Soundwave said:
The PS3 and 360 are both due for price cuts this year, the Wii U looks like a pretty crap deal at $350 if you have an Uncharted 3 PS3 bundle for $199.99, with a much larger library of games, lots of discounted games, more robust online store, etc. etc. That and $300-$350 is pretty much a tough go with kids and any fringe casuals who might actually want to get something like Wii Fit U. $350 to dig out the balance board and play some new mini-games? A lot of people are going to say pass. If Nintendo wanted to price a system above $300 they needed to bring a more powerful piece of kit to the table so they could get more hardcore players who are willing to pay this price. They keep wanting to stick to their "family audience" safety blanket, but you can't have it both ways and charge these kinds of prices. Once the first batch of Nintendo faithful have their units, it's going to become a very tough sell for them, just like the 3DS at $250. |
I think the assumption that people decide between Wii U or HD twins is absurd. Using 3DS as an example is a good one. After reaping the initial demand, Nintendo lowered the price, compensated initial movers, and continued on with its business plan, proving once and for all that Nintendo lost market share due to inadequate system power or design was wishful thinking of its foes.
Vita's specs are just as overwhemling to the 3DS as the Next Twins will be to Wii U. Wii U has much less competition than Sony or MSFT faces in their own coopetition. If one of them dares not going all out and have the other have all the bragging rights, then it's spam sandwich time. Nintendo with its family friendly, living room uniting image, and not to mention budget friendly, will help crush the crippled twin. It's a predictament that until broken (at extreme cost to the loser) means HD Twins dominate thr 60% less profitably in a red ocean while Nintendo prints profits with the other 40% in their blue sea.
Nintendo's pricing or marketing merely decides how soon they mobilize their potential buyers just as 3DS proved. If you think it is hard to upsell Nintendo's stuff, try having then HD Twin move down market. Kinect or Move added even more cost just to imitate what Wii was able to do with the basic package. PS2 was the right model of balance, the current trend of cut throat technology, the nonsense of future proving consoles have served up a stagnant video game world, where 3rd party spends gazillions on polygon bragging rights. To me SE epitomizes the problems of this gen.
