[Opinion] Am I the only one who wouldn’t mind a Wii U price cut with an ambassador program?
February 16th, 2013 Posted in Features, Posted by Austin, Wii U
The Wii U sold 55,000 units (give or take) this January. I want an Ambassador Program and a price cut, mostly because I want free games. How about you?
After the announcement that Wii U sold but 55K units this past January, I found myself legitimately worried about the future of the console for the first time ever. I don’t mean “Oh no Nintendo is going to die and everything will be ruined!” worried, I just mean “Man, they are going to be in for another Gamecube if they don’t get their act together with this.”
Not that I would mind another Gamecube. After all, the console spawned some of the greatest games of all time despite selling a paltry 21 million units, and none of us look back on that era and go “Man, Nintendo sure was close to being gone for good with that lunchbox console!”. Still, they were clearly in third place behind Sony and Microsoft, and as childish as it seems I like seeing Nintendo being on top. There’s something really satisfying about seeing the guy you like best winning, especially when the guy you like best is putting forth such a positive and unique image when juxtaposed with a lot of what else is out there.
So what’s up with Wii U? The three month totals on the system aren’t awful by any means (it’s ahead of where both the PS3 and 360 were at the same point in their lives), but a less-than-100K January sounds troublesome for a brand new system. Pile onto that the news of Rayman Legends, EA saying it’s not next gen, Activision saying they’re disappointed in it, SEGA postponing the release of Aliens indefinitely… it certainly doesn’t spell success! I mean, 3DS had all of us on the edge of our seats for a minute there, but it bounced back over the last year or two and has really become a handheld powerhouse, even by Nintendo’s high standards.
So what should Nintendo do? Honestly, I wouldn’t mind a $50 price cut and another Ambassador Program. More than anything I feel like I’d be getting the better half of the bargain considering all of the games they gave us on 3DS, and the imaginary offer of 20 free NES/SNES/GBA/N64/etc titles on Wii U– fully playable on Gamepad with any luck– is more than enough to make me go “Okay, you guys can all save $50 on the console. I’m gonna get me a bunch of free games.”
That’s just me though. How would you guys feel about Nintendo going the 3DS route with Wii U? They certainly have the Holiday line-up to pull it off…
12 Responses to “[Opinion] Am I the only one who wouldn’t mind a Wii U price cut with an ambassador program?”
By Yoshifan2012 on Feb 16, 2013
I hadn’t really thought about this. I mean, getting a few free games would be awesome, but at the same time, I don’t think it would be fair to the number of people that don’t have Wi-fi available in their household. With the 3DS, you could take it to a place with Wi-fi if you didn’t have it available. With Wii U, you can’t do that, so if you wanted to get the games, you’d have to go get Wi-fi access, which might actually take a while. In the end, I wouldn’t really care, since I’d be getting some free games, but you got to take the people with no way of getting the games into consideration, otherwise, you might have a few unhappy people that had to pay more money and got nothing extra in return.
By Izaal on Feb 16, 2013
I think is too early to think seriously about a price cut… Not even 4 months since it was released.
it has a hard competence in front, the 360 and the ps3 are, actually, really cheap options, but I think this will not be the same when ps4 and durango show off…
Uhm, let´s wait…
By Sgamer on Feb 16, 2013
I think Nintendo knew about their poor sales outside their country and is the reason we got two Nintendo direct these past two months, to help sales and to show everyone they are making games for their wii U and 3ds. i’ve been reading a couple of articles saying that microsft and sony are actually loosing money even microsft isn’t happy what’s going with their console. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdrogcPUYyA
By Disco on Feb 16, 2013
@Yoshifan2012 I’m sorry, but if you are in a household without Wifi in this day-and-age, you’re living in the past. Even my 90-year-old grandfather and grandmother have Wifi in their house. If you or your family have the money to afford a Wii U, then surely you can afford the little amount of money it costs to have wifi in your house.
Besides that, I don’t think the Ambassador Program concept will happen for the Wii U. Unlike the 3DS, the Wii U is priced very according to its cost to make. The problem with the 3DS is that the original $250 price was significantly higher than the cost to make a 3DS (About $130 or so at time of release). I’ve read that the Wii U Premium’s price is really close to its cost-to-make price. With that in mind, I think the Wii U will reside at $300 for at least another year or so, or at least until a better Wii U comes out.
By patrikpaprika on Feb 16, 2013
Why is everyone panicking about Wii U? Nintendo aren’t dumb. They are probably waiting for the two copycats Sony and Microsoft to lay out their cards on the table about their new consoles, so that Nintendo can show their cards up their sleeves and blow everyone away. Plus, as soon as Nintendo’s big games are coming out I’m sure Wii U will pick up sales.
By pie on Feb 16, 2013
I doubt they would have a price cut since the Wii U is already being sold at a loss so a price cut would mean that that they would have to sell even more games to make a profit, and Nintendo only has a few games put out there. They can’t think about a serious price cut until after June
By thomas on Feb 16, 2013
@Yoshifan
Technically you could bring your Wii U to any wifi-enabled spot that has an electricity socket, and do the update on the Gamepad. And people who have wired internet, can buy the USB ethernet dongle.
In general:
I think a price drop is in order, which is likely to happen if sales keep being as stale as January. As for early adopters… it sucks, but you know what you’re getting for the money you paid. The amount of delays is admittedly annoying, though. I truly believe Nintendo doesn’t owe anything to early adopters, but of course it would be a good gesture if they did another Ambassador program.
In short, I agree entirely with your viewpoint, Austin. We could very well be in for another Gamecube. People are saying "but if they’ll release a mario, mario kart, super smash and zelda…", but Gamecube had all of that. Apparently, Nintendo’s IPs only get them 20 million sales when there’s something "cooler" on the market. The only way Nintendo’s going to sell a lot more is convincing the casuals, or Sony and Microsoft fucking up with a ridiculous price tag.
I do disagree with the notion that Nintendo can survive 2 bad generations, though. If both their console and handheld were tanking, we could see some serious changes. I personally love the idea of all 3 companies releasing a console together. Not this generation, of course, but maybe next…
By TiggyPudding on Feb 16, 2013
I guess a price drop would help. I think Nintendo need to up their game on the marketing side of things too, that would help.
By Yoshifan2012 on Feb 16, 2013
@Disco I know a few people that have Wii U but no internet. It’s kinda sad, since internet is one of the number one things people use today.
@thomas I guess they could take it somewhere, but that would be a little awkward taking a whole video game console somewhere with you, especially a newer one, and with the risk of someone taking it. I honestly didn’t know if anyone actually went through the trouble of buying the wired dongle and hooking it up, since I’ve never known anyone that used one, and have never seen one for sale.
By Windstar on Feb 16, 2013
I don’t think anyone would be opposed to getting free games.
By pie on Feb 16, 2013
Im opposed to getting free games illegally
By thomas on Feb 16, 2013
I’ve got a USB ethernet dongle… but yeah as mentioned before, if you still don’t have wifi you really let yourself miss out on the stuff