Wii U’s price tag expected to take toll on its performance during holiday season
The general reaction of the public upon coming across Nintendo’s next-generation console Wii U and some of its launch titles at this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles, America, had not been very encouraging for the company.
In fact, it had shocked the company to an extent that Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime went as far as stating that there is no pleasing the fans.
Critics had not been too kind to Nintendo’s first high-definition (HD) console either, while majority of the publishers and developers had not been too convinced about the capability of the new hardware.
In all this darkness, there had been one publisher that had been showing a great deal of unwavering support for Wii U, Ubisoft.
The company had so much faith in the potential of Wii u that it announced Assassin’s Creed III as a launch title for the console, along with survival horror first-person shooter ZombiU.
Ubisoft also announced Rayman Legends for the console, thus indicating its long term commitment to the upcoming console.
While the publisher seemed to be dead sure that Wii U had everything that was needed to become a big hit in the market, there is one thing that it is not too happy about, the price tag that Nintendo has placed on its latest offering.
Offering two versions of the consoles to the consumers, with the deluxe edition priced at $350 while the basic version priced at $300, Nintendo’s next-generation console will be one of the most expensive gaming console in the market during the upcoming holiday
season.
Commenting on the price that Nintendo has chosen for the two versions of its console, the CEO of Ubisoft Yves Guillemot said that he is not too happy with the decision and desired for the price to be lower than what has been set.
"I always prefer lower pricing, so I can't say I'm happy," Guillemot said. "I'm never happy when the machines are expensive. What we have to do there is remember that compared to an iPad, it's cheap. With what it brings [to the gaming table] it's cheap.
But I hope they'll be able to drop their price in time."
A console that has a zero-install base and such a high price has the publishers concerned and thus caused them to be a bit cautious while considering making games for the new hardware because they are staring at a challenge task of not only convincing people
to buy their games, but will first have to create a strong appeal of Nintendo’s HD system.
With the price touching the $300 mark, it would become even tougher for the publishers to convincing consumers to buy Wii U.
Ubisoft and a number of other publishers seem to be well aware of the challenges that await the console during the next few weeks.
Both Sony and Microsoft have reduced the price of their current-generation consoles in recent months and are expected to bring the prices down even further to maintain a strong competitive position even at the tail-end of the consoles’ life-cycle.
This can put Wii U at a disadvantage in the coming weeks, though the third-party support can come to its rescue. With plenty of renowned franchises from various publishers confirmed as launch titles for the upcoming console, there is a good chance that it
might just be able to do great in terms of sales.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely of the writer’s and do not reflect bettor.com’s official editorial policy.
Tags: