Iwata questions PlayStation 3 price point

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has questioned Sony's decision to attach a high price tag to the PlayStation 3, stating that there is a "huge gap" between what consumers are being asked to pay and what they are willing to pay.

In an interview with GameDaily.com, Iwata said "I think the ultimate decision has to be made by the actual customer and as one of the potential customers of PS3, of course I think it's going to be kind of a [tough] price point for anybody to purchase; that sentiment has been shared by a number of people working in this industry that I've been able to talk to so far."

"Probably there's a huge gap between how the platform supplier wants to price it and how the customers want the supplier to price it."

Iwata confirmed that the Nintendo Wii will come in at "an affordable price point - and when we say affordable, you may want to check our past records of price points." He added that the Wii price will be announced "in the near future."

Iwata said he was "satisfied" with the critical reception the Wii received at E3, where various games that make use of the unique remote controller were on show. As of course was Sony's new motion-sensing controller for the PS3 - something which, according to Iwata, did not come as a surprise to Nintendo.

"We were anticipating that Sony would make that kind of announcement, so I had to make a kind of wry smile at the time," he said.

"Having said that, however, putting the motion sensing technology into the classic [PS3] controller, which is going to be held with two hands, is pretty much different from the motion sensor being incorporated into the Wii remote or the combination of the Wii remote and the nunchuk controller."

"There's a huge gap between the two, I can tell you, with that whole experience, so I really don't think that the inclusion of motion sensing into Sony's classic type of controller can affect in one way or the other the advantage that we have with the Wii controller."

Iwata concluded by dismissing reports that there will be no more iterations in the Game Boy series, stating: "What we are repeatedly saying is that for whichever platform, we are always conducting research and development for the new system, be it the Game Boy, or new console or whatever.

"We are enjoying great sales with the DS and that we are now trying to launch the Wii; it's unthinkable for us to launch any new platform for the handheld system, including the new version of the GBA... As far as the handheld market is concerned [right now] we really want to focus on more sales of the DS, that's all."