Nintendo Wii U To Have Day One Digital Downloads

Nintendo has announced that they are getting on the digital distribution bandwagon. The forthcoming Wii U will have digital downloads of full games from the day it is released. Starting with the 3DS game New Super Mario Bros. 2 most if not all Nintendo games will have a digital only download version of the game:

"In principle, starting from this software, the company will offer the software titles that Nintendo itself publishes in both packaged and digital download formats so that our consumers can choose the way to purchase them. Since the packaged and the digital download formats both have their own merits, we would like to offer both of these options to our consumers." "For the Wii U, we will start the digital download sales of packaged software that I just discussed, so our consumers can choose either the packaged version or the digital download version of the same software from day one of the Wii U's launch."

Nintendo also stated that the digital sales will also be available in retail stores, and according to Nintendo retailers will be allowed to set the price for the digital games. This could be very interesting, because retailers could start charging less for the digital version of the game than what maybe offered in the Nintendo online store. In addition, Nintendo also announced unfortunately we will not learn of the price point or release date at this years E3. Which is probably strategic, because the minute Nintendo announces the price for the Wii U Microsoft and maybe even Sony will drop the price of the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation.