Miyamoto Says Cost to Performance Ratio Is Important for Wii U

The Wii U might not be the most powerful device of the next generation of home consoles, but Nintendo will make sure that the price of the new device reflects its abilities and is lower than that of the coming hardware from Microsoft and Sony.

Speaking to IGN Shigeru Miyamoto, who is best known for creating such important franchises as Mario and Zelda, has said, “In today’s living room, where there are a lot of HDTVs, but they’re not yet mostly 3D TVs, I think the console is certainly adequately powerful to create gaming experiences that will look really good on those displays.”

It’s not clear whether this means that the Wii U will deliver full 1080p experiences or whether the device is also able to also deliver at least some sort of content for 3D capable displays.

Miyamoto added, “The cost to performance ratio is something we do spend a lot of time thinking about. If the conversation is only really about whether the power is going to match up to another generation of hardware from, say, Sony or Microsoft, I can’t answer that question yet. Might not be as powerful as those systems when they eventually do come around.”

The developer reiterated that the main focus for Nintendo should be on creating fun video game experiences for its fan base.

Although everyone expected the company to talk about both a clear launch date and a price for the Wii U during the E3 2012 trade show, it has postponed those announcements indefinitely.

Nintendo only confirmed that it would launch the device before the height of the Christmas shopping season on all major markets and that it has plans to price it competitively.

Analysts are saying that the Wii U needs to cost less than 300 dollars and Euro on launch date in order to attract a significant crowd and establish a solid base for future releases.