No Wii U price drop for Australia or New Zealand
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In some more depressing news for prospective Wii U buyers, it has been confirmed that the Wii U will not receive a price drop here in Australia or New Zealand.
Last night Nintendo of America slashed $50 from the price of their console and announced a cool new Wind Waker HD bundle. We’re not lucky enough to get either unfortunately.
However, while Nintendo Australia isn’t cutting the price of the Wii U just yet, they probably will eventually. Just not any time before Christmas. Everything is now locked into place for 2013.
Will this impact your decision to pick up a Wii U this year?
Source: Kotaku AU
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7 Comments
At the time of launch last year, USD$350 was equivalent to about AUD$335. Now that the dollar has dropped, USD$300 is still about AUD$335. So there’s no surprise that our price won’t drop – we’re lucky that they didn’t directly follow currency fluctuation and increase our price. USD$350 is currently worth about AUD$390!
Considering our barren market, the fact that tax is already included in the RRP, and that most retailers include a bonus game or accessory of some kind makes our price fair as it stands. I’m pretty sure that one of the retailers was selling the Basic Wii U with Rabbids Land a little while ago for under $310.
It seems Wii U sales will stay stagnated then. Where is the love Nintendo? I’m waiting on a price drop or a decent mario/zelda special edition bundle before I unload the cash. I might even get a competitors console before a wii u now and this is coming from a fan boy. My non gaming friends who have kids that own wiis don’t even realise the wii u is a different console! Get some adds on tv Nintendo Australia. Lift your game.
I think the price is fine. I do think Nintendo of Australia really need to get their act together though. I received an email saying Pikmin 3 was out 1 whole week after it released. There are no advertisements for Wii U on TV. They don’t update their website, there is no mention of recent Wii U Virtual Console releases (or 3DS ones for that matter) or even eshop games. In fact Nintendo Australia’s website still says on the front page Wonderful 101 “Coming Soon”. How on earth can they expect people here to buy their product when they seem to be so incompetent?
Unfortunately price is a big factor here and not dropping this year will probably be enough to stop it from ever gaining any serious momentum even with all the great games coming this year and next. Once X1 and Ps4 are out Nintendo will struggle to get the pace up especially when they will have direct competition trying to grab peoples attention.
My sentiments are the same as Tonio. The price isn’t really the issue but advertising and even keeping the Nintendo website up to date is much more important! A Zelda bundle at the current price would be great but nope, Nintendo Australia isn’t bringing it!
At least this doesn’t effect the resale value of Wii U’s, which is good news for those with extra consoles wanting to palm them off before Christmas