Wii U Pricing, Release Date for Japan Announced

At the Nintendo Direct event this morning, Nintendo of Japan finally announced the Wii U’s price, models, and release date for Japanese markets.

We’ll have to wait until later on in the day to find out what the prices and release dates will be for North America and Europe, but here’s the lowdown on the Japanese release:

The Wii U is set to release in Japan on December 8, and the console will be released in two varieties. The first, cheapest bundle includes a white Wii U with 8GB of hard-drive space, a Game Pad, an AC adapter and an HDMI cable. The white Wii U will retail in Japan for ¥26,250.

The “premium” Wii U model comes in black, and comes with a larger 32GB hard-drive. A Game Pad is also included, of course, along with the AC adapter and HDMI cable from the 8GB model. Additional goodies include a dock for the Game Pad, a console stand, and a “Nintendo Network Premium” subscription that lasts until December 2014. The black Wii U will retail for ¥31,500.

The Nintendo Network Premium subscription, which Nintendo says will be exclusive to the 32GB model, gives players a 10 percent discount on all game purchases. Additionally, game purchases will be rewarded with eShop points; exactly how that works isn’t known at the moment.

It should be noted that this is the information Nintendo announced for the Japanese release, so don’t read too much into the pricing and release date. It’s also possible that the West will be receiving different models, but we’ll have to wait until the North American and European conferences–which start around 10 AM EST–to find out for sure.