WiiU Price Drop: CONFIRMED!

[Mr.Mattress]

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/08/28/wii-u-price-drop-confirmed

Nintendo has announced a $50 price drop for Wii U. Beginning on September 20, the Wii U Deluxe model will be available for $299.99.

The new price will take effect alongside the previously-confirmed Wind Waker HD bundle, which will also retail for $299.99 and includes a 32GB hard drive, a special Zelda-themed GamePad, a digital copy of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD and a digital version of the Zelda Hyrule Historia book.

?The price decline is pretty straightforward,? Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime told IGN. ?Really, the focus on heightening the value for Wii U is now that we are in a position where we?ve got a regular pace of great software. Pikmin 3, New Super Luigi U that just launched physically, Wonderful 101 in September, and then Wind Waker. Then we?ve got strong third-party content coming for the holidays as well. Scribblenauts, Skylanders, Sonic Lost World, Call of Duty: Ghosts, Assassin?s Creed IV, Watch Dogs. So, strong pace of first-party, strong third-party content. Now?s the time to make the Wii U even more affordable and heighten the value.?

Fils-Aime also expressed excitement for Hyrule historia, telling us, ?Digitally, it?s phenomenal. You could look at it through the GamePad. You can look at it on your big screen, turn the pages, search for specific items. It?s essentially a digital version of the book that you?ll be able to access through the GamePad, that you?ll download onto the system. It?ll be resident on the system. It?s really cool.?

Look out for more from our interview with Fils-Aime on IGN in the days to come, and expect us to unbox the Wind Waker bundle in the weeks leading up to its launch.

So now it's confirmed that the Deluxe WiiU is now going to 299$, officially 100$ Cheaper then the PS4. The Price Drop will start September 20th. There is no news regarding the Basic Bundle, though them dropping it completely would be weird. The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD bundle will also be 299$.

What are your thoughts? Even though I bought my Deluxe full price (Last Christmas), Nintendo obviously wants to make sure it has some market lead over Sony and Microsoft for the rest of this year and most of Next year. I can only see this as a positive thing.

 

[mohit9206]

Not enough.Should have been a $100 price cut.

 

[WeepingAngels]

So the basic model is being phased out?

Also, it doesn't come with a hard drive. It's 32 GB of Flash Memory, can't believe IGN got that wrong.

 

[DrOswald]

Sounds awesome. I was always going to get a Wii U, but I am too poor at the moment so the price drop plus the bundled game makes this a great deal.

 

[sneakypenguin]

Still too high imo. The value just isnt there when a ps4 is 100 bucks more and you get so much more.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

eh get rid of the bundle (or give me a wii u pro controller) at a 200 dollar price tag and i'll consider getting it, but wind waker and the book I couldn't give two shits about getting with it, I cant remember the last time I bought something bundled like that.

 

[GoaThief]

Not enough.Should have been a $100 price cut.

What? Seriously? You're getting a console, a bundled game, all the extras like sensor bar and charging stand, and the Dexlue 10% digital credit thingy, for a hundred bucks less than the nearest competition sans game, and that's still not cheap enough?

If you take Wind Waker/Nintendo Land out the equation, you're essentially getting the console itself for $250.

Nintendo Land is a total bag of shit though.

Unfortunately the Wii U is still my household's most underused console by a very large margin. There's just not enough decent games on there. Pikmin 3 is probably the best of a very small bunch. The sensor bar hasn't been used at all either.

 

[BrotherRool]

The September 20th time is the most interesting part to me, that's two months to possibly persuade people to settle on a Wii U before the competition works out. I think it's actually really sensible because it will be putting them on a high wave before their roughest patch and it's far enough away from the launch date that we probably won't get 'Wii U cuts price, still doesn't sell' stories when the PS4 and Xbox inevitably outsell it in their opening months.


I'm curious if it's low enough for people to bite. I'm not predicting that the $100 will make too much difference in Xbox/PS4 sales (Although it helps balance out Titanfall), and the Xbox doesn't offer much more value at all. It'll be interesting to see if a $100 price difference is enough to close the gap between the PS4 and the Wii U.

Or it might spike the interest of the casual market. Whatever the case, this is still good news because they really need that larger gap to differentiate themselves right now

 

[Maximum Bert]

Good but I agree it should have been more. Really it needs games more than anything its got itself stuck with a lot of stigmas and now its perceived as an underpowered console with no games on top of that.

I am waiting for Bayonetta 2 and X to hit before I buy hopefully it will fall in price again by then.

Also is anyone excited about The wind waker release? I mean its a good game but the original still looks great and I havent heard anyone crying out for a remake but whatever I wont be getting it anyway, one copy is enough for me.

 

[sneakypenguin]

Still too high imo. The value just isnt there when a ps4 is 100 bucks more and you get so much more.

Yeah, like no bundled games, no cool tie-in book, no free digital credit system, and multiplayer you have to pay an extra $50 a year for.

If you actually want to play anything on the PS4 at launch, you're looking at spending $500+ easy.

But the wii will not have any of games i play, no future fallout mass effect, no gta's, no elder scrolls, weak online functionality, no blu ray, probably doesn't offer a good htpc experience, inferior ports of games it does get. It ties ownership to console instead of account which is a wtf choice cause as of right now anygame i own i just sign in and dl on any xbox, and pretty sure ps3 is the same.

Either way I look at it the wii is the expensive way to go cause its a secondary console if you want to play any of this new generations "top tier" games outside of N exclusives.

 

[Miss G.]

I'm hoping they make Pokken Fighters soon, still getting one though 'cuz Bayonetta 2 and X.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Still too high imo. The value just isnt there when a ps4 is 100 bucks more and you get so much more.

Yeah, like no bundled games, no cool tie-in book, no free digital credit system, and multiplayer you have to pay an extra $50 a year for.

If you actually want to play anything on the PS4 at launch, you're looking at spending $500+ easy.

Yeah, but doesn't the PS4 also have like way more hard drive space, the ability to play blu-ray, and most importantly doesn't tie your online purchases to the console? [sub]That apart from snazier games you don't have to control with a diner plate. [/sub]

Afterall, I can always not play multiplayer, which I practically do already.

OT: Anyway, it's nice to see Nintendo is not to stubborn to realize they might have a problem when Sony and Microsoft (but primarily Sony) launch their systems. Now if only they can get some real eyecatchers.

 

[Frezzato]

Strange, I totally forgot that the Wii U would require a sensor bar in order to utilize original Wiimotes. But it really isn't a sensor bar now, is it? I thought the bar was a basic IR emitter for the Wiimotes (I have to stop calling them that) to pick up with the cameras in the front. (Wiimote) Okay, I'll stop.

You would think that Nintendo would ditch the bar and, I dunno, create figurines with IR emitters in them instead, like a Mario or Bowser figurine for people to put next to their TVs or something.

 

[Dragonbums]

Awesome.

$50.00 can be a real difference for some people.
Also Hyrule Historia built in the Zelda bundle? Great deal.

Still waiting for the glorious moment when Pokemon makes a concept art book.

 

[Vivi22]

Not enough.Should have been a $100 price cut.

What? Seriously? You're getting a console, a bundled game, all the extras like sensor bar and charging stand, and the Dexlue 10% digital credit thingy, for a hundred bucks less than the nearest competition sans game, and that's still not cheap enough?

If you take Wind Waker/Nintendo Land out the equation, you're essentially getting the console itself for $250.

We should be impressed that they're selling an underpowered system with a terrible controller and a 10 year old game packed in for $100 less than a console which outpaces it in every regard as far as hardware goes?

And it's not $100 cheaper than it's nearest competition since you can buy a PS3 or 360 with a game and a lot more hard drive space for $300 or less easy. Plus you'll instantly have access to 7 years worth of better game libraries.

 

[Zeckt]

32 gig? are they JOKING? that's like, one recent pc game. What were they thinking? And the game that is bundled with it is digital which makes the 32 gig even smaller. Thanks nintendo, but I'll stick with my 3ds which lately you made awesome.

I already played Wind Waker and still own the retail copy and it works fine on my Wii. A re release to me is nearly worthless. The system is still not worth it. And I really hate the controller.

 

[Trueflame]

Today I learned that the WiiU still cost $350. And that's pretty hilarious. Even at $300 with all the added stuff, that just isn't worth it for me. If I ever buy a WiiU, which I seriously doubt, it'll be at the end of the upcoming console generation, when they're dirt cheap and have a decent amount of games for me to play. For comparison, I think I'll most likely buy a PS4, halfway through the upcoming console generation. So I'm in no rush at all.

 

[shintakie10]

32 gig? are they JOKING? that's like, one recent pc game. What were they thinking? And the game that is bundled with it is digital which makes the 32 gig even smaller. Thanks nintendo, but I'll stick with my 3ds which lately you made awesome.

I already played Wind Waker and still own the retail copy and it works fine on my Wii. A re release to me is nearly worthless. The system is still not worth it. And I really hate the controller.

It doesn't force proprietary memory unlike Sony and Microsoft. As j-e-f-f-e-r-s said, you can literally buy any external hard drive and plug it directly into the WiiU givin it a much (and I can not stress much enough) higher amount of memory for a much (again, can't stress much enough) cheaper price than you would on any system, PS4 and Xbox one included.

 

[Vivi22]

The Wii U is backwards compatible (unlike PS4 or Xbone) meaning it also has instant access to a 7 year library of awesome games like Galaxy, Sin And Punishment 2, Metroid Prime 3, etc etc. That argument goes both ways.

The Wii library doesn't stand up to either the 360 or the PS3. The fact that the PS3 is also backwards compatible with PSX games means it thoroughly trounces the Wii library. Also, the Wii has, quite possibly, the worst library of any console in the last 20 years.

Hardware has never won a console race, so I don't see why it should suddenly be such a key factor now. The majority of people who really give a shit about tech-specs are a small proportion of the gaming consumerbase, and most of them are on PC anyway.

It's going to be a factor when the Wii U doesn't get any ports anymore since the PS4 and XBone are significantly more powerful. Sure, hardware has never won a console race on it's own, but with the exception of the Wii, console libraries have. And the Wii U is not shaping up to have anything worth while other than Nintendo games again. And since they've already lost the casual audience that drove Wii sales so high, they're not shaping up to repeat the Wii's sales numbers. So they've got dramatically underpowered hardware, no third party support to speak of and are relying on their own exclusives and a controller no one, even most developers, cares about. Sounds like the N64 and Gamecube all over again, except those both had reasonably good hardware.

Lastly, why do you think only the Wii U will be competing with PS3 and 360?

In terms of hardware those are the only consoles it does compete with.

The majority of launch titles for PS4 and Xbone are simply snazzier versions of games people can already buy and play on their existing consoles (ACIV, Battlefield 4, Watch Dogs, etc). The biggest exclusive on PS3 is Gran Turismo. The last instalment sold over 9 million copies. The next instalment is coming out around the same time as the PS4. Given the PS4 isn't backwards compatible, how many people do you think are going to choose to overlook the biggest PS exclusive in order to buy a PS4 to play more Assassins Creed? Where's the logic in that, when you can also play Assassins Creed on your PS3?

You mean a launch is going to have some lackluster titles that don't push the hardware that hard at all? Colour me not the least bit shocked. It's never mattered in the past and doesn't really matter now either. The 360 was blessed with an abundance of shitty titles at launch, as was the PS3. Not to mention the PS2, and the PSX before it. Look how those ended.

The PS3 and 360 are going to be competing with everything for the forseeable future, just as the PS2 handily outsold next-gen consoles for some time after their launch.

The difference between these being that the PS3 and 360 are going to see third party support shift to the PS4 and XBone. Meanwhile the Wii U isn't likely to get any third party support aside from shovelware.

 

[Zeckt]

Really? I never knew about the harddrive thing. Good to know, I'll consider it when they make a NEW zelda game for it and not a re-release. Maybe a fire emblem or a full 3d mario. But till then, no reason for me to buy wii u.