Wii U First-Party Games Priced At $59.99

At least for the vast majority of titles.

Despite all the talk of new games, new services and Nintendo's vision for Wii U, today's press event ultimately came down to one thing - price. How much would this publisher be asking for its new console? How much would consumers have to set aside in just a couple months' time?

Though Nintendo stated the price of Wii U early in its presentation, the suggested retail sticker for its games wasn't clarified. In a conversation with Nintendo of America president and COO Reggie Fils-Aime, the cost of software came up, as the executive noted that Nintendo Land's $59.99 price tag meant a great value for the Deluxe Wii U bundle. When that was raised, I pressed for more clarity on Nintendo's software strategy.

"The vast majority of Wii U software will be $59.99. From a first-party perspective. Third parties set their own pricing," Fils-Aime told me, meaning that Nintendo fans would generally be paying $10 more per first-party game versus the Wii era. "There will be exceptions. Wii Fit U is not going to be a $59.99 product with the Balance Board, as an example. But certainly we believe that these games are big enough, robust enough, with enough demand to satisfy a $59.99 MSRP."

The exact cost of that Day One purchase is no doubt becoming clearer. Stay tuned to IGN for more from my conversation with Fils-Aime, as well as more on Wii U as its launch approaches.
