Wii U price, release date to be announced

Nintendo won't announce the price and release date for Wii U until 2012, president Satoru Iwata has confirmed. Speaking to investors following the company's disappointing first quarter financial results, the executive said: "Since the Wii U we showed you at the E3 show in June was still in the development phase without very specific proposals on the software titles, we are going to announce the release date and the price next year when we are able to explain the specific proposals."All we know for certain at this point is that Wii U is planned for release next year after March 31.Iwata also admitted Nintendo is concerned about the possibility that the drastic 3DS price cut barely six months into the system's lifecycle could make potential early Wii U adopters hold out in the hopes of something similar."With regard to the influence on the Wii U, what we have to take most seriously is that the price markdown could damage the trust of the consumers who bought the Nintendo 3DS just after the launch," he said. "I feel greatly accountable for it. Our decision of the price markdown this time has a side effect that, at the launch of the Wii U, people may feel that the price might drop in the near future if they wait. What we will be able to do to recover the consumers' trust before the launch of the Wii U is very important to us." Tom Ivan