Wii could be in trouble

[Pimppeter2]

Wii in trouble? [http://videogames.yahoo.com/events/plugged-in/analysts-without-price-cuts-wii-could-be-in-trouble/1346831]

Analysts: Without price cuts, Wii could be in trouble

Thanks to months of rumors, Sony might not have shocked the gaming world by finally dropping the price of the Playstation 3 earlier this week. But with a fresh, $299 model en route to retailers, they've certainly changed the face of the console war.

And according to multiple analysts, the company with the most to lose is none other than Nintendo and its market-leading Wii.

Game site Gamasutra checked in with a group of industry experts to get a glimpse into the post-PS3 price-cut future. The consensus? At $299, both the Xbox 360 and the PS3 are in perfect position to make some serious gains on Nintendo's Wii, which is the only system yet to see a price cut and is currently available at the suddenly not-so-bargain price of $250.

"I think that they may see sales suffer, and certainly will see sales down year-over-year," says oft-quoted Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter. "So we have to see if they cut, unbundle and cut, or rebundle (with Wii Sports Resort plus Wii Motion Plus). They?re hard to figure out."

His thoughts were echoed by Kaufman Bros. Todd Mitchell, who notes that Nintendo is "struggling to keep the Wii relevant."

Jesse Divnich from EEADR concurs. "While the target audience for the two platforms varies greatly, some consumers will face a tough decision to purchase the Wii with outdated processing power or the PlayStation 3 with a built-in Blu-Ray player," he says.

Earlier this month, however, Nintendo boss Satoru Iwata insisted that a Wii price cut simply wasn't on the radar, leaving consumers to wonder exactly what Nintendo is planning to do to combat the gains made by its rivals.

Whatever they do, they?d better do it quickly. Based on a chart-topping flood of pre-orders on both the US and UK versions of its site, Amazon is already warning consumers to expect shortages of the forthcoming PS3 Slim and has limited sales to one per household.

Source: Yahoo game news [http://videogames.yahoo.com/events/plugged-in/analysts-without-price-cuts-wii-could-be-in-trouble/1346831]



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Question

Do you think the Wii will fall? Is it possible for the Xbox or Sony to catch up? What must the Nintendo do to save the wii

This will not turn into a flame war. Stick to the questions I have asked. We don't care about if your person favorite system will win because of its ___. Stick to prices and bargains. If I see this go out of hand, I will pm a mod to close this.

I didn't see anything like this in the news room. Feel free to tell me off if this has been done and I am an idiot.

 

[Merteg]

I'd say the Wii is fine.

It seems casual gamers weren't scared away from the price yesterday, so I don't think they will be today.

 

[Neonbob]

I think the Wii has had too much time as the easily accessible console for it to fall just because the PS3 and 360 have had price cuts.
Just guessing here, but most parents probably don't want to encourage their kids to sit around all the time, so the motion controls of the Wii are a factor in their decision.

Still, I think some pressure might be good for Nintendo. Maybe the threat of losing their market lead will force them to come up with some quality titles to lure the traditional gamers that were not swayed by their original lineup of...shall we say, "soft" titles.

 

[Mr. Fister]

The Wii's not going to fall anytime soon. The major reason for this is the marketing. Nintendo has always marketed the Wii as a system for everyone, and they have marketed it well. Sony and Microsoft originally marketed their systems towards the more veteran gamer crowd, and while there's a decent number of them out there, they're still heavily outnumbered by the rest of the people. That, and as Malstrom says, it's much easier to start at the downmarket and work your way up than it is to work from the upmarket down. Since Nintendo started with the "everyone" crowd, they were easily able to get a large fanbase from the getgo, and are now focusing on getting the more experienced gamers on their side. Microsoft and Sony may be able to get some of the "everyone" crowd, but they won't get near the same massive amount as Nintendo.

Still, I think some pressure might be good for Nintendo. Maybe the threat of losing their market lead will force them to come up with some quality titles to lure the traditional gamers that were not swayed by their original lineup of...shall we say, "soft" titles.

The thing is Nintendo has been making roughly the same amount of "traditional" games as they did on the Gamecube right now, but this isn't the topic for this kind of argument, so I won't go any further.

 

[New Troll]

Price was not the reason it sold so well. Hype was.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

Do you think the Wii will fall?

No.

Is it possible for the Xbox or Sony to catch up?

Possible, as in anything can happen but unlikely looking at past examples.

What must the Nintendo do to save the wii

Save the Wii from industry analysts and insiders being negative about it on the internet? I don't know, maybe all of the money and success will keep them going.

 

[Neonbob]

Still, I think some pressure might be good for Nintendo. Maybe the threat of losing their market lead will force them to come up with some quality titles to lure the traditional gamers that were not swayed by their original lineup of...shall we say, "soft" titles.

The thing is Nintendo has been making roughly the same amount of "traditional" games as they did on the Gamecube right now, but this isn't the topic for this kind of argument, so I won't go any further.

...I'm gonna go over there and enjoy the taste of my foot for a while...
mmm, sweaty toes...

 

[Simalacrum]

I think the Wii will continue to triumph, honestly. The casual audience don't really know or care whether a PS3 has a cell processor or that it has its own motion controller on the way - the fact is, despite the 360 and PS3 dropping their price, the Wii is still the cheapest console on the market.

After easily pushing sales even during their software drought (which has really never been seen till now), I don't think Nintendo really need to do anything to keep in the lead - they just need to keep on advertising it, and casual players will keep buying it; it doesn't matter if they don't keep playing it, that really only harms third party developers.

I do think Sony and Microsoft will catch up, especially Sony - theres been a huge load of buzz from people saying that they will finally buy a PS3, and I think that has some significance. Still, I don't think its enough to even make a dent in the Wii's lead unfortunately.

 

[sln333]

In all honesty the 360 and PS3 have no chance of catching up to the Wii's sales numbers. The Wii is still cheaper, and there are many more non-gamers than there are gamers. Both a non-gamer and gamer would easily buy a Wii, but usually only a gamer would buy one of the other two systems.

 

[NeutralMunchHotel]

The thing is...

The Wii's has 3 years of hype built up around it. Word-of-mouth has been the key phrase here. You see soccer-moms (sorry for the stereotype, but you get what I mean) flocking out to buy Wii Fit/Music/Sports, but not Gears of War.

The reason why it's so successful? At this point, it just is.

 

[Adam]

I would love to see Sony and Microsoft team up in an ultimate unstoppable superstar tag team, maybe then they could force the wii out of buisness....But thats about as likely as the moon disappearing or the existence of god. the wii will stay because it's not flawed, the games may be for children and that's the only problem I have against it, since gaming was never for children in the first place and it never should be for children.

 

[Pimppeter2]

I think the Xbox could win some wii casual audience, because of the live reputation and such. But I think the Ps3 will steal some Xbox audience, because its more fun to have both.

 

[NeutralMunchHotel]

I think the Xbox could win some wii casual audience, because of the live reputation and such. But I think the Ps3 will steal some Xbox audience, because its more fun to have both.

Not-so-subtle bump?

 

[fenrizz]

I think the Wii and Xbox360/PS3 are after different customers.

I think most people that buy a Wii would not have bought a PS3 or a 360 anyway.

 

[matsugawa]

The Wii has a really good head start. It'll be a while before they have to start worrying.

In any case, 250 may not be budget, but it's still at least slightly more affordable than the 360. Sure, there's the 360 Arcade bundle at 199.99, but it's barebones with no hard drive and half the cables missing. The Wii is still the best value for the money and the 360 still has the largest game library, Playstation 3 has a graphical edge (slight in cross-platform games, but better in exclusives) and a few good exclusive first-party titles. The price drop will turn heads, but...

Actually I kind of worry about Playstation 3 with this price drop. There was an article once (I think it was EGM back in the day) where a Sony exec was quoted as saying about the Playstation 2, "for every one PS2 we sell, Sony can build 3 more and still make a profit." this was presented in counterpoint to Microsoft's original XBox, having just dropped to 199.99, which was so expensive to build that Microsoft was nearly taking losses on each XBox sold. The Playstation 3 is a lot more expensive to build than the PS2 and certainly more expensive than the Wii or 360, so with 299.99, I wonder how much lower Sony can go, if at all, and will this 300USD tag hurt them rather than help them?

 

[quack35]

I would love to see Sony and Microsoft team up in an ultimate unstoppable superstar tag team, maybe then they could force the wii out of buisness....But thats about as likely as the moon disappearing or the existence of god. the wii will stay because it's not flawed, the games may be for children and that's the only problem I have against it, since gaming was never for children in the first place and it never should be for children.

You honestly think no games should be made for children at all?

You probably started gaming as a child, that's not very fair.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Nintendo already has a 50-story warehouse filled with money. I doesn't matter if the Wii fails now.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I would love to see Sony and Microsoft team up in an ultimate unstoppable superstar tag team, maybe then they could force the wii out of buisness....But thats about as likely as the moon disappearing or the existence of god. the wii will stay because it's not flawed, the games may be for children and that's the only problem I have against it, since gaming was never for children in the first place and it never should be for children.

That would SOOO be a match made in heaven. Sony could provide the stable hardware while Microsoft provides great online. Sony could provide the unique quirky games while Microsoft provides the bad ass shooters.

 

[SantoUno]

It really depends on which direction these gaming companies go for. If the PS3 and 360 sell their souls and start targeting casual gamers with any new ridiculous gimmick, combined with their price drops, they will start gaining sales simply because they sucked in more masses of non-gamers.

As for the Wii, a price drop could keep it in the sales lead simply because it hasn't dropped at all since its launch. However the change in direction of games probably might not make a difference unfortunately, just grant it some respect from true gamers.

 

[mattman106]

I think the Wii will still sell well to the demographic it has always sold well to, kids and their mums. Although the Wii is only $50 Dollars cheaper than the PS3/ 360 it is still $50 dollars cheaper; what I mean is that with that $50 dollars you could by either 1 new Wii game or a few older ones and have something that'll keep you kids occupied for weeks. If you shell out the $50 dollars more for the PS3/ 360 you will need another $50 or $60 dollars to get games therefore the wii is still a better value proposition for the target demographic imo.