Nintendo Wii price to plummet this Christmas?
By Paul Smith
What will be the hot games console this Christmas that stores will fail to order enough stock of and manufacturers will severely under-estimate demand for? Which brand will make itself deliberately scarce in December to create sensational headlines and impact on national news running orders with footage of pissed-off parents camping outside Woolworths HMV?
Our money’s on the Nintendo Wii, after hearing plans are afoot to slash the console’s price next month in a bid not to lose business to Sony and Microsoft. The PS3 Slim was launched on September 1st at an RRP of £249 (although is widely available for considerably less) while the XBox 360 Elite now comes in at under £200, meaning it’s currently going head-to-head with the Wii.
What will Ms Wii do? Drop her pants and lure in the crash-strapped public with the sight of her tuppence, that’s what. A US press advertisement for Wallmart shows the retailer selling the console to $249, which is round about £150 in proper money. If the price-cut is in line with Nintendo reducing the wholesale cost rather than a retailer-instigated loss leader, there’s every chance we’ll see similar RRPs in this country (and no doubt further discounts on top). Analysts were already predicting a drop in price before this news, pointing out that Nintendo would lose significant market share to the competitors if it didn’t drop the cost.
[Kotaku] via [Electricpig]
feral trolley of the week
We’ve already seen special bundles for £150 in the UK. So not surprising if it becomes standard price.
Picked my old man up one from Sainsburys the other week for £140, if they come down more than that I’ll be most annoyed.
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“What will Ms Wii do? Drop her pants and lure in the crash-strapped public with the sight of her tuppence, that’s what.”
Probably the most bizarre sentence to ever grace BitterWallet.
£150 is not exactly a great price drop. They need to go for the magic £99 mark.
We aim to please, Jase.
Ill be very surprised if it hits £99. I’d love it to, but i just cant see it happening. They dont need to price it so cheap.
£99 sounds like an awesome price. But that is a little too low a little too fast. I highly doubt nintendo will go down to under £100 already.
Given that its been on the market for nearly 3 years and has always been sold at a profit to Nintendo (unlike the PS3 and 360), that its sold 50million+ and has relatively simple hardware – I think Nintendo could comfortably afford to reduce its price by a third and still make money (less on the hardware but more on games) – so £120 wouldn’t be out the question…
That said, they’ve stuck to £180 for so long because people are still happy to pay it, so £150 seems more likely to me.
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nice post. I really liked it.