Look! It's the new Wii Family Edition. What's different? Well, not a lot really. It's had some button re-orientation, and it doesn't play Gamecube games. Nintendo doesn't see fit to drop the trade price of the machine as a result, but a report suggests that retail may slash the console's price to £79.99.

According to MCV, Nintendo's renewed hardware pricing and Mario Kart bundle boosted sales of the machine back in May. As the Christmas season draws near, it's obvious that the company will want to repeat that success with this new pack, which includes Wii Sports and Wii Party as well as a Wii MotionPlus controller and Nunchuk.

Retailers are saying that they will expect the Wii Family Edition to go for a sub-£80 price point over the holidays, "even if it's a temporary promotion," reports the trade magazine.

But any price drop would be a hit taken by retailers, as a Nintendo spokesperson said that "the trade price will be similar to previous Wii bundles. At this stage in the console’s lifecycle we want to offer potential customers good value bundles that include ‘must have’ games that family and friends can play together."

http://spong.com/article/25191/Wii-Family-Edition-Could-Sell-for-GBP79-99

Wii isn't going to last long at all at thsi rate, retailers must be making hardly anything on it, and the SW line up is only going to get weaker. £80?! Can either they or Nitendo really make anything worthwhile on that ..

Well we knew they still intended on winning the holiday at least since they only expect to be down 3 million YOY, and they're almost at that point already. Although I'm not sure if this will be enough unless it happens in the rest of Europe as well.

oh My God only the wii remote plus cost £39.99 in Uk, £ 15 for nunchuck, £29.99 for Wii Party, £29.99 Wii Sport resorts = £114.97.

If this is really going to cost £79.99 including the console well Nintendo may make it bigger this Christmas as well.

Very big.

80 quid? That's... nothing at all. Less than I payed for my DS or PSP.
I hope it arrives here.

From what I understand from the article it's not Nintendo that's slashing the price, but retailers. Nintendo will maintain the price.

Funny thing is, the UK was like the only place last christmas the Wii didn't win!

down 3M yoy? more like 6M, they are heading towards the 12M even thought they think it will do more.

Damn even after taking the gc drive or whatever out will they still be making a profit with such a low price?

I would think so. To put in GC compatibility they had to make a two-size-compatible slot-loading disc drive, which is a rare part compared to everything else in the Wii (aside from its brand of NAND memory), so they could be slashing out the single most expensive component remaining in the thing

Nintendo has removed features before, just more discretely. The $99.99 GameCube had its 480p compatibility removed