Although there's been a lot of talk about Wii weakness lately, both from analysts and Nintendo President Satoru Iwata himself, the leading video game retailer GameStop is confident that Nintendo's console will do well this holiday season. Speaking to IndustryGamers, Tony Bartel, Executive VP of Merchandising and Marketing for GameStop, said that the new $199 price will be the key for Nintendo.
“I really think the new price point is going to open up the Wii to new people. I actually think it's going to have a holiday where maybe people who weren't willing to buy it at $249 are willing to at $199," he told us. "So I think there are new people who are going to come into this category. There's been a lot of development from third parties on the Wii platform this year, so there are a lot of games available to choose from. We expect it to be a solid platform for us going into the holiday season; this is really the time of year when Wii accelerates. With the reduced price point they've made it extremely affordable.”
Of course, one of the key titles for the system this holiday is expected to be New Super Mario Bros. Wii, which really does hearken back to the Mario games of the NES/SNES days. Bartel confirmed to IndustryGamers that pre-orders for the new Mario title are strong as well.
“We have high expectations for that title. We think it's going to be a strong seller for the holiday. It reminds you of those endearing Nintendo titles of old, and anyone who's played those and really enjoyed them will be flocking to this game. I think we'll have very strong sales on that title and our reservations do support that," he said.
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