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Pre drops to $79.99 at Walmart
Hey, thought that $99.99 Amazon deal for a Palm Pre was really snazzy? Well today, Walmart appears to go one better by cutting the smartphone's price down to a staggering $79.99 (on contract and with mail-in rebate). If prices keep going this low, you can probably expect the Pixi to show up for about nothing (zero, zip, zilch) sooner rather than later. If you've been looking for a deal to get into the Pre, this is it... but too bad if you dropped $200 a few months ago.[Via everythingpre]
Wii price cut in Europe excludes UK [update]
Update: Nintendo has told us that the price in Canada has dropped accordingly to $219.95 and will go into effect the same day as the US. The representative also said more details on the European price drop will arrive next Monday. Though online portals to major European retailers have yet to reflect the claim, the price for a Wii is reported to drop by €50 across Europe, bringing the total cost to €199, according to GamesIndustry.biz. Unfortunately, it appears that the price cut won't bridge the gap of the English Channel, as the discount is reportedly confirmed for all of Europe except for the UK.Nintendo officially dropped the price of its console in the US late Wednesday night (during Sony's TGS press conference, those scoundrels!), leaving us wondering why Europe, a key market, was left out of the equation -- until now. With no price cut yet announced for the UK though, that rumored bundle seems all the more likely.
Original PSP to get 15% price cut ... in Japan
Sony may have been busy talking up the PSP Go (and its ridiculous accessories) during TGS, but it looks like the company hasn't forgotten the Go's older brother. Beginning October 1, the original PSP will receive a fifteen percent price drop in Japan, lowering the price to ¥16,800 (~$185). While it might seem a little strange for Sony to lower the price of the PSP just prior to the launch of the already overpriced PSP Go, Bloomberg rightly points out that the cut will place the PSP at a lower price than Nintendo's monstrously successful DSi. For now, the price cut remains exclusive to Japan. Joystiq has contacted Sony to find out whether it plans to share the love with the rest of the world. [Via Engadget]
Sony hacks 15 percent from PSP's price in Japan
While Sony seemed more than willing to show off its new PSP Go Converter and even more willing to gloat about its one millionth PS3 Slim sale, this little tidbit was pushed away in some neglected corner of the Tokyo Game Show. Thankfully for you, we're dedicated to leaving no stone unturned, and now we've discovered that the outfit is fixing to cut 15 percent from the PSP-3000's price tag... but only in Japan. Starting on October 1st, the UMD-friendly handheld will be offered in The Land of the Rising Sun for ¥16,800, or just over $185 using current conversion tables. So Sony -- any plans to hook the rest of the world up? You don't want to see us pout.
Nintendo finally confirms new $199 Wii price
After being stuck so long at $249, we can hardly believe the Wii is "pulling a PS3" and going down in price at last -- outside of the insurmountable mountains of evidence we had of the price drop before Nintendo could get around to confirming it, of course. The console will begin retailing for $199.99 (~$200 for us math types) on September 27, which is this Sunday.Update: The Wii will fall to ¥20,000 in Japan, which represents a 20 percent drop.Update 2: Looks like those of you getting paid in Euros will be asked to shell out €199.99. [Via Joystiq]
Rumor: No Euro Wii price cut, new bundle to include both Wii Sports games, MotionPlus
Just like we saw earlier this year with the PlayStation 3 Slim, the rumor mill is churning at breakneck pace -- though this time around a possible Nintendo Wii price cut rather than a slimmer console. Aside from multiple retailer listings and today's alleged internal Best Buy memo, MCV reports that a "retail source" told it the UK won't be receiving the same price cut that North America and Japan are expected to receive. Instead, the current model will be given the bundle treatment.GamesIndustry.biz spotted the new bundle on ShopTo.net -- it has since been removed, though an image and a shell of the page still exist -- which includes both Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort as well as a MotionPlus attachment, for the same £199.99 ($326.76) the system is priced at now. If it is true, at least UK Wii buyers will be getting a bit more for their pounds. It's not quite the Duck Hunt/Super Mario Bros. with a Zapper combo of yore, but it'll have to do.Source -- No Wii price cut for UK [GamesIndustry.biz]Source -- New UK Wii bundle leaked [MCV]
Rumor: Internal Best Buy memo confirms Wii price cut this Sunday [update]
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?
Ars' mole predicts holiday Xbox 360 bundle, network adapter price cut
We hope at this point we don't have to sell you on the validity of Ars Technica's mole. Whoever the guy/girl is, their track record is fantastic, after correctly predicting everything from the Resident Evil 5 360 bundle to the price cuts the 360 and PS3 just enjoyed. Now, the mole says that Microsoft will be sweetening the deal this holiday season, packing Pure and Lego Batman in with the Xbox 360 Elite. The mole went on to claim that the 802.11n adapter Microsoft has confirmed will debut for $100, while the 802.11g will drop to $79.99. ... Yikes, $20 off a device that should cost $20 in the first place? If true, it's pretty darn cold.
Greenberg: Price drops affect sales for a few months
Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg told GI.biz that he doesn't expect the recent price drops on Xbox 360 and PS3 hardware to change sales trends permanently. "I don't believe the price cuts that both companies have made will impact the market dynamics too dramatically in the long term," he said. "We typically see a month or two of lifts and share adjustments, but then things tend to settle back to roughly the established market ranking. We do, however, expect that these new lower prices will bring in more consumers that were potentially a bit resistant to the previous pricing in place."And, of course, these statements come before the rumored Wii price drop, which may reduce even the temporary lifts experienced by the other consoles. Luckily, we suppose, that period will run right into the holidays, when everything sees dramatic sales increases.
Nintendo confirms $199 Wii for September 27?
It might sound confusing at first, but it all makes sense, we promise. The folks at Nintendojo were apparently on a retailer conference call where Nintendo "confirmed" the new $199 Wii price, which will supposedly go into effect on Sunday September 27. Only problem is that we have to take Nintendojo's word for it -- not that we have any reason not to, but for now we'll have to just call this an "unconfirmed confirmation" until Nintendo can summon the courage to fess up to the $50 price cut to a couple of corroborating sources. It's not like those multiple flyer price leaks are knocking anybody off the trail, but we usually to hear these things from the horse's mouth -- or at least from a retailer's shelf -- before we go into all-out celebration mode. [Via GoNintendo]
Rumor: Best Buy ad fuels the $50 Wii price drop fire
What you see above is the third circular image we've spotted in just five days advertising a Nintendo Wii price cut to $199.99. At this point, though the image that a Kotaku tipster sent in could very well be made of fancy pixel work by someone with too few extracurriculars on their schedule, we're fairly confident in a forthcoming price cut reveal.Considering the impending holiday season and those other consoles getting recent price drops, it seems likely something will occur with the big N in the upcoming months. If Miss Cleo's Michael Pachter's predictions based on slowing sales are any indication though, we'll know soon enough.
$199 Nintendo Wii spotted in Best Buy ad?
First there was an alleged Toys R Us ad, and now we've caught wind of what's claimed to be a Best Buy spot showing the Nintendo Wii getting that long-desired $50 price drop, down just below the two Benjamin mark. Easily Photoshopped image? You betcha, so we'll just have to play wait-and-see as the evidence seems to mount up -- it's been a long time coming, after all, we wouldn't be that surprised given the oncoming holiday season and the recent downward trend in demand.
Rumor: Target circular advertises $199 Wii
The image above, posted by Kotaku, appears to be a Target ad for the week of September 27, featuring a $50 price drop on Wii hardware. This ad would further corroborate the Toys R Us ad we saw that also showed the same price cut -- if we knew either ad was real. Us? We're hoping for a drastic price cut on cameras so tipsters can get better pictures of these advance ads.The DVD at the right side of the Target ad is Monsters vs. Aliens, which comes out on September 29. That at least shows that if this ad is a fake, it's a somewhat clever one. As always, we're not going to take this as confirmation of a price drop, but we will take it as confirmation that it would be smart to wait a couple of weeks before going to buy a Wii.
Wii getting $50 price drop this month? One Toys R Us ad seems to think so
Of all the fakeables in consumer electronics, the weekly newspaper ad has to be one of the easiest marks. Still, this one looks pretty legit, and if it's real it means either we're getting a much overdue Wii price cut on September 27th, or someone on the Toys R Us ad team has been severely misinformed. If it's not true and we have to wait another holiday season for the Wii to break the $200 mark, we're not getting Nintendo that Snuggie we promised it for Christmas -- everybody knows only good little boys, girls and multinational game companies get presents. [Via Joystiq]
Rumor: Toys R Us ad leaks $50 Wii price cut
No, not to $50, though that would be an awesome way to tie up this holiday season for Nintendo. Kotaku shared this possible excerpt from a future Toys R Us ad, showing Wiis for sale for just $199, with Wii Sports, effective September 27. Now, we're not going to call this true or confirmed or anything that implies we have any confidence in this image. In fact, there are a few possibilities: It's real (yay!) The art of faking retail ads has advanced significantly since the run-up to the PS3 Slim release, and it's a convincing fake It's real, but the "price cut" term is actually referring to a Toys R Us sale (still yay, but not universally so). In any case, just don't buy a Wii until late September. You've waited almost three years anyway!
August NPD: PS3 sales soar as gamers go batty for Arkham Asylum in a Madden world
This year's August NPD sales numbers were, as usual, dominated by EA's monolithic Madden franchise -- but who's that creeping out of the shadows? "I'm Batman." Rocksteady, Warner Bros. and Eidos officially have themselves a critical and commercial hit in Batman: Arkham Asylum, with the game having sold more than half a million copies across PS3 and 360 in its first week on sale. Even the Joker can't laugh at sales like that.Hardware saw a slight increase for the month, with the exception of PS3, which saw an impressive 72% jump in sales, no doubt due to early sales of the lower-priced 120GB slim SKU. Wii is still the best-selling home console, but its numbers are gradually dipping down into "maybe we should consider a price cut, too" territory. Here's how sales of the stuff we play are games on stacked up: -DS: 553K14K (+2%)-Wii: 277K24K (+9%)-360: 215K12K (+6%)-PS3: 210K88K (+72%)-PSP: 140K17K (+13%)-PS2: 106K2K (-2%Check out the software sales chart after the break.
PS3 sales up 300% for first week following price cut in US
Sony Computer Entertainment America has some good news and some bad news to share. The good: Sales of PS3 hardware at its "top retailers" jumped 300% for the first week of September versus the week before the system's price was cut to $299 for the 120GB "slim" unit. The bad: Um, well ... okay, we lied. Everything's pretty good for a change at SCEA HQ, considering people are actually buying its console. (Although 300% pales in comparison to Europe's totally legit 999% increase ... or Japan's 7,350% increase). The hardware maker also noted that, as of August, five of consumers' top 10 most-wanted games (as surveyed by OTX's GamePlan Insights) -- Gran Turismo 5, Final Fantasy XIII, God of War III, Assassin's Creed 2 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 -- are on PS3, in case you somehow didn't know this. We would like to note (mainly for Sony's information) that Modern Warfare 2 is also on Xbox 360, and that version was No. 2 in OTX's survey results, whereas the PS3 version placed 10th. (Assassin's Creed 2 for 360 is No. 3 and No. 8 for PS3.) In fact, if you calculate the "purchase intent index" for the top three (all Xbox 360 games) and the lower five (all PS3 games) they're nearly identical. But still, we'll give it to them. Maybe it's more worthwhile, though, to point out that Uncharted 2 didn't even make the top 25. What's up with that? Source -- GamePlan Insights Survey Data [PDF file]
iPod touch prices slashed dramatically before today's event (nano and classic too)
Seeing is believing and we're seeing price drops across each and every iPod touch on Apple's on-line store front. The 8GB model is now $189 (was $229), the 16GB model is $249 (was $299), and the 32GB model is just $279 (was $399). Now what could Apple be making room for?Update: And now the nano and classic have fallen under the axe. The classic has been cut to $229 (was $249) while the nano now starts at $129 (was $149) for the 8GB model or just $149 (down from $199) for the 16GB nano.[Thanks, Max H.]
Sprint now offering $100 service credit to Pre buyers who port a number
We were expecting a Pre price cut today, but it looks like Sprint has slightly different plans -- instead of lowering the outright price of the handset, the carrier is offering new Pre customers a $100 service credit if they port a number from a different carrier. Yeah, that's a little odd -- especially since the credit is spread out over three months, instead of applied all in one go. We're guessing Sprint and Palm are just trying to lure new sales without having to openly cut prices on the Pre and undo its "premium" image, but as far as psychological marketing tricks go, parceling out a discount over 12 weeks might be the least effective one we can think of -- we're pretty sure most people would rather take a $100 price cut at the top end of the deal. Still, the end result is that the Pre is now $100 cheaper for switchers -- anyone running out to buy one? [Via Everything Pre]
Chart Track: PS3 sales up 999% percent in UK
Yes, the 999% week-to-week sales increase that the PS3 reportedly enjoyed in the UK, after the release of the PS3 Slim, may seem a little ... astonishing, but we'd like to help you make sense of the sequence of events. 1. First, NOBODY bought a PS3. 2. Then, EVERYONE did. It's great news for Sony, but terrible for the PS3 executive who promised to come up with a way to increase PS3 sales by 1000 percent. Better luck next time, Mr. Former Director of Cross-Budgetary Marketing Promotional Strategy.
