Unfortunate news for those hoping for a Wii U price cut in the near future, Nintendo have confirmed that the Wii U console is still being sold at a loss for the Japanese company.
The added costs of buying parts, manufacturing and then shipping their consoles to retail has meant that after a year on the market, the Wii U is still being sold at a loss. This practice is quite common for most console manufacturers but something Nintendo have never really done before with their previous home console, the Wii, being sold at £179 and still yielding profit.
In July, Nintendo unveiled the news to investors that their first quarter for this financial year had yielded a operating loss of £33 million, a figure which can be partly blamed on the losses associated with the Wii U console.
Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime says that a person buying just one additional piece of software for the system negates the loss from the console. “As soon as we get the consumer to buy one piece of software, then that entire transaction becomes profit positive,” he said back in November.
Most recent sales indicate that on average a Wii U owner has purchased 4 games per system with 3.6 million console sales and 14.4 million software sales worldwide.
On Tuesday, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata pledged to “strive to regain ‘Nintendo-like’ profits” in the current fiscal year.
Unfortunately all the evidence points to the Wii U receiving a price cut not being in the short-term plans of Nintendo so don’t expect to see one any time soon.
Does it upset you that the Wii U is still making Nintendo a loss closing in on a year after release? Upset about the unlikeliness of a price cut in the Wii U’s near future? Let us know what you think in the comments below.