With Wii seeing a big drop-off among hard-core gamers, can Nintendo reverse the aging console's fortunes? Probably not, if rumors of a new console are true.

Citing multiple anonymous sources, Game Informer reported Thursday that Nintendo is planning to announce a new high-definition console soon, but not release it until late 2012.

What's to happen to Wii in the intervening 18 months? Several price drops and a renewed focus on attracting value-conscious consumers, probably. Just don't expect many new, high-quality games.

Wii barely offers anything to entice core gamers anymore. After a relatively barren first quarter of 2011, Nintendo sent around a list this week of games we can expect to see in the next few months. Aside from Sega's first-person shooter The Conduit 2, the rest of the list is either licensed movie games or kids' stuff.

For any core gamer that actually expected to be entertained by his or her Wii this year, reading that list feels like a punch to the gut. Even if Nintendo is sitting on some amazing as-yet-unannounced games with which it plans to wow us in June, it won't be enough to reverse the trend.

It's crystal clear: The days of Wii as a console with a steady flow of high-quality software for core gamers are over.

That's why radical price cuts and other moves designed to lure price-conscious gamers into the Wii fold make so much sense.

The rumors started Tuesday, when Engadget's "trusted source" claimed Nintendo of America might drop Wii's price from $200 to $150 on May 15 while simultaneously sweetening the deal by bundling the very popular Mario Kart Wii with the console.

If true, that would make Wii a very enticing value proposition: Somewhere in the brain of the consumer, that works out to a $100 console and a $50 game.

It's been a slow fall from grace for the little console that could. Wii launched at $250 in November 2006 and achieved massive success right out of the gate. With its low price, ingenious motion-sensing Wii Remote and killer app Wii Sports, the family-friendly game box flew off store shelves. Soon it was setting sales records; it's still likely that Wii will end up being the best-selling home game machine ever, when all is said and done.

But Wii sales have seen a marked downturn since 2008. Nintendo had a huge post-launch hit with Wii Fit, but hasn't been able to keep that momentum going with more must-have games.

Nintendo's console is now routinely outsold by Microsoft's Xbox 360 every month, although not by much: In February 2011, Microsoft moved more than 500,000 Xbox 360s; Nintendo came in close behind with 455,000 Wiis, while Sony sold slightly more than 400,000 PlayStation 3s.

Game Informer's report indicates that Nintendo is aiming for a fresh start with its new console, with high-definition graphics and other features that software makers are clamoring for.

(For its part, Nintendo issued its standard "we do not comment on rumors" deflection.)

But if Nintendo's plan to woo third-party gamemakers does revolve around a new machine, that leaves only Nintendo to keep Wii interesting. And even Nintendo seems to be washing its hands of Wii these days. The company is largely focusing on games for its recently launched Nintendo 3DS. To be fair, this is the more important task at hand, but the effort seems to be coming at the expense of Wii.

Yes, Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword will be released for Wii at the end of the year. I do believe that the excellent Japanese role-playing games Xenoblade and The Last Story will make it to America. And Square Enix says we'll hear about Dragon Quest X for Wii later this year, which will be a very big deal ... in Japan. Not in the United States.

It's also important to note that Nintendo always plays its hand close to the vest: We learned about its excellent holiday 2010 games Kirby's Epic Yarn and Donkey Kong Country Returns at that year's E3.

Still, barring a slew of secret, must-buy titles, it looks like Wii's future lies in courting players even more casual than the ones first drawn to the console's granny-friendly games.

In my local grocery store the other day, I spotted a bin full of $10 and $20 Wii games (mostly from shovelware house Zoo Games) sitting over next to the organic food aisle.

$200 isn't an appropriate point of entry for a game console with a wasteland of a release schedule.Whether Nintendo likes it or not, that's where we are now, at the Wii-games-in-your-grocery-aisle phase of the operation. That's not a bad place to be, really, in the final years of a console's life cycle. But it's not the place for premium pricing. Wii definitely shouldn't cost as much as an Xbox 360, the least-expensive version of which currently retails for $200.

It's time for Wii to become even more attractive to impulse buyers, or to parents of the small children who are the target audience of so many of the console's upcoming games. That's why the rumor of a price drop to $150 makes so much sense – especially if you couple it with a new console announcement.

If this is where Nintendo wants to be – and judging by the character of the games it's currently releasing, I can only assume it is – the company should go whole hog. $150 is a good start. How about moving to $99 by Christmas? How about including a free Wii inside specially marked boxes of cereal?

Either way, $200 isn't an appropriate point of entry for a game console with a wasteland of a release schedule. It becomes very difficult to recommend that gamers make that investment, especially if all the big games are just going to be heading to a brand-new Nintendo console on the way.

See Also:- Wall-Mounted, Water-Cooled Wii Kicks Your Console’s Ass