Nintendo... like many companies... sometimes don't know what they are doing and wonder why they are losing millions. "We're going to reduce the cost of an over-price system next month" - is very very stupid. Do they THINK they are competing with the PS4? The WiiU is a 7th gen console. Its on par with the 360/PS4 - nothing more and at $300 (32GB), its still $100 more than the bottom end PS3 with 16GB Flash memory. Some other differences:
PS3: $200
- Plays Blu-Ray and DVD movie discs! Plays CD-Audio discs too.
- up-gradable to 500GB HD (Or simply buy the $250 PS3)
- 80 Million PS3s in the world (maybe 70m operational) vs 3.7m WiiUs. Ouch! Why would developers bother with the WiiU (they aren't).
WiiU: $300
- Is almost half the size of the PS3.
- Has a tablet controller (but its bulky and has a 3hr battery life)
- It came out 6 years after the PS3, but isn't more powerful.
The ONLY way to make the WiiU survive is to bring down the pricing. The Wii is a $130 console... for little kids, its fine. The U should have been a $200 product, LAST year on launch and not have the tablet controller. Considering that the U cannot play any media content is plain stupid. IMHO, if the value of the PS3 is $200 with MORE features and support, the value of the U is $150, at best. At that price, its a loss to Nintendo. And worse, even at $150 - it would never catch up to the PS3/360 (combined 140m+ operational units) in market share.
The U will never be considered a console for serious players (age 16 and up).
The Wii is stagnate at 100m units. Its technology is 12 years old. It will out-live the U, especially when its priced under $100. Nothing wrong with it being a kiddie console for 3~9 year olds.
The failure of Nintendo was NOT aiming for their core market users, little kids. Parents are not likely to buy a $300~400 console for their 5yr old, vs $100~200.
Nintendo has two choices:
A) End the WiiU in Feb 2014 (after horrible sales). Start making their games for the PS4 (which will hit 2-3 million units by then) and PS3 (70m). Make the Wii a $99 console. Nintendo will make MORE money selling 20+ million Mario games for the PS3 than 2million for their own dying WiiU. Keep selling the Wii until less than 1m units are sold per year or whatever.
A2) * Nintendo has released the Wii-Mini for China, Europe and Canadian markets. Its $100 and doesn't include any games. It has a single USB connector. It doesn't play GC games, no HDTV connections, no SD-slot, no WiFi or internet functions. Its actually slightly smaller than the WIi. Should be called the WiiC (Cheap) as its a top-loading black and read device. Its ugly.
B) Kill the Wii. Sell the Wii-U for $130, without the tablet-controller. Call it the Wii2 maybe... and target the system for kiddies. Its a mess. Besides most Wii games were made by Nintendo anyway... so if they lose more 3rd party support, would anyone care? Maybe they'll gain smaller studios?