It got dropped by £50 in Asda, then a further £50, and then dropped. What does that tell you?
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ASDA no longer stocking/selling the Wii U in stores, won't restock this year
- Thread starter Nibel
- Start date
It got dropped by £50 in Asda, then a further £50, and then dropped. What does that tell you?
zomgbbqftw
Banned
It's a factor, but not the only one. Look at Gamecube sales as a reference point.
freenudemacusers
Member
Mail-in rebate for a free Wii-U with every purchase of a large soda and crisps.
metalslimer
Member
The GC was 99 dollars and continued to tank and actually started doing worse. If a product is 600 dollars sure that is too much, but Wiiu is not out of the price range of many people. Price drops are not a magic bullet.
The Abominable Snowman
Member
That's only true if there is pent-up demand for a product held back by its price.
Remember, before the PS3 dropped its price, it still did decent-OK numbers worldwide, and several of Sony's partners from Gamestop to Activision published pieces asking Sony to consider dropping the price. The 3DS also had much of the same problem, as it was a decent handheld, but the value was not apparent over the $149 DS, it was the most expensive main Nintendo handheld ever by at least $50, and when compared to the Vita at the same price, it compared very unfavorably. The price drop moved it from being an expensive console buying proposition to an exciting birthday/holiday present.
The Gamecube dropped in price to either keep up with continued price pressure from Xbox/PS2, or when sales had slowed due to waning demand from PS2's (and Xbox's) overperforming. It wasn't very effective.
I find your cultural sensitivity endearing.
mangochutney
Member
In addition to ASDA it looks like Blockbuster may be following suit in dropping the Wii U.
They've reduced the price of the console to £149.97 and pretty much every game and accessory to a price ending in 97p, which denotes a clearance product.
They've reduced the price of the console to £149.97 and pretty much every game and accessory to a price ending in 97p, which denotes a clearance product.
Aquamarine
Member
So they've dropped the price of the Wii U Basic by £50. Interesting.
I wonder if this was directly in response to ASDA, or if it's an unrelated coincidence.
freenudemacusers
Member
It's important to do your research and tailor your message* to your audience.
*or products amirite
Of All Trades
Member
You get rebates just from buying sodas+sides? In the USA we are usually required to buy a meal item, like a... beef burger or "coronation chicken".
edit: wot wot guvner
Also agree. At first, I was very excited for the Wii U & thought that it would be a huge hit, as I was seriously consider buying one. Now, I'm just on the waiting fence. These are the systems that I've gotten (starting on the 3rd generation as a 4 year old child):
3rd generation = NES only.
4th generation = SNES & Sega Genesis.
5th generation = PS1 only.
6th generation = Dreamcast & PS2.
7th generation = Xbox 360 & PS3.
I'm thinking of going PS4 only for this 8th generation of consoles. I might buy the Wii U later on down the road if Nintendo gets themselves together with the gaming library, or I might buy a 3DS instead.
And if they manage to take huge losses off of the Wii U, they could easily wind up losing a lot of that dough that they racked up from both the DS & the Wii. It certainly won't be pretty for Nintendo at all.
Yeah, it really should be commended just how fucking QUICKLY Sony moved the right the ship with PS3. For a while it seemed like every other month we were hearing about some major reshuffling with the company and the console itself. And, again, it must be stressed that PS3 was NEVER doing as poorly as the Wii U is, nor was 3rd party support ever in question.
Nintendo in comparison really isn't doing much to change their position here.
You don't understand. I do get it. I looked up everything about the situation. My comment literally said
That is my argument. In your weird interpretation, I'm somehow saying "it's not a very big deal at all". Please stop this nitpicking out of comments to try to twist it to fit whatever weird agenda you want to push. I'm not arguing about the topic at all, I was explaining to a guy laughing at the posters for not thinking this to be a big deal, why other people might not be thinking it as big of a deal. I then repeated this three times.
In another way, I may have been actually arguing in support of you by calling this a big deal, you just didn't care enough to hear that side of it.
Katana_Strikes
Member
I never want to glance down at the second screen whilst playing on a TV six feet+ away. Ever.
Linkstrikesback
Member
It would have to be MASSIVE to even get the Wii U up to gamecube numbers in the uk at this point, retailers have already slashed prices unofficially for the wii u by ridiculous amounts, and it hasn't made the slightest bit of difference.
Worked really well in Zombi-U precisely because it preyed on your reluctance to look away from the TV.
...that's about it though.
Opus Angelorum
Member
Against a £349.99 PS4 the Wii U needs to be £199.99 for the Premium.
What does that have to do with the Wii U?
Linkstrikesback
Member
The premium has already been down to £199.99 a few times and it really didn't make that much difference (those weeks, nintendoland still barely charted, which let us know the premium bundles weren't shifting much).
Sony must have been in panic mode for most of 2006/7, since they released multiple vastly different SKUs to cut costs and make the PS3 competitive:
- Nov 2006: PS3 launch in US/Japan, model with full PS2 hw compatibility. $599
- March 2007: PS3 launch in EU, model with partial PS2 hw compatibility. 599 EUR
- Oct 2007: PS3 revision without any PS2 hw compatibly, $399, 399 EUR
They shaved $200 off the original price within a year, released three vastly different motherboard revisions, released tons of firmware update to boost the PS3 OS in order to compete with the 360 that had massive support from publishers/devs. And they did it.
I don't see any real effort from Nintendo to turn the ship around. It's like they live in lala land. The Wii U's price should have been cut officially ages ago.
Bulbagarden
Member
I'm not sure how the heck you came to that conclusion from what I posted there....
The Australian case with Harvey Norman back when the Wii launched involved the retailer basically wanting special treatment, effectively saying "we won't stock your product unless you sell it to us significantly cheaper than you sell it to every other retailer". That carried an added implication that Nintendo wouldn't do well at launch if Harvey Norman weren't stocking their stuff (this being back when HN were actually a fairly big player in games here, at roughly the same level as EB or JB). There was no malice or vindictiveness on Nintendo's part here whatsoever. They knew they had a hit on their hands, and saw no reason to give in to Harvey Norman's demands when their stock was limited as it was, and all the other retailers were clamoring to have more Wii consoles made available to them at launch. At no point did Nintendo "extract revenge" against them, they simply refused to give them an unfair advantage over other retailers who weren't trying to blackmail them. Once Harvey Norman dropped their ridiculous demands, Nintendo did as you say "turn the next cheek" and treated them like any other retailer stocking their products.
You mean just like how Sega does it now?
Yes, in a way, but mostly if Sega would have called this (to me totally unfamliar) machine the Sonic Machine instead of banking on the Genesis brand and then using Sonic as an additional image.
Also, I'm not sure if you intentionally meant to say that Sega isn't doing so well despite their blatant use of Sonic, meaning that Nintendo could await a similar fate if the larger public gets sick of Mario, then that is a good point to make to counter my (half-serious) idea.
In general, even though more exposure to a mascotte or iconic character can lead to better brand recognition and sales, it can also have the effect of neutralizing its power and of cheapening its perceived value. That, in my view, is what has been happening with Sega and Sonic, and what is also starting to happen with Nintendo and Mario due to their overuse of Mario in less and less impactful games.
It doesnt matter, asda the store in question has been knocking the wii u out for £149.99/199.99 even after these fire sales they have chosen to bin it, that says it all.
BurnOutBrighter
Banned
Kiwi here. Damn, I had no idea. Where can you get one at retail that isn't an EB Games? JB Hi-Fi?
Only DSE did the fire sale. Others still charging more, although mightyape is doing 369 for a basic I think. I grabbed a Basic from DSE for my dad for $150.
Just read the news this morning and wow, Asda not stocking Wii Us is quite significant. Folk at my local town would frequently buy their video games there ever since Game and gamestation closed down. Apart from online stores, looks like there's not going to be a lot of places to buy a Wii-U in RL.
dampflokfreund
Banned
I'm not surprised. Only the most loyal Nintendo fans will buy that thing (including me) it's completely irrelevant for hardcore gamers (no 3rd party support, no power, horrible marketing, mainly sidescrollers from Nintendo itself) and irrelevant for casual gamers (are happy with Wii or their smartphones, Wii U too expensive)
No one said anything about Nintendo
I know literally one person. Got it a week ago. One more person was going to get one but opted for the 3DS instead because "it has better games" (his words, though true)
You guys are killing me lmfao
That's almost one thousand extra satisfied customers. Don't you want to sell to these 917 gamers stupid third parties? 917 games X 60 is like 55,000 POUNDS.
GarthVaderUK
Banned
Price drop probably won't do much then.
WrenchNinja
Member
Before anyone uses this as evidence that a price drop without games will of course not cause a lot of sales, how do you explain the 3DS in August 2011?
Maybe, just maybe, people don't think the Wii U is an appealing product, period?
Or no one knew about the price drop or for that matter the masses didn't know.
Starwolf_UK
Member
Did we in Europe get the whole retailers cutting the price before the ambassador cut-off thing? If so there were 20 games (10 indefinitely exclusive). For free. But yeah, you can not compare a national price drop to retailers over a few days.
That aside the Nintendoland charting, which week was that; the 250 sales ASDA week or the 667 sales Amazon week? Makes me wonder what numbers you needed to hit those chart positions back in later 2004 (when things like Metroid Prime 2 launched in a similar position).
Also, 250 seems like a suspiciously round number. Are ASDA approximating, is it coincidence or was it restricted?
shinra-bansho
Member
Post-purchase rationalisation won't allow such concession. In the minds of some owners, to accept that the product is not selling because it's simply not widely appealing seems like admission of some sort of mistake in their purchase.
Or maybe some owners KNOW how fantastic it feels to use a Wii U, and doubters will see the light when the right game for them comes out. Whether it's Wonderful 101, Mario 3D World, Bayonetta 2 or Smash Bros.
shinra-bansho
Member
Thank you for providing a perfect example of someone who can't separate their own personal like for a product from it actually being a product offering well suited to the market.
"See the light." Good grief.
Portugeezer
Member
ASDA is not that big. Even in London there are few stores. I know it's owned by the same people as Walmart but it's nowhere near the Walmart of the UK.
That's true. Stores had already been selling the Wii U for £100 less and even then the sales in the UK were still abysmal.
That's true. Stores had already been selling the Wii U for £100 less and even then the sales in the UK were still abysmal.
DragonSworne
Banned
What's the Walmart of the UK then?
Waitrose.
It's not really the Walmart of the UK, but it's pretty damn big.
Other owners know that the console doesn't really have anything going for it and aren't surprised that the market at large have rejected and ignored it.
Law Abiding Stranger
Banned
It seems you are mistaking your own opinion for a fact.
WiiU so far is proving itself as unappealing product that people don't want to check out.
What's not suited to the market is that you have to pay for a product with still little must have games. What you learn to know when you have a Wii U is how much enjoyable it is to use. The more must have games release, the more people on the fence will discover it. Reading you, one might think Wii U is not worth owning. But you don't have a Wii U so your experience with it and its potential could be more enlightened.
What? I'd say it's Tesco.
Dude, you need to stop stating this stuff as fact as it simply isn't true. Although there will always be people that get a hands-on and really like the console, it's not a guarantee that some lightbulb will appear over everyone's head as they suddenly 'get it'.
May I ask if you ever owned a 360 or PS3? I feel as though that could affect how one perceived the Wii U.
Proud owner of a PS3* and yet I can see the value the GamePad brings on top of it and, obviously, I see Wii U exclusives that make the product appealing for multi console gamers.
*add me on PSN and I'll add you on miiverse. My PSN ID is we6fe / Wii U: marc^o^