People are waiting for the Wii U to finally drop below the $200 figure, anticipating Nintendo’s surrender to the new-gen PlayStation and Xbox consoles. But there’s plenty of reason why not to expect a price drop in the near future, and why Nintendo could benefit from doing one at a later date.
Two Games to Go
There are two big games left on Wii U’s docket in 2014: Hyrule Warriors and the next installment of Super Smash Bros. HW will likely not have a major impact, because no one will know what the game is — a Dynasty Warriors clone that features The Legend of Zelda characters. While word-of-mouth will make the game spread, that may not happen until past this holiday season.
On the flip side, the SSB franchise is a proven success. Why would Nintendo drop the price of their hardware at the same time they release a system seller? Mario Kart and SSB are two franchises that can still move consoles — Super Smash Bros. Brawl, the third installment of the series — sold over 12 million copies worldwide.
Why would Nintendo lose money on a system seller? That would be better to slash the Wii U price with the release of Mario Maker, just as Stephen Barrett of gamrReview says.
So when should gamers expect a Wii U price drop? Probably during the first half of next year, when Nintendo’s upcoming creation game Mario Maker is set to release, would be the perfect time for the company to make their move with an official price drop; effectively reducing the Wii U’s retail price by $50 with Mario Maker included.
We don’t know the full details of Mario Maker, but it’s clearly not the cost of a full retail game. Nintendo could make bank on a Mario game editor if done properly — they can include the game with a newly-priced $250 Wii U system, and there could be some in-game purchases to further create your Mario level masterpiece.
Yes, I know the thought of “in-game purchases” makes everyone shudder, but Mario Maker is the ideal game to have something like that in. Want to make the level bigger? Want to have access to all the enemies and stage environements? You better pony up.
Who knows what Nintendo will implement with the Amiibo figures. Those separately sold figurines could play a roll in all three games. Just imagine — buying a $15 Toon Link figure could unlock him in SSB and in Hyrule Warriors.
While the future of Mario Maker is nothing but speculation, it’ll be interesting to see what Nintendo has up their sleeve. They aren’t still in the business despite not matching up hardware wise to Sony and Microsoft since the GameCube for no reason, and they may have a lot of opportunity with Hyrule Warriors, SSB, Mario Maker, and the Amiibo figures.
