Wii U Priced Over $300 and Arrives in Japan on December 8

[Shawn Zipay]

Nintendo has just announced the price and availability of their upcoming Wii U console. The console will have a starting price of ¥26,250 ($337 USD) and will be released on December 8 in Japan.

This price is for the basic set, with a premium set also announced and priced at ¥31,500 (about $400 USD). The premium set will come in black, include 32GB of flash memory, one Wii U controller, two power adapters, and an HDMI cable. It comes packed with Nintendo Network Plus, a system that rewards loyalty and offers 10% discounts off of digital purchases.

The basic set will be available in white, comes with 8GB of flash memory, and comes with one controller.

All models include 2GB of RAM, 1GB dedicated to system memory with the other 1GB dedicated to games. The games themselves will ship on 25GB discs. All Wii accessories from the current system will work out of the box with the Wii U.

New Super Mario Bros. and Nintendoland are two confirmed launch titles for the platform.

The Pro controller for the Wii U, the one that resembles an Xbox 360 controller, will retail for ¥5040 (or roughly $65 USD).

The release date announcement for the North American release of the console is slated to come at 10AM (EDT) from New York City.

(via The Verge, Kotaku)

[papasmurf128]

That price will drop within 6 months. Even though I never planned to buy one because to me it's a gimmick, that is very expensive.

[azalea]

I bought New Super Mario Bros. 2 for the 3DS. The only thing new about it was the downloadability.

...We're going to wait a LONG time to see if this becomes viable as a family gaming console.