No Wii U Price Cut Coming Anytime Soon
During an investor meeting today in Japan, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata has confirmed that there will be no price cut coming to the Wii U anytime soon.
The Wii U is still selling at a loss for the company, but Nintendo is standing firm. “With Wii U, we have taken a rather resolute stance in pricing it below its manufacturing cost, so we are not planning to perform a markdown,” Satoru said. “We delivered Wii U to those consumers who we thought would be the first to buy it, but information has not successfully been passed on to those consumers who we think will be the next people to buy it.”
Iwata told investors that they plan to get sales moving by releasing more games and building buzz for the console. These games won’t be coming until least March as titles have been delayed. Also Iwata says that “Regarding the Wii U, it is now clear that many consumers have not understood its product value. We would like to work thoroughly for its penetration.”
Iwata believes that at the moment Nintendo have done a poor job of telling people and showing people what the Wii U can do. “We hope to change the situation from now and make a drastic improvement before the latter half of the year starts.”
Sounds like a plan.
Source: Nintendo Investor Information
GAMES, please. It’s not rocket science. It’s unanimous that that’s what people want, both those who have bought the console and those who would jump on-board if not for the dearth. Which only makes sense, because games are why we buy these things! But (third party) games seem to be a hard thing to drum up, for Nintendo, especially now because lower sales seems to indicate less profitability for third party companies to develop a WiiU version of their games. And now even moreso when there’s this idea amongst developers that they NEED to utilize the gamepad or else what’s the point? Which a lot of people – including myself – will say: “bullsh*t, just give us the games, even the ports!” and we’ll be happy, and yet at the same time as far as a large segment of the gaming community go, I bet they (the publishers) are right. And I bet those games will lose marks in reviews, too. “Pros: Perfect port of the PS3 game. Cons: Doesn’t add anything extra. PS3 score: 9. WiiU score: 7” Can see that happening so I understand why they’re wary