Article Taken From gamesindustry.biz
Article Written By ellie gibson

A spokesperson for Nintendo UK has confirmed to GamesIndustry.biz that the price of software for the next-gen Wii console will be "broadly in line" with the cost of current-gen games.

The confirmation follows a suggestion by Electronic Arts that Nintendo's first-party titles will go on sale for USD $49.99. That would put games like Super Mario Galaxy on store shelves for USD $10 less than their first-party Xbox 360 equivalents.

Clarification of the comments was not immediately available, but a Nintendo UK spokesperson pointed out that the company made similar remarks at E3.

Indeed, as early as March, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata told CNN Money: "I cannot imagine any first party title could be priced for more than $50."

That's consistent, at face value, with EA's comments this week, and may even be the source of them.

Beyond that, EA's enthusiasm for Wii continues unabated. After revealing the company had "ramped up production" for Wii and DS Lite, senior executives told investors that they planned to ship Madden and Need For Speed: Carbon during the console's launch period later this year, to be joined by several more before the end of March 2007.

Elsewhere the company was relatively downbeat on PlayStation 3. While it speculated that it would be able to unlock "a lot of horsepower... in years two, three and four", it played down differences between PS3 and Xbox 360 games and suggested that it would be difficult for Sony to meet its aggressive target of six million units shipped by the end of March.

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