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 Less
than one year after successfully launching Nintendo GameCube,
Nintendo of America is cutting the console's suggested retail price
to $149.95, effective May 21, 2002. To date, Nintendo has shipped
more than 4.5 million systems worldwide. Peter MacDougall, Executive
VP of Sales and Marketing for NOA commented, "Nintendo is
committed to offering our players the best games and the best price.
We were the first manufacturer to reach the $199 price level and now
we're leading the industry to $149 allowing even more players around
the world to get their hands on our legendary favorites like Mario,
Zelda, Star Fox and Metroid this year."
Nintendo marketing executive George Harrison commented, "Our
goal is to get as many hardware units out there as possible so we
can sell software against a bigger installed base... This year, it's
going to be a battle of software." Today's
announcement comes as the $27b interactive entertainment industry
gathers in Los Angeles for the Electronic Entertainment Expo.
"We believe [GameCube] came out at the best price and think
this will put us in a very competitive position, particularly with
the games we're showing this week at E3."
Sony and Microsoft announced price cuts for their respectful consoles
last week to $199 from $299. Thus, for one brief weekend all three
next-generation consoles were equally priced. In contrast to
Microsoft, when asked if Nintendo's move came in direct response to
the competition Harrison responded, "nothing changed except we
couldn't say anything until we were ready to announce it."
Nintendo
of America instituted price cuts on GameCube accessories last week
when it lowered the MSRP of GameCube's standard controller to
$24.95 and WaveBird's sticker to $34.95. The $10 cut on the system's
standard controller was intended to make GameCube all the
more attractive to price-conscious consumers.
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May
18, 2002 |
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Jim - News
Contributor, GameCubicle |
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