Nintendo Pushes 5,000 Wii U Kiosks to U.S. Retailers

[MikeWehner]

Nintendo Pushes 5,000 Wii U Kiosks to U.S. Retailers

As the holidays approach, Nintendo's new console looks to have a big presence at retail.

If you're on the fence about whether or not to jump on the Wii U bandwagon, a store near you might soon be able to offer a hands-on experience with the new console. As the Wii U's November 18 launch date nears, Nintendo is pushing a whopping 5,000 Wii U kiosks to retailers nationwide.

Stores like Target, Best Buy, GameStop, and Wal-Mart are all on the list to receive the demo stations from Nintendo. The Wii U's considerable aesthetic similarity to the original Wii - save for the tablet controller - combined with its nearly identical name could very well lead to confusion among ill-informed customers. However, after seeing the console in action, it should become clear that the Wii U is indeed a step up.

Unfortunately, only a portion of those 5,000 demo stations will offer the chance to actually play the console, with the rest serving just video content of new Wii U titles. It's unclear just how many playable consoles will be distributed to stores, but as the busiest shopping season of the year approaches, the more potential customers that get to go hands-on, the better.

Source: GamesIndustry [http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012-11-05-nintendo-accelerates-wii-u-push-with-5-000-kiosks-at-us-retail]

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[Sylveria]

Too bad every store on the planet is sold-out of pre-orders.

 

[RaikuFA]

Too bad every store on the planet is sold-out of pre-orders.

Bah dun tish.

I played it at Best Buy 2 days ago. Was a fun experience. Played Rayman Legends.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I work at a Target and while we do have a Wii-U kiosk, there isn't a single playable demo. It's been set up for nearly a week now and when I found out I couldn't play anything on it...it was like blue balls only with far more pain. According to our Nintendo guy it should be updated around launch so that games will be playable. November 18th isn't going to be here soon enough.

 

[aba1]

Jim mentioned being from the US so I am going to assume nation wide refers to the US?

 

[Shinsei-J]

I wonder if Australia will get any?
I hope so because if not I'll never get a chance to play it.

 

[gardian06]

Dear Nintendo

why do you do things out of order.

you are supposed to setup these Kiosks before you start allowing retailers to take pre-orders that way when the pre-orders are available they can be sold out day one...

What pre-orders were filled within a week.

well still could have been day one.

 

[RiffRaff]

My Target store had one... with no game demos. Only game videos. Completely pointless.

 

[mykalwane]

Gamestop just received one, nearby. Only game videos, but theirs has to be connected to the internet. Kind of why he was complaining about having to set that up. So maybe the demos get unlocked when they are done with them. So day one they get the Mario demo ready, just hit send, all Kiosks have demo. Till then, you get video. That's just my thoughts on this, I may be wrong.