14 DAY TRIAL // The Nintendo Wii U was re-introduced to the world at E3 2012 last week but, unfortunately, the company didn’t reveal a price tag for the console. According to analyst Michael Pachter, the company should target a price of $300 (around €240) or less if it wants to actually attract customers.
Nintendo is getting ready to release the Wii U this holiday season and, while it presented its array of features and the different games that would be launched for it, the Japanese company declined to actually say how much the console would cost.
According to Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter, however, Nintendo should certainly take into account the current prices of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, which will be the direct competition of the Wii U.
Given the fact that both consoles cost around $250 (about €200), Pachter believes that the Wii U shouldn’t be much more expensive.
"The console must be priced below $300 to succeed, in my opinion, and best at $249 or less," he told CVG.
Even with a competitive price, Pachter believes that without a so-called “killer app” – a game that will draw in all types of customers – the console is going to have a hard time becoming popular, despite its features.
"Nintendo is intent upon repeating their success with the Wii," he said. "While I agree that the Wii U controller is sufficiently novel and different from traditional controllers, I am not sure that there is a killer app that will drive Wii U adoption the way Wii Sports did for the Wii."
"At E3 I was not particularly impressed with many of the games, and in particular found Sing baffling. I don't understand why I need a tablet to read Karaoke words rather than reading the words on the TV screen instead."
Nintendo has promised that it will continue making new announcements with the Wii U and you can bet that the official price will be revealed soon enough.