Topic: Wii U prices eShop vs retail

Hello, quick question to the folks in the EU with a Wii U, Im seriously thinking of picking up a Wii U as soon as release dates around E3 are out in public! Now I wanted to know, how much do games like New Super Mario U, Zombi U, Monster Hunter Ultimate go for on the eShop. Im undecided yet if I go all download or retail (except eShop only titles obviously) and I want to plan my shelf-setup with room for HD and what size to get.

So could you please gimme some examples in EURO?
Thank you!

A £40 retail game will cost £45-50+ on the eShop. There's sales now and again on there but you'll still usually find a better deal via retail.

I hope GAME start selling download codes for the WiiU eShop.

Ah come on. They should really look over to steam and get some ideas.
I don't see the draw of download then.
Thanks for the info!

I'm hoping GAME will start selling redeem codes for the WiiU eShop games.
The sell them for 3DS games and they match the retail prices. It's a nice convenience.

Retail will almost always be cheaper.

That said, I'm doing totally digital, and the price differences have never been enough to dissuade me, seeing as I always either buy a game the day it comes out, or I don't buy it at all. The real price disparities come after a few months, though some games in the Eshop have dropped in price over time.

Unless there's a sale, Nintendo sells their eShop versions at full price

This gen - Wii U - I've decided to go digital only as well. I've roughly 10 games and the only one that is on a disk came as a packin with the console.

I just like the idea of sitting down with the gamepad and having choices. Lazy I know, but that's the way it is.

You pay a premium though, most definately. In terms of margin, Nintendo must be loving the eShop.

One good benefit is that more of the money we spend goes to the people that make the games happen, instead of to stores. I don't want to have every store out there run out of business, but when some games cost bazillions to make, they need all the cash they can get

I heard somewhere that Valve is in financial trouble. Perhaps selling software at dirt cheap prices does not really benefit many business models.

They sell eshop cards for games. I bought one for Lego City. Only cost me £27 with some vouchers

I never really understood the point of download codes if you can just buy eshop cards

There game specific with a code for a certain game, guess points let you buy whatever

You can buy the code for exactly the ammount they sell it for if you don't have a credit card. Like, you can buy a $5-15 game code, instead of a $20 eShop card. They were doing it this way on Nintendo Online store for a bit to buy Super Mario Bros. 3, instead of a 2000 points card.
There aren't Wii U codes for specific games, but 3DS usually has Pushmo and other popular Nintendo eShop games as DLC codes.
I usually just buy eShop cards, let the funds sit there, then use a credit card for the remainder.

With the deluxe promotion, you can 5 dollars discount for the eshop full releases.

Retail usually is cheaper depending on where you go. Some game stores sell the game at full price PLUS tax. In that case it would not be cheaper. I almost always buy my games off of Amazon for the discounts and I have Amazon Prime so I usually get free shipping. However, I'm probably going to download most of my games for the next two years as part of the Wii U Deluxe set promotion service. I've always preferred having a hard copy of the game rather than a digital one just because I like the box art and reading the instruction manual and all of that good stuff, but times are changing.

For every $60 game I buy, I'll have $6 more on my Nintendo account! After buying 10 games (or 9 now, since I got Nintendo Land on the eShop), I can get another one for "free." Having all the games downloaded will also be useful for whenever I take my Wii U to a friends house, which I do pretty often. The only problem is I'm going to run out of memory FAST and I'll have to pay extra for an external HDD. Oh well, I think downloading games with a deluxe Wii U will have more benefits than buying discs.

I went DL only, but that means no New Super Mario Bros. U for me, because it's 59.99€ on the eShop when it's 49.99€ on retail.

I have downloaded all eShop exclusives as they all went down to affordable reasonable prices at some point, but I got only 4 disc downloads so far that I thought were good value:
1. Assassin's Creed III (was on sale for 29.99€) normal price 69.99€
2. ZombiU (was on sale for 34.99€) normal price 69.99€
3. Tekken Tag Tournament 2 - Wii U Edition (permanently reduced to 29.99€) former price 54.99€
4. TANK! TANK! TANK! (free DL version with DLC packs)

It sucks that Darksiders II was removed, so I guess I have to get disc games sooner or later.

And I can have Batman Arkham City Armoured Edition for 24.99€ on disc, but instead I hope the eShop price will drop from 59.99€ to maybe a realistic 29.99€ so I'm inclined to buy it.

Need for Speed Most Wanted U, LEGO City Undercover, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate... all very nice games.
But 59.99€ for each is too high for me. I don't even buy Mario for this price. Zelda yes, and maybe Pikmin 3.
49.99€ was great for most big Wii titles. Why must it be 59.99€ and 69.99€ on Wii U?
I think going the Wii U download-only route is making me play the-wait-for-sale game on many new titles.

• For the thread stater: Here's a Euro price list for the eShop games.

69,99€ Assassin's Creed III (Best sale: 29,99€)
69,99€ FIFA 13
69,99€ ZombiU (Best sale: 34,99€)

59,99€ Batman Arkham City - Armoured Edition
59,99€ Injustice: Gods Among Us
59,99€ LEGO City Undercover
59,99€ Mickey Epic: The Power of Two
59,99€ Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate
59,99€ NBA 2K13
59,99€ Need for Speed: Most Wanted U
59,99€ New Super Mario Bros. U
59,99€ Nintendo Land
59,99€ Warriors Orochi 3 Hyper

49,99€ Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage 2 (former price: 59,99€)
49,99€ Just Dance 4 (Best sale: 29,99€)
49,99€ LEGO BATMAN 2: DC Super Heroes
49,99€ Resident Evil Revelations
49,99€ SiNG PARTY
49,99€ Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed

44,99€ Ben 10 Omniverse (former price: 54,99€)
44,99€ Rise of the Guardians
44,99€ The Croods

34,99€ Family Party: 30 Great Games - Obstacle Arcade

32,75€ Funky Barn (former price: 49,99€)

29,99€ Marvel Avengers - Battle for Earth (former price: 49,99€)
29,99€ Rabbids Land (former price: 49,99€)
29,99€ Sports Connection (former price: 49,99€)
29,99€ Tekken Tag Tournament 2 - Wii U Edition (former price: 54,99€)
29,99€ Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2013 (former price: 49,99€)

16,99€ Trine 2 - Director's Cut (Best sale: 13,49€)
14,99€ Toki Tori 2 (Best sale: 13,49€)
12,99€ The Cave (Best sale: ?)
11,99€ BIT.TRIP Presents RUNNER2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien (Best sale: 8,99€)
9,99€ Little Inferno (former price 14,99€, Best sale: ?)
9,99€ Mighty Switch Force! - Hyper Drive Edition (Best sale: 6,99€)
9,99€ Nano Assault NEO (Best sale: ?)
9,99€ Puddle (Best sale: 7,99€)
6,99€ Chasing Aurora (former price: 11,99€, Best sale: 5,99€)
4,99€ Kung Fu Rabbit

7,99€ F-Zero (Best sale: 0,30€)
7,99€ Kirby Super Star (Best sale: 5,59€)
7,99€ Kirby's Dream Course (Best sale: 5.59€)
7,99€ Mario's Super Picross
7,99€ Super Ghouls'n Ghosts
7,99€ Super Mario World
7,99€ Super Metroid (Best sale: 0,30€)

4,99€ Balloon Fight (Best sale: 0,30€)
4,99€ Donkey Kong Jr.
4,99€ Excitebike
4,99€ Ice Climber
4,99€ Kirby's Adventure (Best sale: 0,30€)
4,99€ Mega Man
4,99€ PAC-MAN
4,99€ Punch-Out!! (Best sale: 0,30€)
4,99€ Solomon's Key
4,99€ Super Mario Bros. 2
4,99€ Xevious

1,99€ Wii U Panorama View: Ancona, Italia
1,99€ Wii U Panorama View: Kyoto, Japan
1,99€ Wii U Panorama View: London, UK
1,99€ Wii U Panorama View: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

To me it seems strange that Wii U games are more expensive than Wii games in some regions. Here in Australia it's the reverse. Not sure if that's to do with the relative strength of the Australian dollar or more competition from digital. Either way we're less of an island for high prices than we were before.

For example the RRP for new Wii U titles is between $59AU and $89AU with $69AU being the usual. If you go into the shops you can get New SMB U for $69 and you'll almost surely pay $79AU for Pikmin 3 or Watch Dogs when they launch assuming you don't shop around. Good chance there will be lower prices at launch. In comparison they're still charging $89AU for New SMB Wii, $79AU for Mario Kart and Skyward Sword. $89AU for Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Donkey Kong Country Returns. Same with the VC. We paid $12AU for SNES games which are now upgraded and sell for $10.40AU. It's just weird.

That said now that the Wii U is going out you can find Wii games cheaper in clearance bins.... but that doesn't change the fact that we're paying less now for Wii U games than we did Wii games.

This is what gets me, why is digital more expensive than retail? Is it more expensive to hold games on servers for download than it is to mass produce them on disk? Are we being charged more for the convenience?

Here in North America, Gamecube, PS2, and Xbox games were almost always $50 new. The price went up to $60 for PS3 and Xbox 360, but Wii games stayed $50. Now, Wii U games are $60 here as well, while NEW Wii games are around $50 but most are $30 or less now.

Nintendo DS games were $30 new, but 3DS games are $40 new now.

Nintendo's philosophy seems to be that games themselves have that value, presumably both as a giant middle finger to Apple and as a way to prevent 99 cent games from being considered normal, which IS very bad for even a lot of indie gaming, let alone AAA. Retail ruins that when they become cheaper via being used and the like, so Nintendo should be smart and use some good sales here and there, otherwise their philosophy is kinda flawed and dumb.