A senior Nintendo executive has revealed that the upcoming Nintendo Wii console will cost under €250 in Europe (that’s about £170 over here, provided they don’t make the UK pay more). Our US readers will be able to purchase the Wii for $250 (equivalent of £133 and €195) or less, according to the information Nintendo released in May.

Note this isn’t a confirmed price for Europe, merely a recognition that the Wii won’t cost more than those figures. Also, the European price might not strech to the UK and we may end up paying more, judging by what previous console pricing schemes have been like.

However, this still makes the Wii the cheapest next-generation console of the three, and will even rival the last generation machines like the original Xbox and PS2. At the moment in the UK, you can get a brand new original Xbox for about £89 and a brand new silver PS2 for around £99. The Wii is significantly more expensive than the last generation consoles, but crucially, using these figures, it’s cheaper than the Core Xbox 360 system at £199, which should help it.

Another thing we don’t know about is the price of the games. Xbox 360 games range from between £40-50, which is quite a premium (Microsoft make a loss on the hardware and have to make it up through game sales). The Wii console is cheaper to produce, and if the games can beat these prices even by a £5 or so, the Wii will have another advantage.