Ubisoft not too happy with the price tag on Wii U

By: Jason McCarthy

  |   November 14th, 2012   |  

Uncategorized

Nintendo has been receiving a lot of suggestions from all directions regarding its next-generation console Wii U ever since it was first announced.

The one thing that had everyone most interested was the price that the company eventually decided to sell it for, as it is thought of as one of the most crucial factors that makes or breaks the sales of a product.

With the Japan-based company eventually revealing two version of the console, a $350 deluxe edition and a $299 basic edition, the uncertainty regarding the new hardware’s success became stronger than ever.

Ubisoft, one of the few publishers that has been showing a great deal of faith in the capability of Nintendo’s first high-definition (HD) console, has also voiced its reservation regarding the price at which the new system is going to be sold.

During a recent interview with Games Industry International, the publisher’s CEO Yves Guillemot expressed his unhappiness over Nintendo’s decision to sell Wii U at the fore-mentioned price.

Despite the price of the upcoming console being significantly lesser than that of Apple’s iPad and other such platforms, he hopes to see the price come down even further in the near future.

“I always prefer lower pricing, so I can’t say I’m happy,” Guillemot said. “I’m never happy when the machines are expensive. What we have to do there is remember that compared to an iPad, it’s cheap. With what it brings [to the gaming table] it’s cheap. But I hope they’ll be able to drop their price in time.”

Guillemot’s opinion regarding the price of Wii U despite the faith of his company in the potential of the console does not come off as a surprise.

Publishers in general are always cautious of turning their focus to a hardware that has zero install base. They find themselves staring at a daunting task of convincing people to spend big money on purchasing a new console and then later creating a strong enough temptation within them to go for the expensive games.

There is a huge amount of uncertainty and therefore risk involved in this and therefore they hope to see the company selling the console at a modest price so as to not drive the potential customers away.

Nintendo has hinted in the recent past that it may consider dropping the price of its new console if the market forces leave it with no other option.

With Microsoft and Sony selling their current-generation consoles at a lower price than Wii U during the holiday season, the latter may find itself at a bit of a disadvantage, though the third-party support for the console may help it to hold its own.

Wii U is due for launch in North America on November 18, followed by its European and Australian launch on November 30, before finally arriving in the Japanese market on December 8.