The dust has barely settled on the Wii U price announcement and already infamous analyst Michael Pachter has started putting the boot in.
Patcher - who is employed by Wedbush - had this to say on Nintendo's presentation:
We think that Wii U’s price points are appropriate given likely demand from Nintendo’s core fanbase, but believe that pricing will be too high to sustain demand given current competition from other consoles and tablets.
In our view, Nintendo was smart to introduce the Wii U at higher price points in order to maximize initial sales from its core audience. We expect 1 – 1.5 million Wii U units to be shipped into the US by the end of GameStop’s fiscal year (January).
We expect demand from Nintendo’s core fan base to remain high through the end of its March 31 fiscal year. Once initial demand begins to subside, we expect Nintendo to lower prices.
We don’t expect a price cut until summer 2013, at the earliest, but do expect a cut prior to holiday 2013. Any prospective price cut will depend largely on competition, which we expect to materialize in the coming weeks.
With Reggie saying that Wii U represents excellent value for money, is Patcher simply up to his usual tricks here? Time will tell.
[source computerandvideogames.com]
Comments 92
He has spoken and consequently removed all doubt. Kudos to him.
I think he is wrong. Maybe in a couple of years but it won't be in the first year.
So by patcher logic (which has yet to be proven wrong) there won't be a price cut next year.
Note Patcher logic means whatever patcher says, the opposite happens.
Don't care about anything he says. Never have, never will.
I ate breakfast this morning, went to school and came home to find another 'doom' comment from Pachter again.
Seems just like any normal day.
He compared it to a tablet, something that's not even in the same market, and used "we" throughout the entirety of his personal statement to try and give it credibility. Why does his consistently wrong voice matter for anything but guessing the opposite?
I actually thought the Wii was quite a poor console. It didn't have many great games, there wasn't a lot of games for it, plus most publishers ditched it or just wouldn't touch it. But the Wii U will be a better console, but I just can't see it selling as much as the Wii which went on to sell over 95 million units. Gamers know there's going to be new consoles from Sony and Microsoft, but most true Nintendo fans are the minority who'll buy it at launch and onwards. The majority will sit back and wait for a price drop. Most gamers are wary of what happened with the Wii. But future wise, the Wii U won't be able to keep up with Sony's and Microsoft's next consoles. But they might just do a Nintendo and take their current consoles and beef them up, something that Nintendo did with the Wii (a beefed up GameCube). No matter what, Sony and Microsoft will just copy the Wii U and add extras. Nintendo isn't serious about online games, but we all know that Sony and Microsoft are. The fact that the Wii U doesn't even come with a hard drive is shocking. Games wise, Nintendo will always knock out the same stuff, but I hope I'm wrong. I'm still waiting for all these amazing games from Nintendo, but history has proven that they don't release a lot of games. But Sony and Microsoft also knock out the same old stuff, but with Nintendo, there's more pressure on their shoulders. The Wii U will be a great console, but that packs, pricing and added extras will put most people off. You can't even buy a premium pack in white which I think is shocking. The controller (with the screen) has bumped the price up, they'll sell for around £110 in the US. They'll sell out at launch because that's what Nintendo fans do, but like I say, the majority won't pay into it just yet.
What happened to you, Michael Patcher? You used to be cool...
@Agent75 I'm not sure that this will sell out at launch. Wii sold out due to the mainstream market going for it, not just gamers. Also, I feel like everyone was crazy hyped for the 3DS, and I don't think that sold out anywhere, at least as far as I saw.
The install base for the 3DS has reached a decent level now, so that shows that Nintendo can indeed recover from a completely botched product launch. I think the Wii U will catch on eventually, but nothing like the Wii or DS.
I DO think, however, if MS or Sony get smart and release $250 bundles with a high profile game, that they can really rip Nintendo apart this fall.
I think he is right. I also think Nintendo is holding off on big game announcements to distract from the unveiling of next gen consoles. Excited to see what happens.
To think I used to like this guy,..
Oh, he's back to normal again. Looks like Wii U's going to be successful.
I think Nintendo learned from the 3DS fiasco. Now I would agree with him if say Nintendo slapped a $400 to $500 price tag on it but 300 to 350 seems reasonable to me especially with PS3 and 360 right around that price range.
Ptacher being Patcher. Nothing to see here.
It should be noted in the article that on his twitter Patcher said he was impressed with the game launch and he expects it to do well throughout the launch window even with prssure against low priced tablets.
There is a difference between patchers personal opinion and what he puts out when he's representing wedbush.
I am a lover, not a fighter. Having said that... If I ever came across this Pachter inch-brained moron, I'd punch him right in his douchey mug. All he does is hate on Nintendo. It's like Nintendo slept with his mom when he was a kid and he walked in on her riding the bologna pony. Sure, nobody really knows how this Wii U will do (except me, I have a time machine), but one thing I know for sure is this: If the Wii U is great fun, you can bet word of mouth will be the best promotion Nintendo can ever ask for. Nintendo fans will have no shame telling their friends how much fun they are having with it, if everything turns out good that is
Because Ninty totally has plans for another ambassador program right?
Well I'm not even going to consider buying one until the price drops quite significantly.
Will probably never get one either way because I really can't justify spending £50, give or take a few squid, on individual games any more.
Seems reasonable, but it all depends on WiiU sales through summer 2013 and the next gen Sony and Microsoft consoles. My understanding is that everyone is expecting them to launch in holiday 2013. Nintendo has shown a willingness to drop prices to protect holiday sales, so I wouldn't put a holiday 2013 price drop above them (provided that it's necessary).
I think we all can see this coming it would make sense to have a price cut next year with MS and Ps4 right around the corner I think by next Nov so whats the big deal its how busness works
What he's saying makes a lot of sense. A drop of even $50 would help make this device tremendously more appealing.
@Boo_Buster lol
this is clearly an attempt to stop people from buying the Wii U. Probably so he can later claim that he was right when he predicted it would flop.
Didn't he also say that Nintendo should have charged much more than $250 for the 3DS? Could be getting my facts mixed up, but I seam to remember him saying that just after the 3DS's price was announced.
@sillygostly "He has spoken and consequently removed all doubt. Kudos to him."
Agreed.
Nintendo is pricing this as low as they can (and still turn a profit on the console I hope?). The tried and true strategy of introducing compelling game + console bundles will likely win out over a straight price drop.
Didn't he just get done saying yesterday that he thought the Wii U would be very successful? Selling only 1 million units at christmas doesn't sound very good to me.
He's an attention whore, nothing more, nothing less.
Still don't understand why you guys consider his statements and quotations news.
I don't expect this to be true, but it makes since from a hardware standpoint that it would drop to 250-300 for the holidays. I personally think that both bundles should cost $50 less than they do now, but Pachter made a good point that the Nintendo loyal will buy it anyway.
Well it looks like I'm going to be a WiiU ambassador and get 20 free games again
Lots of agreement here today. We all agree Pachter is an idiot, and yet we all agree that this time he is right, basically b/c he is just stating the obvious, over time electronics prices come down. Though Nintendo now has set the stage w/ the 2 systems to keep prices the same but just add stuff into the box - Nintendo Land can be added to the white, a Gamepad Controller Pro to the black. They've already done this to some extent with the Wii packages.
I'm personally waiting just to make sure. Everybody seems to be pre-ordering the black, so I'm expecting Toys R Us and Target to be offering some incentive to buy the white by next summer. I mean really, who buys stuff at MSRP anymore anyways?
It's an HD console with a tablet--I think the price is sort of justified. :/
@TwilightPoint I hope he says "Nintendo will never make a new F-Zero game."
Pachter is a idiot, but even he see's the Wii U as over priced too For what we've seen, it's not enough to make you wanna jump at the system. So far, it's the most expensive console going to be out, and it will be releasing games already on other systems, or 2D games that, to alot of people, don't show off a system great enough. I say the Nintendo die-hards will get it at launch, but other people probably won't get it till later next year when we see more games showing just how great and powerful the system is.
He also said that the Wii U will sell out every month until April. So he thinks the Wii U will be selling out completely until about next summer, and then Nintendo will immediately do a price drop? I kind of doubt that. I'd say it's more likely that Nintendo will release some huge, currently unannounced game to bring sales back up.
This is not a "doom" comment. It's just a prediction. And a fairly reasonable one. Mind you, I don't expect a price cut by next year either, but Nintendo will probably have to do something.
Or who knows, maybe we'll see what happened to the 3DS happen to the Wii U!
Yesterday, I called several places and they'd already been hit hard by people reserving and inquiring about Wii U. And this was right after the announcement yesterday morning, 9-10 AM-ish, when people are at work/school. If what I experienced here in Tulsa is the norm, it'll sell like the proverbial gangbusters. One guy I spoke to at one of the GameStops told me to get down to reserve it NOW if I want one. He's somewhat of a friend, and wouldn't say that just to build a sense of urgency in me and sell a system.
I think it's going to be at least CLOSE to the hit that it's predecessor was, and Patcher will prove to be full of it (we should make him our NL mascot ).
Hate Patchter, but wouldn't be shocked by this one. I just don't hear the clamor for Wii U like I did for Wii months prior. Maybe that will change in the next month or so. Almost has to for success long term.
I predict that Micheal Patcher will get a hair cut sometime in 2013. Exactly when will have to be determined by the length and unruliness of his hair, but I would predict that it will happen sometime preceding the hot summer months.
I don't see the problem with this.
I love how people are just bashing him without even reading what he said.
News flash: He actually didn't say anything negative about the Wii U. IRONY!!!
Fanboys being fanboys. They get all upset when someone bashes Nintendo >:3
There is nothing wrong with this statement... I don't see any doom. I need to stop coming here, man.
@sillygostly I Agreed Pachter is right, and in case he is wrong, he is still right!
Nintendo then must release a Wii U HD+ in 2014.
@Ecto 1 - I am going to buy myself a Pachter haircut...because I am a Pachter fanboy and will buy anything!
@Sony_70 It's true that maybe the case that when representing the company he has to say what they think. It would be easier to tell if other analysts (or most) from the same company also say the same thing.
From what I hear though, every EB Games and GameStop remotely near me is sold out.
When was the list time that guy made a correct prediction?
According to my calculations, the amount of times that pachter has been wrong when predicting bad things about nintendo strongly indicates that he will be wrong this time.
I will be enjoying my Wii U by the time. If this does happen we might get some free games for the Wii U like the 3DS ambassador program but I doubt that their will be a price drop next year....
Seems reasonable enough to me. We'll just have to see how well it does and what msoft and Sony are bringing to the table next year.
So where's the doom? If anything he's probably right. This isn't a bad statement.
price cut. the only way the wii u is seeing a price cut is if its not selling up to par. i don't see a price up happening. if only i could get that job, get up in the morning put on a suit and a smile and spin my crystal ball and see what crap to say. but at least hes not saying the wii u will fail, but wait im sure thats coming next week. every preview that i've see so far has on wii u games has been positive. so lets see how it goes
I think the current pricing is more than reasonable. Although take everything quoted by this guy with a grain of salt because when it doesn't happen he will claim thats not what he meant. He's a highly paid moron.
I'll get my WiiU Summer 2013 then Save myself some cash.
If Patcher was my friend, I'd have him say things that I don't want to happen so that the opposite happens. Like... he could say, "You will never win the lottery!" and then I'd win the lottery. XP
It's a negative statement because he basically said Nintendo is a liar by stating that they wouldn't change the price until a long time. Also it's because it's obvious he doesn't have any faith in this console, since if it got a price drop it wouldn't be selling well. But we all know how well it's going to sell...
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
@irken004 This.
So we meet again Pachter...
seems like a reasonable prediction to me. I don't get what the big deal is. the competition will be fierce within a year. I like the idea that they're saving some big new games for when the competition starts kicking off. If they can keep their timelines straight and release some killer zelda/metroid/starfox stuff when the other ones start popping up there could be a fighting chance.
As we speak, Nintendo is sending out assassins to track Pachter down!
Anyway, I just wish Pachter will SHUT UP! The only words that can describe him are too inappropriate for this site! He is speaking very little logic in his opinions and I just wish he would be a little more realistic with the Wii U; it WILL NOT be as bad as he describes it.
Anyway, saying: "but do expect a cut prior to holiday 2013" is just plain atrocious!
@SMEXIZELDAMAN Don't listen to that (CENSORED), (CENSORED), (CENSORED)!!!!!! The Wii U WONT have a price cut next year. Pachter is just speaking garbage!
@Rococoman That's impossible. If they do that, they'll be selling at such a loss that the respective companies will take a huge hit. Besides, their price point shows how much the company thinks the system's worth. If they priced them that low, firstly, the systems would be utter crap because there'd be nothing to them and secondly, they (the companies) would be saying indirectly that their systems aren't worth anything. Trust me, if Microsoft and Sony release their next gen systems, they'll be awesome pieces of tech priced appropriately around $400.
First, I don't see why the Wii U would have a price cut. I hope this guy remembers the PS3 launch... "599 US dollars" Compared to that a next-gen console that has been confirmed to be more powerful than its predecesor and previous competition that comes with a tablet controller and a ton of free apps that's priced $349.99 at MAX is a pretty sweet deal. If the PS4 manages to hit $450, I want to hear Pachter open his big fat mouth about it.
Choice of photo + subheading...
This is like the third time in two weeks that you guys have done deliberately misleading sensationalism to try and illicit a response from your readers, guys. Poor form.
Pachter is doing a perfectly professional analysis of the Wii U's price point and the market conditions it's being released into.
I guess that's not as much fun to report on unless you add a troll face image and a subhead that has nothing to do with what Pachter actually said, hey?
Please don't become another IGN. Under James NintendoLife had legitimate journalistic credibility.
@OlympicCho I agree this one was actually somewhat legit, but still you have to wonder IF Nintendo can sell the WiiU at the current price for 3 years like the wii, heck I remember some wiis sold for more then $250 online, people bought them at as high as $500
I think he MIGHT be right about a price drop, but not next summer.
Wouldn't shock me at all, get the diehards to jump in at a premium then next year when the next Xbox is set to come out drop the price. Considering this should be around the same time we start to see some of the better Wii U games, it's actually not far fetched and could be a good strategy.
This...isn't a doom statement from him. It actually makes perfect sense, at least to me.
Why is this considered a doom and gloom prediction again?
@Agent75 There wasn't a lot of games for Wii? You're joking right? Nintendo doesn't release many games...? No offense but what planet do you live on?
What kind an person is that Patcher.
I bought the 3DS day one and got freebies some time later, if this is bound to happen again, then so be it, I'll be there day one again!
Console prices cuts are as certain as death and taxes. The PS3 was £425 at launch. The PS1 was £300 with a price drop to £200 after around 9 months.
I think he's right. Ninty messed up with the 3DS price and I reckon a similar thing could happen with the Wii U. I won't be paying £350 for one anyway. When the Wii came out it was something new and so people saw the band wagon and jumped on it. The 3DS and Wii U are just upgrades to existing things and so not as many people will jump on the wagon this time around. Family gamers are not as bothered about upgrading to the latest system as much as "serious" gamers. That, along with the fact that people don't have as much disposable income anymore, could mean that the Wii U won't sell as quickly until they lower the price.
I predict that within 9 months after launch the price will drop from £350 to around £250.
Why buy a Wii U for £350 when you can get an xbox360 for around £150 or a PS3 for around £170?
the thing isnt even out yet so why bring up a price cut in the first place
2 days later and Gamestop and Best Buy have already sold out. Keep telling yourself that Mike
@Dyl_73 Have you seen how many people have "jumped on the band wagon" Gamestop and Best Buy already met their quotas! Plus the Xbox and Ps3 are OLD SYSTEMS. Of course they sell for less, there on there last legs! I think the price is fair (AND it includes Nintendo TVii
He's probably right but he's getting incredibly boring, egotistical and agenda driven. Shame he has to be reported.
@BestBuck123 Bad for early adapters? My 10 GBA games on my 3DS say other wise
@Harmoknight: Well, to be fair, prices eventually drop for a lot of products. The 3DS just dropped drastically all of a sudden
Pachter's wrong yet again (probably). He was wrong about the 3DS XL as well, I'd like to point out. I (some self-proclaimed Nintendo expert schmo) predict we'll see a price cut well into the consol's life, likely within 3 years. Certainly not in the first year.
Meh, not reading what he says..
@lmac99 - You're missing part of my point. Serious gamers may jump in and pre-order. But once the initial excitement has died down will it continue to sell? It might. But Nintendo's Wii was successful because it appealed to everyone. Grandma's and mums were playng it. Are these same "older" new gamers going to rush out to upgrade? I doubt it. They'll be happy with what they've got.
And yes, the other two systems are older, but there is no sign of a next gen from them just yet, and the Wii U is not that much more advanced in what it can put out. It's too high a price tag for a lot of people and not that much of a big deal for the "older" or "casual" gamers.
I hope the Wii U is a success. I really do. But I don't think it will be as great a start as other systems have had in the past, (eg Xbox, PS, Wii, DS, SNES, Megadrive.)
I expect one and half year to price cut.
I doubt it. But I'd GLaDly welcome another Ambassador program.
"Expect a Wii U Price Cut Next Year"
This time he could be right, though it is to early to tell!!
He was the one saying Nintendo would release Wii HD...
Hmmmm...
Well, guess that means people are gonna have to wait a while for a price cut!
(NOTE: I meant Pacther always says the opposite of what actually happens)
It doesn't take a stockbroker to figure out that there will be a price drop at some point. Within a year isn't likely, the current price-point is reasonable for what you get and the public seems satisfied with that. Logic would dictate that it would take place after the PS720s are both out, to make the U seem like better value, plus current hardware components will most likely lower Wii U's production costs naturally. He just likes to stoke the fires so that people talk about him.
Pachter likes the publicity he and his firm gets when he gets negative on Mario & Co. Its free advertising, and he can be a complete db and laugh all the way to the bank in the process.
"He was the one saying Nintendo would release Wii HD..."
And now it gets released, sort off!
It will drop, just like the Nintendo 3DS when it first came out for $250. When the more powerful PS Vita was released for the same price, Nintendo had to drop the price because it knew that selling a handheld console with less hardware power with the same price was ludicrous. When the Xbox 720 and PS4 system come out, Nintendo will have no choice but to cut the price of not just the system but the games as well.
That guy looks like a younger version of the guy who does "Will It Blend?"
Yawn.
You dont have to be an analyst to predict that a price cut iwll come in 1 or 1 1/2 year tops. Vita is a total flop and still Sony refuses the price cut. Nintendo reacted in 3ds and saved it. If it have to be done again for Wii U i wont cry cause multibillionaires like Mr. Iwata, Miyamoto and all other shareholders will make less money for a year.
At least he isn't bashing Nintendo's decision itself, which is surprising coming from him.
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