Despite facing stiff competition from the PS4 and Xbox One console later this year, Nintendo has no plans to cut the price of the Wii U.
This was confirmed by Scott Moffitt, the executive vice president of sales and marketing at Nintendo of America in an interview with VentureBeat:
“No. We have no plans to change the price of Wii U. The Wii U is a great value. With great content coming, that will drive the hardware installed base. We’ve gone from being the highest-priced console on the market to now being a great value with the announcements from our competitors. The perception of our price has changed, but what’s also changed is that people now see what great content is coming. They’ll see the value in those games. They’ll be able to enjoy a Wii U in their household for a lot less than a competing console.”
Technically, the Wii U is still the cheapest “next-generation” console out there. The 32GB edition costs $350 while the 8GB model retails for $299. The Xbox One and PS4 both have 500GB hard drives and will cost $499 and $399 respectively.
Ben
June 15, 2013 at 4:58 PMI think Nintendo’s missing the issue here. It’s not that the Wii U isn’t a great system; it’s that the PS4, for only $50 more than the Premium Wii U bundle, offers OUTSTANDING value. It’s like (and yeah, dated reference, I know) super-sizing your soda for just 25 cents more. Pay that extra $50 and you get a powerful PS4 that’s getting all the big 3rd party games instead of MAYBE getting them like the Wii U.
Don’t get me wrong; I’m a Wii U owner and I LOVE the console, but if I look at what the PS4 is bringing, I can’t help but think that it’s offering far more than $50 of value over the Wii U.
Make the Wii U Basic $249.99 and the Premium $299.99 and you’ve got an argument, Nintendo.
Mike
June 15, 2013 at 8:17 PMI agree with Ben, Nintendo has to leave the pride and accept that if the console (wiiu) is expensive is because of the controller, but tecnically ps4 is super sofisticated, the only way nfor nintendo is to reduce the wiiu,s price, or else they will become a developper like sega (wich would be horrible),. nintendo, I think that in order to compete for a better position the basic pack should cost 230, the premium 270, but if wiiu is to succed, they need a pack without the wiiu gamepad (because it is not needed for every videogame) and with the same black premium console for 190, and the people could buy some day the controller separately…
BJJCA
June 16, 2013 at 10:26 PMTranslation: Wii U has no plans to improve its sales numbers this holiday season.