No way is Nintendo going to release a console at more than $400.  I think it will most likely be $300.

Still can't believe people think this is only going to be a mere $50 more than what the Wii was at launch. There would be no reason to try and brace customers this far in advance for a console that's "not going to be cheap" and is for people with a "higher disposable income" if it was only going to be just $50 more than the Wii launched for. Especially when the PS3 sales exploded at a $299 price point. The minimum the Wii U is going to cost is $349, though I'm predicting a $399 price.

I'm thinking it will be released at either $299 or $349, with me leaning toward the later more. I can't see Nintendo pricing the Wii U at $400 or more. However, I'm not them and so I may be wrong.

I see the Wii U launching at $399 (possibly $349). It's a price that probably allows them to break even or to lose a small amount that they will get back with 1 or 2 games sold. Wii U will have to sold with at least one tablet besides the console and that will certainly bring the price up, but any further than that would be something very non-Nintendo and they've already been burned by the 3DS' launch price.

This.

I could be wrong but I expect Nintendo is planning on releasing the Wii U with a game for $299 but may need to increase the price to $349 if the exchange rate changes too much. To me it sounds like Nintendo is taking the same basic approach with the Wii U hardware that they took with the Gamecube and are taking outdated, inexpensive and energy efficient hardware and through optimization and customization producing hardware that is high performance and affordable.

The controller will be more expensive, but I think people over-estimate the cost.Since it is just a dummy-device I don't think it will be much more complicated/expensive than taking a XBox 360/PS3 controller and adding a touch-screen to it; while this will make the controller significantly more expensive I highly doubt it will make it twice as expensive.

400$ tops.

The Xbox 360 launched in 2005 at $299 for the HDD-less model. It had cutting-edge tech for a console in '05 and DVD playback. Of course, Microsoft lost money on every system sold.

Wii U will be good, but not cutting-edge for 2012, also won't have an HDD or even DVD playback. The controller and probable inclusion of a game will not likely add as much to the price as some people think, although Nintendo will never opt to lose as much money per system as Microsoft did in '05.

Logical conclusion: Wii U will be priced somewhere between $299 and $399, depending on how much Nintendo chooses to lose/profit. My guess is $349 for launch, giving it the flexibility for a $50 price drop holiday of 2013 if needed.

For 2 reasons: (and the point you made about the other consoles' prices adjusted for inflation has no bearing on this topic, it's comparing apples to oranges).

1:  Nintendo's primary audience is the family / casual / mainstream / whatever you want to call them gaming audience, and they're not going to drop $400 on a game system just because it has a gimicky tablet controller.  They didn't jump on the 360 and PS3 bandwagons when they launched with their fancy HD graphics and Blu Ray at $399 and $499 respectively, so why on Earth would you expect them to do it for the Wii U?  And also note that the 3DS, the successor to Nintendo's biggest selling handheld of all time, struggled most of the year because of the high initial price point, which Nintendo was forced to slash by almost $100 in order to stimulate its sluggish sales, proving once again that name and branding alone won't sell consoles.

2:  On the flip side of the gaming coin, the core gamers (you know, the people that Nintendo are trying to win back this upcoming generation) aren't going to drop $400+ on the Wii U either.  Why?  They already own a console that can already do pretty much everything the Wii U can do sans the tablet controller, and they're not going to take the plunge for an unproven system that (from what we've seen so far) has only marginally better graphics, IF that, then what they already own and have been playing for the past 5-6 years.  They spent $400+ on a new console half a decade ago, and you expect one of the most notoriously fickle group of consumers in history, the hardcore gamers, to do the same next year for a system that barely outperforms the current gen console on paper, let alone in practice?  No way.

In short, next year Nintendo will be competing directly with the 360 / PS3, which will have permanent entry price points of $149 and $199 respectively by the time the Wii U launches.  There's no way Nintendo releases the Wii U at double the price of the most expensive current gen console.... they'll just end up in the exact same situation they found themselves in with the 3DS earlier this year.

What the hell? I believe the develpers who may have gotten the dev kit said it was about the same as a ps3, where are you getting this 3-4x?