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Report: Iwata On Wii U's Price: "This Is Not Going To Be Cheap"
Nintendo global president Satoru Iwata is facing some tough times. Even though the company unveiled the Wii U just days ago, he's facing a slipping stock price and confusion regarding the new platform. Now he's saying the system might not be as value priced as previous Nintendo systems.
CVG reports that Iwata – who has said he expects the Wii U to be priced at more than 20,000 yen in Japan ($250) – admitted of the console's price: "This is not going to be cheap."
Of course, when you've got the controller that the Wii U has, this isn't a surprise, especially considering that the 20GB PS3 debuted at $499 and the Xbox 360 (w/HDD) originally cost $399. The Wii itself cost $250 at launch. But Nintendo may find itself in a difficult place with the Wii U after becoming known for its lower-cost platforms through the years. Assuming there are no further price cuts for the competition's systems before the Wii U comes out in 2012, Nintendo would be facing the Xbox 360 that starts at $199 (4GB version) and a PS3 that starts at $299 (160GB).
Iwata has also admitted that he thinks the Wii U's launch could have gone better and created less confusion. "Because we put so much emphasis on the controller, there appeared to be some misunderstandings," he told The Evening Standard. "We should have made more effort to explain how it works." Nintendo did run through some tech demos explaining what the controller is capable of, but some thought the lack of actual games for the platform hurt its unveiling.
Iwata also said that some people weren't even sure if Wii U was a new handheld or home console because of the emphasis on the controller. "We haven't made any kind of blunder, but I should have shown a single picture of the new console, then started talking about the controller." Despite Iwata's belief that showing the Wii U console (shown above) itself would allay confusion, he then turned around and played down the console anyway. "The console is not drastically different, and Wii U is about the controller. The console itself will be almost invisible."
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