One way the Wii set itself apart from other current-generation consoles is price of games: Wii games retail at $50 — $10 less than PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 games. However, with the coming of the Wii U later this year, we’re bound to see Nintendo join the $60 price club.
And there’s a simple reason for that: Wii U is a powerful console and developers will need to spend just as many resources, if not more, than current generation consoles to develop for the Wii U. And while an Xbox 360 game can be ported to the PlayStation 3 and vice versa, the same game won’t be as easy to port to the Wii U, because of the features which would have to be added to the new controller and user interface.
Developers will have to put extra resources into creating ways for the Wii U version to utilize the new controller, which only adds to the development costs. This pretty much guarantees a $60 price for Wii U games when they arrive on store shleves later this year. In order not to undercut the third party developers who will raise the price to $60, Nintendo will have to match the $60 price with its own first party titles. Technically Nintendo has the resources and money to keep Wii U games at $50, but doing that will risk alienating third party developers — something Nintendo cannot afford to do with the Wii U.
