Nintendo is very much on top of their game, but that hasn’t stopped some analysts from giving their opinions on how they could do it better. The current tidbit of advice comes from none other than Michael Pachter, whose latest idea to keep the Wii a hot commodity is to drop the price of the console to $199, and drop Wii sports:
“The console has a price advantage over the Xbox 360 and PS3 that can be maintained if Nintendo chooses to un-bundle Wii Sports from the console. I think that if Nintendo were to do so and cut the price to $199, it would still sell a piece of Nintendo software to 80% of new Wii purchasers, and would end up effectively lowering revenues per console by only around $10. At that price point, the Wii should be strong again in 2009.”
Sales figures seem to indicate that the Wii isn’t in need of fiscal CPR just yet, but Michael’s plan focuses on looking at the long-term demand of Nintendo’s waggle box.
Because of the high-definition video features offered by the Xbox 360 and PS3, those consoles are more likely to end up in the living room, which could relegate the Wii to the playroom. If the Wii is not at the center of the home entertainment system, software sales could suffer as a result.”
Price cuts are always nice, and welcomed by all; however, I’m not so sure about the part about stripping out a game in the process. We need to get out of the mindset that value means taking things away from the consumer, in order to lower prices. That, and I’m even less inclined to believe that most Wiis will likely live out the end of their days in the playrooms of children.
Its home is more likely to be dictated by how often it’s used, and by whom. With the Wii’s total sales in excess of 20 million, I’m betting that a sizable chunk of them can be found in gamers’ living rooms — next to their PS3s and 360s. I also tend to believe that most people don’t like buying a console without any games to play on it. If you have to immediately spend another $50 just to have something to play on it, that kind of cancels out any savings. I think Nintendo is doing just fine the way things are. As long as quality games keep coming out, the Wii is going to continue to command a captivated audience.
[Via Gamasutra]
