Wal-Mart, Target, GameStop Cut Wii Price to $179

Rumors of an imminent Wii price cut have come to fruition today as multiple retailers have slashed the price of the Nintendo console.

Best Buy, GameStop, Target, and Toys R Us have all cut the price of the Wii from $200 to $170. Previous rumors were that the announcement of a price cut would not come until May 15, making today's premature by a month. According to the initial rumors, however, Nintendo plans to officially reduce the price of the Wii to $150, $20 less than the recent reductions by vendors.

Nintendo is widely believed to be working on a successor to Wii. Speculation points to an announcement of the console at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles.

The Wii was first introduced in 2006, and hasn't had a signifcant upgrade since then. Even so, it has been wildly popular, shipping 84 million units worldwide by the end of 2010, up from about 75 million at the end of the previous year. Since its introduction it has faced increasing competition from movement- and gesture- based controllers such as Microsoft's Kinect and Sony's Move.