Ubisoft CEO unhappy with high price of Wii U

By Rick Marshall November 13, 2012

The upcoming launch of Nintendo’s Wii U has lots of people celebrating, but Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has some concerns about the much-anticipated system’s $299 price tag.

“I always prefer lower pricing, so I can’t say I’m happy,” Guillemot told Games Industry International when asked about his company’s perspective on the next console to enter the gaming market. Ubisoft is currently one of the biggest third-party developers working on Wii U titles, and though the system will almost certainly sell out at launch, Guillemot expressed some concerns about its longevity with such a high entry point.

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The Wii U launches November 18, and along with the basic system priced at $299, Nintendo is also offering a “Deluxe Set” for $349 that comes with 32 GB of internal storage instead of the standard 8 GB and is painted black instead of the standard white.

“I’m never happy when the machines are expensive,” he said. “What we have to do there is remember that compared to an iPad, it’s cheap. With what it brings [to the gaming table] it’s cheap. But I hope they’ll be able to drop their price in time.”

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