E3 2011: Nintendo Stock Price Drops After Wii U Bows & Iwata Talks Pricing

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We had a lot of news yesterday surrounding the only major console launch to hit E3 so far, but it was a downright disaster on the Tokyo Stock Exchange following the announcement of Nintendo’s Wii U, according to reports. How bad was the damage? How about a 5.63 percent drop in stock price?

The announcement of the Wii U went over like a lead balloon, and investors rushed to sell on the strength of doubts that the Wii U console will do anywhere near as well as the Wii did in terms of sales. Daiwa Securities Company’s Shuji Hosoi said that people were “puzzled” if this thing would actually sell, and at anywhere near the level of the Wii.

Meanwhile, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata offered up the first significant news we’ve heard about pricing on the Wii U, and the news there isn’t good either. Reports now suggest that the Wii U will likely cost more than $250, which was reportedly the launch price for the Nintendo Wii.

While yesterday many of you seemed just fine with dropping no more than $600 on a Wii U, it seemed like most of you were hoping it would land in the $300-400 range, and it may yet still do that. All Iwata’s really ruled out so far is the $250 launch price of the Wii, and frankly, that makes some sense in light of the fact that you’re essentially getting a tablet for a controller. So it looks like you’ll be dropping at least $300 to get your hands on one of these.

But what do you think about that? Is the Wii U going to shoot itself in the foot by asking too high a price before it even gets out into the marketplace? Or will loyal Nintendo gamers follow along into the new console as long as the price tag isn’t too egregious? We’d love to hear from you guys on this, so head on down into the comments section and tell us what you think!