The price is right, says Nintendo

We won't bore you with a summary of why the Wii U needs a price cut — after all, we've been over that many, many times. With the PS4 and Xbox One looming on the horizon and Wii U sales in the toilet, it's the most logical way of reigniting consumer interest and making sure there's a large install base to attract vital third-party support.

However, although retailers are screaming for a lower price, Nintendo seems comfortable with the cost of the Wii U right now. In an interview with VentureBeat, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of sales and marketing Scott Mofitt claims that the console offers great value, and that the games shown at E3 will be enough to trigger a revival:

We have no plans to change the price of Wii U. The Wii U is a great value. With great content coming, that will drive the hardware installed base. We’ve gone from being the highest-priced console on the market to now being a great value with the announcements from our competitors. The perception of our price has changed, but what’s also changed is that people now see what great content is coming. They’ll see the value in those games. They’ll be able to enjoy a Wii U in their household for a lot less than a competing console.

Mofitt certainly has a point — if anything is going to get people interested in the machine, it's Nintendo's amazing first-party output. However, Wii U needs to be significantly cheaper than Sony and Microsoft's new consoles when they hit store shelves this holiday season, because retailers will be sure to point out the technical disparity between the respective platforms. One of the best ways to overcome that hurdle — aside from killer games — is to have a much lower price than your rivals.

Do you think Nintendo will really enter into this hardware battle without dropping the price, or is Mofitt merely bluffing in order to prevent people from holding back on a Wii U purchase until the price is slashed? Drop a comment to tell us what you think.

[source venturebeat.com]