The DS received a price drop — ages ago. But it happened. The Wii, however, is still selling for the price it had when it launched in late 2006.
Wii sales are slowing down, and at the recent Nintendo investor's meeting, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata was asked this during the Q&A: "Tell me if you are now thinking about cutting the hardware price."
"It's not the case of the quality of hardware moved, the feeling of missing strong competitive power, lacking its luster or poor sales," replied Iwata. "Consistently, big time titles will be released in the marketplace for this hardware. When that stops, to reinvigorate the console, or to put it another way, I think the current decline in hardware sales is due to the fact that there aren't many big titles (at the moment)."
Does that mean Nintendo is going to cut the hardware price tag? "Right now," Iwata concluded, "there aren't a lot of discussions going on about what exactly to do about hardware pricing."
It sounds like Iwata isn't blaming the Wii or the Wii's price tag for Wii sales during the April - June financial quarter, but the lack of new, big titles. Wii Sports Resort was released in late June, and the title is expected to help console sales.
In a way, Iwata's focus on game titles to move consoles is good news for gamers: It means that Nintendo is focused less on price tags and more on the titles themselves. Good games mean good sales, and that's good for everyone, no?