As we suggested previously, Nintendo has been looking at moving the price down to $199 U.S. on the Nintendo Wii for some time. The move to drop the price will do a couple of important things, the biggest of which is tie Microsoft’s Xbox 360 Arcade bundle for the lowest price, and second, put the Wii in the position to make it the second console of choice for those that are perhaps looking at something else, such as the Sony PSP, for example.

The price cut could help the company reach its goal of selling another 26 million units this fiscal year. With Wii sales slowing down, the company is now even more likely to take actions for the holidays with a price cut.

It is also expected that Nintendo will continue to focus on the introduction of stronger software titles to its lineup. This has been a problem with the Wii that many continue to complain about. The Wii still remains a family oriented console, and the console of choice for younger children, while the more mature titles continue to not do very well on the console. Nintendo says that they expect this trend to reverse itself and more mature titles should start to pick up some steam for the platform as stronger titles are released.

The move by Nintendo is expected to be countered by Microsoft who would likely drop the price of the Xbox 360 Arcade Bundle to $179, or perhaps add additional software to the bundle to make the purchase more attractive over the Wii.