Price hike on third-party Wii U games

Retailers across Britain are selling Wii U editions of multiplatform games at a significantly higher price point than their Xbox 360 and PS3 counterparts.

Analysis undertaken by CVG shows that third party games from Activision, THQ, Ubisoft and EA all show a significant mark-up on Wii U games when compared to the Xbox 360 version.

But a games analyst has said that the premium price tags are commonplace for new consoles, and has given several explanations for the price disparity.

[TheFinalEpisode]

And Nintendo said the WiiU would support third party devs better than the Wii... Way to go nintendo!

[PopRocks359]

What? Are you daft? This is pretty standard pricing for new releases. The thing is the older versions have had their prices dropped. Don't blame Nintendo because the third party publishers chose to price older games as if they're brand new to the market.

[DivineAssault]

even if it were a worldwide price hike, u still wouldnt see any wrong in anything nintendo does.. Believe it or not, things like this actually hurt them from selling well on nintendo consoles..

Every little bit counts for 3rd party being as sensitive as they are publishing games for them.. If nintendo didnt publish ninja gaiden, bayonetta, & now monster hunter in certain regions, 3rd party wouldnt look so nice on it would it?

[PopRocks359]

"even if it were a worldwide price hike, u still wouldnt see any wrong in anything nintendo does"

Because I wasn't upset at their performance this year at E3, right? Try again pal. By the way, my point is Nintendo DID NOT CONTROL THE PRICING ON THESE GAMES. In other words, my defense of Nintendo is completely valid since the pricing of these games was NOT up to them.

"If nintendo didnt publish ninja gaiden, bayonetta, & now monster hunter in certain regions, 3rd party wouldnt look so nice on it would it?"

What kind of shitty argument is this? You just strengthened my position by suggesting that Nintendo made their third party support look better by going out and publishing some content for their platform.

[MikeMyers]

Retail prices will be the same. The difference being is sites like Amazon have sales and they may not include Wii U games just yet. It's also not really comparable to have Mass Effect 3 on there when it hasn't been released yet on the Wii U. The same thing happened when Mass Effect 2 debut on the PS3, it was higher in comparison to the PC and Xbox 360 versions at the time because they had previously been released prior on those 2 platforms.

The suggested retail pricing will be the same when they are simultaneously released. Retailers still have the option to sell below suggested pricing and with the Wii U selling out the pre-orders I imagine some stores figure they don't have to sell below suggested retail price just yet.

[StanSmith]

Rather than arguing pointlessly, look at it this way.

Nintendo never set any RRPs in the UK, which has lead to retailers taking the piss and charging what they think they can get away with. It has worked for them too.

So therefore, Consumers, Retailers and Nintendo are all to blame.

Still, when the PS3 & 360 released, games here in the UK were £49.99 and after the launch window (after 6 months) they fell to £39.99 as the retailers began competing. Wii games were £39.99 and they soon dropped to £29.99 - £34.99 too.

Basically, this is nothing new! It happens when new consoles release everytime. The big three don't set an RRP and the retailers cash in on it at launch.

[Bigpappy]

The pricing are varied retailers is inconsistent. Some actually have pricing the same, some a bit higher and others much higher. After the holiday season, or even depending on how these games sell at the higher price, will determine if the prices will fall in line with current gen pricing.

[HarryMasonHerpderp]

Stupid retailers.
Just get them off Zavvi.

[byeGollum]

Whoa! I just checked out Zavvi, thanks for that. Nice Prices..

[StanSmith]

Avoid Zavvi at all costs if you want it on release/expect good customer service!

[ElectricKaibutsu]

Well that's not good. Besides the N64 Nintendo games always used to be cheaper. I wonder what will happen when the next PlayStation and Xbox come out.

[mrbojingles]

Crazy idea here, but here me out N4G.

Maybe those aren't the final prices? I mean, GameStop still thinks the Wii U version of Aliens will be $100.

America isn't paying a dime more for Wii U games than 360/PS3 titles, so it will likely end up the same in many other regions.