Some financial details about Wii U's production and pricing.
Nintendo's latest console is not selling at a loss to the company, a recent interview Games Industry International held with Nintendo of America CEO Reggie Fils-Aime revealed.
According to the company president, Nintendo strongly believes in providing consumers with strong value in their products right from their launch.
"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."
This philosophy states that the price of their products should remain the same for as long as possible without the need to drop prices as time goes by.
"...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."
Fils-Aime admits that after the 3DS price drop, the production of the handheld began costing more than what they were getting for each unit sold, which led to their first ever financial loss. However, he assures that Nintendo believes strictly in making money on their hardware and that trend will continue into the future.