It's just too early to say, i doubt they already have any officical sales numbers.

It double the sales in America, that is probably a desired result.

Yes, Italy has always been Playstation land since PSOne, but PS3 at 399€ was still  too expensive for our average income, now it starts becoming more affordable and the repressed desire is to a certain degree unleashed, but I don't expect a real boom until it goes under 200€. Wii should have been advantaged, but considering that except bank clerks, engineers, pharmaceutical techs and few other cathegories, young new recruits are lucky if they can get 1000€/month (*), maybe even 250€ was too much for the majority of Wii's potential user base.

Now, at 199€ and making people know they can have it even for less, Nintendo can hope to make Wii really take off, if it promotes it properly.

(*) Gross income wouldn't be so different from southern EU average, but net income is eroded by expensive, inefficient health and pension system.

@Alby: Wasn't it possible to retire in Italy after working for 35 (or 30) years? Go to work when you're 15 and retire when you're 50 (or 20 and 55). It's a great system to create jobs, but the expense is high.

It's a little hard to say what will be the "sweet spot" for each product, but we'll likely have to wait until january to see where the sales eventually settle. Pricecuts, big Q4 game releases and christmas inflate the sales for the rest of the years.

PS3 slim launch price was substantially less than the slim RRP here. Like $70 cheaper in some stores. Prices have all gone up a bit since then, but none back up to the original slim RRP.

Conoscendo l'italia la ps3 venderà più del Wii...dovunque c'è gente DISINFORMATA che non sa nulla dei confronti fra console e dei giochi e pensa semplicemente che la 3 sia migliore perchè la 2 era migliore (parole loro)...

Probably the ads are needed because with this cut Ninty needs to sell a lot more Wiis to have a similar profit.

In the past. It could have kept on working if the system wasn't crushed by debt from the past, when three factors were undermining it:generalized wast of money in every public agencies, privileged categories (bank and insurance employees, politicians, some government employees, but not those of the Ministry of Education, always the Cinderellas of our State) that received far more than the just return of their investment at the expenses of the system and other workers, and another factor, through all the '70s and part of the '80s, public pension system wasn't required to make investment profit, luckily it invested a lot in real estate, otherwise it would be bankrupt now, but the State made it sustainable simply making payments due by workers and employers skyrocket.

About sweet spots, yes, it's very complicated to figure them out, they vary depending on the product, for example here it's somewhere under 370€ for high end fridges and dishwashers, under 240€ for low end fridges and washing machines, in the past it was around 500€ for TV sets, but for not really necessary appliances, like consoles, it's heavily influenced by the fashion factor.

Edit @buzzi:

Già. Indeed. Personalmente potrei prendere una PS3 al massimo a 200€ per alcuni suoi giochi, qualità grafica e per l'extra costituito dal BD, ma a meno di 130€ la Wii sarebbe il miglior complemento per un giocatore su PC come me. Personally, I could get a PS3 under 200€ for some of its games, graphics quality and the extra benefit of BD, but for less than 130€ the Wii would become the best complement for a PC gamer like me.

@Alby: 370€ for a high end fridge? WTF. You can easilly sink 740€ on a better fridge around here.

Sorry, about this I wasn't clear enough, it's the price you can get at clearance sales, but it's also the price most of them are sold at. Very rich people not needing to wait sales probably buy even more expensive ones, but they are by no means mainstream products. ~370€ is the price you can get if they do 50% discounts. Will I ever manage to make my mom understand that she could actually save money if she bought a Bosch one at that price instead of having to buy 239€ ones several times?   

Nintendo doesn't strike me as the kind of company that would want to evaluate a price cut after a few days. They will likely not be evaluating the cut till after the holidays.

Obviously on the internet we all want results NOW, but that just isn't a smart way to run a business.