A product needs to be at the right price. Too high it does not sell. The PS3 was priced too high when it was launched and it had to be reduced in price by 33% within a year to improve its sales. There are other consoles that were priced high that totally bombed in sales including 3DO and Apple Pippen.

If priced too low a product does not sell either due to consumers seeing it not worth anything. Dreamcast, XBox, N64 and Gamecube were priced at low prices and did not sell well. They were reduced very early in their lifespans within a year to basement prices that did not help its sales in the long run.

The perceived value in the eyes of the consumer must be at the right price for a product to be successful. The Wii has been priced right from its launch. PS1 and PS2 were also priced at the right prices when they launched. All three market leaders of their respective generations(5th,6th and 7th): PS1, PS2 and Wii were always at the right price in the eyes of the consumer.

The Wii is due for a price cut being frozen at $250 for three years the sales of the Wii have slowed down considerably upon the previous year. A $50 price cut may be what the Wii needs to kick start sales momentum.

The Wii could sit back and wait for next year before reducing its console price. Being so far in front of the competition it does not really matter if its sales are no longer on record breaking pace. The increased sales volumes from the price cuts will be at a cost - lower profits per unit sold. The gain is the increased market share would increase total profits due to more people buying games. The losses on hardware would be offset by more profits on game sales.

difference between wii and HD consoles is the tech... Sony and MS had newer and more powerful tech. This allows the costs to rapidly fall.... I get what you are trying to prove with your sarcasm but it might not be accurate since people love new tech but sometimes can't afford it and its common knowledge tech falls rapidly. (might be a bad thing for the wii.)

Actually thats kind of dumb because the best value is always getting the system at launch i paid 600 for my 60gb and i will get like 7 years out of it. So it will cost me less than 100 a year

I agree with the OP. How many cards left do the HD consoles have to play? I mean you hear the talk about how many WEEKS a PS3 slim can outsell the Wii. To slash the price 100$ only to have a couple of weeks of outselling a machine who's MSRP has remained the same for 3 yrs (didn't the price rise in UK?) you can't tell me that isn't troubling..Or in this context, not troubling to Nintendo in the least. And 360's recent price cut will probably do worse than that.

After a while price cuts can do damage to consumers perception of a product.

While the Slim saw a fantastic rise in hardware, software..well was rather weak. What does that tell you?

I'm interested in seeing how long this momentum can be sustained. Software is a stronger driver of momentum than price cuts are. The NPD showed a few things to me.

1) Madden sales are dropping.

2) WSR is looking like a Mario Kartesque seller.

3) Mario Kart and Wii fit are STILL in the top 10!

4) Third Party titles begining to thrive on Wii.

The 360 is already cheaper than the Wii...

yer nintendo should advertise that fact that wii has not had a price drop.


something along the lines of the console that doesn't loose value for your $$ as time goes by.
showing all the cool games
and show the price drops of the other two in the ad.

Yeah i agree Sony will definitly suffer from Wii staying at $250 as they are going to sell lot more slims that way and we know they are not selling them with a profit :)

The PSP is cheaper than the DSi in Australia

The DS had a price cut shortly after the DS lite released mr I know everything =)

i agree, Nintendo has great games coming and black Wii, there's no need for a price cut

of course, WSR has awesome sales and no hardware increase, so maybe there won't be a hardware increase with other games either

having the same price with HD consoles which are so much media based will be cool for Wii