It's only been out for about two months time, and already analysts are predicting Nintendo has a price drop planned to get sales for the Wii U moving.
In addition to a dropped price, RW Baird analyst Colin Sebastian thinks sales could be further encouraged by Nintendo surrenduring some of their flagship franchises, and letting other platforms have a chance with them, something basically unheard of for the company.
Speaking with Games Industry yesterday, Baird said, "In a negative scenario, Nintendo will be forced to prematurely lower the Wii U price, and over the course of this cycle, we expect consideration will be given to extending first party franchises to other platforms...I think the pressure is on Nintendo to deliver better momentum with consumers in the next 9 months; some view into the next holiday title lineup would help."
Of course both moves would help, but seeing Mario or Zelda on Xbox or PlayStation? There's a sooner chance we'll see pigs fly, something which infamous games analyst Michael Pachter acknowledges, pointing to Nintendo's CEO Satoru Iwata as the unmovable force for such an action. Looking into his crystal ball, Pachter said, "So long as Iwata is CEO, I don't think there is a prayer that they allow their software to show up on third-party platforms. If they are considering it, we'll see GBA software on mobile phones first... If Nintendo decides to go the way of Sega, it will be because a new CEO takes them in that direction. I don't see Iwata making a decision like that, it is not his nature."
While sales for the Wii U may not be as strong as its predecessor, Nintendo hasn't mentioned anything about a potential price drop. But that hasn't stopped retailers. UK supplier SimplyGames is offering a 32GB Wii U bundle for £249.99, almost a £60 drop from when the Wii U launched.
