Nintendo will sell the Wii U at a loss when the system launches on November 18, marking the companies' next generation console the first in many years to forsake revenue with each sale.
The Big N's president, Satoru Iwata, said that "The Wii U hardware will have a negative impact on Nintendo's profits early after the launch because rather than determining a rpice based on its manufacturing costs, we selected one that consumers would consider to be reasonable. In this first half of the term before the launch of the Wii U, we were not able to make a profit on software for the system while we had to book a loss on the hardware, which is currently in production and will be sold below cost."
Xbitlabs reports that Nintendo acknowledges a need to transition to a business model that emphasizes digital distribution and downloadable content. The digital arena is traditionally a weak area for the Japanese company, as the Wii trailed far behind Sony's Playstation 3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360 in online services. Nintendo's confounding decision to implement friend codes and lack of universal voice chat held back developers from truly unlocking the potential of the Wii's online capabilities. The Wii will continue the tradition of holding back universal voice chat support.
According to Reuters, Nintendo expects 5.5 million Wii U consoles sales between launch and March 31, 2013.
The Wii U will release using a multi-tiered pricing system. The Basic version is white and has 8GB of memory, a sensor bar, an adapter, and a HDMI cable. The Deluxe version is black and has 32GB of memory, comes bundled with Nintendo Land, a Gamepad charging cradle and stands for the console and controller.
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