UK Retailers Call For Wii U Price Cut And Strategy Rethink

Author:: Jonathan Lester
Category:: News
Tags:: Nintendo, UK retail, Wii U

"Wii U Has Not Caught The Public's Imagination Yet"

After a few nervous months for the Wii U, British retailers are clamouring for a price reduction and improved marketing for Nintendo's new console.

As reported by MCV, numerous major retail outlets have identified three main issues with the Wii U: namely its price, the lack of exciting first-party software and awkward barely-visible advertising that fails to educate potential customers about the console's unique features.

“A price drop on the console or extremely competitive bundle options to encourage consumer take-up would be ideal,” said Grainger Games’ commercial director Simon Peck, echoed by fellow independent retailers Xbite and Barkman Computers who suggest that "lower prices should be led by Nintendo and publishers – not left to retail to discount down to the optimum price point.”

On the strategy side of things, Tesco Games Manager Jonathan Hayes believes that stronger first-party software support and more visible publicity will be needed to flog the premium edition. “Wii U has not caught the public’s imagination yet," he said. "We need a killer app to drive sales, and a big marketing push to clearly communicate what Wii U is all about – it will probably be better to focus on the premium edition to do this.”

Sainsbury’s games buying manager Gurdeep Hunjan agreed, stating that "a new strategy needs to be communicated and launched for Easter, the school holidays, the summer holidays and beyond" in order to get youngsters bugging their parents about it.

“Nintendo needs to show there’s a wide range of games available and on the horizon," added ShopTo's James Rowson,"so consumers see Wii U as a good long-term investment.”

This news tops off a fairly grim month for the Wii U, which only managed to attract 1.6% of January software sales in the UK. With the loss of Rayman Legends as a potential killer app, it's clear that Nintendo will seriously need to step up their games output and marketing if they plan to keep prices high.

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If Nintendo cut the price of the Wii U to a more acceptable price like these retailers are wanting then I'd be much more likely to pick the console up at some point. There's a few decent games out at the moment with things like Wind Waker HD, Rayman Legends and Toki Tori 2 set to come out at a later date that I'd like to play. I'm just not willing to go with the current price at the moment.

I'd love to buy a Wii U - but £300 RRP with no games for the premium one is ridiculous. £199 including a mario game and it'd have flown off the shelves.

Sometimes, nintendo, it's better to make a smaller per-unit profit and sell more.

Please, for the love of all that is holy, tell me they didn't actually use the word 'killer' in that way.

If so, I'm off to find my nearest high bridge.

@BrianY: I'm enjoying my Wii U, but yeah, it's a bit of a tough sell at the moment. Plus I had a 25% off voucher knocking around.

@Quietus: It's the term "killer app," don't worry!

Last edited by JonLester, Feb. 15 at 12:45

I don't think there is a RRP in the UK (or Europe) - I believe Nintendo left it to retailers to find their own level which seems to have settled at around £250 for basic and £300 for premium.
I have no idea how much our retailers are paying for the consoles, but I'm certain there's a decent markup in the above prices as we often see them being sold for £50 less than those unofficial RRPs, occasionally for even cheaper.

So retailers are asking for a price cut on something they set the price for?
It's all too easy to argue that one either way...
They could easily reduce their prices themselves, but of course it'd eat into profits (the degree to which that happens would be dependent on market forces, particularly other retailers following suit). Much easier to demand Nintendo sell it to UK retailers more cheaply - so that they (the retailers) can continue to make a decent profit on each unit whilst increasing volume of sales...

There's no arguing the console needs more/better/(some!) marketing, though.

Last edited by Late, Feb. 15 at 13:06

I don't think there is a RRP in the UK (or Europe) - I believe Nintendo left it to retailers to find their own level which seems to have settled at around £250 for basic and £300 for premium.

Nintendo no longer provide RRP or SRP to European retailers as they were fined over price fixing in the EU and don't want to open themselves up to another fine -
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2375967.stm

Please, for the love of all that is holy, tell me they didn't actually use the word 'killer' in that way.

That's common terminology for a 'must have' exclusive title dude...

£199 including a mario game and it'd have flown off the shelves.

You think? I doubt it, the market has changed since those days, it didn't work for the 'cube either and that had actually decent exclusives! Wii sports sold Wii because of the timing and the ease of selling the idea of motion control - everyone could get the appeal. By the time other companies had worked out their own motion controls most of us had figured out what it was - crap. Nobody gets why they should buy a WiiU just to get an expense tablet controller with already out of date tech. Also WW-HD? think most of the people who used to blindly support nintendo have out-grown buying consoles for re-hash's of old games, it supported you for a long time nintendo but I don't think anyones gonna buy that brand anymore... (no to mention WW was a hard sell tbw, it took time for people to appreciate it)

Last edited by RiKx, Feb. 16 at 02:31

I think the Wii U would sell a heck of a lot more at a £199 price point, especially if it came with a game. It might not have worked for the Gamecube but times have changed and the market is a lot different now than it was back when the Gamecube was still a current generation console.

There's a lot of gamers on other platforms that either find the Wii U interesting or would like to own one but find it to be too expensive to consider purchasing at the moment. Somehow the Wii U has managed to get many of us who abandoned Nintendo for better platforms to be interested in going back to them.

Also when WW HD was announced, everywhere I looked I saw several comments of people who didn't own a Wii U really liking the look of it and many were much more interested in purchasing one after that.

I was fairly set against getting a Wii U as it didn't interest me at all but now I'm very interested in getting one if it gets down to the right price. I also considered the tech to be old but after seeing what devs are still pulling off with the Xbox 360 and PS3 and how the Wii U has better specs than those, I don't think it'll be nearly as much of an issues as the difference in quality between the Wii and PS3/360.

Need for Speed: Most Wanted being the equivalent of running the PC version on ultra settings has me convinced that it'll do the job for at least a few years.

I can certainly understand criticism of the console and no being willing to purchase it as I still have some criticisms of my own about it and I wasn't at all interested until a few weeks ago but I think the price and the advertising is the main problem Nintendo are having with sales at the moment. I think their marketing has been absolutely terrible at getting across how the console and gamepad works.

[quote]You think? I doubt it, the market has changed since those days, it didn't work for the 'cube either and that had actually decent exclusives! Wii sports sold Wii because of the timing and the ease of selling the idea of motion control - everyone could get the appeal. By the time other companies had worked out their own motion controls most of us had figured out what it was - crap. Nobody gets why they should buy a WiiU just to get an expense tablet controller with already out of date tech. Also WW-HD? think most of the people who used to blindly support nintendo have out-grown buying consoles for re-hash's of old games, it supported you for a long time nintendo but I don't think anyones gonna buy that brand anymore... (no to mention WW was a hard sell tbw, it took time for people to appreciate it)[/quote]

There's a lot of gamers on other platforms that either find the Wii U interesting or would like to own one but find it to be too expensive to consider purchasing at the moment. Somehow the Wii U has managed to get many of us who abandoned Nintendo for better platforms to be interested in going back to them.

Also when WW HD was announced, everywhere I looked I saw several comments of people who didn't own a Wii U really liking the look of it and many were much more interested in purchasing one after that.

I was fairly set against getting a Wii U as it didn't interest me at all but now I'm very interested in getting one if it gets down to the right price. I also considered the tech to be old but after seeing what devs are still pulling off with the Xbox 360 and PS3 and how the Wii U has better specs than those, I don't think it'll be nearly as much of an issues as the difference in quality between the Wii and PS3/360.

Need for Speed: Most Wanted being the equivalent of running the PC version on ultra settings has me convinced that it'll do the job for at least a few years.

I can certainly understand criticism of the console and no being willing to purchase it as I still have some criticisms of my own about it and I wasn't at all interested until a few weeks ago but I think the price and the advertising is the main problem Nintendo are having with sales at the moment. I think their marketing has been absolutely terrible at getting across how the console and gamepad works.

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