Our “favorite” video game analyst, Michael Pachter, shared some more thoughts on the Wii U and Nintendo’s pricing strategy. He believes that the $350 Deluxe Wii U set is what people expected in the first place, and that this price point is too high for a mass market consumers. Despite this, the Wii U appears to be completely sold out across the US in terms of pre-orders.
He added that it “makes sense” that Nintendo would initially price the Wii U high, since the Wii was sold out for years and Nintendo was unable to meet demand. By pricing the Wii U higher, demand won’t be as high, but the console will still sell out and Nintendo will make more money on each Wii U sold. Nintendo has said numerous times that they will make a profit on each console sold.
Pachter also reiterated on his comments regarding how many Wii U consoles Nintendo will manufacture. He now believes it’s 12 to 15 million during the first year, or 1 to 1.25 million units per month. According to Pachter, Nintendo won’t make more consoles on purpose, in order to maximize profits. He estimates that 75% of the consoles will be the Deluxe edition.
Pachter also had a few words on the Wii U internal flash storage. He believes that the lack of a real hard drive is a mistake, but that 32 GB should be enough for regular use. He does not think it’s enough for full game downloads. Luckily, the Wii U supports external storage of all sorts, which is quite cheap these days.
When Nintendo announced the Wii U price and launch date, Pachter was initially optimistic, saying the Wii U would sell out for months. Back then, he believed that the price was right and that the first party Nintendo games looked great.
