Published: Thursday 12th March, 2009 | Author: Tarinder Sandhu
Products: Wii
Companies: Nintendo (All Nintendo content)
Platforms: Wii
External reviews: Nintendo Wii
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email to a friendUK gamers could soon be forced to fork out a little extra for a new Wii, if Nintendo’s recently upped trade price for the console is passed on to consumers by retailers.
The gaming giant told website MCV that the current economic environment has forced it to up the price it sells the Wii to UK retailers for. It’s rumoured the price paid by traders could increase by about £16.50, or £18.98 ($26/€20) including VAT.
“Due to the severe and continuing depreciation of the pound, we are, unfortunately, having to raise our trade price to UK retailers of Wii hardware,” a Nintendo UK spokesperson said.
If traders are hit with a £19 increase in the cost of a Wii and that rise is subsequently passed to consumers, then the average cost of the console would rise from around £180 to £199 ($274/€215) - an increase of just over ten per cent.
Whether retailers will pass the price hike on remains to be seen, but consoles already carry notoriously narrows margins as it is – making the possibility of a Wii retail price rise all the more likely.
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Wonder is Microsoft and Sony will announce similar price increases on their consoles?
Microsoft already ruled out price increases, Sony would have to be absolutely suicidally daft to increase their RRP.
But Nintendo are being a bit greedy it seems, the price after two and a half years should decrease due to mass producing and thus cost cutting on console development over this time.
Regardless if they are selling so much, or the value of the pound, they wont cost nowhere near as much to make as they did in 2006.Quote
http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/playstation-3-price-cut-this-easter-547920Quote
As for Nintendo's price rises I am quite surprised in some ways, but not in others. It's not as if they are using cutting edge technology in the Wii with a total lack of processing power it can't be *that* expensive to produce. At the end of the day the Wii is largely a GameCube underneath. I suspect that Nintendo have realised that their console will sell happily at whatever price the decide to put it at because their marketing is very well done. Personally I think that the console is a bit of a fad and has no proper games that would get me really hooked and convinced that I need to wave my hands and feet about wildly to control the game.
BenQuote
That said I think it is overpriced at the current RRP. Definitely should have dropped at least once in the 2+ years it's been around. I paid £160 for mine which I was happy with, even more so now if the price is going to hit £200! :surprised:Quote
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