Nintendo needs to get Wii Motion Plus into everyone’s hands in order to remove a barrier between customers and future games that use it.
What better way to do this than by bundling the Wii with Wii Sports Resort and Wii Motion Plus, making sure that every new customer has Wii Motion Plus by default.
The downside to this is that Nintendo would be left with hundreds of thousands of unsold Wii Sports games.
When Nintendo released Wii Sports Resort they DESTROYED Wii Sports (Of course, you already know this.). It’s the game that everyone wanted a Wii for, but if it was put on a shelf today it wouldn’t sell. People are only buying it now because they have to if they want Wii Sports Resort/Zelda/Mario Kart/NSMB/etc.
I don’t want to sound like Patcher here, but Nintendo might be planning to release a Wii bundled with Wii Sports Resort and Wii Motion Plus for the holidays at $250 (Allowing Nintendo to get Wii Motion Plus into every new customers hands and allowing customers to avoid paying for a game they don’t want (Wii Sports).). The only problem being that the Wii’s sales have dropped to the point where clearing their inventory of Wii Sports by then isn’t possible. By dropping the price they’ll get a temporary boost of sales, before releasing the new bundle a month or two later for the holidays. Also, people who buy the Wii a month or two before the new bundle comes out won’t feel ripped off because they saved enough money to buy Wii Sports Resort and Wii Motion Plus anyway. This also means that you won’t see the Wii’s price drop in Japan.
If this is the case, Nintendo isn’t conceding to the declining value of the Wii, they’re conceding to the declining value of Wii Sports.
This holiday season seems to be a big push with Wii once its price is cut and with the release of NSMB Wii. As well as Wii Fit Plus.
Anyway, years ago people asked how can someone say that Nintendo needs to destroy the Wii in order to save Nintendo? It is the same paradox as saying Nintendo needs to save Wii Sports by destroying Wii Sports. Wii Sports Resort destroys Wii Sports. If Nintendo didn’t do it, someone else would have.
Apple is destroying the iPod with the iPhone and iPod Touch. As Steve Jobs said, “If Apple doesn’t do it, someone else will.” Too many companies fear destroying their own products. But if they don’t, someone else will. Nintendo is going to have to figure out how to disrupt itself before it is disrupted elseware.
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