Nintendo Drops Price Of Wii Ahead Of Holiday Season

No gamecube support = No buy for me.

I am not really surprised about the price drop. Which is a great idea for those who can't afford the Wii U. Now they need to announce a 3DS XL bundle for the Holidays.

3DS price isnt going to drop any time soon but i am seeing big reductions on the DSi XL now.

Why take away a feature?

@Bryon15 It's a shame about that really. One of the reasons I'm keeping my original Wii, as I never actually owned a GameCube! (Shame on me)

Honestly most of us who come to this site have a Wii. And as others have said, I do use my Gamecube games on it still, glad Nintendo is backwards compatible. Why my PS3 isn't is a disgrace. Sony is horrible with customer relations.

@Joshers744 If you are referring to lack-of-GameCube support, this was removed last holiday season. Since then, no new Wii has had GameCube support. As to why, I would think it's a price savings, figuring that people who cared about GC support already had a Wii.

It will still play GC games, but they haven't attached the controller or memory card ports.

Gamecube support required a separate system within the Wii to work. To be honest, most of us who want to play Gamecube games either own a Gamecube or own a Wii with GC support. There is honestly no reason to leave it in there anymore.

I still think of the Wii U,when I see this verison of the Wii.

I already (like almost everyone else here) have a Wii. And yes, I am planning on saving for Wii U.

@XCWarrior Actually the PS3 will play almost every Playstation 1 game. Now Playstation 2 games you have to have one of the really early systems that have the Emotion Engine chip in it I believe......

@NintyFan I agree with you on that one fully.
The wii been out for almost 6 years with the remodel version happening only last year. Plus they announce news of the change 2 months before the release.

The only thing buyers care about at this point is the price and what's included. Well this is good news for my coworker who wanted a wii to workout and get a bang for his cheap buck.

@NintyFan. Yeah. I guess I see your point. From the outside looking in I wouldn't think it would cost much to keep that in there, but maybe it's not worth it to them.

Nice reissue of the black color, and there's still room to drop the price to $99 sometime in the future.

I have a Wii with GCN support, I want a Wii U. So no, not for me.

a REGULAR wii with no gamecube support?

.......... I... I don't understand Nintendo... can't you just cut us off from gamecube games nice and quickly like you did with the N64. to me this is like death by poison versus death by guillatine
morbid analogy I know

What's the point? The ship has sailed for anybody who wants a Wii now. Might as well save up for the Wii U, if not now then in a few months time.

@Mr_LzTheBleh you're misinformed. The Wii's hardware is basically a souped up GameCube, and it's been proven by adding the GameCube controller and memory card ports back to the new model. The Wii U, in theory should be able to play GameCube games from a technological standpoint, and the 3DS MIGHT be able to play GBA games if a cartridge slot was present since some DS games require GBA hardware and it's speculated that the ambassador games are not emulated, but actually ran off original hardware on 3DS.

If you want that soundtrack CD from the current Wii bundle, you better get on it!

Surprised we never got a Wii in pink, green, or gold (with Skyward Sword).

Why are people so surprised they dropped Gamecube support? Like others have already said, older Wiis are still compatible. Plus we all know Gamecube games are coming to Wii U VC, so why would the keep support for physical copies.

So $149 to $129? Does that even qualify as a price cut? Better than Sony raising the price to $269 w/ the new PS3 slimmer-than-slim model though. I waited for the Gamecube to drop to $99, the PS2 to drop to $199, and the PS3 to drop to $399 (w/ $150 back w/ a Sony CC) but I can't imagine anybody holding out for a 6 year old Wii console to drop from $149 to $129. And I'm not talking about people here, I'm talking about the general public people who were NOT going to buy a Wii b/c it was too expensive at $149 but somehow $129 will be the right price. And to slightly contradict myself, yes I do think there might be people who were waiting for psychologically significant $99 price, but $129 is to close to $149 to matter, no matter what is in the box.

wii U is backwards compatible with the wii, and i already have a gamecube, so i'll wait for the price drop of the Wii U. it's not like zelda U will be out before then, right?

I might buy one just to play my Operation Rainfall games, who fail to be read by my old Wii.

But thinking twice, it is better to put that money towards a Wii U, which will read them and that won't support Gamecube peripherals either.

The whole point of backwards-compatibility is the transition between generations when people still have their current console, theres no need to have it at this point in a console's life. Most people who want to play GC games either still have one or the old Wii model. If not heres a novel idea, go buy a GC. Last gen consoles are really cheap now, heck I've seen GCs for going for around $30 in thrift stores.

I would have loved this 4 months ago when my wii broke and stopped playing games. My xbox is really boring now and I've really, really wanted to play ssbb with my brother cause I've gotten tired with the only multiplayer games on xbox worth anything being fps. But now that the wii u is so close I'm going to save my money for it.

I'm looking into buying one!

I'm disappointed that Gamecube games won't work on black Wiis.

I guess it goes to show, "Once you go black, you never go back"

Naysayers in the comment section all must have a Wii already.

Can't we just agree this is a fantastic bargain for newbies, and move on?

I have bought one of those black ones in may (for Euro 147). In the disc channel it still says "Gamecube" and "Wii". But when you insert a GCN disc, the Wii makes a terrible noise and spits it out.

So it's not only the lack of the controller-ports and Memory- card slots. They also changed the DVD drive which is no longer able to read those miniDVD-based discs.

The good thing about this new model is, it looks shiny and they have included the Wii Remote Plus (which is of course also black).

That's so cheap it practically costs nothing! :0

@Omega They should update the OS so it wouldn't have the Gamecube parts either, so it would be less confusing.