Europe's Nintendo Boss Talks Wii Pricing

It seems that the name of the game for the PS3 and Wii is “price.” Sony announced the dual prices for their PS3, and the ball hasn,t stopped rolling yet. As for Nintendo,s Wii, the promise has been constantly uttered by Mario and Friends that the price point will be low. How low? No one seems to know, but the conjectures have been free-flowing. Earlier this week, reports from Japan had analysts predicting that the Wii would sell as low as $150, with other reports from Tokyo,s Nikko Citigroup reporting that the Wii would go on sale for $170. Speculation is running rampant, and the launch price for the Wii is probably on the Sports Book betting boards in Las Vegas. Nintendo decided to set the record straight, or perhaps more crooked, in remarks made by Nintendo of Europe’s chief, Laurent Fischer. He said, "…E3 was the first time we had demonstrated anything to the public on Wii. What we offered was an invitation to come, play, understand and share our joy to play. People are already willing to come down a very new road with us. Price doesn’t matter at the moment. Other stuff doesn’t matter at the moment. It’s something we’ll announce later on. It’s going to be an affordable price, and every time we’ve made a promise using the word affordable, we’ve kept it and we will do when we finally announce the price. It’s going to be later on." Whatever price point Nintendo decides to place on its Wii, it is certain that it will be less expensive that Microsoft,s Xbox 360 or Sony,s PS3. The big question is how much? But as Laurent said, they,ll tell us when they tell us.