Nintendo president squashes talk of Wii price cuts

Incredible as it sounds, it looks like Nintendo isn't planning on slashing the price of the console it can still barely keep on store shelves. That word comes straight from Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, who's attempting to clamp down on recent speculation that a Wii price cut could be in the offing, which seemed at least a tad more plausible considering that the manufacturing costs for the console have supposedly dropped significantly since its launch. According to Iwata, rather than trying to drive up sales numbers even further with a price cut, Nintendo will instead be putting "more energy and time into making better entertainment so that our products are going to remain in the top position in our customer's wish lists" -- and now with Disc Dog, in the top position in our hearts.

[dasdrewid @ Apr 9th 2009 6:29PM]

They better be putting some serious money in R&D...

[AMiSH PiRATE @ Apr 9th 2009 6:45PM]

Remember when Nintendo made insane profits when the NES dominated? Yeah, they put most of that into a war chest that they didn't need to open up until they started developing the Wii. I imagine after the non-dominations of the N64 & gamecube that they'll be a little more proactive this time around.

[Mikeweezer @ Apr 9th 2009 7:56PM]

What about the SNES? That was dominant. They started slipping on the N64 and bought the farm on GameCube.

[AMiSH PiRATE @ Apr 10th 2009 2:18AM]

SNES didn't dominate the market the way the NES did. By the time the SNES hit, Genesis had gained enough of a market share to start to dig into Nintendo's profits.

[TRLK @ Apr 9th 2009 6:30PM]

Why print a £20 bill if you can print £50?
That's exactly what Nintendo's doing: printing money

[Badger_badger_badger @ Apr 9th 2009 7:15PM]

http://www.gamemanx.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/prints_money.gif

[mirakutea @ Jun 8th 2009 11:42AM]

Charge whatever the market will bear. one of the first rules of business.

[Michael @ Apr 9th 2009 6:38PM]

It simply doesn't make sense for Nintendo to cut the price, even in this climate. They should ramp up production (if they haven't already). I can't see how after how many years in the market, Nintendo still can't meet demand.

[UnixSystemsEngineer @ Apr 9th 2009 6:52PM]

Yeah, I couldn't tell if the summary was being sarcastic or not about "incredible as it may seem.." only a fool would cut prices when he's already selling at capacity.

[Cash @ Apr 9th 2009 6:43PM]

Why would they cut prices when sales continue to skyrocket? That's just stupid to expect them to.

Sony, on the other hand...

[SABRAGE @ Apr 9th 2009 6:47PM]

Hardware sales are through the roof, but piracy is pretty rampant on the Wii. I'm surprised they aren't pulling that out as an excuse to keep prices up.

[JS @ Apr 9th 2009 6:50PM]

If you don't care about the Wii controller, you can build a computer with better performing for less money:

CPU/MB combo = $50 (cheap .. but it will perf better than Wii)
power supply + case = $25 (yes, if you look u can find it at decent quality level too)
40 GB HDD = $25
2 GB RAM = $15
GeForce 9400 GT 512MB DDR2 = $50 (far better graphics than Wii and has HD etc.)

$15 = $8 keyboard + $7 mouse


OS? Linux or Solaris, free.

Total = $175

Clearly Nintendo manufacturing is making mad profits on the Wii.

[chambo622 @ Apr 9th 2009 7:27PM]

I'd like to see your "decent quality" case and PSU for $25

[Andrew @ Apr 10th 2009 12:33AM]

Totally valid argument.. comparing a kiddy game system to a lame box that can't even run real games (sorry SuperTux).

[teej @ Apr 10th 2009 1:06PM]

dude, i love PCs, but you're making PC gamers look like friggin tards...

[mirakutea @ Jun 8th 2009 11:47AM]

psu's that cheap are a risk to health and safety.

[fastm3driver @ Apr 9th 2009 6:50PM]

I just want the motion plus replaced with a new controller.

[aevansjr35 @ Apr 9th 2009 7:30PM]

not keeping on shelves? All the stores here have TONS of wiis and have had them for awhile now.

[xtasi @ Apr 9th 2009 7:37PM]

@aevansjr35: I see the same thing. Is there somewhere that has no supply? I was at best buy last weekend, and I saw two palettes on the floor with Wii. Been seeing them for a while, where are the shortages? Even online I see the prices now at $250.

[aevansjr35 @ Apr 9th 2009 8:22PM]

Nintendo is starting to flat line on wiis. Gonna have to change something if they wish to continue to sell them maybe the time is now to upgrade it to HD and allow dvd play back (though most people dont need that). Maybe also upgrade the wii remote beyond the wii motion thats coming out.

[ohforfucksake @ Apr 9th 2009 8:05PM]

wii sucks ass man, it aint on my wish list, not even at the bottom

[Wolfticket @ Apr 9th 2009 8:21PM]

Quick, ring Nintendo! Maybe they'll stop making it for you.

[mirakutea @ Jun 8th 2009 11:49AM]

there's 1 or 2 sexy new games on the wii, can't remember off hand though.
at least i'll probably be playing mario kart wii for a long time to come.

[Fraggy4 @ Apr 9th 2009 9:02PM]

I've owned every Nintendo console, both home and handheld, since the NES (yes, even a Virtual Boy). Up until recently, I was perfectly content with the products they put out. Over the last year, I've grown apart from the Wii. The lack of hardcore games that actually have replay value, and the whole Friend Code mess forced me to sell a Nintendo system for the first time in my life. So I sold the Wii and all the games, and went out and bought a 360. I've been converted from a lifelong Nintendo fanboy to an Xbox fanboy. I realize that Nintendo's sold a shitload of Wiis, but they are not appealing to the huge demographic that paid for their success. If Nintendo has ANY money stored up somewhere, they'd better spend it on a new console that can at least match the specs of the ORIGINAL Xbox.

[Andrew @ Apr 10th 2009 12:39AM]

Great, you converted from a half lame system to an even lamer system. Tbh, I liked the original Xbox but MS totally screwed up with the 360. And then again, there's Nintendo..

[teej @ Apr 10th 2009 1:10PM]

how screwed up is the 360? you obviously don't own a 360 or know how screwed up it ISN'T. i've had 1 RRoD... whoopty doo; couldn't game for 2 weeks. so what? so many amazing games and the Live experience is phenomenal.

in your opinion, what isn't a lame system? PS3? PC? if it's PS3, stop being such a fanboy. if it's PC, you're comparing apples to oranges.

[michas_pi @ Apr 9th 2009 9:06PM]

I saw six Wiis in stock at my local Kmart yesterday.

Go figure.

[teej @ Apr 10th 2009 1:11PM]

wait, Kmart still exists?

[JP23 @ Apr 9th 2009 9:23PM]

I heard they were going to cut the price once they sold the 6,500,000,000th unit. So that won't be too long right? Next week or the week after...

[Down @ Apr 10th 2009 6:27AM]

A Wii for nearly everyone on the planet. Talk about domination.

[abe200x @ Apr 9th 2009 9:37PM]

Hooray for disc dog!

[Joe @ Apr 10th 2009 4:01AM]

Again, Engadget, the word you're looking for is "quash" not "squash". Without correct English the article can rather much be a damp squid.

[dave @ Apr 10th 2009 2:32PM]

The phrase you are looking for is damp squib.

[Joe @ Apr 10th 2009 2:44PM]

Indeed... Irony was never one of my strong points.

[bongo123 @ Apr 10th 2009 5:14AM]

"Great, you converted from a half lame system to an even lamer system. Tbh, I liked the original Xbox but MS totally screwed up with the 360. And then again, there's Nintendo."

how in the hell did MS screw up the vastly superior 360? what are you some sort of moron... oooo red ring of death, postal replacement.. big deal... now what else did MS screw you over with??

The Wii is a novelty toy, and like most novelty toys everyone rushes out to buy em cause when they played them round their mates house when drunk at some party it was great fun, then you buy one and have a party and everyone has a laugh bowling or whatnot, then you goto play something on it the following day that isnt a party game and you realise that the graphics suck, the games are the same shit nintendo have been producing for years and the little gay box gets shoved into a cupboard never to be used again cause the next time you throw a party no one can be arsed playing it and prefers to instead get wasted..

But fair play to them, they innovated and took a risk with the controller, lets hope they use the massive amount of cash there making on that shitbox to actually make a decent console for gamers next time instead of old people and 9y.o. kids

[Ozzman_79 @ Apr 10th 2009 9:04AM]

Such an eloquant and well thought out piece of writing, with valid points presented in a totally objective manner. Kudos to you, sir.

[bongo123 @ Apr 10th 2009 12:09PM]

^^^ who died and made you my english teacher?

[Hiattech @ Apr 10th 2009 10:57AM]

/agree ozz. Cuz selling to those outside the hardcore gamers won't make them more money than selling to only hardcore gamers at all.....
Seriously, why does everyone think that when a company makes a console that it HAS to be directed at the hardcore market. Guess what guys, you don't make up the vast majority of the population. They can make way more money selling a console to the rest of the world, not just the limited population of hard core gamers.

[teej @ Apr 10th 2009 1:35PM]

+73

business is business. if you actually like gaming, buy a 360.