ShopTo: Nintendo Wii U Price Cut Not Enough

By Jorge Ba-oh 21.03.2013 15

ShopTo: Nintendo Wii U Price Cut Not Enough on Nintendo gaming news, videos and discussion

Has a price cut for the Nintendo Wii U spurred on an increase in sales? Not enough it seems.

With Nintendo's lack of advertising in the UK and sales for the Wii U trailing behind older hardware, retailers have been testing the water by reducing the price of the Wii U hardware packs.

Speaking in the latest issue of MCV, ShopTo's purchasing director James Rowson highlighted how despite reducing the price of the Basic Wii U 8GB pack, it's "resulted in a smaller than desired increase in sales at this stage". Rowson is urging Nintendo to take action "otherwise it is GameCube all over again."

Nintendo responded to the price cuts, noting how the company will be "speaking to our retailers directly over the next few weeks to take them through our plans for building Wii U momentum over the course of 2013".

Amazon are currently selling the 8GB Wii U basic for £199.

What do you think Nintendo needs to do remedy the lack of Wii U hardware sales?

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jres80 is offline. jres80 21.03.2013#1

Price cuts mean nothing without compelling software, as Vita showed in Japan. Also, the price cut needs to happen on the deluxe. Wouldn't hurt to sell a Nintendo branded hard drive either, considering many consumers can be lazy about tech stuff like that.

 
JoshSL is offline. JoshSL 21.03.2013#2

Nintendo need to churn out some easy HD Collections, people would buy the system just for them and they could probably be made within months..

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CrystalMushroom is offline. CrystalMushroom 21.03.2013#3

It needs a killer app. Lets just face it, Wii U doesn't have that many games. NSMBU is good, but no one is gonna spend $300/$350 to play it.

3D Mario would be nice.

 
JayUK is offline. JayUK 21.03.2013#4

Yeah price cuts won't work if there are no high profile games on the horizon. Nintendo needs something big, Bayonetta 2, Pikmin 3 and The Wonderful 101 look good but they're not gonna win over people who already own a PS3.

The only game I've seen so far that has wowed me is Xenoblade 2, and I've got a feeling that's probably a year and a half away from a UK release. Smash Bros could shift systems but again that's christmas at the very earliest.

 
JoshSL is offline. JoshSL 21.03.2013#5

JayUK said:
Yeah price cuts won't work if there are no high profile games on the horizon. Nintendo needs something big, Bayonetta 2, Pikmin 3 and The Wonderful 101 look good but they're not gonna win over people who already own a PS3.

The only game I've seen so far that has wowed me is Xenoblade 2, and I've got a feeling that's probably a year and a half away from a UK release. Smash Bros could shift systems but again that's christmas at the very earliest.


Smash Bros is probably late 2014/2015 at the very earliest, development only began half a year ago.

But yeah, those games aren't system sellers and even then they're too far away.
Wind Waker HD will shift tons of units though.

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jb is offline. jb 21.03.2013#6

For me, games aside, it's advertising. Wii U isn't advertised anywhere in the UK and with the diminishing retail market (less GAME and HMV stores) it's even harder to promote a games console, particularly one like the Wii U. 

Definitely needs more focused advertising. Advertise on non-gaming websites. All good to slap a banner of Nintendo Land or Luigi's Mansion on a Nintendo or gaming site, but it's wasted money imo. Nintendo need to reach out to the masses like Wii and DS, but aren't doing so. No TV ads, No billboards, no magazine ads.

There's nothing to show for Wii U in the UK and Nintendo's ad "teams" are to blame for that side of things. Social media advertising? Come on, Nintendo.

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JoshSL is offline. JoshSL 21.03.2013#7

You're right. Nintendo more than have the money for an expansive marketing campaign that airs on TV regularly, they did it all the time back in the day for Wii and DS.

My guess is they're currently rethinking their marketing and will roll out new marketing campaigns of full force in the coming months, which is why they're being so silent on the matter right now.
Impact is what they need.

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CrystalMushroom is offline. CrystalMushroom 21.03.2013#8

jb said:
No TV ads, No billboards, no magazine ads.

I think Billboards would be a little too much, but i understand what you're trying to say.

 
jb is offline. jb 21.03.2013#9

^ There used to be quite a few billboards/public transport adds for Wii and DS in London, I remember a Touch Generations campaign that took over the entire train carriage here. But now we have zilch. I'm out and about in London and haven't seen a single piece of Nintendo advertising for months - instead they're releasing the Wii Mini.

What a bunch...

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Konkey Donk (guest) 21.03.2013#10

Yeah, I mean those adverts during the Wii and DS era were cringe worthy, but they worked and opened up to the mass market. There was so much more TV advertising back then. Even bad advertising is better than literally none at all.

Flynnie is offline. Flynnie 21.03.2013#11

What's the point of advertising? They've got nothing new to shout about, i honestly think Nintendo are biding their time, they will blow us away at E3, i guarantee that! Their marketing campaign was so woeful...but at the same time at least they were all over the place during December. Since then though its dissapeared simply because there hasn't been much to shout about. As soon as those AAA titles and the also the Z-list titles of Zumba Wii U, Just Dance and the other shitty games get released then the ad bandwagon will happen.

I reckon that the PS4 and 720 will be great, but i think it might just stretch too many parents' wallets to buy for the kids...hopefully the Wii U will be RRP'ing at £170/£200 by Xmas 2013 and they will be selling like hot cakes unlike the '£500' PS4

 
jb is offline. jb 22.03.2013#12

They could easily advertise Mario Wii U, Nintendo Land, ZombiU, NFS, Monster Hunter 3, Tekken etc - to show a broad range of games, talk about Miiverse, highlight some GamePad play. Browser, etc. Solid campaigns, prime time TV, get people talking about it.

But there's been shit all, even during Christmas - it was a disaster. 

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Steelm2 is offline. Steelm2 22.03.2013#13

And software means nothing if they're isn't a single bit of "good" advertising about a brand new system! What is wrong with Nintendo? Did they intentionally want it to do bad and not plan a big budget for advertising???

I should have seen ads for Wii U everywhere in every flavor possible for months straight when this thing launched! Man.

They should start off commercials with, THE NINTENDO U! (exclude wii) It's a brand new console from Nintendo, it's HD, next gen, has Mario and just dance! BAM! haha. NEW NEW NEW, we promise.

You wanna go here if you likes Prons. [url]
 
Vorash Kadan 22.03.2013#14

We need more M rated games/high quality action titles like Crysis 3, Metal Gear Rising, Dishonored & games like that.....THAT'S why.

Not sure what Nintendo is falling short on but if they have to pay for exclusives then that's what they'll need to do. People expected more games on the system by this point & Nintendo's third party exclusivity is falling through the floor. Nintendo can't be so over confident if they hope to get their crown back that they lost in the late 90's.

It is not wise to speak on subjects you do not know all facts about, nor is it smart to judge a game based on looks alone. PSN: Nintendo_Gamer 3DS: 4296-3029-7422
 
Flynnie is offline. Flynnie 22.03.2013#15

Vorash Kadan said:
We need more M rated games/high quality action titles like Crysis 3, Metal Gear Rising, Dishonored & games like that.....THAT'S why.

Not sure what Nintendo is falling short on but if they have to pay for exclusives then that's what they'll need to do. People expected more games on the system by this point & Nintendo's third party exclusivity is falling through the floor. Nintendo can't be so over confident if they hope to get their crown back that they lost in the late 90's.

Surely the Wii was a crowning system...?

 

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