Nintendo Says Wii U Titles Will Be Available Digitally; Price and Release Date Coming After E3

During its quarterly financial report yesterday, Nintendo had quite a few things to say about the Wii U, the company’s upcoming console that was first announced back at E3 last year.

While we still don’t know any specifics about the Wii U, Nintendo confirmed that we’ll be able to see what the final version of the Wii U will look like at this year’s E3, which kicks off June 5. Additionally, the company confirmed that the Wii U is still targeted for a holiday 2012 release, and at least some of the company’s 2012 lineup will be shown at E3.

While the Wii U is expected to be a big part of Nintendo’s E3 conference this year, there are a few things we won’t be hearing about: the Wii U’s price, its release date, and what titles will be available for the console at launch. Instead, the company says it will reveal that and more at some point after E3 has come and gone.

The most interesting bit of news about the Wii U to come out of Nintendo’s quarterly financial report is that the “majority” of first-party Wii U titles will be available digitally day-and-date with their respective retail releases. Nintendo 3DS titles will also be made available digitally as well by way of the eShop, but it isn’t known when that’s set to take place.

“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,” said Nintendo president Satoru Iwata during yesterday’s quarterly financial report (credit: VG247).

Iwata says that while Nintendo still plans to support the retail market, the company is still looking to get into digital distribution, which it largely ignored with the Wii. “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,” Iwata added.