Wii U launch price will "pleasant surprise" consumers, assures Nintendo

Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime believes the Wii U's launch price will "pleasantly" surprise consumers.

The executive stressed that the company doesn't believe in setting a high price point for the launch of a platform. Instead, offering an attractive price for the Wii U will represent an "ongoing great value."

"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. If you look at the Wii, we stayed at $250 for a really long time, so we're going to give that same level of thought to 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 value equation."

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata had said last year that the minimum price for the Wii U would be ¥20,000, which converts to roughly $250.