Josh H

According to this article, from www.planetgamecube.com (basically a Reuters story though), the Gamecube could see a price drop this year if the PS2 drops in price. If the PS2 only drops to $249, we probably won't see a GCN price drop, but if the PS2 drops to $199, they'll likely drop the price of the GCN to keep below the competition. I also read an article last week saying Nintendo was working to find ways to cut the production costs of some of the boards in the GCN to make a price drop cost effective. Anyway, here's the article.

GameCube price drop?

Vice President of Marketing George Harrison said Nintendo may drop the price of the GameCube later this year. All the news inside...

During a side event of the Nintendo Gamers Summit, Vice President of Marketing George Harrison commented on whether or not Nintendo would drop the price of the GameCube. Here's the juice....

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Video game publisher and console maker Nintendo Co. Ltd. may cut the price of its new GameCube console later this year, depending on a similar price cut from Sony Corp. for its PlayStation 2, a company executive told Reuters on Monday.

On the sidelines of a Nintendo event coinciding with the start of the season for baseball's Seattle Mariners, in which the company is a lead investor, Vice President of Marketing George Harrison said a GameCube cut was contingent on whether any Sony price cut is to $199 or $249, from the current price of $299.

"We haven't made a decision on (a price cut),'' Harrison said. "Sony's expected to make the first move and then we'll see where we stand.'' He implied that the deeper price cut, to $199, would make a GameCube cut more likely.

The GameCube currently retails nationally for $199.95.

Despite frequent denials that it has any plans on any price cut, Sony has been widely expected to cut the PS2's price this year, presumably at the industry's Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in May.

Harrison said Nintendo had expected Sony might cut the price at a retailer conference it held last month, and that any GameCube price cut would have to come by August in order to have full effect for the holiday season.

Harrison speculated that if Sony makes a deep enough cut, and if Nintendo makes a cut, then Microsoft Corp. might also have to cut the price on its $299 Xbox, which came out last November.

He also said the company expects to have shipped 2 million GameCubes in North America as of Mar. 31, implying it has shipped 500,000 this year after shipping 1.5 million between its Nov. 18 launch and the end of 2001.

As for software pricing, Harrison said Nintendo saw no need to cut its $49.99 price for its top titles, though it may consider a discount program for best-selling games down the road, as Sony recently announced.

jeffdsmith

Got to admire Nintendo for passing on saving when possable. Case and point: the GBA. Nintendo had absolutly no reason to lower the price, yet since they could make them cheaper they sold them cheaper. Yeah, I know its all about the software, however its still a lot more then they had to do, no to mention they own the handheld market.

Mattalos

I think the opposite ... sounds like they're scared.

And I'll be goddamn pissed if there is a price drop, as will every other early Gamecube adopter. Could you imagine buying a console and then having it go down in price less than a year later!?

jeffdsmith

Nintendo has long said that the GC made for a different type of consumer. Part of that is offering attractive price points. Obviously the lower price is a direct reaction to competition, but lets face it, Nintendo has nothing to fear at this point in terms of the next fiscal year; have you seen their line up? It's amazing. It's not like they are having a difficult time moving the consoles now.

I personally wouldn't be mad if they lowered the price. I've had mine for 6+months that others havn't. Everything electronic depreciates over time. I just thank god its not on the rate that PC hardware does. The lower the price of the GC, the more people that will be able to afford one that may have not otherwise. More people with consoles, means more attention from developers. In the end I win either way.

sniper308

Cool ... they price drop & release RE & I'll be buying one...

Personally I can't bring myself to purchase a console before a price drop.

Travissk

I'm not 100% sure on this, but the GBA price drop was the result of lagging sales in Europe. To move more units, they dropped the price. Then they dropped the price in Japan and over here in the USA so that sales here wouldn't lag. There's a technical term for this, but basically if you can get a system that is region free for $70 plus a little shipping from an import shop or $90 domestically, where would you buy from?

I paid $90 for my GBA, and I don't regret it a bit. Relating to this article, I don't own a next-gen system, so price cuts are very good news for me

jeffdsmith

Travissk, I searched all over and couldn't find that. I know that Europe did indeed recieve a lowering first "technically", however at that point (right after xmas) the GBA had been selling like crazy.

http://www.thegia.com/news/0201/n28a.html

This link goes out of its way to speak about Europe, but doesn't mention any problems selling it. However, it mentions certain things which could be labeled as aggressive, so you could be right.

Lethal Nemesis

Same here. Until then, I'm perfectly happy with my PS2 and VF4.

littlefuzzy

That is the price you pay for being an early adopter. You have had the benefits of the console since you bought it. If you bought a brand-new 2001 car last year, and then saw 2001 models at greatly reduced prices this year, would you be mad?

Mattalos

Cars and game consoles, two very different things. You expect car prices to go down often. You expect consoles to go down after a year, or bad sales, etc. I'm not saying it's the worst thing in the world.

Ah well, I only paid $150 for my new GC anyway.

mljones99

Not true. I for one will not be pissed off. I like my cube and think it is worth the 199 I paid.

Josh H

Same here. The extra money I paid (assuming there is a price drop this year) allowed me to play Star Wars: Rogue Leader, Super Monkey Ball, Super Smash Bros. Melee, Wave Race: Blue Storm, etc. while the people who buy it after the price drop will likely miss most of these games as they'll tend to pick up the newer game. For example, I plan to pick up a PS2 after a price drop, but there's no way I'll get to play all the great games that have been releases so far, and all the great game released after I eventually pick on up. There's simply not enough time in the day to play all the great games being released nowadays, plus keep up on work and homework.

Lethal Nemesis

People who buy a console at the launch price have to keep one thing in mind -- they are most likely paying the highest price that the system will sell for, but in return, they get to use that system right away. Just like josh pointed out, you get to play the games that are out for the system at the moment. You get a possible one year headstart above the guy who decides to wait a year for a price drop. You're playing -- he's not. That's the trade off. Sure, you paid more, but you got to play more.