Nintendo drops price of Wii to $199

VideoBusiness has posted a new leaked newspaper circular that shows that Nintendo will drop the price of the Wii console to $199 USD, a $50 cut off its launch day retail price of $250.

Earlier this week, we reported that a leaked Toys 'R' Us ad showed the price drop, but nothing was confirmed.

The new Best Buy ad shows the price cut coming on September 27th.

Despite the leaks, a Nintendo spokesperson still added that �Nintendo does not respond to rumors and speculation.�

The price cut follows the recent slashes by Sony and Microsoft, each of which dropped the price of their consoles to $299 and have seen a recent boost in sales.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 18 Sep 2009 23:36

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9 comments

dragnandy

even with the price drop, i doubt that Nintendo will get the same response Microsoft and Sony will get from their price drops.

19.9.2009 01:43 #1

Paladore

Ha so nintendo is trying to get the 75 people in the US who haven't bought a wii yet to buy one. Sorry nintendo, the xbox and ps3 are exreamly affordable now, most of us have have gotten sick of your gimmick and have graduated to real systems. Suck it.

19.9.2009 01:49 #2

bomber991

The wii, it's almost 3 years old and now it gets a price cut. I didn't go to college for four years and become an economists like everyone else did who's going to be posting here, but this price cut will still move at least a few units.

I think the PS3 and 360 price cuts probably helped those respective systems more simply because they cost way too much to begin with. The Wii was already reasonable.

19.9.2009 02:07 #3

nonoitall

Originally posted by Paladore: ...most of us have ... graduated to real systems. Suck it.
Ah, what a diplomatic and unprovocative comment.

I'm not gonna take the bait, but I'd agree that anyone who wants a Wii probably already has one.

19.9.2009 03:24 #4

kikzm33z

The reason that the PS3 sales were so crap were because people couldn't afford it so they got a Wii and regretted it.

Now the PS3 is affordable, the Wii is just dead now.
Wii Sports Resort... Super Mario... A new rip-off Wii Fit..

They're rehashing their stuff now.

19.9.2009 06:53 #5

Josipher

i agree with most people who had been posting here. the Wii is currently useless. i doubt there are many new releases to this particular system that can get people to buy one simply for a legend of a game. those dont really exist on it. the time of the real entertainment systems to shine.

Quote:most of us have have gotten sick of your gimmick and have graduated to real systems. Suck it. I second that motion.
Shana Tova to all AD'ers

19.9.2009 07:21 #6

Moomoo2

I have yet to buy a wii, and this is probably leaning me towards it.

But... PC gamer for life XD

19.9.2009 10:30 #7

ZeusAV

Guess the PS3 being only $49 more than the Wii with its last gen hardware finally pressured Nintendo into a price drop. I agree with everyone else here that the price drop won't increase sales very much like Sony with the PS3 and to a lesser extent, Microsoft with the 360. If anything it might just help the Wii maintain the sales level that it has right now.

19.9.2009 14:09 #8

inagasake

I wouldn't mind a $200 Wii to be honest. Why? Easy piracy, no online bans for playing backups (afaik. Nintendo WFC isn't that appealing to begin with anyway). While the software library is the weakest overall, there are still enough quality games for it to make ownership worth it.

For $200 US + SD Card + free soft mod + DVD-R/usb device, you can play practically any Wii game you want. That's pretty attractive compared to paying $300 for a PS3 and on top of that paying up to $60 US/$70 CDN for each game. Buying a Wii is like the equivalent of buying 3-4 new PS3 games tops. The vast majority of my 360 collection consists of older (or games I got cheaper used like Fable 2) games and even then, it didn't take long for me to blow $200 worth in software after getting a 360 in April. (I've only paid full price for two games out of 11 retail titles. UFC 2009 Undisputed and Blazblue. Unless you count XBLA games). So when you think of it that way, a $200 Wii + soft mod solution seems very worth it. I don't want to get into the hassle of pirating 360 games for various reasons and there's no way I'm buying games legit for two systems at a time so Wii it is (gaming the legit way is actually still a pretty economical hobby compared to other forms of entertainment but hey, I like saving money. lol)

Not to mention that if you own one of 360/PS3, you aren't really missing out on much since the Xbox and Playstation software lineups are so similar these days. FPS/TPS? Both plats have you covered. Racing games? Covered. RPGs? Covered. Action-Adventure? Covered. Sports Games? You bet. Music Games? Yep. Nintendo (Wii and DS) dares to be different and I believe a Wii would compliment a 360/PS3 nicely.

I am skeptical to a degree though so I'm not 100% sold on the Wii. For eg. Hearing about all thosse wiimote injuries (muscle pulling and what not. lol) and rumors that Nintendo would ditch the Wii for a Wii HD. And since I got a 360 recently and don't have time right now for more than one home console, I've no interest in getting a Wii until next year. And since the Wii has a more limited lifespan than the 360/PS3, I gotta wonder how much the Wii is going to have left a year from now. All three home consoles and two portables have great games and are worthy purchases but honestly, I don't have all that time for gaming. It takes away from other things I like to do in my free time. It would feel like a waste to see some of these consoles collect dust. It's bad enough that I've neglected my PS2 quite a bit since I got it late into its lifespan. Thus far, 1 home console (360) + 1 portable (DS) + the ocassional PC, PS2 or retro action works for me. Hopefully Nintendo has as much faith in the Wii as they do in the DS, which is still going very strong.

19.9.2009 19:41 #9

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