most of the games eligible for players choice are still selling strongly, so it won't be for a while yet.

the first wave will probably come in 2009, with zelda, metroid, RRR, warioware, re4, paper mario, sonic and the secret rings and red steel to choose from.

How do you mean eligible? Is there a list of criteria? Ben Kenobi was saying that in the last generation certain games (SSBM, Mario Kart) never made it to the list.

 Actually mine might too, now that I think about it.  That didn't stop gamespot from selling it for 35 used though.  Maybe that was part of my confusion.  

I was always under the impression that once a game reached a million units it was released as a budget game.  Of course, that was probably a seriously misguided assumption.  But it looks like Spring '09 might be the first time we see the Wii Player's Choice. It's not like Nintendo needs to respond to pressure from the consumer.  They're in the driver's seat and for once I wish Nintendo wasn't doing so well.

For PS2 Greatest Hits, a game had to have been out for at least 9 months and sold over 400,000 copies. I don't think there was a specific set of rules established for the GC Player's Choice line. Melee took years to be a Player's Choice game, and I still saw all the retailers selling it at almost full price. Double Dash!! sold like crazy, and has never been part of the line. Look how long it took for the GBA Player's Choice line, which is tiny and nigh-useless at this point.

Basically, if the game is still selling well, Nintendo won't drop the price. They have traditionally been the stingiest on software price drops over the last several years, and they obviously have even less of a reason to change that now. It's one of the reasons the company is so insanely profitable.

Nintendo execs have made comments that they don't think games should have frequent price-drops. Their actions seem to confirm that considering that their two best-selling Gamecube games are still set at $29.99 MSRP YEARS after launch and they still haven't created a 'Player's Choice' line for the DS despite it being three years into its lifespan.

Third parties are free to charge whatever they like, of course, which is what all the now budget-priced Wii titles are.

That's true Coglestop, Nintendo has said that in the past. I think there is some merit to it, but still it's not going to hurt Nintendo if they give some of the more ambitious third party efforts a little boost.

@super etecoon: The hardware publishers(Nintendo included) have stated that the budget-priced "best of" games have a minimum number of units they must sell first, but once they pass that they don't automatically become Player's Choice or Platinum. If that's the case, games like Halo, Dragon Warrior, Pokemon, and Final Fantasy would be selling for 20 bucks a day or so after release.

@ArtofAngels: Twilight Princess doesn't need a price-drop to boost it's sells-it's still selling tens of thousands every month. Unless you're talking about Japan, where TP's sales really stalled after hitting 500k. I'm not sure what it sells for over there, but a price-drop sure couldn't hurt.

When the game becomes unpopular
like Red Steel, Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz or Sonic and the Secret Rings