Okay, we get it, the Wii is having a price cut. Quite why Nintendo feels the need to deny it when we know it's happening is beyond me. Sony and Microsoft do this as well, where the evidence is pointing to a price cut or new SKU that everybody knows is coming, but they'll simply keep denying it. It must be a power thing. Like, they won't tell us when they're ready for fear of looking weak.
Anyway, the latest sign of a price cut comes in the form of an allegation that Nintendo itself confirmed a cheaper Wii behind closed doors to a number of retailers. Not only that, but the platform holder is also supposed to have announced a date, with the Wii dropping to $199 on September 27.
Whether Nintendo confirms this or not doesn't really matter. Once these rumors start, they won't stop until the price cut actually happens, so the "Big N" can deny it all it wants. The real question is this: How badly will it undermine the efforts of Sony and Microsoft when it finally happens?
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
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Contest:
11:00 AM on 09.20.2009
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It must be computer generated or altered.
MUST BE.
PLEASE.
FOR THE SAKE OF HUMANITY!
They need an amazing RPG like Mother 4, and to pretty much adopt a real controller as the primary controller imo.
Uh... the Wii is a console, and thus it's still considered console gaming.
And from the sales figures, waggle isn't dead and the fifty dollars will inevitably help them.
Because they want to continue to sell as many at the higher price as they can before the price drop hits!
Nobody has been waiting for a Wii console though. The PS3 has been unaffordable for a lot of people until now. The Wii has always been affordable so I can't see why it would help boost their sales. All the little kids got their Wii the last couple of Chrsitmases so they'll be wanting a 360 or PS3, not a waggle box.
The cycle of destruction continues...
At this price, neglecting the console becomes stupid from a core gamer point of view. Skipping a generation of undoubtable (potential) gaming masterpieces like any main Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Super Smash, Star Fox, F-Zero and Pikmin outing is just NOT hardcore and shows that your passion for gaming is compromised by the passion for your current console.
Now, if only Nintendo kept up with the pace when it comes to software...
I got my Wii, my unopened Super Mario Galaxy, unfinished Metroid Corruption, hardly played Super Smash, and amazing 10/10 stars Twilight Princess. Where's the F-Zero, Pikmin, Star Fox, and Mother at? I love Nintendo and hate to see how it's failing in my eyes. I don't judge success by sales like most people here though. Honestly I loath turning on my Wii whereas I have to struggle to not turn on my ps3, which is considered in "last place" yet has my favorite library of exclusive games.
Motherrrrr Can you keep them in the dark for liiiiife Can you hide them from the waiting world...
That said, this price cut will definitely help the Wii to keep up with the PS3 and 360 this Christmas.
I think you are mistaken, Holmes. It was the price cuts on the 360 and PS3 that would have helped those consoles keep up with the Wii. The Wii was always going to take this holiday season again, but now it won't even be a close race.
Although this generation is a unique one, the Wii follows some trends of generations past. While the 360 and PS3 price were resultant from the reduced manufacture prices of barely profitable consoles, the Wii shows the clear signs of a price-cut determined by fear of competition and worsening sales. This is a last-hour price cut to try and not make the holiday season a traumatizing one. I, for one, believe that the Wii is way, way weaker than it ever was and Nintendo has grown unfamiliar to being anywhere else than the undeniable top. It needs a shake, not a boost. And a shake, this price cut is not.
@dwolfwood:I totally get your point. Having also a PS3 I found that with the Wii you kind of have to deserve the pleasures its games bring. It's not something I DESIRE to play, but once I do, I'm always amused at how good they've gotten at it. The lack of HD graphics is, deffinitely, a huge bummer and there's a certain thing about Wii games that makes them less inviting than my PS3 ones. As much I deffinitely much prefer them for their mastery at game development, gameplay, "gamey-feel" and pacing, there's something that makes me not feel much like turning it on.
As for this Holiday season, I think the Wii will still do great. New Super Mario Bros Wii is going to be huge. For many who grew up on the NES but have not yet bought a Wii, it'll be a system seller.
I mean, what did the DS version of the game end up selling worldwide? 20 million? Take that number and plug it into the ratio between Mario Kart Wii's 17 million in sales sales and Mario Kart DS's 15 million, and you can see how New Super Mario Bros Wii may end up selling over 20 in its lifetime.
"All original content ©1996 - 2009 Nintendojo.com Nintendojo is an independent website and is not affiliated with Nintendo of America or Nintendo Co."
...
How does that work?
I used to think a wii was worth the cost, but at this point i'd take a $300 PS3 or 360 anyday... The $130 Holmes mentioned, sounds like how low it'd have to go before i seriously consider buying a wii instead of one of those.
@xiaolinstyle
"Wiiktendo?" Really? That's the best you could come up with? You're the one who invented such classics as "PS360," aren't you? And "Long live console gaming?" The Wii's a console, dude. Nintendo thanks you for your support, I'm sure.
This price cut (which is nearly guaranteed at this point) is seriously the dumbest thing Nintendo has done since last year's Wii Music debacle. All this says is that Nintendo has lost their confidence, and are trying the rookie tactic of price cut to get back sales. Sales would have gone back up with the release of NSMBW (hell, they were already going up thanks to WSR).
S/M were no threat. Nintendo's majority customers (the expanded market gamers) don't see anything worthwhile on the HD Twins. They would see them as copycats that wouldn't have the games they wanted. Hardcore gamers (the most vocal "buyers") would never be satisfied by the Wii until it took the same dead-end, "Hardcore" path as the other systems, and they would still hate it (GameCube).
Strike one was releasing Wii Music, a game with a heavy-focus on User-Generated Content (in other words, No Content), that killed the Wii's momentum. Strike two is this price drop, which shows the customers that the Wii's value is seen as less by the company itself. Nintendo will still reign on top, and it'll sell the Wii and DS in bonkers numbers (to the fury of the "Hardcore). But they better not strike out again, or that will truly be the end of the Wii and of gaming itself (S/M sure don't seem interested in expanding gaming. They'll let it shrink and ring out what they can until it's no more).
P.S. (Whistles) (Whistles) (Whistles) BABOOM!: http://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/
Personally, I don't think there is any system this gen worth it's price point at the moment. The PS3 isn't as good as the PS2, and the latter STARTED at a price point of $300. If PS2s were the same price as PS3s I would honestly have to go with the PS2, in spite of being three years into the PS3 life cycle. I would say the same about the 360, but it has Halo multiplayer. I could care less about Call of Duty, Halo is simply set up much better, in a way that allows local guests to play with you on Xbox live. That is probably the single most important and underrated feature of Halo 3. Now the Wii line-up isn't stellar, and I wouldn't compare it to the PS2, but once the wii ruined dual analogue stick FPS's for me, I found it's line-up much stronger than the frankly somewhat pathetic PS3 and Xbox 360 line-ups. And by pathetic, I mean the flood of Call of Duty, Halo, Guitar Hero and Rock Band games. After that is the flood of gritty realistic games with highly complex controls. There are very few games that are bright, colorful, fun, and easy to pick up on the PS3 or the Xbox 360.
I think I hate this generation of consoles. The DS has a better library than all three systems combined anyway.
Actually, I read him too. Then I thought about it. One of the crucial points he makes is about how Blue Oceans turn red, so I thought about whether or not that was happening.
I don't pretend to know much about Sony's Eye Pet, but what I've seen makes me think it is an expanded market games. In fact, it strikes me as a beefed up version of nintendogs, designed to appeal to non-gamers. Not only that, but the Wii can't ever have anything similar to it because it doesn't have a camera that could let you interact like that. I also notice it's coming out about a month after this price cut (and about two months after the PS3 price cut).
Do you think Nintendo is worried eyepet will do for Sony what Nintendogs did for Nintendo?
The clown from IT is named Pennywise. I will not stand for Tim Curry role misinformation. I simply WON'T.
That said, holy fuck! Between this and the book John Dies at the End, I'll never look at Ronald McDonald the same way ever again. D:
And I gave my Wii to my mother until more games I want come out, so a big fat "whatever" at the price drop. Work on making more than three non-shit games per year first, Nintendo.
Actually, Microsoft and Sony don't exactly match up to that either. It's mostly because the third parties are admittedly arbitrarily making better games for the PS3 and 360 that causes the Wii library to be so bad.
I doubt Sony and Microsoft would have impressive systems either if their best third party games were "Zack and Wiki" and "World of Goo".
They're nice trailers, but I'm not sure anything will come to fruition with that game. Let me detail why Nintendogs sold so well, then compare that to what Eye Pet will do (based on the trailer).
Nintendogs sold primarily to people who wanted to have the experience of having a dog, who for various reasons couldn't (parents wouldn't allow, didn't have the time to devote fully to care).
Assuming that pet, or something like it will be in Eye Pet, I can't see that filling a need. Kids (and people) want to take care of real animals, not some little monkey-dog.
Nintendogs has a realized world and goals that coincided with the care of a pet. This helped keep up the illusion of owning a dog (which is what people bought the game for).
Will Eye Pet do this? Will it be able to create a little room for the dog or competitions for it to participate in (Nintendogs don't live in limbo.)? The trailer simply shows it bounding around on a white table, and coming into existence from nowhere. Can I be made to believe it's a real animal that needs my care (for 10 minutes a day at least)?
Building off that, being on the DS gave it a sense of feeling. You could physically interact with the dog using the stylus, something that wasn't readily available before on other systems.
No real feel on the pet in Eye Pet. You're petting air.
Finally, portability. Tamagotchis sold immensely in the 90's for their ability to make you feel like you were taking care of a living creature (even if not one that exists in real life) and for letting you do that anywhere. Nintendogs is on the DS which allows it to accomplish the same things (with the addition of being about a real animal too).
Eye Pet doesn't have that. It's confined to the home.
So, as nice as those trailers are, I don't think Nintendo has anything to worry about Eye Pet. While they're only trailers, I doubt Sony understands why Nintendogs (and Tamagotchi's in the past) sold so well. Their game looks like a quirky copycat with less desirable content and ease-of-use(that's from what I gather from the trailers they've released).
I think I agree, but I'm not sure. I tried to look up the sales data for the Petz games, but it seems that vgchartz information is incomplete. So all I know is that Ubisoft makes enough money of the games to make about 40 of them. Now they are the classic example of the toy dog, and there's 40. Unfortunately, I do not know anything about eyepet, but I do know Nintendo cannot copy it with their system, which gives it asymetry.
Personally, I think it is nothing as well. But it has been 3 years of blue ocean, and profittable blue oceans must eventaully become red oceans. I suspect that eye pet is too quirky as well, and I suspect it won't be very good or popular. But it also looks like a well polished attempt to access the expanded market. I am wondering why Nintendo is having a price cut, and I don't think the reason is due to competitors cutting their prices or because of lack-luster sales; they must know that a price cut won't help it much. The most logically reason to me is that Nintendo percieves a shift to red ocean in the near future; prior to Christmas (otherwise the cut would happen after the hollidays).
The Petz series doesn't sell as well as Nintendogs because they're nowhere near as good of games as Nintendogs is. The quality is obviously lower all around. Still, they sell well enough because they're still decent (but not great) copycats of a more popular game. They're essentially the store brand bread compared to Nintendo's Sara Lee.
Blue-Ocean is to sell to the customers, to always give them what they need. Red-Ocean is to undercut the competition. This price cut is another steer toward the Red-Ocean of competition directly with competitors to sell to customers what is already available, rather than the Blue-Ocean strategy of finding what the customers need that they don't have and thinking of them only (screw the competition).
Truth is, the price cut of the Wii is nothing more than a Red-Ocean move. Nintendo has no reason to fear S/M with their price cuts, since they don't offer anything that Nintendo's customers want. Yet, some big wigs at the company allowed the old, Red-Ocean tactics to seep back into their brains and scare them into this price cut.
Perhaps it had to do with Wii Music's failure. The Wii lost it's momentum and Nintendo was left confused by the abysmal sales of that game (and the declining Wii sales that came afterwards). In this moment of confusion they forgot the Blue Ocean (well, the kind-of already did with Wii Music, but they didn't realize it at the time), and allowed the Red-Ocean to seep back in and make such a stupid decision. When NSMBW releases and sells out in days, Nintendo is going to realize what a dumb mistake they made. Hopefully, this will cause them to readjust themselves back to the Blue-Ocean.
Yes because there isn't much difference between the Tiger Woods with M+ and the PS3/360 versions AT ALL.
Last time I checked, stuff like RE4 is on PS2's top 25 list (at IGN, in the top 3 I believe as well) yet the GC version is arguably better, was released first on the GC (was originally an exclusive). So your moronic point is invalid.
Over the last couple of years prices of hdtvs going down and antanea fading out, and people needing to either buy new tvs or get cable tv, the 360 and ps3 just appeal more. If you have an hd tv you might as well buy a ps3 for the blu-ray feature, at the very least it's a blu-ray player(it also helps blu ray movies are going down in price). As opposed to the 360 which is just useless if you find out you don't like it.
Both the 360 and ps3 have in my opinion better cross platform games than the wii. I mean seriously try playing the wii version of force unleashed as compared to the the ps3 or 360 version. It's a crappy piece of shit that barely looks better than some mid range ps2 games.
Nintendo made some good games on the wii, muramasa looks pretty good on the wii, and that's aboutit... Party games might be a different story, but in those situation I think it's the people that make it fun not the actual game most of the time.
All in all until the shovelware stops coming on to the wii, or people start making some badass games on the wii, things don't look to hot for it. I'm looking more forward to wii hd than another wii game at the moment.
I don't disagree per se, but once again, one of the fundamental ideas behind blue oceans is that blue oceans become red oceans. How many billions does Nintendo get to make before the ocean becomes red? And what will the first competitor's software look like?
Microsoft and Sony are well behind Nintendo on the issue of attempting to gain the expanded market. I'm sure their sales departments are begging them to make games that appeal to the new, wider audience. And they both like money, so we know that they are attempting to gain access to that market.
When do you think we'll see Sony and microsoft (or someone else) trying to appeal to everybody?
@ The Dark Herald - Personally, I wouldn't consider muramasa a particularly good game; although I haven't played it I can tell it has nothing on Grand Theft Auto. If you have a Wii, and haven't bought any virtual console games, you aren't going to have much fun. However, If you do buy virtual console games, than Donkey Kong Country 2 is pretty awesome, and Super Mario Bros. 3 may still be the best game of all time in it's own way. As in, in spite of having not played it when it came out and thus having no nostalgia attached to it whatsoever, I still liked it more than GTA4.
How's that for Blue Ocean??
I think Motion Plus is Nintendo trying to clean up the ocean of any redness that has occurred so far. With few people other than them trying to make Blue-Ocean games (and even they haven't done spectacularly there), it's started to look like a small selection of not-great third party games, of both "casual=retard" and "blood/quirky=hardcore" variety, competing for the same dollars. It won't work immediately, but perhaps with near 1/1 control third parties will actually start making games that customers want.
Anyway, how long does the Wii keep getting to make money until it can't anymore? As long as it remains high-value in the eyes of the customer. That means Nintendo keeps making games that people want. Of course, if other companies do start offering equal experiences (don't look for S/M to do this. If anyone, it would be the Apple and the IPhone Touch or EA with Peter Moore's fantastic understanding of Nintendo's success(though that's still not the very best they could get in competition, since Apple isn't a game-company specifically, and EA isn't a HardWare company)), then the Ocean will become bloody with all companies offering similar products, only being able to undercut others to prove their value.
I don't see that happening for a while for Nintendo if they steer back to Blue-Ocean and spend the rest of the Wii's life there (7-12 more years if done right). But eventually if Nintendo's smart they'll kill the Wii the right way, with a superior product, not the wrong way they've been doing lately, with devaluing the current product.
As for competitors products, I don't expect to see anything of real interest from S/M. That Eye Pet game you directed me to already looks like a quirky knock-off of Nintendogs that doesn't understand why that game sold. Microsoft also doesn't understand why Nintendo games sell, since as early as NXE they've been ripping and getting wrong what Nintendo has done (Avatars are bigger and "better" Mii's. They don't have any original look to them. Don't look for retro game shirts in 20 years to feature Avatars). All I see from S/M are copycats. A real competitor to the Wii wouldn't copy it. It would destroy it.