Rumour: Wii U To Be Priced At £280/$433, According To ShopTo.Net

Ker-ching.

As is the norm, Nintendo had firmly stated two months prior to E3 that they would not be revealing any price details for the Wii U at their press conference – and keeping true to their word, they didn’t, much to many industry analysts’ disappointment. But of course, this doesn’t stop a few online retailers from going ahead with their own estimates. According to various reports online, ShopTo.net has put up a few product pages for the console alongside a few major titles announced as well. But, as is expected, the site has also put up a disclaimer stating that all prices are subject to change and are not eligible for a pre-order price guarantee.

Currently, ShopTo has priced the Wii U console at £279.85 GBP, which is approximately equivalent to $433 USD. Major titles, such as Pikmin 3, have been potentially priced around £39.85 GBP, which is just around $62 USD. Of course, these prices are to be taken with a huge grain of salt, as Nintendo themselves haven’t released concrete pricing information to the public for now, though internet-wide speculation is putting the console in-between the £250-300 mark, as well as major games around the £40 mark.

But interestingly enough, here’s a statement from Nintendo’s very own Reggie Fils-Aime to IGN Nintendo, where he believes that the Wii U launch price should represent the proper value of the console itself.

[quote]“The first thing I would say is we focus on value. So it’s what you get for what you pay, in terms of that overall proposition. Second thing I would tell you is that Nintendo believes in being a mass-market product. Unlike our competitors, when they’ve launched historical systems, to maybe start at a really high price and work their way down, we don’t believe in that. We want to launch at a price that is going to represent an ongoing great value.

You look at the Wii, we stayed at 250 dollars for a really long time. And so we’re going to give that same level of thought to the Wii U. How do we launch at a value that we’re going to be able to sustain for a long time? I think people are going to be pleasantly surprised, if you will, about the way we’re managing the value equation.”[/quote]