Wii price drop to $199

[black04]

Nintendo on Thursday announced the first price cut for its Wii games console following declining sales and price competition from Microsoft and Sony.
The Japanese company said the price of the Wii would drop $50, or 20 percent, to $199.99 in the U.S. on Sunday. Its price is also being cut by 20 percent in Japan to Y20,000 from October 1, and the same will apply in Europe from October 2.
The Wii, launched in November 2006, had gone longer than any console in history without a cut of its initial price.
In March, however, it was overtaken in sales by Sony's PlayStation 3 in Japan and it has suffered dramatic declines in sales in the U.S. this year. In August, Nintendo sold 277,000 units in the U.S., down from 453,000 a year earlier, according to research firm NPD. The price cut will be seen as an attempt by the company to bolster sales of the Wii entering the crucial holiday season period.
"I wasn't expecting a price cut," said Haruhiro Tsujimoto, the president of publisher Capcom.
"I'm surprised and I welcome it," said Naoya Tsurumi, managing director of consumer business at Sega, which will publish Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games for the Wii next month. "I hope that this is very good news for us for Christmas."

[gtmofflin]

Yeah $200 US. Still costs more than the exchange rate it should in Australia.

[hippie pieces]

I'm suprised they are lowering the price of the Wii. I thought they would have a variety of colors before they dropped the price.

To me this means one of two things; 1) They are trying to sell a surge of systems to help with holiday software sales or 2) they are getting ready to release a update Wii (possibly Wii HD).

Of course industry analysts will spin it a little different but looking at the last two years of the Wii's sales it's obvious that the analysts know nothing.

[xrnzaaas]

Wii HD would be a bad move IMO, especially since current Wii users already have to buy Wii Motion Plus to enjoy all new games. With X360 & PS3 you don't have to buy any other hardware aside from all the things you get with the console. A lot of companies have tried to upgrade their consoles in the past (Jaguar with a CD drive, Nintendo 64 with an Expansion Pak) and failed in the long term, because people didn't want to have additional expences.