A Wii Price Drop?

Excellent video game blog Kotaku has been pointing to evidence (in such things as Target ads) that the Wii is heading toward a price drop.

This latest ad also fuels our suspicions that Nintendo will make a big price drop announcement during the Tokyo Game Show next week, despite the fact that the company does not have an official presence at the show.

Source: Kotaku

This kind of drop seems to have been coming for some time now, if the "Games" section of 411mania is to be believed:

Meanwhile the Wii's precipitous slide through 2008 continues, with Nintendo's console down 175,600 units year-over-year. Signs point to a $50 price drop for the console in October, which will yield a spike in sales but doesn't seem like enough to stave off continued sales declines. Consumers will have supported the Wii's $250 launch price point for a remarkable 35 months at that time, which may make a $50 reduction seem like an inconsequential drop.

Should the $50 price drop prove capable of a sustained spike in Wii sales, Nintendo's aim will - like Sony's - likely shift towards driving up third-party software sales. Despite Nintendo's overwhelming hardware lead, Microsoft has led in third-party software sales for every month of 2009. With third-party software sales amounting to free money through licensing fees, Nintendo would be able to offset slumping hardware sales with a marginal increase in third-party software sales.