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Nintendo Refuses To Cut Wii U Price

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Last week at E3, Nintendo showed off a number of new games for the Wii U, but one announcement was sorely missing from the show: a Wii U price cut.

In an interview with VentureBeat Nintendo marketing executive Scott Moffit said the company has no plans to cut the price of the Wii U at the moment. He reiterated a point that Nintendo made in the past, claiming the Wii U is “a great value.” At E3, he points out, Nintendo went from having the most expensive console to the least expensive current-generation console.

While the Wii U is $50 cheaper than the PlayStation 4, there isn’t much incentive to buy Nintendo’s first HD console over Sony’s new console later this year. Earlier in the interview, Moffit used the “content is king” idiom to justify the Wii U, saying that it’s the only console where gamers can play Nintendo games like the upcoming Super Smash Bros. and Super Mario 3D World.

Wii U

Those games, particularly Super Smash Bros., may sell more Nintendo consoles, but it’s hard to imagine them pushing more consoles than games like a new Halo, TitanFall or The Division.

According to CNet, the latest report of video game sales from NPD shows the Wii U was the second best-selling console of May 2013, falling behind the Xbox 360. Microsoft sold 114,000 Xbox 360 units last month, while Nintendo sold less than that seven months after launch. Selling less than an eight-year-old console doesn’t bode well for Nintendo.

The Wii was successful early on because it had Wii Sports which appealed to almost everyone. For many first-time gamers the Wii was simply a device they used to play tennis using the novel new motion controllers. Or it was a device that helped them exercise with Wii Fit.

The Wii U lacks that hook, and at $300 and $350 it’s hard to imagine those first Wii gamers moving onto the new console, if they even know what the difference is.

With some new games on the horizon and the Xbox One and PS4 out in the open, Nintendo may sell more Wii U consoles, but right now, it doesn’t look good.

6 Comments

6 Comments

  1. Kaihaku

    06/18/2013 at 2:21 pm

    Super Smash Brothers? Probably not. Mario Kart? Maybe.

    Mario Kart Wii sold over 34 million copies, for comparison that’s more than Halos 1, 2, 3, and 4 combined.

    • yuske05

      06/20/2013 at 9:31 am

      you buy and judge a game’s value based on units sold alone? Go play Pacman while you’re at it.

  2. Theodore

    06/18/2013 at 9:24 pm

    Why is this an issue? It is a great value as it is.

    Even if they do cut the price, they would not announce it until right before they do because that would completely kill sales until the price cut came along.

    Articles like this are stupid.

  3. Frankie

    06/18/2013 at 9:32 pm

    here is one “poster refuses to not post bullshit”

  4. Apotheosis

    06/19/2013 at 11:00 pm

    Check your facts. Brawl sold more copies than Halo 4.

  5. LaDeDa

    06/20/2013 at 3:27 am

    That doesn’t stop retailers from heavily discounting the price themselves. I bought the premium Wii U kit for $199 NZD today, which in USD is around $155

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