The whole gaming industry is a buzz right now over the Wii U. There is no doubt that the new TVii functions and exclusive game titles like Beyonetta are a great move from Nintendo. They seem to have a decent line up of launch window games like Madden, Call of Duty Black Ops II as well as some other hardcore Nintendo titles in the works. The announcements of the two models along side the pre-orders being available from Gamestop has me asking a couple of questions however. Questions like who, in their right mind, would order the $299.99 model and why are the colors not available in both packages?
Two different models, two different choices?
$299.99 | $349.99 | |
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Breakdown of the Price Models
My first question is why the different colors for the different models? At first I was excited by the aspects of the $350 model as well as the color. It just seems odd now looking at it. Why would gamers not be allowed to get a white Wii U if they bought the more expensive model? The systems have the same specs other than a bigger flash drive so it would seem to me there is no reason why a color would be dedicated to a specific set of specs. Same thing with the digital bonus program. The program has to be mostly software or account bound so again the dichotomy of color just doesn’t make any sense to me.
The price difference and choices in packages also raises an eyebrow in my book as well. It seems weird to me that the stands are not included in both packages. The Wii had a stand for the original console packed in and multiple other pieces of plastic have been included in other Nintendo games and consoles. I guess I just don’t quite understand.
Then I looked at it from Nintendo’s side of things. If they can get a bunch of people excited about Nintendo Land and a couple of these bundles they could actually come out on top very quickly profit wise. The $350 bundles sold out in just under 2 days. That means that every person that is excited about the Wii U will be pre-ordering the white $300 console. Nintendo alone is a $60 retail game and a lot of these pre-ordered white consoles are going to buy Nintendo Land. Just that alone will pull Nintendo’s profit margin forward. Plus a lot of gamers and parents of gamers that buy the Wii U will probably purchase a stand and a charging cradle because they will be told by Gamestop that they should have them.
And this is why I never bet against Nintendo. Some of the things they are talking about with the Wii U will revolutionize the video game industry. They have a nack for finding a niche in the market and then exploting that niche. Plus their marketing department obviously should earn some kind of award for the Wii U price models. They have actually found a way to take their business model, look like they are offering a cheap alternative to the “premium” console and still come out even more so on top in their profit margin.
