Retail

Nintendo confirms Wii price drop

Wed 04 May 2011 8:50am GMT / 4:50am EDT / 1:50am PDT
RetailHardware

New budget re-release range also announced for both Europe and U.S.

Nintendo

nintendo-europe.com

A new hardware and software bundle will signify a long-expected price drop for Nintendo's Wii, with the Mario Kart Wii Pack going on sale for £129.99 from May 20.

Due to EU regulations Nintendo is not allowed to state a retail price itself but in the U.S. the same bundle will priced at $149.99, down from $199.99.

The Mario Kart Wii Pack does not include either Wii Sports or Wii Sports Resort, but instead a copy of Mario Kart Wii and a Wii Wheel - as well as the console itself and a single remote and nunchuck.

At the same time Nintendo will be reducing the trade price of its existing Wii Sports Resort Pack, which includes a black Wii console, Wii RemotePlus, nunchuck and a copy of Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort on one disc. This is also expected to sell for £129.99/$149.99.

The company has also announced the Nintendo Selects range of re-released budget titles, that will initially include Wii Sports, WarioWare: Smooth Moves, Mario Strikers Charged Football, and Animal Crossing: Let's Go To The City.

The new range will launch on May 20, with sister site Eurogamer quoting a price of £19.99 for each title.

The label will go on sale in North America on May 15 but with a different line-up: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Animal Crossing: Let's Go To The City, Mario Super Sluggers and Wii Sports.

10 Comments

Jake Clayton

i'm actually sick of being screwed as a consumer in the uk.

convert £129 pounds into dollars ;) and we are paying more than the old american price, i'm sorry but its not exactly like theres an extra 63 dollars worth of costs in selling to the uk consumer.

Posted:2 years ago

#1

Daniel Ratcliff
Legal

Total Console Repair Ltd

I agree too Jake, I have currently just finished writing an article on the monopolisation of the video games market by those such as Nintendo and Sony and it seems they couldn't care how the consumer is treated anymore!

Posted:2 years ago

#2

James Woods
Studying BEng Software Engineering

Edinburgh Napier University

You have to remember that Americans don't have VAT

Posted:2 years ago

#3

Reilly Smith
Studying Film and Video Studies

University of Oklahoma

Nintendo and Sony have not monopolized the games market... I'd be interested to see your conclusions. They don't use force against you, it's not a monopoly. Two companies can't both have a monopoly by definition, so you've disproven your own thesis...

Posted:2 years ago

#4

Jake Clayton

James whats 20% of 149? 30 dollars.

Posted:2 years ago

#5

Brook Jones
Programmer

United Front Games

As a Canadian who spent a summer in the UK a few years back, I got the impression that everything is more expensive over there -- rent, fast food, groceries, electronics, music, books, etc. etc. On the other hand, I was earning UK minimum wage that summer, and it was about 40% higher than the minimum wage paid back home at the time.

I certainly can't claim that Nintendo/Sony/Microsoft are categorically not inflating UK/EU prices artificially, but the fact that many, many products are more expensive there than in the US or Canada if you do a straight currency conversion suggests that either such inflation is nearly universal (across all companies and industries), or there are other factors in play.

And of course, as James points out, tax is not included in the advertised retail price in the US / Canada. Yes, there's still a discrepancy, but it's smaller once you've adjusted for sales tax.

Posted:2 years ago

#6

Antony Cain
Lecturer in Games Development

Lancaster and Morecambe College

and remember that the pound is terrible at the moment

Edited 1 times. Last edit by Antony Cain on 4th May 2011 6:16pm

Posted:2 years ago

#7

Jake Clayton

antony pound is at 1.6 to the dollar, its only weak against the euro.

yen is at 133 to the pound, june 2009 was the last time the yen went above 150 to the pound.

so not much variation in 2 years. seeming we have had the 1.2 dollar and the 2.0 dollar in the same time.

Posted:2 years ago

#8

Curt Sampson
Sofware Developer

£130 * 100/120 (to remove VAT) * 1.65 (exchange rate) = $178.74. So it's not an extra $63, but an extra $28.75, about 20% more expensive.

Posted:2 years ago

#9

Jake Clayton

oh shiz sherlock, read one comment, read up i've already addressed the vat issue.

which still makes it $30 dollars cheaper in america.

Posted:2 years ago

#10

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