Choose: Wii Price Cut? Or "Better Entertainment"?
— -- What's a Wii worth? Whatever you're willing to pay for it. That's the gist of Nintendo President Satoru Iwata's message to consumers, on the heels of an article in Financial Times citing a Credit Suisse analyst who notes that Nintendo's cost to produce a Wii has fallen 45 points since launch.
Says FT: "That would give Nintendo the scope to cut the price of the console if needed to stimulate sales."
Except, of course, for the part where Nintendo's selling lightning in a bottle...or that's what folks buying the systems think, anyway.
Ergo the part where Iwata dashes hopes at the news conference in Tokyo about any recession-related price relief, telling listeners he'd rather commit time and energy to making "better entertainment so that our products are going to remain in the top position in our customer's wish lists."
Well hear hear, Mr. Iwata, because that's the Wii's singular glaring flaw, as I see it. (Also speaking as a guy who's not really into stuff like Pinball Hall of Fame and Wii Fit and Trauma Center.)
I don't know about you, but Wii Sports Resort — just pegged for a June/July release and pictured here — isn't what comes to mind when I hear those two most auspicious words, "better entertainment." Sales smash? Probably. But jet ski racing? Frisbee tossing? Fencing? Come on. The Wii Motion Plus, Nintendo's enhancement to make the waggly Wii Remote a bit less sloppy, makes it all sound a dash more interesting, but only a dash. (For more on the game, see Danny Allen's "In-Depth and Hands-On: Nintendo Wii Sports Resort and Wii Music.")
There's also that bit of sobering news about the PS3 outselling the Wii in Japan 146,948 units to 99,335 in March. Blame games like Resident Evil 5 and Yakuza 3, say analysts. "Better entertainment"? You be the judge.
For more gaming news and opinion, park your tweet-readers at twitter.com/game_on.
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