Nintendo sets price, date for Wii-U console - MarketWatch

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) â€" Nintendo Inc. announced a launch date for its new Wii-U console on Thursday, with the device set to go on sale in the U.S. on Nov. 18 at a starting price of $299.

Nintendo (US:NTDOY)  (JP:7974) made the announcement at a media event in New York City on Thursday morning. Pricing details for the Japanese market were made earlier in the day.

The videogame giant said the Wii-U will come in two versions. The Basic package will include a white version of the console with 8GB of memory and one GamePad controller. A Deluxe version includes a black console with 32GB of memory, a GamePad controller, charging cradle and stand, as well as a copy of the company’s “Nintendo Land” game title, and will cost $349.

Nintendo’s U.S.-listed shares rose more than 3% to $14.92 by early afternoon on Thursday, following the announcement. Analysts said the pricing was largely in line with expectations.

“The title lineup does look stronger than we expected,” said Arvind Bhatia of Sterne Agee. “Overall, we believe investor expectations are fairly low and, as such, there could be some upside,”

Jesse Divnich of EEDAR, a videogame market research firm, said one surprise was that Nintendo did not include a game in its basic package, the way it sold its first Wii console with the “Wii Sports” game.

“Overall, I feel the Wii-U is a step in the right direction for Nintendo, but the company is under far more pressure to succeed than ever before,” Divnich said.

Nintendo showed off the Wii-U at the E3 videogame conference in Los Angeles over the summer, but kept launch details under wraps. The company has seen sales of its Wii console fall hard over the past year, as the console has aged, and casual gamers have shifted to mobile and social games. Read story on Wii-U from E3.

Game titles expected to be available around the launch of the console include Nintendo’s own “Nintendo Land,” “Super Mario Bros. U” and “Bayonetta 2.” Among third-party titles, Capcom’s “Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate” is being developed for the console, as is “Call of Duty: Black Ops II” from Activision Blizzard (US:ATVI) 

Other game publishers are also developing titles for the console. Electronic Arts (US:EA) will make “Madden NFL 13” and “Mass Effect 3” available later in what is called the “launch window” for the Wii-U. Ubisoft (FR:UBI) is building “Assassin’s Creed III,” “Rayman Legends” and “Just Dance 4,” while Disney Interactive (US:DIS) is building “Disney Epic Mickey 2” for the device.

Many of the titles announced for the Wii-U are already available in a different format on consoles such as the Xbox 360 from Microsoft (US:MSFT) and the PlayStation 3 from Sony Corp. (US:SNE) (JP:6758) .