Nintendo Stocks Fall, Wii U Price Speculation

I thought Nintendo’s E3 press conference was okay. It showed off the hardware well, did plenty to explain what it was and how it worked and assured existing Nintendo fans that their franchises would be catered for. Nothing mind blowing, certainly not as exciting as I’d hoped for a new console’s first major showing but solid enough.

Nintendo’s investors don’t seem to agree though. The company’s share price on the Nikkei dropped significantly by 5.7% following the E3 showcase. It was amid a flurry of activity, too, with 2.2 million shares changing hands in a day rather than the average 750,000.

It seems that investors aren’t particularly confident in the Wii U, and that makes some sense. It has been suggested that Nintendo need to embrace the surging mobile market, rather than attempt to combat it and for investors, that swelling pot of money that casual, social and mobile games represent is a much more attractive proposition than a company making a solid bit of hardware and some great games.

Reports are also coming out of E3 that Iwata has been saying that the Wii U will cost over ¥20,000 (roughly $250/£165) when it goes on sale. At the low end, that seems pretty cheap but currency conversion and taxes could see the western price settle significantly higher, with some speculating a £250 UK price. For new console hardware, that doesn’t sound unreasonable to me but Nintendo’s 3DS pricing will have left them very cautious in this area.

Source: Bloomberg, which references Nikkei newspaper