Rumor: Internal Best Buy memo confirms Wii price cut this Sunday [update]

by Griffin McElroy { Sep 23rd 2009 at 3:00PM }

We've seen ads promoting the Wii's heretofore unconfirmed new $199 price point from Target and Toys R Us -- however, Engadget recently got its hands on the crown jewel of retailer news leakage: A purported internal Best Buy memo which confirms the discount will go into effect this coming Sunday, September 27. The memo requests that blue-shirted employees keep the cut under wraps until Nintendo formally announces the new price this coming Friday. You guys are doing a great job of that so far.

We'll keep an ear to the ground this Friday for an announcement from the Big N.

Update: Kotaku is reporting that SCEA has directly referenced the new $199 price point for Wii during a presentation to Best Buy employees in Kansas City, Missouri. Can we please put a fork in this one?

Tags: best-buy, leak, memo, nintendo, price-cut, retail, wii

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

dark_inchworm (stronger than never, ever before) @ Sep 23rd 2009 3:03PM

If this doesn't come true, I'll eat my hat.

Frostblade10 @ Sep 23rd 2009 3:05PM

If you've got a nacho cowboy hat with cheese in the top, then i'd say you're in for quite a treat!

Jack Tretton @ Sep 23rd 2009 3:18PM

Nacho, nacho hat
I want to eat
A nacho hat

LunarAura @ Sep 23rd 2009 6:21PM

Nacho average bear.

captainprotonx @ Sep 23rd 2009 3:03PM

"The price drop will bring customers..."

Was this memo written by a Jr. Executive?

[ArchiGamer] [Painstakingly Written Before A Live Audience] @ Sep 23rd 2009 3:04PM

I love the fact that its says "please keep this quiet" and I'm right now looking at it by someones doing. lol

bongoes the Black Lantern @ Sep 23rd 2009 3:09PM

But he did keep it quiet! He also kept it visible.

[ArchiGamer] [Painstakingly Written Before A Live Audience] @ Sep 23rd 2009 3:12PM

Ha, I can see the employee that did this defending himself,

"But I didn't talk about it, I only showed a picture!"

[ArchiGamer] [Painstakingly Written Before A Live Audience] @ Sep 23rd 2009 6:51PM

Wait, Sony basically confirmed this?

Payback?

Vidaluko @ Sep 23rd 2009 3:04PM

lol

please keep this quiet!

Yeah, right....

THE WICKER MAN (BWF) (GT: Dalek Prime) @ Sep 23rd 2009 3:04PM

LOL @ "PLEASE KEEP THIS QUIET!"

Barkley610 @ Sep 23rd 2009 3:06PM

What the he'll is a bundle band??

AsherR [Leader of the Pachter Defense Force] [Planeteer | Power of The Hoff] @ Sep 23rd 2009 3:11PM

When they bundle products together and try to make it look like it's a special package when it's all really the same price. :P

And I'm not just trolling. I worked at a Best Buy though we'd displayed a bundle, no one in my store acted like it was a special deal at all and just got the customer what products they ACTUALLY needed. Occasionally like $10 would be knocked off of it at the store's decision. Sometimes it would be convenient if the customer wanted all of that, but normally we'd just ask, "What do you actually want?"

Unless this "bundle band" has changed into something that I haven't seen.

timepilot84 @ Sep 23rd 2009 4:33PM

Apparently, a bundle band is something a super duper douchebag uses to tell a story.

Shadsy @ Sep 23rd 2009 3:07PM

Memo: cc: Blogs That Were Talking About This But Shouldn't Be Like Kotaku, Joystiq, Shacknews, And Other Gaming News Sites

jonese402 @ Sep 23rd 2009 3:08PM

Bundles that...tell stories?!?

God, I hate retail marketing.

Misfit Toy @ Sep 23rd 2009 3:29PM

And what a story to tell...

Wii: Play me! I'm fun! Take me home!

Molly: Mommy, I want to play with it!

Billy: It looks fun!

Jimmy: Can we take it home?

Mommy: Oh my! What a great story this bundle tells!

Vidikron @ Sep 23rd 2009 4:07PM

I don't really say what's so crazy about that, though maybe "themed" bundle would have been better terminology.

Vidikron @ Sep 23rd 2009 4:07PM

*see

ecco6t9 @ Sep 23rd 2009 3:10PM

Which just goes as to proove that is 8 years of collage doesnt reall help you Learn to write.

vidGuy @ Sep 23rd 2009 3:13PM

But it might help you make pretty pictures. Collage is really a fine art, I hear.

[ArchiGamer] [Painstakingly Written Before A Live Audience] @ Sep 23rd 2009 3:14PM

Or in your case, proper grammar.

Collage?

Taylor @ Sep 23rd 2009 3:18PM

Are you in fourth grade?

SoshiKitai @ Sep 23rd 2009 5:35PM

I arr ten yars in univirts, i unspell gud.

AvA (ice~) @ Sep 23rd 2009 6:37PM

I think his bad grammar is on purpose...

TheOverlord#2 @ Sep 23rd 2009 8:08PM

I guess he was the only person to graduate Sarcasm U.

BunnySlapper @ Sep 23rd 2009 3:14PM

It's a little depressing that so few people have loyalty to their employer anymore.

I mean really, breaking policy and potentially getting fired so that you can be the first to post on a blog site? Is that what passes for heorism these days?

WREturns(There was once a dream called Rome) @ Sep 23rd 2009 4:55PM

Yup.

Phylicus @ Sep 23rd 2009 5:04PM

Have you never worked in retail before? I'd use many words to describe it, but loyalty is not one of them.

It's a faceless corporation that couldn't care less about its employees. Fuck 'em.

Zedword @ Sep 23rd 2009 11:45PM

Is there a reason that you're focusing on some sort of B.S. morality here?

Might as well be consistent since we're also talking about a company that needs a few slaps on the hand, as well.

Not sure if you read the posts (up) about the "bundle bands," but Best Buy is known for deliberately lying to their customers in order to make more money this way. I should know. I used to work there.

Cody @ Sep 23rd 2009 3:13PM

Ok can we just stop saying this thing is "rumor" now? We're talking Toys R Us, Target, and now Best Buy.

Sounds legit.

ceejay45k @ Sep 23rd 2009 3:16PM

not a rumor this is a done deal saw it at work.

Whoppy @ Sep 23rd 2009 3:15PM

I love me some tight merchandising.

Chris D.(PSN: Aggie_CEO | XBL:The Aggie CEO | Steam: Aggie_CEO @ Sep 23rd 2009 3:15PM

"...Price drop....blah bla blah...$50 less..blah blah blah blah...."

What the fuck ever....just get me a Black one

Jack Tretton @ Sep 23rd 2009 3:17PM

What, you got a problem with the white one?

[ArchiGamer] [Painstakingly Written Before A Live Audience] @ Sep 23rd 2009 3:17PM

You do realize that every time you say that, you're only opening the floodgate of bad wii puns an the such?

Anyway, yeah I want one to. The Wii of course.

Chris D.(PSN: Aggie_CEO | XBL:The Aggie CEO | Steam: Aggie_CEO @ Sep 23rd 2009 4:16PM

lol...I have a white one....its an eyesore in my livingroom wih my Black TV, Black, PS3, Black, Home theater system, Black cable box, all black everything......and when I get a New TV with 4 HDMI Ports I will have my Black 360 in there....

CaramelZappa @ Sep 23rd 2009 4:48PM

Remember when the Nintendo Revolution was going to launch in a bunch of different colors? If only.

THE WICKER MAN (BWF) (GT: Dalek Prime) @ Sep 23rd 2009 5:23PM

Damn you look like a hard ass bastard in your new avatar Aggie! :P

ChromeAlchemist @ Sep 23rd 2009 5:37PM

Just get a black vinyl skin, that's what I did.

Chris D.(PSN: Aggie_CEO | XBL:The Aggie CEO | Steam: Aggie_CEO @ Sep 23rd 2009 8:24PM

I've said it before and I'll say it again...I'm not a kid.....I'm a GROWN ASS MAN...and I will NOT PAINT or STICKER ANYTHING THATS GOING IN MY HOME THEATER SETUP

WiNG [XBL&Steam: WiNGSPANTT] from lifeinagame.com @ Sep 23rd 2009 3:18PM

"The price cut will bring in customers. They will be receptive to solutions"

Marketing translation:

"THE CONSUMER SHEEP WILL EAT THIS UP! PILE ON SHOVELWARE FOR MASSIVE PROFITS."

BunnySlapper @ Sep 23rd 2009 3:20PM

Nintendo has said they have no plans to bring the Black Wii to the US - Japan only.

Mind you that might (should) change, but that's the story now.

McBrick @ Sep 23rd 2009 3:56PM

Nintendo said they would not bring the DSi to the US in 2009 either. That lasted until... April, I think.

Mr Khan @ Sep 23rd 2009 3:19PM

It is my suspicion that they are going to announce something regarding an NSMBWii bundle, just because they haven't announced it yet, alone out of all their games for this holiday, yet a non-confirmed release date just popped up for people who pre-ordered it on Amazon, and i bet the two have something to do with each other.