So with everyone wondering how expensive Wii you will be Iwata descided to weigh in and give us an idea. Iwata started by saying WiiU will not be 20,000 Yen in Japan (250$) confirming it will cost more. So after confirming that the WiiU will cost more then 250$ he went on to make a very highly quoted statement. "This is not going to be cheap." - Iwata, so just how expensive will this console be?

Gilgamesh and others were talking the possibility the console if it is as powerful as people say could be between 350-400$. But with this statement from Nintendo could the WiiU even eclipse that? When Iwata said this is not going to be cheap was he refering to a price tag similiar to PS3 at launch? Surely Nintendo wouldn't repeate Sony's mistake would they?

Also such a high price point confirms to all of those doubters, this console is not a PS3. Its not simply on par, this console is a true next generation beast and its going to pack both a graphical and financial punch.

So what do you think, we know its going to be above 250$ and Iwata makes it sound far more expensive. Is Nintendo being smart to launch an expensive platform? Do you want an expensive graphic intense game playing machine or would you rather a PS3 with a tablet controller priced at 250$.

Whats your take on the price and what the price means for the console?

I'm not sure if this thread should be taken down. I just found an identicle thread by Gilgamesh on the gaming board. However this is a Nintendo topic so it should probably be discussed here. Mods its up to you, delete this if you think it belongs on the gaming board or leave it to be discussed on the Nintendo board!

The tablet controller will probably account for like around 100 dollars of the total price. Then on top of that, we have to pay for the next gen console, which, from what we have been hearing, will be very powerful. I am expecting somewhere between $350 and $450, maybe 500, but I sure hope not.

I think there are a lot of people who have bought into a lot of hype and misinformation when it comes to the HD consoles; and they’re unwilling or unable to acknowledge the current market reality.

Until Microsoft entered the market with the XBox few consoles were sold at a significant loss for an extended period of time. Certainly, the initial run of PS2 systems probably did live up to the hype and cost Sony $100 more to produce than they sold for, but from the time it launched in Japan to its launch in the United States 8 months later many of the components had already seen significant price reductions.

What this means is that for over 20 years companies have been able to take inexpensive and energy efficient hardware, package it into a small system, sell it for an affordable price, and have it initially perform at a similar level to what people expect from a gaming PC at the time. I see very little reason why Nintendo should not be able to do something very similar to this today and, being that the XBox 360 will have been on the market for 7 years when this system launches, why this system wouldn’t be dramatically more powerful than the HD consoles.

People keep saying that the controller will be expensive but I believe they’re over-estimating the cost associated with that quite a bit. I’ve said it before and I’ll probably say it hundreds of times between now and the price being announced but today you can buy a touch screen LCD colour ebook reader for under $100 which should be more expensive to manufacture than this controller; and over the next 12 to 18 months many of the components will (probably) see price reductions to the extent that similar ebook readers may sell for as little as $50 to $75.

With all that said, I think the only thing I would be willing to guarantee about the price of the Wii U is that it will be affordable; unfortunately that is not a term which is particularly specific. Inflation and exchange rates have changed a lot over the last 10 years, and the conditions that allowed Nintendo to sell the Gamecube for $200 no longer exist.

My guess is that it'll probably be $300-$350. $400 would be too much and Nintendo definitely wants it to be affordable

Wii cost 25000 Yen at launch. I could see them selling the WiiU for a bit more, maybe 29.800 Yen. I'm not sure they'll want to try more than 30.000 Yen...