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Nintendo to Raise Trade Price of Wii in U.K.

Kris Graft's picture

By Kris Graft

March 11, 2009

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Nintendo will be upping the trade price for the Wii in the U.K. on the depreciation of the pound, MCV reports.

The report said the price hike will be around £16.50, and up to £19 with tax. Whether or not retailers will pass this expense onto consumers is unclear.

A Nintendo U.K. spokesperson said, “The price that they then offer to consumers is, of course, up to the retailers. We are only–reluctantly–raising our trade price now to retailers due to unprecedented and sustained depreciation of the pound.

"This is a problem brought about by extreme currency fluctuations that are a symptom of the global economic situation.”

The console's suggested retail price tag is currently £179.99.

We've pinged Nintendo of America to see if it is ready to take similar measures.

jbrig08's picture
On March 12th jbrig08 said:

Raul23's picture
On March 12th Raul23 said:

Only way to call this one is shady.

SaintJude's picture
On March 12th SaintJude said:

Bad Nintendo, bad! How very cheeky of them. If Sony or Microsoft even thought the words "price increase" there would be lynchings.

Cubemoss's picture
On March 11th Cubemoss said:

Nintendo has a long history of shady practices to manipulate the market dating back to their fictional "chip shortages" in the late 1980s.

toadwarrior's picture
On March 12th toadwarrior said:

Yeah Nintendo purposely destroyed the value of the pound so they could increase the cost of their hardware. That makes complete sense and here I thought the pound was losing value because the world economy was turning to shit.

Don't be surprised if Sony and MS follow suit since selling one unit in the UK is not longer the equivalent of selling two in the US.

Cubemoss's picture
On March 12th Cubemoss said:

A similar exchange rate between the JPY and GBP persisted between 1999 and 2004, and no console manufacturers raised their prices during that time.

toadwarrior's picture
On March 13th toadwarrior said:

The economy wasn't collapsing at that time either and in fact was on the rise so covering those changes were easier.

Secondly the difference between the Euro and pound were wider so it wouldn't make sense for Euro's to buy form the UK. Now there is more incentive to thanks to the Euro and pound being closer. Retailers may have complained and if Nintendo wants to keep good relations in those countries then it needs to act.

lifeat30fps's picture
On March 12th lifeat30fps said:

Or how about the "Stock Sega, lose Nintendo" marketing practice? That's a classic!

Brian
www.brianwoods.com

ArronC07's picture
On March 11th ArronC07 said:

and so it comes to pass that the former underdog that came out on top starts to act like the bully or is it just a return to previous form for Nintendo?

Barla Von's picture
On March 11th Barla Von said:

Nintendo are cunts - official.

If Sony played this sort of card the internet would collapse.