Analyst: Nintendo Must "Immediately" Cut Wii Price To $150

In an equity research newsletter, Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey says Nintendo must "immediately" cut the Wii's price to $150 in anticipation of Microsoft's Natal and Sony's Arc, both new motion controllers due to launch this fall.

"We believe Nintendo needs to cut the price of their console from $200 to $150 immediately, as they should establish as meaningful of an installed base as possible before the Natal and Arc are introduced," Hickey wrote.

"We believe they also need to generate strong hardware sales momentum into their competitors release or face the draconian consumer perception of the Wii having a dramatically reduced entertainment value proposition over a faded technology innovation; Rock Band anyone?" Hickey continued.

Hickey believes the Wii will lose market share due to competition in the motion controlling space from Microsoft and Sony throughout the year.

"We expect continued market weakness through '10 for Nintendo related products, as the Wii cycle fades meaningfully and the DS platform faces considerable competition from Apple related mobile gaming devices. We recognize new hardware from Nintendo is on the horizon."

Nintendo has announced a Q1 Media Summit event for February 24 in San Francisco. "Please join us for a full day of presentations, demos and hands-on gameplay," Nintendo said in an invite to select members of the press.

Just what Nintendo plans to unveil at the Media Summit remains to be seen. With GDC in March, and the Electronic Entertainment Expo in June, Nintendo will have to spread out announcements in order to maintain interest in its key franchises.

Should Nintendo decide to make a Wii price cut, these upcoming events could be the perfect time to unveil such an announcement.

What do you think? Does Nintendo need to "immediately" cut the price of the Wii? Tell us what you think in the comments below.