A rumor popped up last month that Nintendo would be slashing the price of its Wii gaming console down to $150 on May 15. Today that information has been officially confirmed in a company press release.
On May 15, both the black and the white versions of the popular home gaming console will debut at the new, lower price. Wii Sports, which has shipped with the Wii as a packed-in game since its 2006 release, will no longer be bundled up in the box. Nor will Wii Sports Resort, which was added to the bundle when Nintendo released its MotionPlus accessory for the Wii remote (functionality that is now built into new model remotes). Instead, new Wii buyers will now receive Mario Kart Wii and a racing wheel matched to the color of your console.
Wii Sports is arguably one of the most popular releases out there for Nintendo, so don’t start thinking that it is now dead. In fact, the game will be made available for the first time as a standalone disc release. That, along with The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Animal Crossing: City Folk and Mario Super Sluggers, will be repackaged as the first entries in the Nintendo Selects series, a new line of “greatest hits” games priced at $19.99.
This is the first step toward bringing the Wii price down to that magic sub-$100 number. With Nintendo set to announce a new console at E3 this year, you can reasonably expect to see another drop in price in late 2012. That’s when the “Wii 2” (or Project Cafe, as it is also being referred to) is expected to launch.
