I was responding to someone saying the PS3 did poorly because of the price but was actually not that expensive compared to the PS2 that launched around $400 there.
The PS3 price was definitelly a factor for the poor sales. While 10k yen alone might not sounds like tons of money, it pushed the total price up to 50k yen minimum (or 49,980 yen to be precise). Many people wanted the 60GB model instead because of the built in wireless internet, more harddrive space and maybe the cardreader could be nice to have as well. Then they had to pay 60k yen. These are high price ranges for a gaming console, especially for the general public.
Sometimes, increasing a price point could break the pricing sweetspot. For example, how would the game sales be in the next generation if all games got an increased price of $15 - $20? $15 and $20 alone arent exactly a lot of money, but it would mean a total price of $75 - $80 for one game compared to today's price of $60.
It is important to find a pricing sweetspot, and 50k and 60k yen for the PS3 were not a sweetspot prices for the general public, that is one reason why it sold poorly. The game selection also played a big part in it of course, but the higher price on the PS3 hardware didnt do it any favors.
Selling a new item for a higher price compared to the predecessor is something that we cant know the true answer to before it has been tried though. But one will see the answer quickly after launching, if the item is selling or not at the current price point.
Are there people saying the WiiU isn't selling because of price?
I dont think anyone is saying it about the japanese sales yet because we only have 2 days of sales data. But i've seen it being used in arguements about western sales. The WiiU is only $50 or $100 more expencive compared to the Wii launch price, but it pushes the WiiU into the $300 and $350 price range.