Pachter: Nintendo should un-bundle Wii Sports, sell Wii for US$ 199

After recently saying Nintendo’s 2008 fiscal forecast is too conservative, Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter voiced out his suggestion that should help the Nintendo Wii remain hot even in 2009. He believes selling the console for US$ 199 without Wii Sports bundled could generate profit leading to a good new year. More details at the full article.

Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter, known for his predictions pertaining to the video game industry, spoke out once more to share his thoughts on what Nintendo should do with its white hot Wii to widen the lead over other consoles as the fastest seller this generation. For Pachter, a wise decision would be to sell the Nintendo Wii without Wii Sports bundled in, making it possible to drop the price tag to US$ 199.

Pachter believes 80% of new Wii purchasers will still grab a copy of Wii Sports, and the un-bundle move “would end up effectively lowering revenues per console by only around $10.” He continued, “at that price point, the Wii should be strong again in 2009.”

Why take 2009 into account? It seems Pachter expects competing consoles to contest Nintendo’s dominance, explaining that “because of the high-definition video features offered by the Xbox 360 and PS3, those consoles are more likely to end up in the living room, which could relegate the Wii to the playroom.”

If Sony and Microsoft are to catch up, Pachter predicts the impact will be felt by the Nintendo Wii in late 2009. “By that time… Nintendo will likely combat the perception of ‘HD video inferiority’ by introducing a ‘Wii-HD’ model,” he said. When it comes to that point, it does sound good for Nintendo to have established a wide user base even if a portion of that opted to own other gaming machines.