Nintendo not planning Wii U price cut

Nintendo's recent admission of "lower-than-expected" Wii U sales led to a downward revision of its projections, but that hasn't deterred the company from its current price point. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has now said he wants to make it "absolutely clear" that the company is not planning a price drop.

"With Wii U, we have taken a rather resolute stance in pricing it below its manufacturing cost, so we are not planning to perform a markdown," Iwata said in a results briefing. "I would like to make this point absolutely clear. We are putting our lessons from Nintendo 3DS to good use, as I have already publicly stated. However, given that it has now become clear that we have not yet fully communicated the value of our product, we will try to do so before the software lineup is enhanced and at the same time work to enrich the software lineup which could make consumers understand the appeal of Wii U."

The lessons of the 3DS were hard learned, as low sales forced a price drop that brought the sale price below the manufacturing price. It wasn't until fiscal results from the following year that Nintendo announced the 3DS had become profitable again. The Wii U sales aren't too far off Nintendo's former estimates -- 4 million this fiscal year instead of 5.5 million--and the console is already selling at a loss.

As for making the system more appealing, the company's recent Nintendo Direct conference announced new Mario and Mario Kart, Zelda, and various others in development.