No, actually I don't. It gives them a good yearish before dropping the price when the big games come out, that way they profit very little after a drop or break even, while making money off software (Mario Kart and Smash will be amazing sellers, along with Wii Fit U).

I'm sure Nintendo and Microsoft will both drop their prices as soon as they can, but I think bleeding money is no longer a option for any game console company. Though it could still happen.

I will say that if they can hold off until even early next year to cut price, it would, at least PR-wise, be a good move for them (because you'll have people looking for another "Ambassador" type program. They have stated multiple times that a price cut isn't coming, but with PS4 at $399, I find it hard to believe that they'll stay at $349 for the lucrative holiday period. Maybe they'll do a 'temporary' holiday cut for November-December of $50 instead of a full-out cut and save the permanent cut for April/May of 2014? Idk...

$300 would be a good price, but I don't think it will help much around the holiday season as they would like. Everyone is trying to get their hands on a PS4/XB1, and if units are scarce they might get a Wii U for their children anyways.

I'd like to see a drop to $300 for the Deluxe and the discontinuation of the basic unit, but offering the deluxe in both black and white.

I think that may be the saving grace of it all. X1 and PS4 are likely to be supply constrained this holiday season and so parents may opt for the Wii U instead, which will be plentiful.

I think it will help quite a bit, like u said Deluxe dropped to $300 and basic discuntinued late july/early aug when the games start coming and a new advertisement campaign (I havemt seen a Wii U commercial since launch) will surely boost sales to respectable numbers leading into the holidays. Then retailers can do a further $50 cut for black friday/holidays along with $300 bundles that could include any of the following Fit/Party/DKC/3D World. Continue the momentum into 2014 with system sellers like Kart 8/Smash Bros in the first half of the year. By this time next year Wii U could very likely have a 12-15m install base.

There's little doubt the Deluxe will soon be available here in white. It just makes sense (especially as it's already coming to Japan).

When you look at each gen Nintendo console, they've declined in sales. The Wii ended up breaking that pattern because they caught the casual market. With the Wii U, I don't think they're going to get that market. No matter what games they get, I see them selling 35 million lifetime.

That`s a really good release calendar. Great 1st party games and good 3rd party games too.
If there are some bundles thrown in there, even better!

LOL.  Eight first-party games squeezed into five months isn't enough.  Okay.

It's like an unprecedented number of first-party games for a Nintendo console to have during a single holiday season.  Just so we're clear, here.

The question I have is what will the release calendar look like the beginning of next year? We know there are some big games coming already, but they also won't all launch the first quarter (or even likely first half) of the year...will there be another 'dry spell' January-March?