Plagued with low sales figures and increasing competition, the Nintendo Wii U price has been slashed once again, with Asda cutting £100 from the console’s cost.
Mimicking temporary reductions it made back in May, Asda has once again cut the Wii U price by £100, with the Premium and Basic models now costing just £199.99 and £149.99 respectively. The retailer has yet to confirm if the latest price reductions are a permanent or temporary measure.
With retailers have previously openly criticised Nintendo for its lack of movement on the Wii U price, a number of sellers have recently expressed their concerns on the console’s future.
“Currently Nintendo has not lost space, but their mix of sales is down,” a leading UK games retailer stated earlier this year. “We are looking to reduce slightly but must admit their silence on strategy is deafening at the moment. They’ve got to do something otherwise it is GameCube all over again.”
During a recent earnings call, Nintendo confirmed that it had sold just 390,000 Wii U consoles during the first three months of the year. This lowly figure puts the company severely behind its goal of selling 9 million Wii U units by the end of 2013.
The latest round of Nintendo Wii U price cuts comes just weeks after EA confirmed it was no longer developing titles for the platform and Nintendo announced further delays to a range of AAA titles.
It has been suggested that this lack of core games could further hamper the Wii U’s chances on the gaming scene, especially with the upcoming arrival of the next-gen Xbox One and PS4.
“We believe the Wii U release slate on display will be a key determinant of the console’s long-term staying power,” industry analyst with Wedbush Securities, Michael Pachter said in a note to investors last month.
He added: "With the more powerful PS4 and Xbox One launching later this year, Nintendo risks losing additional share to its console competitors if the quality and volume of content available for Wii U does not pick up markedly in the near-term.
“If the Wii U’s popularity does not improve by the end of the year, many third-party publishers may pass on producing games for the console.”
Read More: PS4 vs Xbox One
Via: T3
