Superstar game industry analyst Michael Pachter told the LA Times that Nintendo's smaller North American
supply of
Wii Fit units can be blamed, just like everything else that has anything to do with business, on the value of the dollar. "The shortage demonstrates one consequence of the weak dollar. We're seeing companies ignore their largest market simply because they can make a greater profit elsewhere." Then -- seemingly to make sure blogs quoted him -- Pachter added, "They know that Americans will be just as fat a few months from now." The article states that about 500,000
Wii Fits were shipped to the U.S., versus "as many as 2 million" to Europe.
We think that if the disparity is indeed strategic, it has less to do with the decreasing value of the dollar, and more to do with two other trends: Nintendo of Europe's increased friendliness toward nontraditional "expanded audience" games, and European gamers' acceptance of exorbitant game prices. It's not so much that $90 is
low for
Wii Fit -- it's that they can
get away with selling it for $140 in Europe.
{ Jun 1st 2008 at 12:00PM } 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Silicon Siren @ Jun 1st 2008 1:14PM
Patchers on a short path to getting himself shot by some "fat americans."
Silicon Siren @ Jun 1st 2008 1:15PM
Anyone know why my avatar won't upload to my blogsmith account? Always states it's successful but never changes from this Mario picture.
Teege @ Jun 1st 2008 1:33PM
This certainly sounds like a reasonable business plan on the part of Nintendo. However I wonder if they have saved some advertising money for the long haul. It seems like they have spent a lot for a product that most certainly will be sold out for some time to come.
steve @ Jun 1st 2008 1:52PM
I got mine....so i guess that's all that matters :) The $140 price tag in europe seems to make the most sense though. I'd ship more there if i could make 50 bucks more per unit.
ok completely off topic here but does everyone else here love the hoola hoop game? Not for me...but I love watching my girlfriend sway with it. Damn. completely ends the gaming session :)
nswint @ Jun 1st 2008 1:54PM
They'd need a PAL version of Wii Fit. We use NTSC over here.
steve @ Jun 1st 2008 2:13PM
i know that....um... thanks....how was that a reply to my comment?
I would assume that Nintendo, being a rather large and intelligent company, would know that they need to send PAL units to Europe. I guess I should have said "If I were Nintendo, I'd ship more there if i could make 50 bucks more per unit too"
ymmv @ Jun 1st 2008 2:18PM
"It's not so much that $90 is low for Wii Fit -- it's that they can get away with selling it for $140 in Europe."
Please keep in mind that from a European perspective prices have remained the same. 90 euro remains 90 euro, whatever the price of the dollar may be. Same goes for Japan.
From Nintendo's perspective they get exactly the revenues they expect. They're not gouging Europeans by raising prices, since the prices have remained at the same level. What's different is that their US revenues have dropped because the dollar is worth far less. What's suprising to me is that non-US companies haven't raised their prices across the board. When American pay about the same for their imported goods despite the weak dollar, it means that the rest of the world is subsidizing US consumer spending.
JC Fletcher @ Jun 1st 2008 2:38PM
Yes, European game prices have always been too high.
Mduck @ Jun 1st 2008 8:43PM
"it's that they can get away with selling it for $140 in Europe."
but what about dealers and distributors, they have to get a profit too.
it's like people in mexico and south america that end up paying about $80.00 dollars for a $50.00 game just because their games get distributed by 2 different companies after Nintendo, so it's not like nintendo is getting $80.00 from them
Nikko @ Jun 2nd 2008 5:03AM
I'm in europe, and everybody hates paying 90 euros for a wii fit. one dollar isn't one euro, and Nintendo acts like if we were so stupid that we don't realize we pay 50% more ?
But as somebody said here : if they they sell it this price, and people buy it, why wouldn' they ?
I want to quit Europe, somebody wants to hire a web developper in US, please ?