Nintendo has announced that the Wii U will launch on December 8th in Japan and will be available in two different forms, as a basic 8GB flash memory version and a larger Premium 32GB version.
Over the course of today Nintendo will be announcing release dates and pricing for different regions for the forthcoming Wii U, with Japan (Nintendo’s home county) being the first to receive the console and the information on the release.
The Premium console is priced at ¥31,500 in Japan, which is roughly £250 converted into UK monies, for which you will get the Nintendo Wii U console with 32GB of flash memory and one Wii U GamePad. The budget version is priced at ¥26,250 which converts to about £210 in the UK, and will come with the smaller 8GB internal memory.
If you do want an additional Wii U GamePad it will set you back a considerable ¥13,440 which comes in at nearly £110 in a direct exchange. So, if you have multiple children the Wii U could prove to be a very expensive console!
Nintendo were keen to point out that the budget version of the Wii U will be priced in the exact same bracket as all of its previous big-name consoles, including the Super NES, Nintendo 64, Gamecube and original Wii, all of which we initially released at 25,000 Yen.
Inside the budget pack you get a white console, white GamePad, an AC adapter and a HDMI cable. Premium pack buyers get a sleek black console and a black Game Pad, an AC adapter, a HDMI cable plus a GamePad dock for charging, a console stand and a two-year Nintendo Network Premium subscription that runs through to December 2014.
Nintendo will be announcing the other territories over the next few hours with the the company separating the console announcements across time zones. So we will find out the release dates and pricing for the UK and US at 3:00 p.m. BST.
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