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Platform Holders Have Made Strategic Pricing Errors - Analyst

Tom Ivan's picture

By Tom Ivan

July 13, 2009

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Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter has suggested that Sony and Nintendo need to cut the price of their consoles in order to stimulate consumer demand.

“… We believe that the manufacturers have made a strategic error by maintaining pricing for too long,” he said in a research note.

The Wii remains at its November 2006 launch price of $249.99, while the core PS3 SKU has not seen a US price cut since October 2007.

“We think that the [recent] negative software trend is less attributable to a weak software lineup,” added Pachter, “and can only conclude that until consumers are sufficiently interested in buying consoles, it will be difficult for publishers alone to drive sales higher each month.”

Noting that a price cut is not an “almighty weapon,” Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said in June that the company plans to address a slowdown of Wii sales by introducing strong new software rather than reducing the cost of its hardware.

Meanwhile, Sony CEO Howard Stringer said last week that it would be illogical to cut the price of PS3 at the present time.

monkfishjoe's picture
On July 14th monkfishjoe said:

There are officially only 11 good Wii games (and that's froma Ninty fanboy).

Rob's picture
On July 14th Rob said:

“We think that the [recent] negative software trend is less attributable to a weak software lineup,” added Pachter, “and can only conclude that until consumers are sufficiently interested in buying consoles, it will be difficult for publishers alone to drive sales higher each month.”

Negative software sales are due to people not wanting to spend $60+tax on a game that's mediocre when they don't know if they'll have a job next week.

Sabrewulf's picture
On July 14th Sabrewulf said:

Nintendo haven't made an error

Sony have made an error

Top_Dollar's picture
On July 14th Top_Dollar said:


Nintendo haven't made an error

Most of the games are shit for the Wii. Those are errors!

Ozzman_79's picture
On July 14th Ozzman_79 said:

Nintendo makes all Wii games?

Top_Dollar's picture
On July 14th Top_Dollar said:

Well, obviously not, but the Wii is the worst console this gen in terms of quality games.

Ozzman_79's picture
On July 14th Ozzman_79 said:

Quality is in the eye of the beholder. As the old saying goes, "One man's trash is another man's treasure."

Sabrewulf's picture
On July 15th Sabrewulf said:

It's all an opinion, but the Wii is not the worst console of this generation it had the guts to try something different and it worked amazingly in terms of reversing the companies fortunes and embracing a whole raft of new gamers. Just look at what Sony and Microsoft are trying to do now with motion control, it is flattery to Nintendo and I for one am glad I stuck with them and I must say never once have I been disappointed!