trebors

CandyP2

Zunnoab

@Shteve: Yes, I know.

JustinS

chaseus

celery

Akio

Perfume and most beauty products are several hundred percent more expensive than what they actually cost tu produce, because people wouldn't buy them on the cheap. So in that case is make a good profit or don't sell well.When you sell silver, gold or anything that has something to do with jewery you sell them at least at double of the price that you paid for them so you can increase your busines and paid all your bills.

In the case of nintendo, sony, microsoft or any other megacorporation is the same, it just looks more dramatic for the amounts of money they manage. They sell you the stuff at the highest price they think most people are gonna pay, If their product slows down, they lower the price so more people get into it. That is not to benefit consumers nor loyals, is so they can still make money for them and their shareholders. That's why nintendo doesn't lower the price of the wii, and microsoft sells online play for 50 bucks and sony tv's are usually more expensive than others.

It would be crazy for nintendo to lower the price if people are buying their products by the bucketload. It would be silly because they sell out anyway and if they lower the price without a reason, not only they are losing a lot of revenue, they are gonna piss of the people that invest money on them.

Having said that.... I wan't an 89 dollars DS because i want to replace mine and i want it cheap. So make it happen, Nintendo!

Falsoman

Shteve

slacker164

Poor us.

Breedlovin

I've never heard of any company lowering the price of a product ONLY because it suddenly became cheaper to make. Its business people, not charity.

The only scenario I see the Wii getting a price cut is next holiday season, to either stick it to Sony and MS, or if the other two lower their prices more at that time.

The DS, however, is another story. It's been out in one form or another for YEARS, yet its still selling. I'm hoping for an announcement this E3 for the next incarnation. It seems only a new GB can lower the price on this one.

TKWarrior

Lainface

Foxstar Sixtail

Since they sold over half a million in the US alone last month they will not drop the price.

When the DS lite launched in Japan they raised the price on it. No DS Lite price drops have happened while the psp has dropped in price, been remodeled several times, launched in numerous colors, special game editions all in a attempt to boost sluggish sales of the psp.

Yetanotheruninspiredscreename

Considering that the wii is on track to sell 25 million more systems till March 2009 and will beat out the xbox 360 in the US in just a few months why would Nintendo cut down the price?

As for the supposed tie ratio tell me why does the wii tie-ratio keep increasing if the wii buyers only get it for wii sports? Answer is they don't they just need to be educated about games and come Decemeber they buy more games for the wii. It's a slow burn on the wii game buying but it is there.

The wii has a much better tie ratio then the xbox 360 and PS3 in Japan. It has a much larger tie ratio then the PS3 in the US. The wii tie ratio is drastically increasing in Europe as well.

Wii titles may not get into the top ten but they sell regardless in a slow burn that last year added 19 million sellers worldwide for a total of 25. Look at NPD figures when you look at the top ten no DS game listed however the DS stil managed to add 27 million selling games for a total of 57.

Nintendo is rumored to be increasing production of the wii to 2.4 million a month.

Also tie ratio lifetime wise is 6.07 wii games per wii. Meaning if things continue the wii tie ratio will increase past the xbox 360s.

The wii software sales for the past few months have been higher then the xbox 360s and don't even mention the PS3 which is in a huge software sales slump compared to the other two.

Yetanotheruninspiredscreename

Still it would be silly to do now with the Wii still being hard to find.

JustinS

People who couldn't save 250 dollars to begin with couldn't afford to buy retail games anyway. So big freaken deal learn how to manage money or pull yourself out of poverty.

Yetanotheruninspiredscreename

Haven't been keeping track of the wiiware and vc and even a number of wii retail games have you?

It's funny that there are wii developers who will tell you they showed off wii games to publishers and the publishers asked so this is for xbox 360 or PS3? When told it was for the wii the publisher refused to pick it up while if the game was first presented as for the xbox 360 or PS3 the publisher was interested.

Blame publishers not Nintendo or developers.

Yetanotheruninspiredscreename

Not this crap again. Bother to learn how Brawl online works. It's peer to peer meaning it's your connection that matters. If you have shit connection then your online is going to be shit and drag other people into your shitty game session as well.

Yetanotheruninspiredscreename

andrefil

I think that's why teh wii is doing so well.. because they're not worry about the need of a small population of people... there's a bigger picture out there.

Pawsie

The big difference is that the PS3 and 360 are aimed towards gamers, advertised to gamers and bought mainly by gamers (and people wanting a cheap Blu-Ray player that can also play games)... the Wii is bought by everyone else... and that's a lot larger demographic. Plus, gamers buy it on top of that... but besides the nostalgia campaign to entice old gamers, Nintendo is aiming bigger and more casual and that's the big payoff Their market doesn't know or care if the Wii is only barely more powerful than the GameCube.. most of them barely knows the GameCube even existed. So they see a gadget that allows them easily accessed, family friendly entertainment. As long as the PS3 costs an arm and a leg, and the 360 being confusing with 3 SKUs for the non-initiated, Nintendo doesn't even have to worry about them... and even if they'd fix that, they're still not aiming for the same demographic.

Now if they could only start developing some new interesting franchises for all this money.... but public demand will probably take them deeper into the Wii Fit track and similar... since that will probably outsell Metroid, Marios and Zeldas pooled together before the end...

The Whaleman

DarkLuigi

...and we're both right. The advantages and disadvantages of different consoles (price, new input methods, ease of use, good graphics, full-featured online) appeal to different people.

quen

In the US, though, 360 is still in the game. I'd think Nintendo might need to answer a 360 price cut there... but only some time after they get to a situation where stock stays on shelves for more than an hour.

quen

sitsalot

greeble

But ironically by the time all the 360 and PS3 price cuts hit...they'll still be just as expensive as the Wii after it's one.

TRT-X

ca$h

juliopalio

juliopalio

Sailorcancer

Same with the 360. I didn't get that until I hit a point where there were a TON of games coming out for it that I wanted (with the final straw being Rock Band)

TRT-X

Roto13

"the Wii is priced much higher than it's worth"

Basic economics would like a word with you. That sentence makes no sense whatsoever. "Worth" being a relative term, and the Wii being consistantly sold it means, that a huge number of consumers have deemed the Wii "worth" every penny.

Why must people confuse cost with value (worth)?

subnet6

Northernsky

Heyyou27

Struct09

cheeses

Heyyou27

The Wii is expected to sell tens of millions of units through March 2009.

In one year the Nintendo video games division made more money then Sony's division responsible for the Playstation 1, Playstation 2, Playstation 3, PSP has for the last ten years.

Sony has lost billions on the PS3.

The model that Sony and Microsoft use in regards to gaming is something only a huge corporation can maintain and only up to a certain point. The PS3 might be Sony's last console and as for Microsoft they may decide not to do another console either if things continue on their present courseas well.

Yetanotheruninspiredscreename

That's where capitalism benefits. Take a risk and fail... or make shit-tons of cash.

nastysquared

They do this by scooping up Wii when possible and going straight to the secondary market. If the "eBay people" who did this were to simply walk away, the Wii wouldn't be plentiful...but it sure wouldn't be impossible.

And for the record, I was in a GameStop that had a collection of Wii that it had been selling from for the past few days...and a Target in the same town (along with a Wal-Mart and a Best Buy) have all had Wii on and off over the past few months.

At this point the scarcity is being driven by the secondary market, which is then gaining a boost by impatient buys looking to the secondary market.

@Heyyou27: I don't see how Nintendo selling a system for profit is a bad thing. The fact they can sell a console for a good portion less than the competitor (and on, the stripped down Arcade doesn't count) and still turn a profit is a great business model.

With PS3 costing $600 out of the gate, they couldn't afford the backlash that would've come had they tried to sell it at cost.

At the end of the day, business is about making money. If they can do that and still release a reasonable priced console, then more power to them.

TRT-X

Pawsie

The Whaleman

Nintendo will 'never' cut the price... they don't have to. It'll always be teh cheapest system out there... and they're still in high demand.

if the PS3 was selling this well, they wouldn't need to cut the price either.

The entire purpose of this business is to make money... some people thought they had to make a trade.. sell the system at your expensive.. but get money through games -- nintendo didn't have to do that.. so nothing but profit.

Pawsie

GOD

The Whaleman

TitillatedOcelot

Grinman

flubbity

A dream that we should all aspire for.

Antihippy

You drop price to raise demand. Nintendo doesn't need to raise demand. It's struggling to meet it already. Once the DS and Wii sales have slowed down a bit then expect a price drop. When that is I have no idea at all. I can easily see no Wii price drop until around April next year actually. Get through this holiday at $250. Then drop the price after holiday sales have died down etc.

You can guarntee if the PS3 was constantly selling out the price would still be $600.

Zim

Brawl online blows and no press statement yet. NOTHING. Yet, they will talk to kingdom come about how great the Wii is.

Kempatsu

Llost

Heyyou27

That logic would mean that others are rewarded for my hard work (i.e. early adopting). This already happens with any tech - early buyers subsidize later price cuts, but to say its a reward for loyalty does't make any sense whatsover.

GMC

Weirdwolf

SAKY

And yeah, reducing price at this point would make things worse for the Wii availability. In fact if this was some other commodity like pizza then the business would ideally raise the price of the pizza until supply could meet demand (as demand would decrease in response to the increase price). Nintendo doesn't want to do that because it would generate bad publicity and although they are doing really well they can't afford any slip ups against Microsoft and Sony in this generation if they want still be competitive in the next gen of consoles. But what sucks is that this shortage is the kind of slip up they can't afford to have, I'm sure they really wish they had enough Wii consoles to meet demand. Anyway that's my 2 cents.

Usama

Nintendo has no reason to cut the costs. They sold like hotcakes out of the gate. They also priced it in a way that made it a hell of a lot easier for consumers to pick up. Toss in the fact that they've tapped a whole new market segment (or three) and you can see why there isn't any need for Nintendo to cut costs. If either of the other Big Three consoles start cutting into their market share, you'll see a price drop. Right now, that isn't the case.

TitillatedOcelot

And look how it's still twice as expensive as the Wii.

Or are you talking about the 40GB version? Or the 60GB? Wait, maybe it was the 80GB...or the second 60GB....or the...*brain explodes*

TRT-X

zebber

"Duh."

Why would they?

lionkitten

What do you mean sold out? You get reward points by purchasing games, not buying cards from retail stores.

milmoe

Even then, they're selling really well and Nintendo could of cut the price from day 1 and take a loss on sales but they refuse. They've had room to lower the price since day 1.

So, this sounds about right.

karasu is my homeboy

Well stated. For me, it's not the band I hate...it's their fans.

TitillatedOcelot

Relative to their value... What kind of crazy talk is that?

iamcool388

You contradicted yourself, and have you ever heard of the phrase "It's business not pleasure"

Schoolimangooli the doogie mag goosie!

Travezy

My point was that if people didn't buy the Wii in ridiculous numbers we'd be able to see Nintendo actually do something for the consumer. It's my opinion that a business that only gives back to the consumer when they want more money is a bad business. It's all business in reality but that's just my opinion.

Llost

littletad

@Foxstar Sixtail: Yeah I guess your right.

@milmoe: I've seen that club as my girlfriend has a Wii, it's remarkebly inept at everything. From having the reward cards constantly sold out to having nothing else particularly rewarding it's a bad service. It's free so I'm not complaining I'm just saying that's what I think of that.

@Travezy: I don't have the impression that business is charity, I have the impression that companies should try in some way to price there consoles relative to there value rather than blatently profit. Sony did have to do it but was that then not great for consumers, and is Sony not actually now doing great things? Soon it'll even be profitable.

Llost

I mean, god forbid you figure out a good price point for your product and stick to it. I guess people prefer it when a company launches their console at stupid-hundred dollars and then plays musical chair pricing trying to catch up with consumers. Really, it benefits no-one and shafts the early adopters--is that called being good to your core customer base nowadays?

celery

Cchrist

also that picture still creeps the hell out of me D:

(俗・ ) Grey Gecko

Travezy

okenny :)

milmoe

StarStabbedMoon

You don't give back to the consumers via price cuts, you do so via good games or fantastic promos. Both of those take money and unlike the other two, Nintendo's profits tend to go directly back into it's games and not to cover losses by some other dept.

Foxstar Sixtail

KM91

Llost

quen

Salen

Mara

enewtabie

Foxstar Sixtail

Foxstar Sixtail

Excellent writing, you sound like Tyler Durden, and once again this pick has eat my soul.

Schoolimangooli the doogie mag goosie!

Llost