Wii U Daily

Walmart has begun running Google ads pegging Wii U price to $349. While the Wii U doesn’t have an official price yet, back in the Summer of 2006, Walmart set the Wii price at $250 — before we had an official suggested retail price from Nintendo. As we all know, Nintendo later did price the Wii at $250. We doubt that the same will happen with the Wii U, as everything is pointing at a $299 Wii U launch price.

Several game industry analyst have strongly suggested that Nintendo keep the Wii U price under $300, and some, like Michael Pachter, have warned against anything over $250 at launch. Pachter and other analysts cited current generation consoles, the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, claiming that both consoles will receive price cuts when the Wii U launches. This makes the Wii U launch price even more important for Nintendo.

Despite Walmart’s previous predictions with the Wii in 2006, we believe their $350 price point is $50 too high. Nintendo is expected to unveil the final Wii U specs, launch lineup, and price at E3 in about 5 weeks.

http://wiiudaily.com/2012/04/walmart-sets-wii-u-price-at-350/

Someone forgot the memo.  Nintendo has never evealed a console price at E3 and they don't intend to this year either.

I wasn't saying Nsanity forgot the memo, I mean WiiDaily.  Not good for a big media outlet to let that slip by.

As for the price, not a chance in hell Wal-mart knows it.   Because not even Nintendo knows precisely what to charge yet.  They can still work on component vendor prices, retailer margins, cut or add system software, include a pack in game, 1 tablet, 2 tablet, with Wii remotes, without Wii remotes, etc....

But the biggest factor is the fluctuations in the currency exchange rates.   The longer they can wait to get a currency exchange rate trend, the more accurate they can price the console to eliminate the nasty losses they recenty took from exchange rates.

Wouldnt surprise me at all to see $350 theyve got enough of a lead time on the others that if it doesnt sell at that price they can drop it and rake in the sales like they did on 3DS,

They will be wanting to maximize profit with there current financial losses, and they dont want to be in the situation they were with wii where it was so popular they really could of started at a higher price as it as pretty much sold out for 2 years straight.

that doesn't really mean anything.

$350 is tolerable, provided there's preinstalled software ala the 3DS and comes with everything required. A PS3 or 360 bundle costs $300 nowadays, only a $50 difference. If there is a killer app at launch, it will sell fine.

$350 is fine, and it will give Nintendo a little room to make some money on their hardware.

350 is still cheaper than X360 and ps3 at launch; I guess is a good sign, although I like the 299 price better

I agree. There are a lot of things Nintendo doesn't do that people still keep begging, like releasing technical details of the console.

I would imagine that the console is 300 and the controller 50.  That is a reasonable price for a next gen system.

The next sony and microsoft console are likely going to be near double that is they contain any of the specified hardware that is being rumored.

People are missing the point here.

Wal-Mart has to set a preorder price, and it is against their policy to make preorderers pay more than they originally intended if the price rises. Let us say they advertised the Wii U as $250, and people then preordered it. If Nintendo then announced a $300 price, Wal-Mart would still be forced to honour the $250 price for those who preordered.

They WILL, however, drop the price for preorderers if the product ends up cheaper than their list price. By setting an initial price at $350, then if the U turns out to be $300, they can simply lower the price and everybody is happy, while having it the other way around would make Wal-Mart lose money.

Long story short, this isnt a confirmation in the slightest.