Nintendo president Satoru Iwata may have once more confirmed a worldwide launch of the Wii U for this year during the investor briefing but he also told us that neither the exact release dates nor pricing will be announced at the E3 show in June.

This is hardly surprising considering how Nintendo have handled this information in the past for its consoles. The 3DS didn’t get given a launch date until just a couple of months before. Likewise with the Wii again Nintendo held back until the latter part of 2006.

Those wanting prices and dates will have to wait a little longer

It’s a bit of a bummer for those anticipating just how much this impressive sounding piece of tech will set them back, but perhaps we can expect each region to get their own announcements in a future Nintendo Direct presentation.

It’s not all bad news however as Iwata reveals, “We will showcase the final format, and discuss the details and the software lineup for this year at E3 2012.” At least we’ll know what we’ll be playing by the year’s end even if we don’t know exactly when and how much.