The Nintendo Wii U’s price is so important because…

By: Musa Afridi

  |   September 15th, 2012   |  

Uncategorized

Well there are a number of reasons and Wishfree is here to tell you all about why considering a Wii U requires a bit of extra research as well.

So the Nintendo Wii’s release date(s) were announced during the Nintendo Direct conference and in case anyone missed it, well that’s it then, no one is allowed to re-announce or report on the release dates.

Bad jokes aside, gamers in North America will be the first to receive the Nintendo Wii U on the 18^th of November, while Europe sees the console hitting shelves twelve days later on the 30^th, while Japanese gamers will have to wait until the 8^th of December before they can get their hands on the Wii U.

As for the pricing, it turns out that North America gamers can expect to pay anywhere between $300 to $350 for a console, depending on the type model they’re going for. The higher end model, branded as the Premium Pack, comes in Black, has 32GB worth of internal storage, a console stand, a cradle for the controller, an HDMI cable and two AC adapters.

However, that’s not the half of it. Especially when one considers purchasing a second controller, as the pricing here will really put consumers to the test. Not only does the controller cost over a $100, but it will not be sold separately in North America for the next few months at the very least.

Nintendo confirmed that if anyone in the North American region wished to purchase a second controller they would be required to contact customer service to see what options they have.

In essence that means that an average person would have to spend a minimum of $400 for the console and controller alone.

But is that necessarily a bad thing? Not really, apart from the controller’s price, the console is competitively priced. It is just $50 more expensive than the top of the range PlayStation 3 and costs less than most Xbox 360 consoles at the same time.

At the same time, the console plays all the Wii titles that have been released to date and supports up to four Wii controllers as well. In essence, one could consider it an upgrade to the Wii and competitor for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, all that could change later on next year but at the moment, the Wii U seems strategically placed.

With no sight of either the PlayStation 4 or Xbox 720, spending $300 on a console does not seem too bad a deal, especially if Nintendo have something special up their sleeves.

For Part 2, click here.

Disclaimer: the views and opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the editorial policy of Wishfree.com.