Wii Bundles, Nintendo America President Talks Tough

Nintendo America President, Reggie Fils-Aime says he’s talking tough to retailers who sell bundles.

Maybe you’ve been there before. You just want to buy the hottest game console around, but you can’t just buy the console without a bunch of extra merchandise you don’t want.

Bundles can ratchet the price of a console game system by hundreds of dollars for games we may not want and extra controllers we don’t need. But retailers are getting away with it because they know, this late in the year, we’re desperate.

But Nintendo has made it clear it doesn’t like the practice:

“We think it masks some of the price advantage we have versus our competition and, frankly, the consumer should decide what they want…” Fils-Aime said.

In a recent press interview the Nintendo America President was asked if he would consider threatening retailers that sell consoles in bundles with fewer shipments in the future. In response he said only:

“We don’t have to remind retailers of the strength we have right now.”

The usual culprits of bundling hot game consoles at Christmas time include GameStop. Consumer’s can’t touch the $249 Wii console for anything less than a $584.91 bundle. If you remember the last two years if you were looking for a Sony PS3 or Xbox 360 you had your choice from a variety of bundles to sift through.

But now the problem is growing. Even larger retailers that weren’t known for selling in bundles have joined the party. Even consumer giant Wal-Mart is in on the action with its own $677.38 Customer Choice Bundle.