Wii Game Prices

[Mendon]

I do a lot of my game shopping at Amazon as they quite frequently have the lowest prices and free shipping.

 

While looking over games today, I noticed that many 3rd party Wii titles are on sale but Nintendo seems to be the only company that hasn't reduced the price of their Wii game catalog. And this includes titles that are a year or more old. Examples: Pokemon Battle is still $50, Metroid is still $50, Paper Mario is still $50, Mario Strikers is still $50, Endless Ocean is still $30... and on and on. About the only Nintendo Wii title that has actually fallen in price is Battalion Wars II, down to $20.

 

I can see why Zelda and Mario might be holding their price, after all they are the flagship titles for Ninty. But I can't believe that Endless Ocean or Pokemon Battle or Paper Mario or Metroid or other Nintendo titles are still flying off the shelves in numbers good enough to support original pricing. MS and Sony have dropped the prices on many of their big selling titles and both have instituted the "Greatest Hits" line, but there is no Players Choice titles for Nintendo to be found anyplace.

 

Anyone have a theory about why Ninty is holding the price up on their titles? Just plain greed maybe or the titles are still in high demand perhaps or something else entirely?

 

Just curious.

 

 

Mendon

[jbanes]

About the only Nintendo Wii title that has actually fallen in price is Battalion Wars II, down to $20.

Battalion Wars II is a third party title published by Nintendo. I suppose one could think of it as Second Party, but the relationship doesn't seem as strong as most of Nintendo's second party relationships.

 

But I can't believe that Endless Ocean or Pokemon Battle or Paper Mario or Metroid or other Nintendo titles are still flying off the shelves in numbers good enough to support original pricing.

Believe it. Worldwide, Nintendo is selling ~1.8 million consoles per month. That keeps their market growing fast enough to sell through all the first party titles they want. At full price no less. Worse yet, with such poor showings from third parties, Nintendo's titles are even more attractive to the average consumer than in past generations.

 

Interestingly, Nintendo titles have always held their value surprisingly well. Try picking up a used copy of Mario Party 4/5/6/7 for the GameCube. They sell from $25-$40 depending on which game we're talking about. Whereas third party and Player's Choice titles can be had for anywhere from $5-$20.

[moycon]

None of the titles you mentioned were even in the top 200 last month or this month as far as over-all sales went.

If you just count games released by Nintendo and add up the sales for the entire month last month (Keeping in mind it was a holiday season) and this month (keeping in mind it isn't over) you discover this....

 

Endless Ocean was the biggest seller with 78k sold last month. So far this month the total sales of E.O. is considerably less (no holiday season) at 15k.

In comparison a well know game that has dropped in price (but who retail price is still the same as E.O. $29.99) is Gears of War

 

G.O.W. = 42k This month and 199k sold last month.

 

There is a reason that the prices aren't dropping, but based on sales figures, it's not because they are still flying off the shelves.

[vdub_bobby]

None of the titles you mentioned were even in the top 200 last month or this month as far as over-all sales went.

If you just count games released by Nintendo and add up the sales for the entire month last month (Keeping in mind it was a holiday season) and this month (keeping in mind it isn't over) you discover this....

 

Endless Ocean was the biggest seller with 78k sold last month. So far this month the total sales of E.O. is considerably less (no holiday season) at 15k.

In comparison a well know game that has dropped in price (but who retail price is still the same as E.O. $29.99) is Gears of War

 

G.O.W. = 42k This month and 199k sold last month.

 

There is a reason that the prices aren't dropping, but based on sales figures, it's not because they are still flying off the shelves.

Where are you getting these figures? I'd love to look at stuff like that.

 

But anyway, it's probably a brand thing. They don't want to damage the "Nintendo" brand by selling their games at a discount. And since Nintendo famously doesn't sell anything at a loss, and since the Wii itself is still selling very well, and since the Wii already is the cheapest console, they probably don't need the extra sales that a lower price would give them, either for cash or to drive Wii sales.

 

Just speculation.

[moycon]

Where are you getting these figures? I'd love to look at stuff like that.

 

VG Chartz = http://www.vgchartz.com which if I'm not mistaken estimates sales figures until the NPD data is released and then updates to reflect that data. My understanding is that usually they aren't far off to begin with. You can probably find more info about it in their forums. I wouldn't take it as gospel or anything but I dunno how accurate ANY sales tracking site would be unless they had an omniscient being working for them.

 

I've wondered the same thing Mendon did in regards to certain Wii games, although it's not just isolated to Nintendo. I'm still waiting for Sony's Heavenly Sword to drop in price as well. Just seems to be a lot more of them on the Wii.

Edited January 27, 2009 by moycon

[tisaperfectdayelise]

With console shortages still an issue, Nintendo has no reason to lower the prices on their own, licensed games. As I recall, they've never been quick to drop their prices anyhow, at least not the way that Sony and Microsoft have. Take, for example, SB3....I remember that game being $49.95 until 1994...when we picked it up for $34.99. Good games don't need to be discounted to sell well, and Nintendo knows that...

[Cybergoth]

I usually have a €30.- limit for buying Wii games, only making christmas and birthday exceptions were I bought games like Zelda or Mario Galaxy.

 

The 30.- threshold is the only reason why I don't own any Lego game or Paper Mario yet. But well - I can wait...

[jbanes]

None of the titles you mentioned were even in the top 200 last month or this month as far as over-all sales went.

They don't have to be in the Top 200 to be (relatively speaking) selling like hotcakes. As long as they keep selling at a steady pace, Nintendo ends up making significant revenue. Consider what an average of 20K units per month would mean. At $50 a unit, that's a cool million dollars in revenue right there. All for Nintendo sitting on their butts and doing nothing. Until that situation changes, you're unlikely to see a Player's Choice line of games.

 

In comparison a well know game that has dropped in price (but who retail price is still the same as E.O. $29.99) is Gears of War

 

G.O.W. = 42k This month and 199k sold last month.

Keep in mind that lower prices help drive those sales. That's why prices get lowered. Nintendo is betting that you'll eventually buy the product anyway, just at a later date than if they dropped prices. For them, such a gamble is likely to pay off in spades.

[jbanes]

The 30.- threshold is the only reason why I don't own any Lego game or Paper Mario yet. But well - I can wait...

Ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas!

[Mendon]

Though it doesn't really address (or does it??) my question regarding the price of Nintendo brand Wii games, a small but interesting article from Gamasutra regarding overall game sales can be found HERE.

 

Summing it up, Nintendo consoles (Wii and DS) accounted for 49% of all software sales in 2008, with Sony accounting for 32% and MS accounting for 19%. Even more interesting, Nintendo moved 132 million pieces of software in 2008, with the Wii selling 70 million, the DS selling 60 million, and the rest were GameBoy Advance.

 

Don't know if the article is accurate or not, but with a lot of people claiming that Wii owners don't purchase games like 360 and Sony owners do, these figures are very telling. And especially surprising, at least to me, was that Wii software outsold DS software, even though there are more DS owners than Wii owners.

 

I still think, based on market history, that games a year or more old usually get a price drop because sales fall off and because retailers need shelf space for all the new titles. But Nintendo Wii games are holding their original MSRP.

 

Maybe its true that all Nintendo Wii games sell so well that a price cut isn't necessary. I don't know... I'm confused.

 

 

Mendon

Edited January 27, 2009 by Mendon

[jbanes]

Summing it up, Nintendo consoles (Wii and DS) accounted for 49% of all software sales in 2008, with Sony accounting for 32% and MS accounting for 19%. Even more interesting, Nintendo moved 132 million pieces of software in 2008, with the Wii selling 70 million, the DS selling 60 million, and the rest were GameBoy Advance.

FWIW, the VGChartz numbers seem to bear this out. Take Guitar Hero as an example. According to VGChartz, the Wii version of GHIII has outsold the competition despite its late start. It's a slim margin, but it's there.

 

GH:WT is even more impressive. The Wii has sold almost a million copies more than the nearest competing console. (XBox 360) That's 46% more units sold than the 360! A shocking, yet vindicating number for everyone who felt that the Wii's software sales should not be trailing behind the rest of the industry. It is, after all, the most popular console of this generation.

[moycon]

According to VGChartz, the Wii version of GHIII has outsold the competition despite its late start. It's a slim margin, but it's there.

 

One would expect that no? The Wii has almost twice as many consoles in consumers living rooms. You would think the Wii version would blow away the competition what with about 20 million (Quick fact, it would take you 460 days of non-stop counting to count to 20 million) more potential buyers than it's closest rival. Still, for every GH there's a Rock Bans. Which has sold much MUCH better on the other systems than on the Wii (In spite of those 20 million extra buyers) also see Call of Duty

 

Regardless of who sold what, one would think that eventually after selling so many units of a particular game and over a long period of time the price would drop. Clearly these old games aren't flying off the shelves, the one I listed Eternal Oceans was the highest seller, that means all the others mentioned in this list sold even less. Not that I really care, Nintendo can do what they want. Its just curious what the motivation is to keep the prices high especially when you consider that fact that according to jbanes Nintendo would sell more copies if they did lower the price, so the reasons to me are a mystery.

[jbanes]

One would expect that no? The Wii has almost twice as many consoles in consumers living rooms. You would think the Wii version would blow away the competition what with about 20 million (Quick fact, it would take you 460 days of non-stop counting to count to 20 million) more potential buyers than it's closest rival. Still, for every GH there's a Rock Bans. Which has sold much MUCH better on the other systems than on the Wii (In spite of those 20 million extra buyers) also see Call of Duty

One would expect that. But in 2008, the Wii sales still trailed the 360 sales. To the point where the Wii was looking like a semi-losing proposition for publishers. Various murmurings were that Wii owners only bought their Wiis for Wii Sports. Or that they only purchased Nintendo games and that third parties could not compete.

 

That line of thinking netted us the gimped version of Rock Band for the Wii. A version that pissed off many Wii owners and thus became a self-fulfilling prophecy.

 

Rock Band 2 reversed those decisions. Along with an explicit apology from Harmonix, the Wii version of Rock Band 2 was released as a first-class version of the game. Granted, it was released 6 months after the other systems and is only available in North America. But the sales are already strong (despite practically missing the Christmas season!) and may overwhelm sales on the other consoles in the long term.

 

Its just curious what the motivation is to keep the prices high especially when you consider that fact that according to jbanes Nintendo would sell more copies if they did lower the price, so the reasons to me are a mystery.

Just because they'd move more units doesn't mean they'd make more money. There are a variety of fixed costs associated with placing a game on the store shelf. Without access to information in Nintendo's control, it's difficult to say if the numbers would bear out a greater profit. One would think so, but that assumes that lower prices wouldn't "burn out" the market for the product. Lowering prices may more more units in the short term, but the long term prospects are not necessarily better.

 

Also, there is an aspect to this I haven't touched upon. By keeping their prices high, Nintendo is also playing a psychological card. Generally, the more you pay for something, the better you tend to feel about it. This is a weird sort of confirmation bias that causes consumers to focus more on their purchases. e.g. One study had wine drinkers purchase and evaluate a $10 wine vs. a $100 wine. (May not be the exact numbers, but you get the point.) It was the same wine, but the $100 wine scored more favorable impressions than the $10 wine. Nintendo may be trying to use this bias to ensure that consumers find their products valuable.

[Cybergoth]

I think one of Nintendos arguments is that they don't want to make the early buyers angry by e.g. reducung the price after say three months already. Also, once people realize they just have to wait three months for a price drop, they'll start and do just that

[cimerians]

I think one of Nintendos arguments is that they don't want to make the early buyers angry by e.g. reducung the price after say three months already. Also, once people realize they just have to wait three months for a price drop, they'll start and do just that

 

Yeah.....Mario & Sonic Olympics is still 50 bucks.

 

Edited January 27, 2009 by cimerians

[moycon]

they just have to wait three months for a price drop, they'll start and do just that

 

I think the point of the question was it's been considerably longer than 3 months. Heavenly Sword was a PS3 launch title if I'm not mistaken, or came out shortly after the launch. None of the other games listed are spring chickens.

 

One would think so, but that assumes that lower prices wouldn't "burn out" the market for the product.

 

Based on the trickle of sales....the market seems like maybe it's burned.

My father once told me he'd rather sell a hundred loaves of bread for .50 apiece then two loaves of bread for $2.00 apiece so it's kind of confusing to me especially when you can plainly see these old games aren't flying off shelves now at all. You're right though, who knows how consumers will act. Maybe the aunt Selma's of the world will suddenly and unexpectedly get a hankerin for a year and a half old Metroid game and the market will exploded soon. I wouldn't hold my breath on that scenario though.

 

No doubt you've touched on an interesting theory when you compare how Nintendo may view their games as a fine wine that don't need to have a lower price. I guess I'll stick to Mad Dog 20-20

Edited January 28, 2009 by moycon