Now that Nintendo's (OTC BB: NTDOY.PK) 3DS is a hit, having broken the company's one-day sales record, the Japanese gaming giant may be ready to turn its attention back to its console business.
A trusted yet unnamed source tells tech blog Engadget that Nintendo plans to drop the price of its Wii to $150 on May 15.
If the report is accurate, this will only be the system's second price cut since it debuted at $250 five years ago. Sony's (NYSE: SNE) PS3 and Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) Xbox 360 have taken more aggressive markdowns, but they also were introduced at much higher price points.
When Nintendo first announced the Wii, skeptics voiced doubts about the console's name and motion-based controller. Did gamers really want to hop off the couch? But despite its inferior specs, and its inability to play back movies on optical discs, Wii's innovative motion controls owned the industry over the next few years.
Unfortunately for Nintendo, times have changed. Now Microsoft's bar-raising Kinect controller is the standard to beat.
Is the price cut too little, too late for Nintendo? Is it odd that at $250, its 3DS handheld gaming system may be selling for nearly twice as much as its larger console?
The Wii doesn't need a price cut. It needs a more ambitious makeover. Nintendo is breathing new life into its portable business with the breakthrough 3DS, which plays games in depth-enhancing 3-D, streams Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) movies, and offers free and automatic online connectivity through more than 10,000 AT&T (NYSE: T) hotspots.
Streaming Netflix isn't a differentiator in the console space, since all three systems do that. Hotspot connectivity is moot for consoles. Does this leave 3-D as the feature that can help Nintendo once again raise the bar in the console space, the way it did in 2006?
We'll see. If Nintendo does go through with the rumored price cut next month, and sales don't pick up, it won't have much of a choice.
Will a price cut be enough to make the Wii popular again? Share your thoughts in the comment box below.
