Nintendo Announces Wii Price Drop, Xbox 360 Prices Cut by Retailers

With the coming of the holiday season and the launch of its brand new console, the Wii U, Nintendo announced this morning that the motion-control based console, the Wii, will now be priced at $129.99. The new bundle, available on October 28, will come with a black console, black Wii Remote Plus with Nunchuk controllers, and a single-disc collection of Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort.

Said Nintendo of America’s vice president of sales & marketing, Scott Moffitt:

“Nearly six years after it launched, people are still attracted to the pure, inclusive fun of the Wii console. A new suggested retail price and the inclusion of two great games make it an easy choice for families looking for a great value this holiday season.”

Don’t be surprised if parents who heard that their kids want a Wii U—but can’t get them because of sell-outs and short supply—come home with this thing. Worse will be the parents who don’t even know the difference, a real possibility given the fact that the two consoles are only a letter off from one another. I’m sure my mom would be confused. Good thing I don’t let her buy me video games anymore. (That’s not true—she can totally buy me video games whenever she wants. Love ya, Mom!)

The new bundle represents the second such holiday-time package announced this fall, with Sony having announced a new, slimmer version of their PlayStation 3 console bundle a few weeks ago. While that bundle will have roughly the same $250 numerical cost that the PlayStation 3 console fell to last holiday system, this version will offer up more hard drive space and will include a “Game of the Year” edition of Uncharted 3, certainly raising the value of the package.

As for Microsoft, as of this weekend, news began to circulate that Xbox 360-Kinect bundles was going to get a $50 price cut at some retailers like GameStop, Best Buy, and Amazon. But the company itself hasn’t made any such announcement of a price cut…which means, presumably, that these new discounts are for the holiday season only. While that seems like a doubtful proposition, the lack of an official announcement from Microsoft is conspicuous by its absence. Worse, gamers in the UK don’t get any kind of price cut for the Xbox 360, according to a post on CVG from today.

It’s possible that an announcement from Microsoft is forthcoming, but as of now they’re keeping mum on the whole price cut business. In the meantime, enjoy your less-expensive console bundles (in North America).

Via Business Wire, Kotaku, and CVG