Reggie Fils-Aime on Wii U: We Don’t Believe in Losing a Lot of Money on Hardware

The Wii U's official launch details was revealed by Nintendo last week to relatively mixed results. Most of the issues people had was with the "high" price of the console. So, with that pricepoint, is Nintendo making money on each unit sold?

This was the question asked by GamesIndustry to Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime. Fils-Aime, who doesn't think the pricing is an "issue" at all, had this to say:

In terms of profitability, we don't comment on our internal byproduct P&L, but as a philosophy, we believe in making money on our hardware, even if it's small amounts of money at the start. We don't believe in losing a lot of money on hardware. I brought up 3DS – after the price cut, we were losing money on 3DS hardware and that's what led to our posting our first operating loss ever as a public company.

So, there you have it. While Nintendo won't go into specifics, they are earning money on each Wii U sold. With retailers selling out their pre-order stock, it seems the Wii U is ready to start printing money for Nintendo once again.

Have you pre-ordered a Wi U? Should Nintendo take a loss on each unit to lower the price or is the price good enough now for a next-gen console?