Nintendo tries to counter the lousy sales of the Wii U with a price cut.
Slightly buried under the excitement of a new handheld (the 2DS), Nintendo unloaded other great tidings concerning the Wii U, a platform that has been an utter disappointment on the market, moving 160,000 systems in a three-month span.
No, not good numbers at all. Perhaps the time-proven tactic of release games/price cut might be the solution to all the Wii U’s ills (well, minus still not having an account system tied to member profiles and not hardware), and that’s exactly what they’re doing on September 20.
Starting on that late September date the Wii U will drop down to $299 USD. Importantly, it’s the deluxe 32 GB unit – originally $349 – that’s getting the fifty dollar rug getting pulled from under, while the basic unit gets the discontinued boot.
A shame, really. I sort of like the white Wii U. For one it’s not a terrible dust and smudge magnet like the black version, and secondly, a little console color variety is a nice thing. Now every next-gen system is basically just a black box and nothing else. Not exactly stylish in my book.
Nintendo is introducing something else to sort of take its place though, namely a The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD Wii U Bundle (whew, a mouthful) that includes a Zelda-trimmed Gamepad and a digital copy of the The Wind Waker arriving on September 20 and also $299.
The digital release of Wind Waker is one neat thing about this bundle, because the physical retail version of the GameCube remake isn’t out until October 4. Meaning, digital eShop purchasers will get their hands on the game two weeks before anyone else.
That’s honestly pretty progressive for a company like Nintendo. Let’s hope they infuse that progressive attitude to the current state of the Wii U and dig it out of its poor selling hole. They’ve got the games and now the price cut, so that takes care of step one.
Step up to other geeky interests here on Walyou.com, like an old timey way to read your Twitter feed and the 8 artworks of Star Wars’ Darth Vader at his cutest. And they are the cutest!
