350$ with a game

I think the hard drive is more then irrelevant, I can buy an external 1 TB hard drive online for 70 bucks, and I wouldn't see the value in them adding it.  They would, in fact, be ripping me off.

As far as specs and pricing go, I would like to point this out.  I'm a bit of a Nintendo fanboy.  I'm not too worried about specs, since I am also a very avid PC gamer (a combination I see a lot, actually) but, with what revealed at E3, I do not think I'm going to buy a Wii U at luanch for more then $300 dollars.  $300 or under and its definetly day one, but I don't see a value of $300 + untill it gets more first party must have games (which it will).  I would however see the value in it if seemed like a large enough leap over current gen systems performance wise, and might spend up to $400 at launch in that case.  I think it's a very fun looking system, and I will definetly eventually own one (for Smash Brothers with decent online if nothing else) but the value has to be there.

I'm thinking $250 is the basement price and $350 is the ceiling, maybe $400 with enough pack ins and accessories.

$200 - $250 is the sweet spot. $300-$350 they could probably tread water with, but it would hold sales back a bit. $400 or more, and they're pretty much writing their grave.

I'm expecting at least 350, because it will come with a gamepad, and I'm sure those aren't cheap.

$299 would be a great price that could be maintained until the release of the next console

 if they released it for 200-250 wouldn't that be admitting it is not next gen? but just nintnedo playing catchup and using a unique gamepad compared to 360/ps3

I think they would, if they can actually see a difference. I'll b real here, this whole GPU, CPU talk, is just gibberish. I see a spec sheet and what does it mean?? I dont know, i miss the days when they would say 32bits of power and you know exactly what that meant in relation to a generation.  Most people even some of the "hardcores" dont really care about that stuff. Hell they say the Wii is more powerful than PS2/GC/360 and some will throw the spec sheets around, but that dont mean a damn thing, cause i havent seen a game released on the Wii yet that looks better than Halo2 or SW: KOTOR.  Same thing with WII U, people were talking this "3-4 times more powerful crap" and i havent seen it. Not even the first party games look like they are much better than what is currently available on console.

So in conclusion, the WIi U would have to justify its 400-450 price point. Especially if the hardcore already have a system that could run games they already want to play. and no putting an HDD in their would not cause the system to jump in price, i dont know where people are getting that stupidness from. You can buy a PS3 WITH MW3 that has a 320GBHD for 299.

THIS, especially since their isnt even a HDD in the damn thing and the competitors have one in theirs.

Pretty presumtous to assume that wouldn't you say? We don't even know of Wii U's exact specs yet.. I think they could get away with a $250 price tag even with significant hardware improvements with 360/PS3, with maybe a mior loss or very small profit on the hardware. How exactly is Nintendo play "catchup" again? Remember, Nintendo has proven with the 3DS that they are content with releasing new hardware while incurring losses on hardware.

Again, I can't see how the HD twin's predcesors'  graphics could be that far improved from Wii U to the point of justifying the purchase of another $400 + console plus the cost of more controllers.

$598