundled Monster Hunter 3 in Japan and released a new colour (black). probably this year will be the same, with another price cut to 150$. But the problem is that the Wii is starting looking outdated even to the customers who were crazy for it 2-3 years ago...Nintendo must make a slim, elite, or what-they-call-it Wii: it would push sales more than a 50$ price cut, new colour and a bundle all combined.

But will Nintendo do that? I don't think so, maybe we'll see something if the Nintendo October summit returns this year. I hope so, I don't want to see the Wii being killed because Nintendo tried their own way, for one time they should fight their competitors, the games they're releasing will do little to nothing to the hardware...not saying it's their fault, how can you sell a console without third parties support, or with just dance-party games?

Well, I don't think that all the spike is re-purchases but I do think that the 360s is seeing a greater ratio of re-buys at the moment vs say the PS3 Slim when it launched.

It's hard to be sure, though.  I know SW hasn't spiked, which you'd expect at least a bit if hundreds of thousands of new owners suddenly appeared, but then they could have spent their money getting the console and have little left over for games (although you'd at least expect the 360 gold standard titles to see a modest bump I suppose).  Or the new owners could be rushing to buy the core titles second hand and therefore not registering on the SW charts.

I suppose all we can say is that HW wise it's been great for 360 but so far but the success hasn't translated directly at this point to the game developers, too.

I think a fair few are new owners, however, as the new spec/look is good and I've always felt the specter of RROD has held back some who I would imagine have finally "jumped in".

But even if a fair bit is existing owners percentage wise it's still not that many out of the total install base.  There are around 40M 360 consoles out there.  If 100,000 of that WW total was existing owners you're still only talking about 0.25% of the install base re-buying.  Actually, that ignores that some of the 40M must be re-bought... well, you get my point anyway.  Percentage wise we're not talking a significant percentage of existing owners.  I guess we also don't fully know WW how many of the consoles are 360s and how many clearance models.

Mind you, with the new Halo bundle annouced I would be willing to bet that some existing 360 owners who ran out to buy a 360s day one wished they hadn't now!

Much of that decline was due to competition. I think nintendo got lazy between Sega and Sony, the industry opened up. The fact that Nintendo went from those numbers to over 70 million already to the Wii, and a still dominating DS with the 3DS looking to be a great success, Nintendo has not only learned from past shortfalls but the turn around is nothing short of remarkable.

I wasnt referring to getting the core crowd back, Nintendo will always have a handful of dedicated gamers for MArio/Zelda/Metroid but the fleeting demographic i was referring to are those moms/kids that may be moving onto something else to occupy their time. A lot of us and the bulk of the industry as we know it play games on a regular basis and play a new one every month most likely. We have a plethora of stuff to keep us interested and will probably always be interested.....the dmeographic ninty tapped into on the other hand isnt like that, they are larger in volume but the dedication and consistency isnt there long term.

None of it really matters though, i mean they have sold 70 million plus, its not like theyre in trouble of anything from a business or marketshare position, but they can only survive on the coattails of wii fit and wii sports for so long, i dont think those games will transcend the next generation considering now Sony and MSFT will offer them, so like i said, Nintendo will have to offer something new and different, which they did successfully with the wii.