US analyst Michael Pachter believes that Nintendo must price the Wii U below $300 – that translates to £190 – if it is to succeed at retail.
Ideally, he told CVG, he’d like to see it priced at $250 or less. That would mean a highly unlikely £161 in the UK.
MCV’s understanding is that it is the price of the Wii U GamePad that will prevent the machine selling for such a price. Indeed, the decision on whether or not to include two GamePads in the launch SKU – and how to price them separately on the High Street – is going to be pivotal.
Pachter also delivered a less than impressed assessment of Nintendo’s E3 presentation, though does speak positively of the Wii U hardware itself.
"Nintendo is intent upon repeating their success with the Wii," he said.
"While I agree that the Wii U controller is sufficiently novel and different from traditional controllers, I am not sure that there is a killer app that will drive Wii U adoption the way Wii Sports did for the Wii.
"At E3 I was not particularly impressed with many of the games, and in particular found Sing baffling. I don't understand why I need a tablet to read Karaoke words rather than reading the words on the TV screen instead."