Nintendo officially cuts Wii's price to $200

[Matthew DeCarlo]

It's official folks, Nintendo has dropped the Wii's price by $50 to $200. The announcement concludes weeks of rumors and advertisement leaks. Nintendo's decision will better position the company against competitors like Sony and Microsoft, who have recently lowered the prices of their consoles.

Sony launched the PlayStation 3 Slim at $300, and Microsoft lowered the Xbox 360 Elite's price by $100 to match that price. After Redmond made its move, a Nintendo spokesman was approached and said the company had no intentions of following suit. That didn't stop the rumors, of course, as unofficial reports of a planned Wii price reduction flooded the Web.

With Nintendo aboard the bandwagon, will sales explode as witnessed during the PS3 Slim's release? PlayStation 3 shipments rose by 104% during its launch week -- sure, some of those sales were laggards waiting for a deal, but there is no doubt Sony legitimately bagged many new customers.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/36335-nintendo-officially-cuts-wiis-price-to-200.html

 

[treeski]

Any chance the controller or other accessory prices have dropped? Those are the real killers in all honesty.

 

[Julio Franco]

@treeski, I have to agree. A couple of months ago, before the more recent Xbox 360 console price cuts you could find the wireless controllers in the ~$40 range or even less than that online through discounted deals. Last week I went looking for one at retail stores and the cheapest I could get was $50 with the majority of chain resellers (Best Buy, Walmart, etc.) selling them for $60.
So, you get the console for less but accessories, even the best selling and most essential don't get the same treatment, quite the contrary.

 

[Tekkaraiden]

That's because they make most of their profit on the accessories.

 

[Eddie_42]

example, the steering wheel accessory is $40. Its a round piece of plastic with a slot for the wii-mote. Nothing more.
pop off $40-60 per game, and this price tag steps up quite a bit. (not just for wii either)
The console is generally a money loss for the company, but they more then make up for it with titles and accessory prices.

 

[9Nails]

There's a few games that come with a "free" Wii controller. I say free, because it depends on how you count the game, if it's desired or not. But a few games like that, and you can build a fair collection of games and controllers without spending too much.

 

[SNGX1275]

The console is generally a money loss for the company, but they more then make up for it with titles and accessory prices.

For Microsoft and Sony that is the case, or at least was. But Nintendo was making a profit on the Wii console from the first day.

The wheel is "free" with MarioKart, but really, I don't see how anyone can use the wheel for MarioKart. I would be absolutely terrible at that game if I had to use the wheel. Fortunately I have a Wavebird from the GC days and just use that.

I think you can use the wheel for ExciteBots, but I got so used to just the WiiMote on its own for ExciteTruck that I'm fine without a wheel.

At some discount stores you can pick up knock off stuff for cheap. I think BigLots here has a golf club (shortened of course) for like $7 or something. I've seen a wheel there too, but didn't pay any attention to the price.

I do agree that the additional mote and nunchuck are ridiculously expensive though.