While there were a lot of reasons people weren’t happy with Nintendo’s E3 press briefing, there was one major thought that struck me when it ended. They never announced a price for the Wii U. The console is supposed to be launching for the holiday season, and there’s still no announced price. Three weeks later and the company has made several other large announcements, but again, still no word on price.
Recently CEO Satoru Iwata did touch on the subject recently, though he still avoided any particulars. Specifically, he stated that “We won’t make the same mistake that we did with the 3DS, which was considered relatively high by consumers.”
What this tells us is that Nintendo is probably considering the idea of selling the console at a loss. When they announced the price cut for the 3DS, they were no longer even breaking even on the device. So if they are wanting to focus on selling units, they very well may have to take the same road with the Wii U, and hope that they can make up profits in game sales.