Retailer expects UK consumers to see Wii price rise

Retailers in the UK may end up raising consumer prices for Wii following Nintendo's own price hike, according to two sources: 1) common sense, and 2) Don McCabe, managing director of Chips.

"I don't think any retailer has got the ability to soak up that sort of margin change," McCabe told GamesIndustry.biz. "I think I saw one story that said the supermarkets wouldn't be passing the price point on but I think they will. I don't think any retailer can take that sort of squeeze."

If the £20 Nintendo is adding to retailer prices is passed on to consumers, the Wii will now cost £199 ($275), a price that McCabe thinks Nintendo could have gotten away with from the very beginning. Now that the price is going up, "It will have a negative effect on the sales... I think we'll still end up with shortages come Christmas again, but through the summer it's going to have an effect." So at a higher price, McCabe expects, Nintendo will still sell every Wii this winter.