Iwata says no Wii price cut coming

by Alexander Sliwinski on Oct 26th 2007 10:00AM

It's such a "duh" statement, but when the president of Nintendo says the Wii isn't getting a price cut it does qualify as something to report. Speaking with the Associated Press, Nintendo pres. Satoru Iwata says, "Y'all beeatchs crazy? We ain't droppin' da price! Come up in my house askin' dumb question like dat? I oughta cap you." Fine, fine, he didn't actually say that. He really said, "We're absolutely not considering a price cut."

This echoes statements made yesterday by Nintendo senior managing director Yoshihiro Mori, who said that (surprise!) there is no price cut planned. This was following Nintendo's adjustment of their fiscal forecast where they said profits would be higher than expected. From the consumer perspective, the Xbox 360 Arcade at $280 hopes to put a dent into Nintendo's business, possibly prompting an eventual drop in the Wii's $250 price in '08 -- but first, the Wii needs to stop selling out the moment it comes back in stock.

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Tags: business, iwata, nintendo, pricedrop, wii

Reader Comments (97)

What happens when the 360 Premium ends up being at or UNDER the Wii? Nothing. Because people like my uncle bought the Wii, uses it for wii sports and nothing else. It's not even a game system to 50 percent of the people who bought it.

Also, 98% of statistics are made up.

Oh yeah? Well the PS3 is just a BluRay player to 89.929% of the people who bought that!@

Seriously, though, I see where you are coming from but surely having the strongest competitor's machine cheaper than the Wii is going to affect Nintendo's sales. They'll have to drop the price at some point.

Hell, when the 360 is cheaper than $249 I'll buy a second one to stave off red ringing.

Oh man your uncle plays the Wii and not the 360? he's a total noob and should be punished for playing a system he enjoys and finds easy.

why would they cut the price the Wii is flying off of the shelves. The 360 and the PS3 had bigger drop off in sales (I own all three systems) causeing them to drop the price in order to intice people who waited until the price got low enough for them to afford.

Hah,how can Ninty have a price drop when the Wii is still printing oodles of money.

Also I would like to say this to all Wii owners:
DOWNLOAD SIN & PUNISHMENT IMMEDIATELY! Best waste of 1200 points ever.

Yes, S&P is superb.

Anyone demanding a Wii price cut needs to take Econ 101.

Joystiq...STOP REPORTING NEWS THAT ISN'T NEWS. Saying Nintendo is going to keep doing what they are doing isn't news, no matter how slow video game news may be today.

this just in: nothing has changed, everything is the same.

They are only making, what, $49 off of every unit sold?
I am assuming this is after manufacturing costs and what not. If they could bring down the hours making it, then they could cut price. Even if they could, I don't think they would drop it. But, I could be wrong.

Dammit, I can't find Zack and Wiki anywhere, not even to rent. They don't even have it available to rent in my area!

First god blesses me with a small wang and now no Zack and Wiki. Time for some cookiedough icecream. And lots of crying.

Keep trying, it's worth it. You could always go the Amazon route.

I hung around Gamestop for half an hour to get mine. Hopefully they'll be in better supply next week, the game is well worth it!

I'm sure nintendo is making much more than 50 bucks per console by now

Actually, Halo 3, Guitar Hero 2/3, and Madden are NOT casual games. Quick test: would someone who has not played a computer game ever play them? If yes, you've a casual game. If no, it's not casual.

Examples of casual games: Wii sports, Singstar, "party games", most Popcap games, Solitare.
Examples of games that are mistaken for casual: Rhythm games, "hardcore sports", games which target audience are kids.

No, rhythm games are pretty casual. It's just that, as with almost any casual game, if you practice you can get really good at it.

So are the people that only play teh Haloz and Madden hardcore? WHAT DO WE LABEL THEM AS!?!?!?!

It depends on their definition of "casual".
Prior to the Wii, a casual gamer WAS someone who only bought Madden and whatever other popular game there was, like Guitar Hero or GTA.
After the Wii, a casual person is someone who pretty much has never, or at least not in a good long while, played video games.

I personally like to refer to them as New Gamers for the time being.

Madden is one of the most ridiculously casual game franchises ever made.

The main reason why rhythm games are in general not casual, is the hardware needed. It's not the rhythm game that's not casual, but people tend to assume all rhythm games are casual.

Sports gamer are in their own seperate catagory. And as for Halo, I'd say the average gamer would play them. Average being in pre-Wii times. (seriously though, most hardcore FPS gamers would tell you bluntly that the keyboard + mouse is the way to go)

Of cause, hardcore can mean quite a few things. But in this arguement, we can assume it to be an affinity for uncompromising gameplay, or gameplay which doesn't try to pander to the average person. (meaning the average person would fail in the game) (granted, there can be different levels of failure).

Wii Fit = casual? It's going to require some hardware...

"But in this arguement, we can assume it to be an affinity for uncompromising gameplay, or gameplay which doesn't try to pander to the average person."

What games are those? Few games exist where the gameplay is awesome for the duration of the game - many just focus on making it look pretty or violent or
throwing more polygons into boobies.

The problem is even labeling casual / hardcore. Games are getting to the point where they are crossing boundaries. Sports is fine to label, but it doesn't mean the game isn't casual like Mega brought up.

Game prices are too high for casual gamers. i think Karen is right about that. Casual gamers are probably more used to CD/DVD prices, and games are gonna seem pretty expensive when they cost 1/5th of the price of the console.

I wonder what the rental figures are for wii games? I could be completely wrong, but i'd imagine that casual gamers might find rental prices more appealing.

though of course, in general, causal gamers will by definition buy less games than hardcore gamers.

They'll drop the price when they need to.
off-topic, has anyone else noticed the distinct lack of trolls lately?

yes, and its wonderful. It reminds me of when I first started posting on joystiq.

mhm. Phattie (and this'll be the last time I'll mention that pathetic loser) is defiantly banned. If he wasn't, he'd be all over this with his lies and bullshit.

Oh... i do wonder if they'll need to drop the price in Japan though... its definately not selling out here anymore, and hasn't been for months.

Its still selling well, but the portable games market is really big over here, and also MS and Sony started with much lower price points over here.

Why would they lower the price? They're making a fortune off of it as it is.

BTW, Madden is NOT hardcore.

Dude, Madden is unbelievably hardcore. Have you ever tried to play it? You need a fucking PHD in Statistical Analysis just to get through the goddamn menu system! I've been playing games since I was 5 and I still can't figure Madden out. Why do you think all the people that are so good at it only by one game a year?!

I think your both right, lol.

Nintendo doesn't need to lower the price of the Wii at this time. They're doing wonderful, the thing still sells out whenever it's in stock, so what's the need to drop the price now??

The only people being smug is you.

Let's see. It flies off the shelves each time a new shipment comes in-even though it's almost been a year since it was released-and Nintendo has had trouble increasing how much they can make at one time to satisfy this demand.

Why would they increase demand even more with a price drop when they don't have the supplies to back that up? They want consumers to crave the Wii, not resent the fact that they can't get one.

why price cut the ONLY next gen console out there? ;)

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=174502

currently there is NO next-gen console out there... by definition it's all current generation.

next-generation is what comes after what we have now and as soon as it arrives it is current.

but that's irrelevant since everyone loves a technology buzz word.

yea for the record, im not serious in saying the Wii is the only next gen console.

Well, that is pretty obvious, I think. You still can't find the damn thing in stores, so why would you bother cutting the price if people are buying them like mad?

That'll teach people to buy current-gen consoles... Oh, wait...

Are you lost on your own...

Like a rainbow in the dark?

It's a good thing I won my Wii from a Stacker machine.

F@ck no they don't need to lower it!!! I just bought mine late last night! =) LoL DreamXboxWii60cast! FTW! haha.

yeah we gotta come up with different classes. Does anyone really think the 4 million halo players are all 'hardcore' gamers? There are plenty of kids that are way more hardcore with pokeman than the jocks who bought halo 3 who end up going back to beer pong

That was almost mean! Whew, it's a good thing that anyone with an anime based avatar has their opinions automatically nullified! (sorry Ska Oreo.)

aaargh. So what if I have Vegeta as my avatar, he's fucking awesome!!!!

But yeah, the definition of Hardcore gamers have changed over the years. The term used to mean someone who was into every and all games and would play them as long as they're fun. Now it means anyone who has money who can buy the most expensive consoles and play Halo and Madden like crazy.

Your right on the money here. What makes a gamer hardcore isn't the game they play but how they game - how much time they put into it, how much they care about completing games versus just playing them a little, etc. I certainly wouldn't call my roommate, who owned only Madden and Halo for the XBOX a hardcore gamer, whereas I'd think I, who has owned nearly every console released in the last twenty years and spends about $500 a year on games, qualify. Even though I play mostly Nintendo games!

**You're

goddamnit

Vegeta (aka Ska Oreo)

Vegeta does kick a$$!!!!

This seems to make more sense

The way (intensity with which) i practice Wii Sports Tennis sometimes practically makes that game hardcore

And someone who just occassionally plays Fable for the fun of it could make that game non-hardcore

The problem is that, like the word "gimmick," "Hardcore" has become a buzzword of the latest round of console wars, and its literal meaning has been lost in the shuffle of hate

As long as Nintendo doesn't get cocky about the Wii, there really isn't a need to do a price drop. The PS3 has had, I think, two, and it hasn't helped very much. The Wii just happens to be at that sweet spot. Once the gravy train starts to lose steam expect a $50 price drop and maybe a bundled game.

Previous 50 Comments

Iwata says no Wii price cut coming

Reader Comments (97)

Posted: Oct 26th 2007 11:09AM watership said

Posted: Oct 26th 2007 11:14AM Crono141 said

Posted: Oct 26th 2007 11:24AM vidguy said

Posted: Oct 26th 2007 11:25AM SoulBlade said

Posted: Oct 26th 2007 10:59AM micheal82 said

Posted: Oct 26th 2007 10:38AM fnm said

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Posted: Oct 26th 2007 10:44AM Raquor said

Posted: Oct 26th 2007 12:55PM prime8 said

Posted: Oct 26th 2007 10:53AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 26th 2007 10:56AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 26th 2007 11:19AM vidguy said

Posted: Oct 26th 2007 2:48PM Crono141 said

Posted: Oct 26th 2007 11:01AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 26th 2007 11:04AM Vegeta has a ps3 said

Posted: Oct 26th 2007 11:05AM SoulBlade said

Posted: Oct 26th 2007 11:07AM samfish said

Posted: Oct 26th 2007 11:09AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 26th 2007 11:14AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 26th 2007 11:24AM SoulBlade said

Posted: Oct 26th 2007 11:29AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 26th 2007 11:30AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 26th 2007 2:51PM Crono141 said

Posted: Oct 26th 2007 3:11PM Vegeta has a ps3 said

Posted: Oct 26th 2007 11:31AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 26th 2007 11:44AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 26th 2007 1:52PM baby sea tuna said

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Posted: Oct 26th 2007 12:38PM (Unverified) said

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Posted: Oct 26th 2007 3:14PM Vegeta has a ps3 said

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