Wasn't this released in November....? or is this the twilight zone?

i'm not sure whats the big deal here when the other consoles took almost 1.5 yrs before their engines started.

** o i get it. analysts trolls gamers. dum ones follow suit.

So this means 3DS is so close to 30mil!!! I thought that number was ship!!!! 29.84mil!!! Thats crazy!!!

Nintendo had a forecast of 5.5 million WiiU's shipped for end of March. Nintendo shipped 5.8 million Wii's during the first five months after launch. They were able to produced enough WiiU's to meet demand while the Wii was limited, maybe that's a reason why they thought they could reach that forecast.

It shouldn't happen this soon. All I think they need to do right now is get rid of that crappy Basic Set and make the Deluxe Version in White and Black. Having those sets separate wasn't the best idea, really.
September would be a key time to cut the price by at least 30$. It'll probably happen sooner, though.

The weakening yen should make it easier for them to cut the price. I predict either one huge price reduction in August-September (like $80 ala the 3DS), or a more phased approach, $50 reduction in the spring (basic phased out), followed by another $20-$30 reduction in November.

The system is way too expensive right now though, it's even keeping away Nintendo fans IMO. They need to get the Nintendo Land bundle down to $250, PS3/360 are eating their lunch completely right now.

I don't think it's necessarily the price.

If you look at the Wii U's first few weeks it was doing quite good, even trending ahead of PS360. But after all the hype fell, we got the worst sales I've ever seen for a Nintendo Console recently. I think that's because we need games. And we need them now.

It's shipped.  You've been on this site so long, you should know this.  If anything, the Wii U is overtracked from the numbers we've gotten from Media Create/NPD/Chart-Track.

Nintendo has completely screwed themselves.

While I agree WiiU is too expensive, a price cut will do nothing when there's still no reason to own one.

System selling games - Mario Kart U, Zelda HD, Mario 3D HD, Smash Bros are all a long ways off - holidays 2013 at best I'm guessing. Zelda probably 2014 or even 2015.

The cost of the gamepad is a ball and chain around the underpowered WiiU's neck. If it succeeded in attracting both casual and core as hoped it'd be one thing, but it's appeals to neither. It's cost is more of a detriment than it's selling appeal. But even if they patched WiiU & games to work with wiimote/nunchuk and sold it as a WiiHD for $200, (it'd sell better and be more profitable) there's still no reason to own one aside from NSMBU. Hell, it doesn't even upscale your current Wii games.

By the time big games come out, so will Orbis/Durango (most likely) and without a Wii Sports like hook, no one will want to buy what will amount to a last gen system at current gen prices - even with a price cut.

Really at this point I think Nintendo is screwed. They'll have carry the underperforming WiiU until they can launch another system, which probably wouldn't be until 2016. Mario/Zelda/Smash/Kart/etc should keep it afloat, if realatively unprofitable, until then.

I think Nintendo's fine. Cutting WiiU's price SO soon would be crazy. And definitely very bad when you take into account consumer and investor trust and confidence.

Besides, another very important point you ought to take into account (imo) is that Sony/Microsoft's next consoles will be more expensive than WiiU currently is, presumably by a VERY significant margin.

So when those release, WiiU will suddenly look a lot more affordable, especially taking into account that by then it will have a very attractive library of big games appealing to different audiences (NSMBU, Wii Fit, Mario Kart, Zelda WW, 3D Mario, Pikmin 3, that X RPG, Game & Wario, Yarn Yoshi, plus 3rd party stuff like MH3U, COD, Lego City, Just Dance 5, Wonderful 101, Bayonetta 2, all most likely released or soon to be, by then).

And that's not even taking into account a lot of new games surely yet to be unveiled, and e-shop stuff.

Some people think WiiU's expensive, but when PS4/X720 come out, costing $400-$500, with a tiny library (mostly consisting of games that won't matter either, as with all new console launches, ever), WiiU will be in a very comfortable position, I should think.

And should Nintendo feel the need, THEN they could take measures. Like dropping the Basic bundle, and lowering the Premium WiiU to $299, offering it in black and white. This shouldn't cost them as much, and WiiU should be quite profitable by then, anyway. Such a move, a year after launch, would be very acceptable in the eyes of consumers and investors, and not tarnish trust and confidence. Doing it now, or in a few weeks/months, would, and not be seen as very acceptable. Imo.

Too soon to cut the price is a bunch of garbage anyways, historically most Nintendo home consoles drop in price quickly.

Super NES - summer 1992 price reduction (about 9 months after launch)

N64 - March 1997 price reduction (6 months after launch)

http://ca.ign.com/articles/1997/03/18/n64-price-drop-points-to-future

GameCube - May 2002 price reduction (6 months after launch)

Wii was a phenomenon that was sold out for 2 years, Wii U clearly is more like the GameCube and N64. The Wii is the exception to the rule fellas, not the rule itself.