Nintendo DS and Wii: No Price Cuts ‘08

Posted on April 27, 2008 - Filed Under HandHeld, Industry News, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii |

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The gaming market is highly based on the theory of supply and demand, Nintendo knows the demand for its products is high which translates to no immediate price cuts. While the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 go through hardware SKU changes to compete with each other and give “better value” to the consumers, Nintendo is holding strong with the current pricing structure.

It seems obvious to those following trends; you still have to fight to find Wii products in the store and the DS is the top mover of all consoles: hand-held or stationary. Price cuts cause products to migrate from the shelves to the homes quicker–the last thing we need is to increase the Wii sales figures!

Lazard Capital Markets Colin Sebastian said the Wii production supply will be increased by 34% based on Nintendo’s current plan and the DS will hold with its current price and production as the sales have gone down by 2-million units since last year.

“Sebastian said Nintendo is planning to spark DS sales in the future by pushing further into the mainstream consumer market with new features and games designed for non-traditional gamers. But if that doesn’t work out, Sebastian suggested that the DS would be in for another redesign.” (gamespot)

It seems a new redesign of the Nintendo DS would spark the industry to go buy a new hand-held regardless to new features. For instance, if you look at the rarity of some colored DS systems you’ll see how hard it is to find a silver or the nice red/black design in some local stores. Take that crazed demand for a color and you can see a re-design would spark more sales for, almost, no reason.

Every year we think the Wii craze will die off by the summer time, a time when many gamers go outside to play and spend less time inside playing consoles. Yet, each year, the Wii demand remains at a fevered pitch with mom’s and dad’s camping out or hitting retail stores daily to find one…or worse, buying them for inflated prices on eBay.

With such demand, you won’t see a price cut or change in roadmap from Nintendo. If you want the price to decline you’ll need to stop demanding the products, but we all know that’s not going to happen just yet!

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