The Wii U will be arriving to stores on the 18 November. That’s the good news. Not for the crappy news, or should we say the expected news. Despite the Aussie dollar currently out trading the US dollar Australians will be paying more for a Wii-U as much as 29% more (or 18% if you factor out GST).

The Wii U will be sold in two models Basic and Premium, the white basic model has 8GB of storage, the black Premium model will have 32GB internal storage. In the US these consoles are RPP $299.99 and $349.95 respectively in USD, in Australia they’re $349.95 and $429.95 respectively in AUD. That’s an over $70 mark up for the premium consoles in Australia. And we’re not taking into account mark ups on peripherals such as the almost mandatory extra controllers.

Objectively, it’s a pretty good price, on par the Australian release price for the Wii of $400 so many years ago. There’s a good chance I’ll grudgingly buy one in the lead up to Christmas. But we’re long overdue a close scrutiny of the prices Australian’s are charged compared to the rest of the world. Our economy is stronger than ever, its past time consumers were benefiting from this strength.