Rumor: Price Cut Coming to Nintendo Wii on May 15th

Posted 04/13/2011 at 9:07am | by Paul Lilly

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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.