FreddyCruder

Nintendo Wii's Price Cut Is Looking Likely

apparently my comments from yesterday or the day before yesterday have disappeared, I wont write them down again
just the most important stuff, such as: you forgot to mention that one of the most probably reasons for why we will see a price cut is because Nintendo will introduce "Wii 1,5" next year. They will sell the console together with the new enhanced wii controllers, and they can't sell the "Wii 1,0" package side by side with the new console package, so they might sell it for less soon in order to clear the stocks. Then again, considering how quickly they sell out on the console at the current price-point it's questionable that they will really need to cut the price to be able to sell out.
Another thing I mentioned was that... Nintendos console doesn't really need to adjust to Micorsofts or Sonys price-point, since their console is vastly different from Microsofts and Sonys. In fact, it's a bit dangerous for everyone involved if Microsofts continues to slash prices. I mean, they're not making profit on their console as it is already, so to slash prices again is suicide. You mention that the real profit comes from game sales and not console. Is that really how the market works right now? Nintendo is selling a console with last gen technology compared to Sony and Microsoft. They are making profit from their console sales, and they need that in order to stay in the business since they don't have enough games, and thus game sale revenues with the Wii. Microsoft can of course slash prices since they are selling a fair amount of games, but to loose as much as they will on every console when the new price-point kicks in is dangerous for all three players (if we, for the sake of making an argument, includes Nintendo in the group as well, because obviously they are affected by what the other two companies do, they are all console manufacturers, it's just that Nintendo is more mainstream this generation).
Microsofts problem is that they don't get that their "gameplay is last gen" compared to Nintendo. But again, it's not fair to simply say one is better than the other. For storydriven games it doesn't really matter that much what kind of controllers you have, for some of the more "complicated", hardcore games it's even better to stick with the "old" controllers that have more buttons and 2 analog sticks; and with Microsofts and Sonys consoles they also get top notch graphics (which is definitely possible with Nintendos console as well if you scratch one million waving blades of grass, but sure it's lacking a lot in the graphics department compared to the other two)
The problem for Nintendo I would say is that the western world isn't really doing anything for Wii. Which is strange, since the controllers makes possible a lot of innovating titles, but maybe this will change as soon as the new gyroscopic controllers become available. All this talk about 3d party developers not knowing that Wii would outsell the other 2 companies this generation, and that they started producing games for Wii too late seems a bit strange, I mean, they have had a lot of time now to prepare something, and could have showed something at e3 this summer. No one is to blame, but there's no question that Nintendo of America is having a hard time finding developers, and it's a shame.
But anyways, hope you understand from this comment that Nintendo wont really need to slash prices for the Wii next years, since by then it has morphed into "Wii 1,5" and everyone wants the new improved controllers. This is ingenious by Nintendo since these gyroscopes that are going to improve the motion detection of the controllers are actually very cheap.
My concern with Nintendo right now though is... DSi... now that's lame, I mean, ok so maybe the "i" is an intentional way of giving kudos to iPhone, and iPod touch for putting up a fight with Nintendo, and as we all now, Apple actually began showing interest in handheld devices with touch screen technology ages ago, (it was when Jobs was in his first run with Apple, before he left to return a couple of years ago). So Nintendo is maybe hinting at who they are actually competing with right now in the handheld market, at the same time it's a bit strange to call it DSi... anyways, the DSi has a flaw in that it has a camera that only works away from the user, you can't rotate it so that it points at the user as well. This means that you wont be able to use the camera for Eyetoy like games, or applications that reads your facial expressions (think Nintendogs with this function, exactly, you can compliment the dog simply by smiling, neat huh? Well, now you can't, effectively removing the scope of what you can do with the camera). It's a handheld device with the possibility to take photos, why don't I see the connection? I mean, there is one, and definitely there are games that can be made using a camera that isn't pointed at the user as well. But still, it confuses the market. Are developers going to have to develop games that can only played on the DSi now? How fat chance is there of developers doing that? Or is the DSi only the new DS with slightly bigger screens and worse battery time?
A cellphone is always on, so you can take a snap shot whenever you want, with DSi you have to turn on the machine and then point it at whatever you want to take of photo of, but it's not a device that's very handy to use as a camera, and also, the lens is not centered in the middle... ok, so this might not be a problem, but I have my doubts.