Wii games drop in price faster than competition
by Chris Greenhough 
{ Nov 21st 2008 at 11:48AM }
The research bods at EEDAR have got their abacuses out and calculated that Wii games are more prone to "price protection" than titles on rival machines.What's price protection? Price protection occurs when a publisher of a game that isn't selling offers its game to retailers for a lower price, allowing stores to get rid of excess stock quickly. If this happens too soon (EEDAR defines "too soon" as "when a title's third month average selling price has decreased by 20% or more from its original average selling price"), it is known as "early price protection."
Anyway, EEDAR found that 15.1% of all Wii software goes through this process, compared to 7.5% on Xbox 360 and 9.09% on PS3. What does this disparity say about Wii software? EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich thinks it backs up the theory that third-parties struggle on the Wii because they and retailers have "overly aggressive expectations" for Wii games, and that it proves "quality is one of the most impactful features for a video game."
Or, in a nutshell, Wii has waaaay too much half-assed shovelware.
To add some much-needed silliness to this post about serious business, here's a joke we heard yesterday: there were two cats, one called One-two-three and one called Un-deux-trois. One day they decided to have a race across the English Channel. Which cat won? One-two-three, because the Un-deux-trois-quatre-cinq.
...
We're here all week!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
ProfWho @ Nov 21st 2008 12:02PM
The thing is though there are a lot of great games that have the prices drop quickly. NMH is now $20 at Walmart and it is not even a year old. Hell, it has been at $30 for months before that.
Waffala @ Nov 21st 2008 12:07PM
It's kind of sad to see it happen to a good game, hopefully if the same thing happens to NMH2 it'll still sell enough copies to let whoever is publishing it know to make a deal with Suda for a third or a new franchise.
ZaxCG2 @ Nov 21st 2008 1:37PM
Found NMH myself at blockbuster (used) for 12$. SCHWING!
I find this a good thing as well... it saves us Wii owners money!
KingKRule @ Nov 21st 2008 12:43PM
It seems like everybody and their grandmother is saying that the Wii is shovelware central but nobody seems to be doing anything about it. Random developers are constantly coming out with crap and it just makes the stats go higher. Make better games!!!
samfish @ Nov 21st 2008 12:48PM
Unfortunately, the shovelware publishers don't care. Their games are budgeted in a way so that if one flops, just one of the other 4 they pumped out that month will recover the costs for everything.
HappyFunBall @ Nov 21st 2008 12:55PM
On the flip side, it takes forever for the first party Nintendo games to drop in price...
skit_500000000 @ Nov 21st 2008 1:58PM
No kidding. Most of the good games will never go below $40, Mario Galaxy, Okami, and Fire Emblem namely, which makes finding a good deal that much harder.
tkAshur @ Nov 21st 2008 3:10PM
I saw at Circuit City(or Best buy...one or the other), their black friday deal is a $20 Okami, pickin up that there first thing!
ejamer @ Nov 21st 2008 1:27PM
Shovelware doesn't bother me anymore. I know which games interest me, and mostly ignore the rest.
As a (short-term) added benefit, because there is so much junk on the shelves many GOOD games get marked down too soon as well. Sam & Max Season 1 for $15? Blastworks for $20? No More Heroes for another $20? This might not bode well for Wii over the long term, but I've already built up a cheap store of games that will keep me entertained for months to come.
madhat @ Nov 21st 2008 2:53PM
You got Sam and Max Season 1 for $15 already?
(feels stupid for paying full price...)
ejamer @ Nov 21st 2008 4:25PM
A local (Canadian) EB Games had it for $15 new this week. I was shocked... but Blast Works took a quick dive in price as well, so it's not the first time.
phenylketonurics @ Nov 21st 2008 1:55PM
Or, how about, the bloody CONSUMERS have "overly aggressive expectations" for Wii games? It's only been 2 years and I honestly believe there's been over 20 great releases thus far.
And I dare say that shovelware can be fun. Christ, stop downing it just because it's cheap and crappy. Think B horror films and laugh it off.
tkAshur @ Nov 21st 2008 3:16PM
My only problem with this shovelware is that you can't just glance and see what game you want anymore. If you've heard of a store called Hastings, then you know what I'm talking about. They have their games snug next to each other, and when Gingerbread man, some girl racing, and some crappy lookin wizard games are there, then do their stock a 10:1 ratio to Nintendo or other good games...you have a disgusting jumbled mess. It seriously is a visual struggle to look at the games looking for something uniqe. And companies don't bother having good sales, when they can grab this shovelware junk and slap a sales price on it Grandma will love to jump all over for the kiddies.
It's this, and the serious lack of non-waggle innovation that is making me lose faith in this system. I didn't spend the night for a Wii for a future like this.
Thunderbird @ Nov 21st 2008 4:39PM
The reason Wii games don't sell well is not because a lot of them are shovelware, it's because they don't advertise them enough. Just look at Carnival games, it soled over a million copies because there were commercials for it for a long time.