Full digital downloads but no pricing at E3

During an earnings briefing today, Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata announced that they are planning full digital game distribution for the Wii U. These digital download titles will be available the same day as the retail versions.

Consumers will also be able to buy digital software from retailers who will then issue a 16 digit code which would then be input into Nintendo’s digital shop/eshop. This service will be coming to the 3DS later this year and will be available from launch with Nintendo’s next home console.

Iwata also mentioned that they would not be revealing the price for the Wii U at E3 2012 but that they would be showing its final form and the software lineup for that year.

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Comments, Reactions, and General Hooliganism

  1. Nintendoftw

    Good news for me, I hate going to the store to buy games, but I’m just wondering what kind of storage you’ll need. You would need a pretty big SD card or Nintendo might be kind enough to add more space to the hard drive? If these discs they’re using can hold 25 gigabytes…

  2. Wii U Dragon

    I prefer boxed games myself. Call me oldfashioned by I like manuals…

  3. nintendo for life

    release the price already!

  4. Transparent

    I still think there will be news about a Nintendo Cloud that will be announced at E3. I’ve said it before in the forums and they may as well call it “Lakitu”. Makes perfect sense, and i hope it comes out a couple of months before the Wii U version does for the 3ds to make sure everything is as tight as it can possibly be…(minor glitches if any please)

  5. Captainhowdy

    I agree with Wii U Dragon.

    Retail games all the way.

  6. N_S

    Digital copy sales… in retail stores?

    …bravo, Nintendo. Bravo. I personally hate hunting for points cards and to heck if you’re getting my (parent’s) credit card number. I’ve secretly been hoping for this for a while, but i knew it’d never happen. Until it did.

    Bring on E3, Nintendo!

  7. Trulaw

    boxed games are a much better deal.

  8. CBNS

    I think i have too much game discs already in my house so it’s good that there is possibility for digital downloads. Biggest guestions are how much space there is in hard drive and can i re-download those games to my new console if my console breaks?