14 DAY TRIAL // One of yesterday's biggest stories was the official price cut made by Nintendo to its hugely successful Wii home console, drop which arrived at the perfect time, at least according to Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime.
Speaking with MSNBC, Fils-Aime revealed that the price cut is a very important move for the company, being the second one it made to the Wii, and will manifest in a huge increase of sales for the device.
"For us this is a very important move," Fils-Aime said. "This is only the second price reduction for Wii hardware since we launched back in November 2006. And in the last home console cycle, the leading system at the time sold almost 50 percent of its volume at a price point of $149 or below."
Fils-Aime is, of course, referring to Sony's PlayStation 2, which is currently one of the best-selling consoles of all time, and is still moving products after over a decade since its initial release.
The Nintendo Wii wasn't going through the best of times recently, as slipping sales resulted in the Japanese company recently posting a 66 percent drop in net profits for the last fiscal year.
The Nintendo of America boss says that the dwindling of sales is normal, and that all devices go through it eventually.
"Typically a system peaks in the second year of availability and then gradually declines," he said. "Wii was fortunate to have a number of very strong selling years in its 3rd and 4th year of availability. And from our perspective, the curve that we're on is natural and to be expected but importantly, the sales curve is higher than any other system."
Now, with the second price cut becoming official on May 15, Fils-Aime believes that it's the perfect time for such a move and that the device is going to attract lots of new customers.
"There are a lot of households where kids will be off from school and the parents are either looking for celebratory presents as the children finish the school year or they're looking for a fun exercise to keep the kids busy and happy during the summer time frame," Fils-Aime said. "We think there is a wide range of consumers that are wanting to purchase a Wii and what they have been waiting for is this type of announcement."
On May 15, Nintendo is debuting a new Wii bundle, in both white and black colors, alongside a bundled copy of Mario Kart and a steering wheel accessory.