Wii RRP under pressure

The RRP of Wii is looking shakier than ever – as retail dramatically slashes the price of Nintendo’s console and Microsoft drops its powerful 360 Elite to under 200.

The trade this week told MCV that a drop this Q4 could be the only way for Nintendo to regain its edge” over PS3 and Xbox 360.

Both rival consoles have been re-launched at new prices, with Microsoft’s 120GB Elite available for just 199 – closer than ever to the price of Nintendo’s console.

Wii has been one of the most successful consoles in history,” Bethesda MD Sean Brennan told MCV. Nintendo will need to adapt their pricing strategy as demand slows down due to the competition, difficult economic conditions and the fact that it’s not quite as innovative and fresh as it once was. I suspect, though, that Nintendo will not be as reactive to recent price drops as we might like.”

Analysts have already begun speculating on what
the movement of Wii’s new pricetag will be – with whispers from the likes of Altium Securities that it will hit 149 in Q4, down 50 from its current trade price.

However, Nintendo told MCV that it had no plans to introduce a price cut on any platform before Christmas”.

Supermarket giants Sainsbury’s and Asda slashed the price of Nintendo Wii to below 150 this week, meaning all three consoles did battle at lowest-ever prices.

If Nintendo wants to regain the edge that they had previously, a price cut is something they have to look at,” added Codemasters MD Jeremy Wigmore.

It’s known that the Wii isn’t as graphically advanced as PS3 or 360, but they’ve always had the unique advantage of the hardware being less expensive.”

Nintendo maintained that it would not react to the price cuts of its rivals’ systems.

A spokesperson told MCV: We feel with their current configurations Wii, DS and DSi all offer fantastic value for money. Competitor activity, as ever, will have no impact on our plans.”