In an effort to revive sales, Nintendo said it would cut the price of the Wii video game console to $ 149.99 on May 15, 2011 and also cut prices for some games to $ 19.99.
Discounts, which is rumored for more than a month, aiming to revive the sagging sales of Wii and make these systems become affordable to the mass consumer market a new wider and far more sensitive to price than hardcore gamers. It's one more sign that the Wii, which is almost five years, is entering a new stage of maturity. Nintendo has announced it will launch a new console next year.
Lower-priced Wii Wii will include black and white, motion sensing Wii remote, and a copy of the game Mario Kart with steering wheel black or white. Previously, the Wii costs $ 199.99 and has been bundled with Wii Sports and Wii Sports resort. Nintendo will continue to sell bundles of up to run out by summer. Some retailers are selling the bundle for $ 170.
Although Nintendo has announced a replacement console and will explain more on this year's E3 trade show in June, it would be a mistake to assume the Wii will decline. In fact, the previous generation console, the largest volume of consoles sold when the price drops below $ 100. Since 2006, the Wii has sold more than 86 million consoles. In the last year, Nintendo said it sold 15 million units, down from 20 million in the prior year. Nintendo expects to sell 13 million Wii in the current fiscal year ending March 31, 2012.
The timing of the price cut is good in one thing because Sony has suffered a setback due to the disaster with the PlayStation Network, which is hacked. Sony said the hackers had access to personal data of more than 77 million registered users and the hackers may have stolen credit numbers more than 10 million cards.
Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo America, told USA Today that the new console will not be sold until the second half of 2012 at the earliest. Nintendo said it would sell four games for $ 19.99: Wii Sports, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Animal Crossing: City Folk, and Mario Super Sluggers. Wii Sports Resort will sell for $ 39.99 without the Wii remote. Nintendo's new games are still sold for $ 49.99.