Nintendo on Wii U Price: Consumers will be "pleasantly surprised"

E3 2012 has come to an end, and while Nintendo finally talked more about its Wii U, the company left many questions unanswered. The top question would have to be price, and many believe that Xbox 360 and PS3 could exert pressure on Wii U this holiday season with price cuts. Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aime, however, doesn't foresee any problems with consumer reactions to price.

"Nintendo believes in being a mass market product, so unlike our competitors when they've launched historical systems to maybe start at a really high price and work their way down, we don't believe in that. We want to launch at a price that's going to represent an ongoing great value," he remarked.

"You look at the Wii; Wii stayed at $250 for a really long time, and so we're going to give that same level of thought to the Wii U. How do we launch at a value that we're going to be able to sustain for a long time? I think people are going to be pleasantly surprised, if you will, about the way we're managing the value equation," Reggie continued.

"We're about to launch a tremendously powerful system - a system that pushes out great graphics, a system that has an opportunity to do a lot of things"

Reggie Fils-Aime

He also brushed aside any thought that Nintendo may have to alter its strategy based on what Microsoft or Sony may do with their respective systems.

"We don't look at what other people are doing; we step back and say, 'What would be fun? What would be unique? What would be different?' And that's what's driving us," he said. "But having said that, is our vision that consumers are going to be super excited about Miiverse and super excited about what it represents? Absolutely. The way that we're going to integrate it into the games, the way that you'll be able to pop in, pop out with your messaging and get information we think is hugely powerful. We're about to launch a tremendously powerful system - a system that pushes out great graphics, a system that has an opportunity to do a lot of things."

Reggie believes that Wii U ultimately will be able to provide all the experiences gamers could want between Nintendo's own games and the lineup Nintendo will secure from third parties.

"What I've heard the fan community say is, 'I want my Mario, I want my Zelda and I want the best of third party' and that's what we're looking to bring to consumers," he said.

"So in the end, the consumer choice is going to be once I buy my Wii U that satisfies my Nintendo cravings, cravings for all these other great multiplatform franchises, then what is the role of a competitive platform? And to me that is the million dollar question. Of our potential competitors down the road, who's going to have that compelling content that's going to say, 'Now I need to branch out and pick up this additional system.' I think it's for them to answer."