The Wii U Controller Tablet & TV in background. Thanks to Gametyrant for the photo.

Reportedly, the cost of the components that the Wii U is made of tap out at a price of about $180, which means that Nintendo would be making a substancial profit if the final Wii U price ends up being $300 or anything above that amount. As the launch price of systems go, according to history, $300 is actually fairly cheap to charge for an all-new videogame system, particularly one that has such an advanced tablet (with its own built-in touchscreen, like an iPad) as a controller.

Of course, we don’t know how accurate the report is regarding the component parts that make up the Wii U, so all of this should be taken with a grain of salt. It is simply speculation after all. But the source at “Forget the Box” claims its component prices are accurate.

The Wii U console with tablet controller. Will it cost $300?

Additionally, the same source says that the GPU that powers the Wii U will be in line with the power of competing current-generation consoles (Xbox 360 & PS3), while exceeding them to a lesser degree, but not exponentially being more powerful. Nintendo went this route in order to “keep hardware costs down to maximize profits” according to reports.

How much do you think the Wii U will cost at launch and is $300 too high of a cost for you to pay for the Wii U system? Considering that the PS3 launched at a whopping $600 (and that iPads still go for that high) and that the Xbox 360 launched at $400, then $300 seems like an entirely reasonable price, and I think that may be the price Nintendo does indeed launch at.

We may learn the price details of the Wii U at E3 2012 (June 5–7), although Nintendo has gone on record saying we WON’T learn the price at E3. But we’ll wait and see.

Here’s the debut video of the Wii U from E3 2011.