A number of retail sources tell us that they believe that Nintendo has learned its lesson from the pricing of the 3DS, and the company will come out of the gate with very aggressive pricing for the Wii U. Nintendo, on the other hand, still isn’t talking about what the Wii U is going to cost, which has led to wild speculation on the pricing of the console.

Sources tell us that at least some of the reason that Nintendo has been unwilling to talk pricing is that they actually don’t know yet what the unit is going to cost. The reason for this is that they are still working on pricing for the many parts that will make up the unit, and trying to figure out how that pricing will influence the final price of the Wii U. Whispers suggest that they will wait as long as possible to put the Wii U into full production, with the hope that prices will continue to fall on a number items that make up the parts necessary for the unit.

No matter who you talk to behind closed doors in this industry, everyone seems to have a theory on why Nintendo will charge what it will charge for the Wii U, or why they believe that Nintendo has already targeted a specific price point. The speculation that we hear seems to think that while Nintendo might like to come out of the gate with a $249 price tag, at least initially it is likely that the price will be at least $299; and the company will not be making money on the unit, or will be making very, very little to start with.

One source believes that Nintendo will attempt to strip as much as it can out of the Wii U in the area of extras to help reduce costs. For example, we look for the unit to perhaps not include a pack-in title to start with; and extras like cables will be the bare minimum necessary as the company looks to squeeze every last dollar it can at release time.