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Why a Wii U price cut wouldn't make sense

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goldenpp72

goldenpp72

Member
Spira said:
So they're stuck in between a rock and a hard place. Honestly who's going to want a wii u after November? I see their sales slowing down even more than they already are.

C'mon Nintendo I hate to see you like this.
Click to expand...

People who want to play all the Nintendo games coming out probably.
 
TDLink

TDLink

Member
Crakatak187 said:
W101 is a niche. It'll most likely flop like Pikmin 3. The good games doesn't come out until 2014.
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Being niche doesn't mean the game is bad. Wonderful 101 looks to be a great action game. It sucks if people ignore it for dumb reasons but it doesn't change the fact that Wii U will have at least one exclusive good hardcore game this year.

Mlatador said:
You mean almost irrelevant?

8GB is enough for anyone who only plans to buy DLC and E-Shop games.

32 GB is of course better, but anyone who goes digital only will need a bigger hard drive anyway.

But what if you are in-between? Someone who only occasionally buys a digital retail game, but DLC and E-Shop games frequently?

Well, easy: Get a basic + 16 GB micro SD + Mircro SD usb card reader ( 10 + 1,50 dollar extra). That way you have a Wii U with 24 GB of storage space for only 12 - 13 dollar more
Click to expand...

Yeah absolutely not. Keep in mind that on the Basic you really only have about 3 GB of space because the OS takes up the rest. No I am not joking. The "8 GB" model is shit and will only be enough for game saves. The Deluxe's space is going to be fine for people who only get DLC, eShop games, and VC games. If you want more than 1 or 2 digital versions of retail games you are going to need an external HDD with either model.
 
F

FauX

Member
The best solution to Nintendo have a price cut: REDUCE PRODUCTION COST.

How could Sony/Ms are able to sustain better production cost on current/next gen than Nintendo???

Demographics also play an important role on this: Casual gamer won't buy a Ninty Console anymore when there are cheaper hardware to play those kind of games. Hardcore N fans won't buy it either because they're waiting for a price cut or the prime lineup games from first party software.

Nintendo can't justified price anymore with the inminent launch of next gen consoles.

Nintendo need to take a serious bet to get out of this mess... Iwata's bad decissions will kill the company.

BTW, OP I like your analysis, very interesting to read even when I'm not agree with.
 
N

NervousXtian

Thought Emoji Movie was good. Take that as you will.
Any one saying a $50 price drop would get them to buy a Wii U is fooling themselves.

If you wanted one, you'd have one.

$50 isn't why you don't have a Wii U

You don't have one because it is a poorly spec'd system with an (already dated) touchscreen game-pad that has a poor selection of games.

At this point, right now.. I'm not sure I'd pick one up for $150.
 
TDLink

TDLink

Member
NervousXtian said:
Any one saying a $50 price drop would get them to buy a Wii U is fooling themselves.

If you wanted one, you'd have one.

$50 isn't why you don't have a Wii U

You don't have one because it is a poorly spec'd system with an (already dated) touchscreen game-pad that has a poor selection of games.

At this point, right now.. I'm not sure I'd pick one up for $150.
Click to expand...

Not really. Honestly having a PC and plans to get a PS4 the specs don't bother me at all. I just picked up my Wii U off eBay last week for $265, which is a price I deem reasonable for the system. I was not going to pay the $350. I'm enjoying it now with Pikmin and looking forward to Wonderful 101 in the near future and Donkey Kong, X, and Bayonetta on the horizon.

I think the hardware is actually pretty solid and I like the Gamepad as a device quite a bit. It is very comfortable and feels natural. The usage it has is in Pikmin is also really cool.

Maybe for some people the specs do matter but honestly I doubt it is a big factor for most people off of GAF, and even many people on GAF. It definitely wasn't for me.

The two reasons I didn't want it before was lack of worthwhile software and price. Now that the software I want is rolling out I looked into picking one up. I found one at a price I thought was more acceptable. Both requirements fulfilled, thus I got one. I have a strong feeling many are in the same position.
 
I

IdreamofHIME

Member
I have my console, i dont care about price drops. They're not gonna get the 3rd parties back, especially with them moving onto the PS4/XBONE.
So the WiiU becomes a Nintendo only machine, which I have no problem with.

The only way I think they could have turned things around would have been releaing Mario Kart 8 this holiday, but they decided on Mario World instead. That will hurt them in the long term more a lack of price cut.
 
S

Sho_Nuff82

Member
RagnarokX said:
Yes, what 3rd party must-haves are coming out this year that are exclusive for PS4 or at least aren't also coming to PS3, 360, Wii U, PC?

And Knack is? The point is the amount of interesting titles you need a PS4 to play is very small and limited. Logically it should be less compelling to more people than Wii U's large library should be.

Also keep in mind that the person I originally replied to claimed to be a member of Nintendo's core demographic.
Click to expand...

Realistically speaking, PS4 3rd party games will be much better than last-gen versions and slightly worse than (high end) PC. People will buy the PS4/One to play upgraded versions of big 3rd party games like Battlefield, CoD, Madden, FIFA, and Assassin's Creed. Almost no one buys Wii U cross-platform games because there are little to no compelling reasons for a PS360 owner to "upgrade" to Nintendo's platform for identical graphics and generally worse online integration.

As far as Nintendoland goes, it carries about as much weight as a pack-in as UNO does for the 360. If it meant anything at all, the Wii U wouldn't be selling 30k a month. If Nintendo is at all serious about reducing the perceived value gap, they'd be better off with a game that actually reviewed well, like Pikmin or NSMB U.
 
F

Freezie KO

Banned
FauX said:
How could Sony/Ms are able to sustain better production cost on current/next gen than Nintendo???
Click to expand...

Isn't this because Nintendo had to custom build architecture to be backwards compatible with Wii? Meanwhile, Sony and MS said "fuck it. let them eat cake."

I guess this shuts the door on BC ever being considered relevant though.
 
S

Solid SOAP

Member
I have bought every Nintendo system since the SNES, and I currently have no incentive to buy a Wii U as of now. Speaking clearly as a fan, everything Nintendo is putting out just looks so... safe. Mario 3D World is just more Mario, same with Mario Kart and NSMBU. Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze looks great and is the successor to a great platformer, but it's nothing new or fresh. Smash Bros. looks as great as it always has, but why would I buy it on Wii U when I can play it on 3DS with all my friends who already have the console?

Everything about the console, to me, just screams safe, and not in a good way. In the way that they already have a product that will play extremely similar titles at nearly half the price.
 
B

biggersmaller

Banned
goldenpp72 said:
People who want to play all the Nintendo games coming out probably.
Click to expand...

Many want to play some of the Nintendo published games, but I think most gamers will not want to pay more than $199.

Not only because it's on last-gen hardware, but because the games are too similar to previously released titles and they are released too far apart.
 
S

Sorta Maximus

Member
While I know the system has its issues, I fully intend on buying that Zelda Wii U Bundle myself. I already have three games: New Super Mario Bros. U, New Super Luigi U, Pikmin 3. And I really want to play Zelda: Wind Waker which I never played past the half way mark, The Wonderful 101, Super Mario 3D Wolrd, Super Smash Bros. Wii U, Mario Kart 8 (back to the future hover wheels!!), Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Bayonetta 2, and Rayman Legends (as it was meant to be played with a touchscreen). There are more games than I can play as a second system to my PS3/PS4.
 
K

Ken Masters

Banned
Snowden's Secret said:
WARNING: Some math and assumptions. I've been working on the budgets and forecasts for my company over the weekend and so I was in the mood for something in this vein.



So everyone is together up until this point, we're all mostly on the same page and agree. Many, though, argue that Nintendo needs to further cut the price on the Wii U, and this is where we split. Even if Nintendo spurred the growth of Wii U's install base at the cost of per unit losses, that's still a losing strategy for Nintendo





So, how much price drop are we talking? Nintendo goes super aggressive and cuts the price another $100, pricing the basic model at $200 and the deluxe (packed with a game) at $250?



So, if Nintendo cut Wii U's price $100 prior to the holiday, each Wii U sold at that price would almost certainly be a net loss for Nintendo, even over the entire course of the generation. At the average attach rate of 6.65 units/console, Nintendo would likely never make this money back. The argument in favor of price cuts is generally "it increases install base" but the point of increasing the install base is to sell them games, and if you're still losing money even after they've bought all their games, what's the point? You were better off never selling them a console in the first place.

Of course, the winner in this scenario is third party publishers, who don't have to eat the cost of the Wii U, and would see their gains go up with the install base. So there'd be some value (not sure how to measure that) in Nintendo "taking one for the team" and losing tons of money for the sake of third parties.

What is obviously a better idea is aggressive bundling (which is why we always see so many bundles). A $100 price drop translates into less than two games for the consumer, but giving away two games only costs Nintendo an average of $40 (this is why the Deluxe bundle has all the bells and whistles that add up to more than $50 for the purchaser). If Nintendo begins bundling Wii U consoles with a game (Wind Waker, NSMB U, Call of Duty, etc) + a pre-installed Nintendo Land that's only costing Nintendo an additional $20 but offering the consumer +$60 in value.

Obviously this all excludes normal price drops as manufacturing costs go down etc.

Sorry if this was confusing, I've been typing this (and double checking my numbers) for almost two hours now, just to make a thread that is essentially "tl;dr Nintendo would lose a ton of money they'd never make back by cutting the price $100"
Click to expand...

U mad?
 
K

Ken Masters

Banned
Bit-Bit said:
Not really. OP said price cut by $100 would be bad for them.

Nintendo only cut the price by $50.

Check mate, bitches.
Click to expand...

The thread read like someone trying to convince themselves they didn't waste $350 at launch


Keep in mind, I'm a launch Wii u owner also
 
J

jmls1121

Banned
OP probably wasn't wrong in a vacuum. Is there a chance that production costs came down for the WiiU allowing them to lower the price?
 
M

Manmademan

Member
jmls1121 said:
OP probably wasn't wrong in a vacuum. Is there a chance that production costs came down for the WiiU allowing them to lower the price?
Click to expand...

not really. the basic was being sold at this price point and there's not a ton of difference between the two.

miniscule amounts of flash memory? a charging cradle? a nearly year old game?

Nintendo is likely just giving up the additional profit built into the premium sku, rather than seeing the benefits of a real cost reduction.
 
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