That header image just scared me sterile!!!

Wiiktendo is Weak. 50 dollar price drop wont really help them. Waggle is DEAD! Long live console gaming!!

"Quite why Nintendo feels the need to deny it when we know it's happening is beyond me."

Because they want to continue to sell as many at the higher price as they can before the price drop hits!

Who the fuck still doesn't have a Wii?

Will the price drop really make much of a difference in sales? Maybe at first, but otherwise, they are selling pretty well at $250. 20% cheaper doesn't seem like much of a difference for what is being marketed as a must have item.

The Wii will finally become what I've always felt what it should've been: An affordable innovative TOY that doubles as a Nintendo console, should you choose such path. It's somewhat of an exageration to think that just because Microsoft and Sony jumped on the motion-control train they'll beat the Wii. They may offer more compelling experiences, but they'll come at a much higher price. Natal's camera will NOT be cheap and Sony's wand requires the wand and the Eye Toy.

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...

If you're commenting on the price drop in this article, then you're doing it wrong.

$199 will probably seem over-priced by those who don't see the Wii as a "current-gen" console. I don't see the Wii selling to everybody until it's $129 dollars new, $99 used. At that point, even the most diehard Wii-hater will likely succumb to the ever-growing library of quality 3rd party games on the console.

That said, this price cut will definitely help the Wii to keep up with the PS3 and 360 this Christmas.

That must be IT's baby...

@ Springsteen- I wasn't just pulling that $129 price from my butt. From what I've heard, Nintendo still makes about $130 on every Wii that it sells at $250. If they price dropped to $129, they'd still be making a profit off every console.

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.

I wouldn't mind having a Wii. It's more of a stigma thing with me. I've never made it a point to own every console of a generation, and I think that's part of what's holding me back. There are a handful of Wii games that I would like to play, but there are also certain aspects of the console that really turn me off. I'm sure at some point I'll consider owning one, though I just may wait for the next generation of Nintendo consoles and hope for BC that will let me play the handful of really great first-party games that have come out for the Wii.

"confirmation was made during a retailer conference call today where a Nintendojo staffer was in attendance."


"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?

Good Lord, I can't believe people are still digging for reasons to bash the Wii. In a damn price-cut article. As for the actual price cut, $50 still makes it $100 cheaper than the competition, so it's still a good thing for them. Sure, $300 for a 360 or a PS3 is definitely tempting, but everyone who wanted a Wii already owns one at this point, so price-cut or not, Nintendo's still in the best spot right financially right now.

@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.

@ Monte

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.

"That must be IT's baby..."

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.

@HCapt
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).

@ Monte
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.

@ Fistfulofawesome -

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.

@HCapt (sorry if the following is scatter-brained)
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.

Wii Motionplus is definitely gonna make Wi games better, the reason the Wii is not so good with games is not because of the laziness of companies (or maybe it is), I think its because of the waggle. As for me I will get a Wii maybe next year.