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Nintendo Wii U Price Cut Not Happening Anytime Soon

Prarthito Maity email: p.maity@mobilenapps.com

A bit of a bad news for both Nintendo Wii U fans as well as the company.

Per reports, While Nintendo's newest financial results show that the Wii U hasn't performed as well as the company had expected, the company has also ruled out a potential price cut for the gaming console.

The new information was made very clear by president Satoru Iwata, speaking at a Tokyo hotel to investors and reporters a day after earnings were released, who revealed to investors that since the console is already being sold at a loss for Nintendo, there are no plans to further reduce the price.

"With Wii U, we have taken a rather resolute stance in pricing it below its manufacturing cost, so we are not planning to perform a markdown. I would like to make this point absolutely clear. We are putting our lessons from Nintendo 3DS to good use, as I have already publicly stated," the official report states.

What the company president meant by this is that Nintendo has taken a cue from the 3DS sales, which launched at a profit-generating base price of $249.99 before poor sales forced the company to radically slash the price to $169.99. The Wii U, at launch, was priced at $299.99 for a basic set and $349.99 for a premium package, which included more internal storage and a game within the box.

Moreover, while Iwata was let down by the Wii U's performance, he directed this to a failure on Nintendo's part to clearly communicate the product's advantages to consumers. Iwata said that those who bought the Wii U have "a certain degree of satisfaction with our product value," although "its value by nature is something that takes time to appreciate and hence cannot be spread amongst society instantly."

"Also, we are receiving many comments and requests from consumers about issues such as the time to start up the system and switch between software, and the duration of the initial system update," Iwata added. "I acknowledge that we will need to further increase the appeal of the platform through the system updates we have planned for this spring as well as this summer."

The president said he expects operating profit of more than 100 billion yen in the 12 months ending March 2014, promising that as "a commitment" on the part of the company.

However, he accepted that more work was needed to have consumers understand the Wii U, which went on sale globally late last year, as well as developing more game software to draw potential buyers.

In reality, all game machines and consoles have suffered dramatically in recent years due to the arrival of smartphones and other mobile devices. These mobile devices have become more sophisticated while offering similar games and other forms of entertainment.

Check out the entire official report here.

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