Excitement is building around the Nintendo NX console, and now a listing for the new console has appeared on the website of UK retailer Tesco.
A temporary page for the upcoming Nintendo NX console showed the price at £349.99 this morning, according to Twitter user Alice Willison. However the price was later removed from the page.
https://twitter.com/shaunmcilroy/status/780371058100736001
Nintendo NX price revealed online
Last week a number of retailers went to Nintendo offices in Germany. At the time it was not clear what the meeting was for, but perhaps it was to see the upcoming Nintendo NX.
Rumors continue to swirl about the console, but official details are hard to come by. The Tesco webpage seems like it was probably an honest mistake, but it could suggest that an official announcement could be coming soon.
Nintendo and Tesco worked together before, when the Wii U was suffering from poor sales. This could suggest that today’s leak is accurate.
How will Nintendo price the NX?
Nintendo’s previous console sold for £250, rising to £300 for the premium model. If the Nintendo NX does retail at £350, it would represent a significant price hike.
Some recent reports have claimed that Nintendo will make an announcement on the console in October. Retailers generally start to take pre-orders once these announcements are made, so we may be about to learn more about the Nintendo NX.
At the same time things are moving ahead with other consoles. The Sony PS4 Pro and the PSVR are both priced at £350, with both scheduled for release in time for the holiday season.
Games console market heating up
The PS4 Pro is set to boast 4.2 teraflops of GPU power, and will face off against the Xbox One S from Microsoft. Sony seems to be battling with Microsoft for users that are more concerned with pure power in their console.
This could leave Nintendo to offer innovative hardware and games in order to attract buyers. It seems unlikely that the company will compete on power. To its advantage Sony and Microsoft are aiming for the same market, so Nintendo could see some success by targeting different consumers.
Such an approach looks like the only way forward for Nintendo after one report claimed that the NX would offer visuals that are “somewhere between PS3 and PS4.” However things are looking up after one prominent CEO stoked excitement about the upcoming console.
One company that is very excited about the Nintendo NX is games developer Ubisoft. Company CEO Yves Guillemot recently spoke out about the console, calling it “a fantastic machine.”
“It’s really a new approach, it’s really Nintendo, [which is] coming with something new again,” he said. The Ubisoft chief said that he loves disruptions in the hardware business, which allow his company to “take more risks.”
Third-party developers on board with new platform
It certainly seems encouraging for Nintendo that the console has received such warm praise from a major third-party games developer. The success of the Nintendo NX will rely heavily on how many developers make games for the platform. After all, there is no point having a great console without any compatible games.
So far big names such as Sega, Activision, Square Enix and Warner Bros. have all signaled their intention to make games for the NX. It is thought that there will also be games from Mario, Pokemon and Zelda franchises.
At the same time rumors are swirling that trial production of the console has already started in China. That is according to a report in Digitimes, which claims that Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Foxconn is to be the main manufacturer of the Nintendo NX.
The report claims that 9.5-10 million units of the new console will be built per year. This sounds like a confident prediction given that the Wii U only attained 10 million yearly sales in 2015, or three years after the console launched.
While this could be optimistic, it shows that Nintendo is confident about its upcoming console. If the company can offer a unique gaming experience and good games, it could be in for a real success story.
However if the Nintendo NX is more of a slower, less powerful version of the Microsoft and Sony consoles, it will likely be dead in the water. It’s time for Nintendo to commit to bringing out an innovative console that offers something different to the normal blockbuster titles.
I for one am very excited about the Nintendo NX, and it should be a good addition to your living room. It won’t be running super high-quality games, but if it’s fun then who cares?
