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Fils-Aime: Wii U to appeal to a "different consumer"

Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aime doesn't expect much overlap between the consumers the company's targeting now, and those it will target with the Wii U.

"The consumer buying Wii hardware today is going to be a different consumer than the one who will be buying Wii U in the future," Fils-Aime told TIME.

"This is the first holiday that the Wii is available at $149.99 or below, so its an expanded demographic we’re reaching. These are consumers who have heard about Wii for the past couple years, but at $199 or $249 it was economically out of their reach.

"We haven’t announced pricing for Wii U, but you can definitely expect that pricing is going to be different and that the games are going to be different."

Fils-Aime reiterated Nintendo's intent to continue supporting legacy consoles.

"We do believe that Wii and Wii U will coexist for some time. As we drive the install base of Wii, we’re really setting people up to take their gaming library and be able to transfer it over to Wii U," he added.

Although the console is in its last days, Skyward Sword launched as the fastest-selling Legend of Zelda gamer ever , something the president attributes to several factors..

"First, at this point in time there are more than 37 million units of Wii in the U.S., which is a huge install base to sell into," he said.

"At this point in the Wii’s life cycle, you’ve got new consumers just looking to get into the franchise and they’re looking for that one great game to play or one great game to gift and Skyward Sword fits that bill."

Thanks, GoNintendo.

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Brenna Hillier avatar

Brenna Hillier

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Based in Australia and having come from a lengthy career in the Aussie games media, Brenna worked as VG247's remote Deputy Editor for several years, covering news and events from the other side of the planet to the rest of the team. After leaving VG247, Brenna retired from games media and crossed over to development, working as a writer on several video games.

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