So the Wii U price drop was announced, but it won't take effect until September 20th...I don't understand why Nintendo would announce it now then because as a result of that Wii U sales will plumet even lower than before until the price drop takes effect.  Does anyone have a reason as to why Nintendo would announce it now?  Or do you think they made the wrong move too?

Because it won't impact their August NPD sales, and September will simply be more backloaded of a month in sales.

Many retailers offer price protection anyway for the 15 people who wanted to buy a Wii U in early September anyhow.

because they don't want you to be enticed by the vita price drop.

they did the same with the original 3ds...
and look at it now...

they are trying to re-live that day... i want to think it will be a success again too....
i mean the drought wont really matter since there is almost nothing to lose.... 30k every week is not really a big thing... but boosting it after the price cut and preparing the wii u for the holiday is what counts....

How were the sales during those weeks between the announcement and the actual price cut?

It's the safest month to drop the price. People are going to be aware and not buy it so they don't feel ripped off.

Not like 101 will do much lolz.

What I'm really surprised is that they didn't annouce all this important info in a Ndirect.

That's an interesting point. People always complain about how boring ND are, so the 2DS alone would have been pretty epic to watch live.

In theory the damage and benefit should offset each other. During the weeks leading up to the price drop sales will undoubtedly drop, but you gain the mass publicity from gaming sites as well as giving people who are enticed by this new price time to prepare for a purchase. Also brings attention slightly away from the PS3/Vita price cuts.

I wouldn't personally go with such a strategy, but I can certainly understand some of the logic they may have used.

It doesn't really make that much of a difference though, they announced the 3DS cut on July 28th (just like today is the 28th) and dropped on Aug. 12th IIRC. So it didn't impact their July or August NPD in 2011.

All it means it your sales for the price cut month will be backloaded rather than spread out evenly from week to week.

bad.... but still outselling the wii u numbers with its current state :P