Hey remember when I talked about predicting that the Nintendo WiiU will be eventually dropping its price before the PS4 and the XBox One rolling around?
Well....it hasn't happened yet despite the recent ugly news.
And now the question should not be as to whether or not its going to happen, the question Nintendo should ask is how much exactly should they drop the price.
While the WiiU might be selling at a loss with its current price, the WiiU is going to be destroyed if Nintendo sticks to its price being a mere $50 less than the next-generation Playstation 4 (whom is riding some good momentum) come the holiday season. The deluxe package of the WiiU needs to be less than $300 as soon as possible--at the very latest September.
If I personally ran Nintendo, I would drop it back to a $250 price, with the $275 price if you purchase it with the understated but presentation-dreary New Super Mario Bros. U (Which is on pace to become the least-successful major Mario game since Super Mario Sunshine). You need to separate yourself from the competition now that they are around the corner and looking far more advanced than your product.
Momentum is required to thrive into the holiday season and make good money then, and the WiiU clearly has very little. The long-delayed Pikmin 3 is serving up humble numbers, but not the kind that can jump-start the hardware. The Virtual Console got a big boost from Earthbound, and it arguably would have never happened if it weren't for the PR nightmare involving the Super Smash Brothers franchise controversy. And let's not forget the fleeting third-party support. Perhaps cutting the price to a more economic stature would give Nintendo the necessary 3DS-like boost that could propel it away of obscurity.
Nintendo, let's look at the facts:
WiiU Deluxe--the only package you should get: $350
PS4: $400
XBox One: $500
Game Price Range
WiiU: $5-$60
PS4: $5-$60
XBox One: $5-$60
Wouldn't it look prettier to be $150 cheaper than the competitors while holding a heavier abundance of cheaper games with the Why-in-the-hell-have-I-still-not-reached-my-potential Virtual Console? You can manage the operating at a loss if you manage to slide in some quick bucks left and right with re-releases of games that already exist. There are over 1,500 Nintendo games still not released. You mean to tell me if you get at least 40% of those games available you won't get some money out of it?
Let's refer back to an old IGN article about the Virtual Console and WiiWare to show you the potential money that can cover the lack of software and heavier loss if you were to do the necessary price cut:
Back in 2009 alone, JUST 2009, Super Mario Bros. 3 by itself generated $5 million, which is the equivalent of 83,000 sales of a modern-day video game. If you combine the top 5, that's $18.7 million, with an equivalent of 311,000 sales of modern games. This is ONLY the top 5 combined on a slow year of the Nintendo Wii that actually saw its sales drop 25% that year. And this would be coming from a far far smaller budget than your typical $60 game nowadays. There are 400 video games on the Wii Virtual Console. Is it that hard to transfer it all to the WiiU to help generate sales?
Nintendo, the price cut is going to be a gamble, but it is far better to swallow the pride and look like the far economically better option as opposed to taking a chance at looking expensive AND inferior to the competitors. You have an abundance of new games coming out this fall but you need the arsenal of older games to help quantify the options for upcoming WiiU owners.
So...the question should NOT be IF the WiiU needs a price cut, the question should be: How much?
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