Wii Won't Get a Price Cut Until Next Year, Analyst Says

The Nintendo Wii will get a price cut in the near future, at least according to Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter, who has revealed that, given the diminishing sales, the Japanese company will make a move around next year.

The Nintendo Wii video games console is seeing its massive sales slowing down these days, largely because the potential market has been saturated and because its main rivals, the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, are much closer to it in terms of price.

That's why Nintendo will be taking action in the future, in order to ensure that it will continue to dominate the video game industry, but not during the upcoming holiday season, says Pachter.

"I don't think that Nintendo has the resolve to cut the price of the Wii heading into the holidays. Recent sales levels have been weak by Nintendo standards, with monthly Wii unit sales averaging just over 300,000 per month in the U.S. However, that's still on par with Xbox 360 sales, and until Microsoft or Sony cuts price further, the Wii should be able to hold its own," revealed the analyst.

According to Pachter, Nintendo will keep the current price of the Wii in place, but in the future, the price will be dropping to an even more affordable 149.99 dollars.

"With all that said, I think we'll see Nintendo maintain price until early next year, and I think we'll see Walmart implement a similar promotion to last year's $50 gift card with the purchase of a Wii. That suggests that sales will pick up dramatically, as the effective price for a console, two pieces of software and Wii Motion Plus will be $149.99."

The Nintendo Wii is facing some serious opposition during this end of the year, as not only are the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles in its price range, but the two consoles are also going to be upgraded through new technologies.

The Kinect for the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation Move will try to attract the Wii's casual audience, and will directly target the Wii's own motion control systems.