Shigeru Miyamoto stresses the importance of an accessible price for new hardware and states the Wii U is not looking to "dramatically outperform" the power of current HD systems...

While Nintendo is unlikely to ever release the official technical specs for its Wii U console (though that likely won't stop eternal internet speculation), Shigeru Miyamoto has spoken about the company's philosophy behind creating an optimally-powerful system.

Speaking to Gamespot, Nintendo's chief general producer stated that the aim was to build a console that struck the right balance between an attractive price and power under the hood, rather than setting out to make a 'generational leap' over rival companies' current systems.

"Nintendo is an entertainment company. We're very sensitive to pricing because people have generally only a certain amount of their spending that they'll devote to entertainment. And if you're talking about parents buying something for kids, there are certain price points where parents may be willing to or not willing to purchase a certain product.

"But at the same time, you have these technological advances, and you have the needs of being able to take advantage of that technology, and those result in increasing costs and things like that. And so I think that in terms of companies that really look very carefully at what is the best balance between price and possibility in terms of the hardware, Nintendo is the company that's going to probably pay the most attention to striking that right balance.

"So when you look at what we're trying to do this time, which is I think maybe to a certain degree somewhat reckless, because we're trying to include this somewhat kind of tablet-like device--this controller with the screen. We're trying to do that by finding the right balance between the CPU and the GPU, the graphics processor, and bringing all of that together with the ability to take advantage of the HD capabilities of the system, and wanting to do the most that we can on that front as well.

"We're very sensitive, of course, to trying to do all of this at an appropriate price. So I don't know that we would be able to sit here and say that it's going to necessarily dramatically outperform the systems that are out now. It's part of the balance that we strike in terms of trying to find entertainment that is new and unique."

What would you be willing to pay for Wii U? Or if you are more graphically-minded, what is the least you'd expect from the hardware? Let us know your thoughts below...