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Tag: Price Drop

  • Wii U Gets A Price Cut, Game Release Dates Pushed Up

    Nintendo didn’t hold a Nintendo Direct this morning, but you’d be forgiven if you thought they did. The company announced a new handheld – the Nintendo 2DS – and now it’s detailing its holiday plans for the Wii U.

    First and foremost, the Wii U Deluxe is finally getting a price cut. The 32GB Wii U variant launched last year with a copy of Nintendo Land for $350. The same bundle will retail for $300 starting September 20.

    Nintendo also announced a Wii U/Wind Waker HD bundle that will also retail for $300 on September 20. The bundle includes a gold trimmed Wii U gamepad, a digital copy of Wind Waker HD and a digital download voucher for the excellent Hyrule Historia book.

    Speaking of Wind Waker HD, Nintendo pushed up its release a little bit for those who don’t mind buying digital copy of games. The eShop version of Wind Waker HD will release on September 20 and cost $50. The game will then release at retail for $50 on October 4. GameStop will be carrying a special edition version of the game for $55 that includes a Ganondorf figurine.

    What about Nintendo’s other Wii U titles for the holidays? The company announced that WIi U Party will launch on October 25 and come packed in with a black Wii Remote plus for $50. Super Mario 3D World has been pushed up from its original December launch date to November 22 and will retail for $60. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze will launch on December 6 and retail for $50. As for Wii Fit U and Mario and Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Games, both titles are still listed as holiday releases.

    As for the Nintendo 3DS, The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds and Mario Party Island Tour will both launch on November 22 for $40.

    Wii U Gets A Price Cut, Game Release Dates Pushed Up

    The Wii U price drop and the earlier release dates show a Nintendo that’s really confident going into this holiday season. With a console that’s $100 cheaper than the PS4, Nintendo might have a shot at gaining some solid holiday sales from parents looking to get their kids a game console this Christmas. It just might lure over some older gamers as well with new entries from its popular franchises.

    [h/t: Kotaku]
    [Image: Nintendo/Facebook]

  • Will Microsoft Drop The Xbox One’s Price Next Year?

    Microsoft made the biggest about face in gaming history yesterday when it announced that it would be removing its controversial DRM system from the Xbox One only two weeks after announcing it. The move puts Microsoft’s console on par with the PS4 in terms of game ownership and DRM policies, but there’s still that $100 difference that may work in Sony’s favor going into the holiday season.

    Everybody’s favorite gaming analyst Michael Pachter is saying that the $100 price difference between the Xbox One and the PS4 may go away in 2014 if Sony starts to steal the show. He feels, however, that Microsoft’s asking price of $499 is fair in light of it offering “a more robust hardware bundle than Sony.”

    So, what does Microsoft need to do to convince people that $499 is a fair asking price? Pachter says it’s all about the messaging:

    “Microsoft has not done a particularly good job of communicating the value proposition to consumers, but today’s announcement will remove an impediment to the company’s ability to get its message across. We are confident that with six months of focused messaging, Microsoft can fully level the playing field with Sony, and we expect the Xbox One to sell as many units as the PS4. If we are wrong, we think that Microsoft is prepared to lower price next year.”

    During E3 last week, Xbox head Don Mattrick tried to explain that value proposition by saying that the Xbox One is “over-delivering value against other choices.” He went on to say that “we’re delivering thousands of dollars of value to people, so I think that they’re going to lov it when they use it.”

    Microsoft is betting that value will come in the form of its entertainment options. The company is putting a lot of money into the Xbox One’s ability to reroute your cable connection through it to provide a unique Xbox One-ified cable experience. Not to mention all the other content coming to Xbox One in the form of an exclusive NFL agreement, various streaming services and a Halo TV series executive produced by Steven Spielberg.

    At the end of the day, however, it all comes down to the games. Microsoft had a particularly strong showing on this point at E3 with a number of exclusive titles and timed exclusive DLC for games like Battlefield 4 and Call of Duty: Ghosts. Will it be enough to convince gamers to drop $500 on the Xbox One versus the $399 PS4? Well, its reversal on the DRM issue has certainly helped it reclaim the top spot on the Amazon best sellers list, but that’s partially due to Amazon being give a larger allotment of units.

    In short, the point is that the high price of the Xbox One doesn’t seem to hurting it so far. We’ll have to see how things look in 2014 when the early adopter rush is over and regular consumers start to buy up consoles though.

    [h/t: CVG]

  • PlayStation Vita Price Drops in Japan

    PlayStation Vita Price Drops in Japan

    For the handheld console market, price is everything. Both the games and the portable consoles themselves cost less than their living-room counterparts.

    Both the Nintendo 3DS and the PlayStation Vita were considered overpriced when they launched, and both consoles failed to sell the way Sony or Nintendo would have wanted. Nintendo promptly dropped the price of the 3DS last year, leading to increased sales and making the 3DS the most popular console in Japan. Sony, on the other had, had maintained that their price was fair for the Vita’s powerful on-the-go gaming.

    Today, though, Sony has finally capitulated to the demand of the portable console market and the pressure from Nintendo. The company has announced that it is dropping the price of the PS Vita in Japan from ¥ 29,980 (around $323) to ¥19,980 (around $215).

    This pricing announcement comes just days before Sony is expected to announce its newest PlayStation console at an event in New York on Wednesday, February 20. The hype for that event is immense, and a Vita price drop for the U.S. and Europe can now be added to the list of possible announcements for the 20th.

    Even if a worldwide price drop is imminent, U.S. gamers shouldn’t expect a $100 price drop for the Vita. The console is already relatively less expensive in the U.S. than in Japan. A $50 price drop is more likely, which would put the Wi-Fi model of the console at around $200 – the same price as Nintendo’s 3DS XL.

  • PlayStation 3 Drops Price, How Will Xbox Respond?

    As Sony’s goodwill tour concerning its PlayStation 3 console continues, a significant price drop for the machine–especially the 320 gig model–has gone largely unnoticed, or at least, it’s been strangely ignored by the gamer crowd. Perhaps only responding to negative stories is the idea.

    Nevertheless, since correcting and/or the merciful end of the errors that plagued Sony during the Spring–console hacks, lawsuits that made a certain hacker infamous enough to land a job at Facebook, the downed PSN service debacle that almost resulted in an exodus of PS3 supporters–Sony has been working incredibly hard to improve the moral surrounding its next-gen console.

    This includes an impressive “Welcome Back” package that allowed customers to download two free games from the now-restored PlayStation Network. Speaking of the word “inFAMOUS,” that was one of the games included in the free, “we’re sorry” booty.

    The latest move by Sony is the aforementioned price drop, which takes $50 off the top of each version of the PS3 console. This means the 160 gigabyte model is now $249.00 and, more impressively, the 320 gigabyte model is now only $299.

    Jack Tretton, the President and CEO of SCEA (Sony Computer Entertainment of America), posted about the adjustment over at the official PlayStation blog:

    Today, I believe that value becomes even more evident. I’m excited to share with you that effective immediately at retailers throughout North America, the 160 GB PS3 and the 320GB PS3 are now available for $249 and $299, respectively. In addition, a limited edition inFAMOUS 2 bundle is now available at participating retailers across North America. The bundle retails for $299 and includes a 320 GB PlayStation 3, a copy of inFAMOUS 2 and a 30-day membership to PlayStation Plus.

    It should be noted that Amazon has not yet adjusted their PS3 prices, at least for the 320 GB model. Maybe tomorrow? The 160 gig already has the updated price.

    Naturally, Sony took to Twitter to spread the word, and while one of the announcement tweets were retweed over 100 times, reaction has been fairly muted on the national stage.

    @PlayStation
    PlayStation    Breaking news: PS3 is now $249: http://t.co/HsHsH8b #PS3now249 #gamescom 22 hours ago via bitly · powered by @socialditto

    It should be noted that it is the promoted Twitter trend of the moment, so it’ll be interesting to see how well Twitter’s new advertising service is working.

    PS3 Trend

    That being said, the following tweet sums up my feelings, too:

    @concussionsRbad
    Kevin Davis    Really? #ps3now249 is a promoted trend? The masses aren’t organically tweeting excitedly about this change in price point? 23 minutes ago via TweetDeck · powered by @socialditto

    While this may not be looked at as a big deal–even the official forums are fairly muted about it–the move is significant in relation to the ongoing Xbox 360/PS3 war. With the price drop move, you can now buy a console with many more capabilities than the 360, at least when it comes to home entertainment, and has a larger internal storage device than Xbox’s largest model–no, the special edition 320 gigabyte models don’t count–for exactly the same price.

    70 gigabytes may not seem like a huge gap, but when people are storing movies and other forms of content besides games, and then you throw in the ever-growing size of the game saves themselves, and the difference is noticeable.

    With that in mind, expect an Xbox 360 price drop any day now.