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The Nintendo Wii has always held a pricing advantage over its two main competitors, Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3 consoles. That's no longer the case with Microsoft now selling a 4GB Xbox 360 for $199, the same price as the Wii. To regain its competitive edge at the register, rumor has it that Nintendo is going to knock another $50 off the Wii on May 15th.
When it first came out, the Wii sold for $249, less than half the initial price of the PlayStation 3 in 2006 ($599) and a good chunk lower than the Xbox 360's introductory price in 2005 ($399). Partially because of its pricing advantage, Nintendo to date has sold about 86 million Wiis, compared to 53 million Xbox 360s and 49 million PS3s, GamesBeat reports.
Not bad for a company that makes "babysitting tools," as Sony called Nintendo's products. However, Nintendo 'only' sold 7 million Wiis in the U.S. in 2010, down from 9 million in 2009 and 10 million in 2008. Meanwhile, both Sony and Microsoft have gone and added motion controlled gaming to their existing consoles, which previously was a Wii-only feature.
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jonnyohio
April 13, 2011 at 10:17am
Ahh, the Wii. It's the only gaming system I currently own other than my PC, and my kids still play it quite often. I still can't justify spending the money on an Xbox or PS3. I'd rather buy another PC.
knexkid
April 13, 2011 at 2:48pm
Me too. My wii is the only console that does thing that my PC doesn't. So that's why I will always have my PC and my nintendo. I actually sat out at Target on opening night to get one. Plus Wii's are so easily hackable to run emulators and what not, it's totally worth it.
