Is your wallet ready?
Image: Anders Krusberg / Nintendo of America

Unless you're living under a rock, you'll know that yesterday Nintendo confirmed the global pricing for its new Wii U console. In North America, the Basic set will retail for $299.99 and the Deluxe for $349.99.

Speaking to GI.biz, Reggie Fils-Aime outlined his company's stance on pricing:

The way that we approach consumer value is we want to make sure we give the consumer a lot for what they pay, and when you look at that basic model you get the innovation in the GamePad – and all of the gaming options that presents – you get Miiverse in terms of a gaming community, you get Nintendo TVii, you get video chat…all of that is included in the base proposition. We think $299 is a really strong value, and it’s a value that’s going to be strong for a long time.

He also revealed that the 3DS price cut - which was required to lift flagging sales and has consequently put the handheld in a very strong position globally - isn't something Nintendo want to have to repeat.

We don’t believe in pricing a product and then having to reduce the price some short time later. When we had to do that for 3DS, it was a very painful proposition for us. And what we did with the Wii at $249 and leaving it there for, I think, about three and a half years is very much consistent with our pricing philosophy.

In terms of profitability...we believe in making money on our hardware, even if it’s small amounts of money at the start. We don’t believe in losing a lot of money on hardware. I brought up 3DS – after the price cut, we were losing money on 3DS hardware and that’s what led to our posting our first operating loss ever as a public company.

[source vg247.com, via gamesindustry.biz]