See title.

Edit: Please read more than the title.

This is a question that's become interesting to me for the last few weeks (or days) because there's something in the decreased rate of sales that makes me wonder if the unthinkable might happen and the Wii might drop down to $199 or even further.

Do you see this happening at some point? If so, when? By how much? Why? How many more units would Nintendo need to be able to sell in order to justify cutting their margins on the hardware?

These questions need answers!

Low.

High

Look at The Source's article on the front page. 50% down YOY for the last quarter...

Okay I'm going to edit the OP excuse me

A $199 price seems logical, the console is already incredible value as it is.

Sometime before Christmas is my best bet, though since they will have a supply issue in dealing with a short term boost it will be sooner (August, September, maybe early October than later) to seperate the short and long term demand. My guess is mid September personally.

They need to sell the extra units to justify the production they have put in place. They cannot fall down YOY and potentially have another console sell near their total due to a price cut because that would challenge their dominance in the next generation, their best bet is for a clean victory. Its best to sell consoles now than to hope they will sell consoles later.

May or may not happen. Nintendo might see the urgent need to drop the price soon because of slower sales or they'll wait and see how WSR, WF+ and NSMB sells before making a decision. Nintendo has said that the second half of 09 is when they will have their big releases (compared to the releases of SSBB, MKWii and WF in the first half of 08) so they may not be surprised by the current low sales.

Hmm, I'm not sure really. I still suspect the bad YoY figures are simply because 1st half last year had Kart, Brawl and Fit.

Hopefully the YoY will be more favourable for the 2nd half due to the games lineup.

My guess would be the black Wii comes worldwide for Christmas, but that there will be no 2009 price cut

A price cut is irrational for Nintendo. At least one this year is irrational. I think as long as the Wii hardware continues to outsell the competition or even if it doesn't if it is still competitive with X-Box 360 then I don't see a price cut coming any time soon.

What will it take to make Nintendo slash its price. It will take a drastic over throw of the Wii by the 360 or PS3. The hardware sales will have to dip pretty low for Nintendo to cut its prices. Or the next generation begins and Nintendo wants to maintain Wii sales despite the new generation.

What I find more likely is Nintendo releasing alternate colours or maybe a new model of Wii like Sony had the Slim and Nintendo in the past has made alternate models. I see Black being released here maybe as early as this fall with other colours following next year. These new colours will boost hardware sales without needing to slash profits.

When the next generation begins in 2011 I expect the Wii to be dropped to 199$, then maybe in 2012 dropped again to 150$ with a final drop to 99.99$ by the end of the next generation in 2016!

Nintendo is making a solid profit off the Wii, they won't cut the price untill it is profitable to do so, and I don't see that happening any time soon. Besides Nintendo announced at the beginning of the generation that cutting hardware prices was innefficiant and I remember them saying it was unlikely that the Wii's price would change over the generation.

With that in mind I suggest anybody waiting for a price drop , just buy a Wii a price cut isn't coming!

Nintendo has to see the effects of Wii Sports Resort on Hardware sales (and to a much lesser extent software sales) before contemplating a price drop just yet. Then they have to look at what Monster Hunter 3 will do in Japan short term.

I don't think they will have a price drop if these things work out. The boosts have to last until October, where the rest of the 3rd party titles and Nintendo's own games will start showing up. So they have to stick it out for 2 months.

However, if these boosts only last a few weeks, Nintendo may cut the price in September. October (10th) is pretty much do or die because that is when they have their conference.

I'm not sure how the conference works, but do they speak to investors/shareholders or something about projections?

If they do, they may want to stand firm in their pricing strategy and keep the Wii at $250, to display strength in the brand or something.

If that isn't how it works, the titles they will announce in October will put their stock up, making a price cut unnecessary.

I find it revealing that the Wii's moving easily over 300k units in its third June, and yet we talk as if the Wii is in serious trouble.

HD Wii, it's coming!