Wii Hold The Price
In an interview with the Japanese website Touch-DS (via Kotaku), Nintendo president Satoru Iwata had some interesting things to say about hardware price drops. To date, the Wii is the only console this generation not to receive a single price cut, and judging by Iwata's comment, it may stay that way a little while longer.
"This is my personal thinking, but when the model's price-tag drops over time, manufacturers are telling consumers it's better to wait, and I've always thought that was a mistake," Iwata said. This seems to be an opinion one has the luxury of holding when their console is entering its third holiday season, and they still can't meet demand.
Evidently, Iwata went on to explain that he doesn't want early adopters to feel as if they took a loss for supporting the console before a price drop hit (this coming from the same company that flatly admitted they're holding back the U.S. DSi launch in order to sell more DS Lites). Perhaps Iwata makes a good point, but then again... the Wii can't stay at $250 forever, can it? It does have to get a price drop at some point, doesn't it? Doesn't it?
"This is my personal thinking, but when the model's price-tag drops over time, manufacturers are telling consumers it's better to wait, and I've always thought that was a mistake," Iwata said. This seems to be an opinion one has the luxury of holding when their console is entering its third holiday season, and they still can't meet demand.
Evidently, Iwata went on to explain that he doesn't want early adopters to feel as if they took a loss for supporting the console before a price drop hit (this coming from the same company that flatly admitted they're holding back the U.S. DSi launch in order to sell more DS Lites). Perhaps Iwata makes a good point, but then again... the Wii can't stay at $250 forever, can it? It does have to get a price drop at some point, doesn't it? Doesn't it?
