We haven’t even known the price for the Wii U for more than a few days, but analyst Michael Pachter is already predicting a price cut for Nintendo‘s new console. Unlike the 3DS – which saw its price drop within the first six months of release – Pachter predicts that this price cut should happen sometime before the Holiday of 2013. Still not a full year for the Wii U to enjoy its $300 and $350 price points, but enough for it to tally some profits through one fall season.
The way Pachter sees it Nintendo unveiled the Wii U at a higher price to “maximize initial sales from its core audience,” or, in other words, to get the most money possible from Nintendo fan boys. But after about March 31st of next year, he surmises the core fan base’s enthusiasm to taper off, and for Nintendo to announce a price cut as early as the summer of 2013.
However, Pachter makes all of these claims assuming the Wii U will have some competition in the form of Microsoft’s Xbox 720 and Sony’s PS4. While both Sony and Microsoft seem to be pointing towards a 2014 release for their respective consoles, Pachter appears to be working under the assumption we’ll be hearing more from the two companies very soon.
“We don’t expect a price cut until summer 2013, at the earliest, but do expect a cut prior to holiday 2013. Any prospective price cut will depend largely on competition, which we expect to materialize in the coming weeks.”
It could be that Pachter is referencing the summer of 2013 as “the coming weeks” but even that isn’t an absolute certainty. It was all but assumed that Microsoft and/or Sony would give some sort of hint towards the next-gen – despite claims to the contrary – at E3 2012, but when they didn’t most fans accepted the fact the companies were sticking to their claims.
Both still find their consoles extremely viable in today’s market, and would rather not confuse consumers with talk of additional hardware, at least not yet. Nintendo, on the other hand, needed to make a move, and the Wii U appears to be that step forward. It’s not a huge leap forward considering the Wii U isn’t being unveiled in connection with next-gen content, but it’s also still early.
Pachter loves to make bold predictions, and is oftentimes wrong in those assumptions, but his claims still make for interesting discussion fodder. Will the Wii U see a price cut before it turns a year old? If the current pricing is only for the core fan base what is the acceptable price point for the new console?
For full details on Nintendo’s Wii U make sure to check out our announcement post.
The Nintendo Wii U will hit store shelves on November 18, 2012.
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Source: CVG
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Would certainly make sense, but I think it all depends on what the PS4 and Durango end up costing. If they’re both upwards of $400 then I don’t think a price cut would be necessary, but if they’re just $400, or even lower, then yeah I think Nintendo would probably want to drop theirs by $50.
I’m waiting for the wave of Nintendo fanboys to rush in and start bombarding this article with “Pachter’s an idiot blah blah,” but he has a point. This system is too little, too late, and it’s time for more advanced technology to be released, not a competitor for hardware that is about to be outdated by newer consoles.
Another reason that a price drop may be imminent is that Nintendo has done a horrible job with marketing the Wii U. A lot of people still that the Wii U is a peripheral for the Wii. In fact, the only people that know it’s a console are people that follow the Wii U online, or that watched E3 2012. A lot of people who love Nintendo have never even heard of the Wii U. I don’t know how anyone could think it would sell well when only informed gamers and hardcore Nintendo fans know about it.
BUT pachter is an idiot. Right? He is more often wrong than right. As for what else you said. yawn….
Yawn? How old are you? Until you have an actual argument to present or a valid opinion based on facts, don’t bother replying to my comments.
That’s why the preorders are sold out at gamestop already? He was right….yawn.
Preorders being sold out doesn’t mean anything. Anyone who will remember any console release in the last 20 years will remember that every store, including gamestop, got no more than 10-15 of the new console. There are a total of 6,614 gamestop stores worldwide, which would mean gamestop is selling, at the most, between 66,140-99,210 on launch day, which is a very small number when talking about sales of a major hardware. If you’ll remember, gamestop only got about 5 original Wii consoles per store when it launched, and they were almost impossible to find for a year or two. So saying that “preorders are sold out at gamestop” isn’t saying anything impressive, as every console sells out on preorders.
yawn…grow up please. sorry you don’t like that I don’t care about what you have to say. Here’s a tissue and a tampon. I really hope you feel better.
This is an Internet forum, a place where people can get together and share their opinion. If I went around and said “I don’t care” on all of the comments that I didn’t care about, I’d get bitched at too. I’m not upset that you didn’t care what I had to say, I’m upset that you added nothing to the conversation, but still felt that you had to interject with a “yawn.” If you don’t care about what I have to say, move on. If you disagree, then I welcome objection, because open arguments are what grow intelligence, but when you contribute absolutely nothing, it grows ignorance.
If you have nothing to say, saying nothing is the best course of action. But telling someone to “grow up” right after saying “yawn” and right before saying “here’s a tampon because you’re a lady LOLOL” is pretty rich, gotta hand it to you there.
“This system is too little, too late, and it’s time for more advanced technology to be released, not a competitor for hardware that is about to be outdated by newer consoles.”
So says you. You’re entitled to your opinion, however there are a lot of people who disagree with you.
Mr. Iwata himself has stated that Nintendo is not TRYING to compete with Sony and Microsoft. He said the Wii U CAN’T compete with the PS4 and the 720. He SAID this. That’s not what the Wii U or Nintendo is ABOUT! They are providing you a product you CAN’T FIND ANYWHERE ELSE! If you don’t like the product,(which you obviously don’t because you keep reminding us all of the fact, over and over and over) DON’T BUY IT! Wait for the PS4 or the 720 to get your graphical, next-gen fix. Play those instead! Problem solved!
Nintendo doesn’t have to compete with Sony and M$, they have PROVEN this already. You might say “Well the Wii U won’t sell NEARLY as many systems as the Wii did.” And you would be right, they won’t! And you know what? They don’t HAVE to! LOL!
I can not believe all the negative S@*! that Ninty gets! I really don’t get it. I love The Big N. They provide me quality gameplay at affordable prices. They always have. When I buy Nintendo, I KNOW what is in that box. Happy, fun, things are in there. Mario and all his friends are going to give me some great games and some awesome memories. As long as they keep giving me the S@*! I want. I’ll keep buying it.
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
I would like to clear something up. When I said “it’s time for more advanced technology to be released,” I didn’t mean that I’m ready for it to, I meant that it’s coming. And Mr. Iwata does not determine what competes with what. The Wii U, 720, and PS4 will all be in the same video game market, meaning that even though he doesn’t compare the Wii U to the other consoles doesn’t mean other people won’t.
Other people like who? You? People who can’t take the Wii U at its face value? People who will compare the console to…what? Imaginary systems that have not even been revealed yet?
You’ve been hating on the Wii U for months. It’s all the same thing too. “Nintendo sucks because PS4/720 is going to be so much better.” or “Nintendo is just a 360 with a new coat of paint.”. You have been comparing it and hating on it all along. Honestly, don’t give me that “other people” crap. The console hasn’t even been released yet and all those “other people” have been denouncing it, from the start. Don’t you start backtrackin’ now.
True, Mr. Iwata can’t determine what gets compared to what. But he can say, and he did, “What we are presenting to you is a completely different monster.”. Does he need to hold your hand and show you? Maybe show up on your doorstep, bow, and say “Wii would like to play?”. Come on dude. ANY informed consumer, I hope, who would plunk down $400.00 on ANYTHING, would understand a little of what they are getting into.
Did the Wii sell 100 MILLION consoles because consumers compared it to the HD Twins? Hell and No. After all the neighsayers said it “was domed to failure, it was just two gamecubes taped together, it wasn’t EVEN HD.”, the consumers decided. They decided “Hey, this s@*!y system isn’t half bad!” and they told their friends ” Hey, this s@*!y system isn’t half bad!” and their friends said “Is it like those other s@*!y systems?” and they said “No! This is a completely DIFFERENT MONSTER.”. True story.
You take what I’ve been saying out of context. I never once say I dislike Nintendo, because I don’t. In fact, I love Nintendo. I grew up playing NES/SNES and have owned every single Nintendo console, and I’m sure I’ll buy a Wii U. All I’ve done is point out flaws in their hardware and marketing strategies. The reason why I haven’t done this with the 720 and PS4 is that no hardware/marketing strategies have been revealed, but I assure you, when the time comes, I’ll be first in line to criticize.
Now, in regards to the Wii U doing well, it was the first truly motion based console that worked well. The system was not bad at all, and because of its casual and family appeal, as well as its motion controls, it sold as much as it did.
Also, because you continue to put words in my mouth, when I said “other people,” I really did mean other people excluding myself. I know that the main purpose for owning a Nintendo console is for the exclusives, and they can’t compare to other consoles, but other people, other gamers, may not look at exclusives. They may think like Pachter, thinking “It’s weaker than the other upcoming consoles, so I’m not getting it.” Or, if they don’t know that much, they could think “I hated the Wii because the only games worth playing on it were Mario, Zelda, etc., so I’m not getting the Wii U, because it’s probably the same thing.” Like I said, I will most definitely buy a Wii U, but I’ll probably wait until Zelda releases. I know what Nintendo consoles are meant for, but the majority of the market consumers just see Nintendo as a competitor against Sony and Microsoft. So when I say “other people,” I quite literally mean “other people.”
^In my previous comment, second paragraph, I meant “Wii,” not “Wii U.”
yawn….
what i found funny is that pachter did almost nothing but bash the wii u 3ds and nintendo for months constantly stating theyre gonna fail but two days ago he took his head out of his and actually said that it would succeed.
He keeps mking the same mitake. He keeps expecting buyers to demand better quality for their dollar. He expects people to look at specs and say, “That’s it for that price?” He expects them to look at the longevity of the product and say, “Really? That’ll be outdated in less than two years.” He expects people to look at all the details and say, “What happens when the games become huge and an external HDD causes too much lag? What about if my controller breaks and I can play my console for weeks until it is repaired since they won’t be in store at launch.”
And SOME people are. But not everyone is a tech-savvy buyer. Many people buy to have the newest thing, even if it isn’t all that great. THey buy because they are attached to a brand, or a character, or a person they idolize at the comapny (Nintendo, Mario/Link/Samus/Pikachu, Miyomota) and could care less about the value per dollar. It’s the reason people can state facts about so many products that are not designed to give the buyer the value for their dollar (Nintendo, Apple, ect…) and be told, “You’re just a hater!” You could point out al lthe specs, stats and flaws in the world, but they’l just buy it anyway.
That is why Pachter keeps talking and being disproved by the buyers. He’s assuming everyone is the informed buyer. Not everyone cares though. They’ll by a Wii U or an iPhone 5 and eighteen months later they’ll buy the incremental upgrade model and say, “I got my money’s worth out of the last one, so it wasn’t a waste. Plus, I traded it in for credit towards the new model.”
And to be fair, this applies to the Xbox, PS3, most android phones and a bunch of other tech too. Few buyers buy tech for longevity anymore. In a year or so, they’ll just “trade-in and upgrade” and be suckered out of more cash.
I think Pachter may be right with this one, although I feel like with the surge of pre-orders is a good sign that Nintendo may be able to ride the initial sales train a little longer than half a year.
As long as the console is selling well, there’d be no point in minimizing profit with a random price drop. It’ll be interesting to see how well the console performs after the initial branding confusion (casual players mistaking the device as a peripheral rather than entirely new hardware), but the lack of separate Wii U gamepads at launch should minimize uninformed consumer casualties this Holiday season.
The next few months will be pivotal for Nintendo, but it’s a little too early to be calling for a price drop quite yet.
Oh, good call about the “uninformed consumer casualties” thing. Hadn’t thought of that aspect; I wonder how much of a part that played in Nintendo making that decision.
I’d imagine that it was a factor, but if there were games at launch that supported dual Gamepads they would have been obligated to offer them. Still, I think it’s a good move for the time being, and it’ll help make the uniformed aware that this is much more than just a tablet controller for the Wii.
Michael Pachter…isn’t this the guy that said DA2 would sell 5 million its first year? If so…yep this guy knows his stuff…
Michael Pachter is a clown.
However, he may be on to something here. If he sticks to his guns and still says we’ll see either the PS4 or 720 in 2013, I could see a Wii U price cut before hand to help boaster sales. Dropping the price to 249 and 299 before the holidays, not summer, could possibly give them a boost going in. That’s all speculative of course because for all we know, the Wii U might still be selling out at that time like we saw with the Wii.