Hah! We were just talking about MS getting the price down yesterday.
http://nintendoenthusiast.com/forums/threads/wii-u-sales-thread.362/page-36
Interesting that they didn't wait until E3 to announce it.
Oh, it needed it. The sales curve for the One that you showed yesterday is comparatively flat compared to the PS4, and MS isn't looking to play for second place.
What is interesting is that after Kinect gave the 360 such a late-life sales tail, it isn't turning out to be the piece of killer hardware they thought it would be on One. People aren't busting down the doors to pay $100 more for Kinect.
It's feasible. They would have to edit eShop functionality, but let's be honest: there are precious few games thus far that have made
integral use of the GamePad. But I'm not sure it makes much sense. Yes, Nintendo could hit a lower price point, but that doesn't address the Wii U's central problem - why should more people buy it? Take away the GamePad, and you have a more PS4/One-ish experience, but without all of the third-party support, and that's still a pretty big damn problem.
But if Nintendo isn't going to show off why the GamePad is awesome...
Yep, this.
At some point, I imagine Nintendo will do this, too. And at that point, I'm pretty much gonna be an offline-only gamer.