I know it can be difficult to predict, but what is a reasonable expectation for how much new and used Wii U’s will become by, let’s say, August or so? Any history on this kind of thing?
The vast majority of price drops on new units happen in the fall, and most of those are either in September or November (cite). That’s not to say we won’t see one sooner, but it would be unexpected. The last time Nintendo did a price drop in another part of the year was May 2011.
Used units will see price drops more quickly, but only if lots of people dump their Wiis (does that sound dirty?) to fund Switch purchases. It’s hard to predict what Gamestop will do, though - they’ll sell the units for as much as they can get away with.
Nintendo said they are actually discontinuing the Wii U. A price drop would, I assume, be dependent on retailers needing to reduce prices to get them out of inventory, rather than Nintendo instituting any sort of drop themselves.
The lack of backwards compatibility and the dearth of games at launch also makes me suspect that people won’t be selling their Wii U to get a Switch–at least, not a bunch of people.
We’re still not even sure the Switch won’t be a flop–worse than the Wii U.
Yeah, Nintendo has already stopped production on the Wii U. It might even go the other way and become a bit of a collectors item. People might be looking for replacement game pads, who knows.
I didn’t know about the Wii U being discontinued. That obviously changes things.
No backwards compatibility?
The Switch isn’t backwards compatible with Wii U games, so people may keep their U rather than selling it and playing their library on the new system.
With the Wii U discontinued it might become a collecter’s item like the older Nintendo consoles, or it could just drop off and be worthless. If the Wii is any indicator, people will still want a Wii U when they find out the Switch is not backward compatible. This will just make them harder to find and more expensive for the ones that can find them.
The WiiU is compatible with Wii games, so I might see if they get dirt cheap enough to finish off my Wii back collection and the few decent Nintendo games I was half interested enough to play on the WiiU itself. It would also be nice as a backup for the Wii should it go kaput.