The Wii U’s off to a promising start in the US. On Friday, Wii U debuted across Europe as well as in New Zealand. Next week, Wii U goes to Japan. Nintendo’s in a good spot but its last new console, the Nintendo 3DS, had an equally promising debut. Sales dropped quickly, though, and Nintendo was forced to dramatically cut the price. Is a similar price cut waiting in the Wii U’s future?
Not as of now according to the company. Nintendo UK executives Shelly Pearce and James Honeywell said during the console’s UK release that the company has confidence in Wii U’s price.
“The 3DS was a strong launch for us—we’re hoping the Wii U will be just as strong or even stronger,” Honeywell told Eurogamer, “As for whether there will be a future price cut we certainly have no plans for that at the moment.”
“We have no plans for a price cut,” said Pearce, “If someone really wants it this Christmas they should go and but it.”
Nintendo sold 400,000 Wii Us in one week, a promising debut for a console that created a lot of confusion earlier in the year. Following E3 2012, as Nintendo began the slow process of marketing its machine, it wasn’t always clear what Wii U was. Late night talk show host Jimmy Fallon thought the Wii U was just a new controller for the Wii, as did a CNN reporter that wrote a story about the console. Now that the Wii U is out, though, people are responding but it won’t be until the holiday period is over that the Wii U can prove itself.
$300 or $350 for a new Wii U may prove too expensive next spring when the post-launch period begins and Nintendo has trouble bringing new games to market. The Nintendo 3DS price drop came within six months of the device’s release. With only two Nintendo-developed games scheduled to come out between now and May—namely Pikmin 3 and Game & Wario—Nintendo may ultimately find itself in a similar situation with Wii U.
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