Wii U price 'is right' thanks to Nintendo Land
Nintendo argues that the inclusion of Nintendo Land adds enough value to the $349 Wii U to counter the $399 PS4 this holiday.
Retailers are "rebalancing" their Wii U inventory to focus largely on the Deluxe 32GB model. According to Nintendo, the $349 bundle has been outselling the more value-oriented $299 system.
At $349 however, the current price of Wii U is dangerously close to the upcoming PS4. Sony recently announced that their next-gen console will launch this year for $399. That doesn't give Nintendo much of an edge. However, Nintendo of America senior director of corporate communications Charlie Scibetta argued that the inclusion of Nintendo Land makes a compelling argument for Wii U.
When asked if Wii U can be competitive priced against the PS4, Scibetta told us: "Well, you do get an included game with our Deluxe 32GB SKU. You automatically have software to enjoy right out of the box."
"We believe our value proposition is right for both our 8GB and 32GB models," he added. "With the software that's coming out between now and 2014, we have the software to power the hardware. We had a good launch, but as we've said before, we've had to hold some titles back from the first half of 2013 to the second half and that was for quality reasons."
Without a price drop, Wii U will be available this holiday for $349 with a line-up that includes Super Mario 3D World and The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD. PS4 will launch for $399 with Killzone: Shadow Fall and Driveclub.
-
Shacknews
replyAndrew Yoon posted a new article, Wii U price 'is right' thanks to Nintendo Land.
Nintendo argues that the inclusion of Nintendo Land adds enough value to the $349 Wii U to counter the $399 PS4 this holiday.-
I love Nintendo, but come on dudes.
NintendoLand is all good and fun, but I don't think it would do well as a $50 standalone title or is even a main deciding factor for deluxe vs. basic set. You guys desperately need an install base more than anything right now, especially since almost all of your AAA titles aren't going to show up until next Spring. A price drop before the PS4 launches could do just that. -
[deleted]
-
[deleted]
-
----\\\_____O_o/-----------
-
-
[deleted]
-
-
-
-
They should be doing better on the software side. I really don't get why they haven't expanded their first party studios by now.
-
-
They evidently don't do much of anything if that's the case. ZombiU from Ubisoft was pretty much the only thing of note at launch with nothing else on the horizon. If they can't get shit lined up for the launch of their own console then they've got their heads planted up their asses.
-
-
-
-
[deleted]
-
[deleted]
-
I think $349 is the right price, but Nintendo needs the right game in the bundle. This Christmas, pull NintendoLand and package in Super Mario 3D World or--since they'll likely want to sell droves of that game separately from the hardware--New Super Mario U. Make it a Mario Christmas.
-
Nintendo, Go Home.
-
haha they are delusional!
-
-
-
-
Nintendo is in a building by the ocean, and the ocean has a boat in it? Perfectly relevant!
-
[deleted]
-
lol
This is what I get when I post before I have coffee...
-
-
-
-
[deleted]
-
[deleted]
-
Well played Nintendo...NOT.
-
With NintendoLand (which I feel is a perfectly acceptable party game), NSMBU, Sonic Racing, ZombiU, Tekken Tag 2, everything I've gotten on the eShop, and the rest of the 2013 line up; I feel like the system has been a good purchase. Maybe not an insane value, but not regrettable at all.
-
-
[deleted]
-
Probably. I mean if there were other games to buy.
I suspect they will do a price drop. I wouldn't be surprised if they drop 100 before the holiday. Here's how they should do it:
1) discontinue the base model.
2) drop the price of the 349 model to 249 and pull Nintendo Land out.
3) Sell Nintendo Land for $9.99-19.99
4) Potentially offer a new bundle at the 349 price point. Bigger HDD maybe? Package Nintendo Land and, say, Zombi U or something like that. Now you get 2 games, a bigger HDD (64GB maybe) and it's cheaper than your competitors.
You don't need to go toe-to-toe with the PlayStation or Xbox. You need to offer a different - unique experience, which it can easily do. That's why Wii beat the 360 and PS3. Call it a gimmick, but it caught fire and forced Sony and Microsoft to do something similar. Had developers done a better job implementing the Wii play style better it probably could have done even better. AAA titles seemed to leave the Wii and it became kind of a garbage dump full of shovel ware and half-assed games. And it's popularity dropped off as its aged continued to show.
Nintendo can still pull it out. When you own IPs like Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros and other Mario titles, you can easily bounce back, but they need to draw interest from other developers or they need to step up their own game and start giving gamers more than just another Mario game. -
-
[deleted]
-
