would decrease sales until the price cut took effect.

"Zynga's stock closed at $2.47 on Jan. 24, down from its 52-week high of $15.91 reached on March 2, 2012." Zynga may not live another year.

CSR racing made the dev $12m in the FIRST month. That's equivalent to a game selling 200k in the first month, unimpressive for a third party title even now. I can't find more recent data or even company financials; they could be making a loss and we wouldn't know. The thing about iOS is: is the game still making more money than the maintenence cost? Will their next game even sell at all?

GREE's stock has halved in a year and their future is uncertain.

Ok DeNA is fine in Japan. Any evidence social games are working over here long-term?

Those are your best examples?

Vita.. your little brother is doing better than you.

Well at least the Vita has a friend now.

I meant if the price cut was immediate.  Though, now that I think about it, Nintendo has always foolishly announced a price cut weeks before it takes affect.  So, you're right.  In Nintendo's case, that wouldn't help after the announcement.

Do it damn quick sony. Or the interest will diminish and the price cut would not impact the sames as much as you think it would. 

What is this about no games? Where were the fantastic launch titles for the 360 and PS3? The 360 used Perfect Dark: Zero and Kameo as advertisement around launch, CoD was not a big franchise yet, things like NFL doesn't sell outside of the US and the rest were mostly region specific titles or even niche, or parts of franchises that would only grow later in the gen. The 360 was also sold at 399$ at launch, which is quite a bit more expensive, especially when you factor in inflation (adds quite a bit since this is nearly a decade ago).

The PS3's launch line-up? CoD 3, Ridge Racer, same sports games as the 360 that year, Mobile Suit Gundamn and Genji, the new IP Resistance and some niche titles, hardly earth shattering. And it was sold at a ridiculous 599$ at launch. You know what's even worse? It did better than the Wii U currently is even without being available in its biggest market; Europe.

Neither the PS3 nor 360 had a launch line-up that is anywhere near the Wii U's, Assassin's Creed III, part of what has become a behemoth franchise, Batman Arkham City, the sequel to a game that has sold over 6 million units and is among the most critically acclaimed titles in the entire 7th generation, CoD Black Ops 2, the sequel to the biggest gaming franchise in history, FIFA 13, sequel to a long running and big series, especially in Europe where the Wii U is doing the worst, Just Dance 4, the sequel to the smash hit series on the Wii that has moved over 25 million units in three installations and the monolithic New Super Mario Bros U, sequel to the 26+ million selling monster hit and part of Nintendo's biggest franchise by far (Super Mario games), available right from the start.

The Wii U also costs 349$, a fairly low launch price, historically, below average for sure. It is also the heir to a market leader and generation winner both hardware and software-wise, unlike the 360, which has battled its way up from obscurity.

What, its the economy's fault then? Then why has Samsung grown into an absolute hardware giant in the last five years? Why do people willingly spend up to 600$ on tablets and phones? PC's and Mac's are still selling like gangbusters as well, same goes for HDTV's and stereo. People are obviously not only willing to spend money on electronics, they're spending more than ever since the line-up is so diverse and costly in total.

No, the Wii U's problem is the essence of the product; its chasing two markets and missing both. This is not something to remedy with remakes, small price cuts, promises of exclusives in the future or even Mario Kart. The Wii U was built from the ground up with a major design flaw; the whole design itself. With the core being mainly stationed on the older HD consoles and PC and the casuals flocking to tablets/phones and social games, there is little left to maintain hardware sales.

but even if the cut was immediate the announcement isn't the action that increases sales its the fact that the price dropped

kowenicki > what you said is a little stupid... I can say 360 is dead in Japan. And PS3 in on fire on Europe unlike 360. We all know PS3 will be above.

The Wii U is not a desirable machine, sorry Nintendo fans, its just that plain and simple. No amount of Nintendo directs is going to change that since its audience is too narrow.

Nintendo, like many of the fans it has, became way too arrogant (and somewhat greedy). I believe Nintendo tried to leverage their popular Wii brand while at the same time try to exploit Sony's weakness in NA and Japan by releasing a console first with the capabilities to run the third party games sony needs on it system to stay relevant and its currently falling on its face.

In that short span of time the Wii went from being affordable, accessible and inclusive to the Wii U being expensive, restrictive and exclusive. No wii game cost more that 49.99 (outside special editions and games with included controllers), people got value when they bought a game like wii play (in the form of another controller to have more people join in). I cant image soccer moms and grandma sitting down with the gamepad on their lap gearing up to play the new X, it just isn't happening.

Iwata seems hell bent on continuing the gamecubeification of the Wii brand, which in itself is odd. I can easily see a massive incoming loss from the Wii U once the price cut kicks in.