Nintendo Price Drop By Year End Predicts Pachter

Once again Wedbush Morgan’s Michael Pachter has predicted a Wii price cut by this holiday season. Though consoles have usually had either a price cut or at least added bundles at this point in the Wii’s lifespan, the white wonder machine has not had anything so far, worldwide. In fact the price has even gone up in the U.K to compensate for the weakening economy.

Though Mr. Pachter is right in that the Wii will, at some point, will get a price cut, we think this year may be a little too soon. Nintendo have the option to add a range of colours and game bundles to add value to the console before cutting the price to boost sales. A Wii Sports Resort bundle with MotionPlus would be certain to help hardware sales.

Of course this is all speculation on our part and Mr. Pachters. All or none of this could happen, but considering a recent slow down in sales in Japan, Europe and North America of the Wii it is reasonable to assume Nintendo will pull something out of the bag, especially if Microsoft and Sony make similar moves this year.

Over to MP:

“We think that the console manufacturers will therefore be forced to consider a price cut before year-end, with Sony cutting the PS3’s price by October 1. Further, we do not think that Nintendo’s hardware forecast figures are achievable without a price cut, and we expect one around the same time as the PS3 price cut. It is likely both manufacturers will cut by $50, with Sony making up any lack of increased demand with a software bundle.” -Wedbush Morgan analyst, Michael Pachter

It will also be interesting to see if Nintendo lower the price of the DS Lite and DSi consoles. Many agree that the latter is already over-priced and the arrival of Sony’s PSP Go could trigger a lower price point.