UK Retailer Asda Suspends Wii U Sales

[Sarah LeBoeuf]

UK Retailer Asda Suspends Wii U Sales

Britain's second-largest grocer will no longer stock Wii U consoles, accessories, or games in its 555 stores.

More CVG [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/121778-Wii-U-Sales-Forecast-Cut] as Britain's second-largest grocer, will no longer carry Wii U consoles, games, or accessories in its stores, though they will be available online "on a title by title merit basis." Despite the recent launch of long-awaited title Pikmin 3, the retailer didn't stock the game.

While the Wii U's dismal sales might help explain why Asda would suspend the console's sales, it's also no longer stocking 3DS systems online. Unlike the Wii U, Nintendo's latest portable has been on fire recently, with the launch of Animal Crossing: New Leaf sending stock soaring to a two-year high [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/126218-Nintendo-Stock-at-a-2-Year-High]. Asda is still selling PS3, Xbox 360, and Vita systems in stores, as well as games for all three, and plans on stocking the Xbox One and PS4 later this year.

Speaking to CVG [http://www.computerandvideogames.com/421340/asda-suspends-wii-u-stock/], an Asda representative stated, "Asda continues to offer customers a selection of Wii U games and accessories through Asda Direct, but these ranges are currently not on offer in Asda shops." Nintendo, on the other hand, is optimistic:

"Nintendo UK does not comment on specific business practices with individual retailers. However, as we have seen with Nintendo 3DS, software sells hardware, and with titles such as Wonderful 101, Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD, and Super Mario 3D World already announced for this year as well as the recently released Pikmin 3 and New Super Luigi U having reached number 2 and number 6 in this week's chart respectively, we are looking forward to the year ahead on Wii U."

Nintendo is right about one thing: software is needed to move hardware, and the Wii U has been sorely lacking worthwhile games. This holiday season launch window [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/125118-Nintendo-Hoping-for-Strong-Wii-U-Holiday-Sales] and first-party games that have been repeatedly delayed.

Source: CVG [http://www.computerandvideogames.com/421340/asda-suspends-wii-u-stock/]

Permalink

 

[Victim of Progress]

Wait, isn't ASDA a British store chain owned by Walmart?

Anyways, that is some sensible reasoning. If you don't have many games to sell, it is not likely the console will sell either

 

[Roxas1359]

Asda, described by CVG [http://www.computerandvideogames.com/421340/asda-suspends-wii-u-stock/] as Britain's second-largest grocer

Wait wait wait! People in the UK had the ability to buy Nintendo consoles and stuff at their grocery store!?
Unless, is Asda like how Walmart/Target/K-mart is to us people in the U.S.A? That would make more sense then. Although I'm imagining a little section advertising Pikmin right next to the flower department. XD

 

[Lunar Templar]

wait, wot o.0

not stocking the WiiU cause its not sell? I can get that, sucks, but understandable.

not stocking the 3Ds, o.0 wot, why? that shit sells. Not only that, its got more good games for it then the WiiU.

The hell are they thinking?

 

[bjj hero]

I can understand. The controller thing looks like it could have potential and is a move away from motion controls which I like. There is still nothing I want to play on it though.

If the other supermarkets follow nintendo could be in real trouble in the UK.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

Asda, described by CVG [http://www.computerandvideogames.com/421340/asda-suspends-wii-u-stock/] as Britain's second-largest grocer

Wait wait wait! People in the UK had the ability to buy Nintendo consoles and stuff at their grocery store!?
Unless, is Asda like how Walmart/Target/K-mart is to us people in the U.S.A? That would make more sense then. Although I'm imagining a little section advertising Pikmin right next to the flower department. XD

Yeah, like Walmart.

And yes, that kind of advertising does happen.

Also, this is bad, really bad, I don't care for Nintendo, but when anyone refuses to sell a console, it's bad.

 

[Me55enger]

Bloody hell. This is grave news indeed...

...I never knew Asda was our second largest chain.

Personally I prefer Sainsburys. It keeps the riff raff out of M&S.

EDIT: British topic written by an American. We have Shops and we have Supermarkets and, if you live in an urban area, Megastores.

 

[Andy Shandy]

Asda, described by CVG [http://www.computerandvideogames.com/421340/asda-suspends-wii-u-stock/] as Britain's second-largest grocer

Wait wait wait! People in the UK had the ability to buy Nintendo consoles and stuff at their grocery store!?
Unless, is Asda like how Walmart/Target/K-mart is to us people in the U.S.A? That would make more sense then. Although I'm imagining a little section advertising Pikmin right next to the flower department. XD

Well, it is a supermarket much like Walmart (in fact Walmart owns ASDA, which is intriguing in itself), but actually, in my local ASDA, the flower department and the games bit are right beside each other. XD

At least I get a nice smell when I'm there XD

Anyway, not exactly great news for Nintendo. It's not a death knell quite yet by any stretch, but certainly not a good sign either, and I wouldn't be shocked if other supermarkets might follow suit later down the road(Tesco, Sainsburys, Morrisons) given by how little I see in there anyway. Even more worrying for Nintendo however, is how little is being shown in the specialist stores (so basically GAME). It's been relegated to a medium sized shelf or two in my nearest one.

I do have to question the timing by Asda though. If you were going to move any Wii Us surely it would be from now, what with the upcoming line-up of games. Sure, if they still aren't moving after that then go for it, but an odd move at the moment.

 

[Camarilla]

Can't say I'm surprised, estimated retail game sales for the Wii U are below 180k for the first 6 months of this year, compared to over 4 million Xbox 360 game sales over the same period, somewhere around 25 times as many. It's selling less games than the PS Vita.

 

[EvilRoy]

Asda, described by CVG [http://www.computerandvideogames.com/421340/asda-suspends-wii-u-stock/] as Britain's second-largest grocer

Wait wait wait! People in the UK had the ability to buy Nintendo consoles and stuff at their grocery store!?
Unless, is Asda like how Walmart/Target/K-mart is to us people in the U.S.A? That would make more sense then. Although I'm imagining a little section advertising Pikmin right next to the flower department. XD

I do have to question the timing by Asda though. If you were going to move any Wii Us surely it would be from now, what with the upcoming line-up of games. Sure, if they still aren't moving after that then go for it, but an odd move at the moment.

Just a guess, but I imagine its a combination of "shelf space costs money" and the upcoming New console releases. If they aren't selling enough to justify the floorspace they might just shove softsells in the area until the upcoming movers arrive.

 

[Toadfish1]

Mix this with Australia moving to ban any con sole with region locks, and we could be seeing Nintendo actually being unable to sell in entire regions.

http://aussie-gamer.com/news/australia-considers-banning-region-locked-game-consoles/

 

[CoronaryThrombosis]

Mix this with Australia moving to ban any con sole with region locks, and we could be seeing Nintendo actually being unable to sell in entire regions.

http://aussie-gamer.com/news/australia-considers-banning-region-locked-game-consoles/

No, Australia is considering not enforcing laws regarding region-locks and refusing to penalize people who bypass region-locks. The title of the article is misleading, but the body of the article makes this abundantly clear.

Good for Australia. They get the shaft all the time

 

[RicoADF]

Asda, described by CVG [http://www.computerandvideogames.com/421340/asda-suspends-wii-u-stock/] as Britain's second-largest grocer

Wait wait wait! People in the UK had the ability to buy Nintendo consoles and stuff at their grocery store!?
Unless, is Asda like how Walmart/Target/K-mart is to us people in the U.S.A? That would make more sense then. Although I'm imagining a little section advertising Pikmin right next to the flower department. XD

Well, it is a supermarket much like Walmart (in fact Walmart owns ASDA, which is intriguing in itself), but actually, in my local ASDA, the flower department and the games bit are right beside each other. XD

At least I get a nice smell when I'm there XD

Anyway, not exactly great news for Nintendo. It's not a death knell quite yet by any stretch, but certainly not a good sign either, and I wouldn't be shocked if other supermarkets might follow suit later down the road(Tesco, Sainsburys, Morrisons) given by how little I see in there anyway. Even more worrying for Nintendo however, is how little is being shown in the specialist stores (so basically GAME). It's been relegated to a medium sized shelf or two in my nearest one.

I do have to question the timing by Asda though. If you were going to move any Wii Us surely it would be from now, what with the upcoming line-up of games. Sure, if they still aren't moving after that then go for it, but an odd move at the moment.

The XBone and PS4 are about to release. Their probably making space for systems that will sell. Dropping the 3DS seems odd but then again they may believe or the preorders might be showing that next gen consoles sell even better. After all these sort of stores only stock a few things so it has to sell and for as much profit as possible.

 

[Roxas1359]

Can you be surprised a console isn't selling well when you refuse to give it adequate, prominent, clearly laid out shelf space? Of course no-one's going to buy a Wii U if all its games are muddled up with the Wii games. That just makes it look like a Wii add-on, not a new console.

That's not really the case with the Wii U as I've been reading stories that they cut the price of the Wii U in their stores twice, first one by £50 to it being £249 for the Deluxe model and £199 for the Basic Edition when they originally launched at a price of £249 for the Basic and £299 for the Deluxe. Then they cut it another £50 to being £199 for the Deluxe and £149 for the Basic. Asda tried to get people to buy the Wii U and have had it since launch and displayed it fine, but people weren't buying it so Asda has decided to pull it an to stock the other new consoles. It's not a matter that "they didn't give them adequate shelf time" because it's quite obvious that not only they did that, but they also slashed the prices and caused Amazon to slash their prices for the Wii U as well.

Still doesn't explain for the 3DS, but the Wii U was given plenty of chances it seems and because there weren't many games being released for it the consoles were just taking up space on their shelves. Especially since Asda is owned by Walmart so they didn't want to take more of a hit then they have been.

Source for you

As for other places all the stores here that sell games have specific sections for each console and game with the Wii games being put on the smaller shelves since the newer generation is out, and soon the PS3 and 360 games will be getting that same treatment too once more games come out for it. Heck I've actually seen most of the GameStops here still having large sections for the Wii and Wii U and the Vita having the smallest section of all.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

Asda, described by CVG [http://www.computerandvideogames.com/421340/asda-suspends-wii-u-stock/] as Britain's second-largest grocer

Wait wait wait! People in the UK had the ability to buy Nintendo consoles and stuff at their grocery store!?
Unless, is Asda like how Walmart/Target/K-mart is to us people in the U.S.A? That would make more sense then. Although I'm imagining a little section advertising Pikmin right next to the flower department. XD

Here in Canada you can buy video games and consoles from Shopper's Drug Mart. And that's a pharmacy. Albeit with a small amount of groceries and at times a post office attached.

 

[Roxas1359]

Asda, described by CVG [http://www.computerandvideogames.com/421340/asda-suspends-wii-u-stock/] as Britain's second-largest grocer

Wait wait wait! People in the UK had the ability to buy Nintendo consoles and stuff at their grocery store!?
Unless, is Asda like how Walmart/Target/K-mart is to us people in the U.S.A? That would make more sense then. Although I'm imagining a little section advertising Pikmin right next to the flower department. XD

Here in Canada you can buy video games and consoles from Shopper's Drug Mart. And that's a pharmacy. Albeit with a small amount of groceries and at times a post office attached.

Dammit, all you can buy at my local drug store are your pills or diabetic socks! >.<
Well okay, you can buy unhealthy junk food and cards too but that's besides the point. XD
In all seriousness this is still bad for Nintendo and what they need to do is drop the price of the Wii U around here to really bolster sales. Hell for once I'm actually seeing ads from Nintendo on TV where I live, which is a rarity because for some reason they rarely put ads down here. It's for Pikmin 3 as well which is nice.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

What I don't understand is why they're not also stocking the 3DS. That to me suggests it's something less to do with the Wii U itself, and more something to do with Nintendo. The 3DS is the top selling piece of games hardware right now. The thing is selling gangbusters, and is shifting a large number of games as well. There's no reason for Asda to not have it on their shelves, especially if they're still selling the Vita.

The 3DS selling well now probably doesn't counter the fact that the strong sales aren't steady for the 3DS. So while it's selling well now, in a couple of weeks it'll more than likely be selling at a much slower pace.

Part of the problem, I think, is that retailers refuse to give Nintendo products adequate shelf space. When I went in my local Tescos, they had 360 games lined up according to when they came out. They had PS3 games lined up in a similar, easy to follow fashion. Nintendo games, they just had chucked together on the shelves. I don't just mean release dates. They had Wii games and Wii U games jumbled together along with DS and 3DS games. This is something I've seen in other supermarkets as well.

I won't talk about this point too much as you've already been quoted about how ASDA went out on a limb to sell the damn thing and got no result. I can tell you that your local Tesco probably isn't a representation of the majority of other stores. Tesco is a supermarket chain, same as ASDA so we may see most supermarkets trying to rid themselves of their lowest sellers now.

We're also around 4 months away from seeing 2 more consoles get released, so stores are going to have to make even more room.

On that point, on this side of the pond in North America there are similar trends happening with the Wii U in supermarkets(minus the chart topping sales). Target, Wal-Mart's biggest competitor, has cut the Wii U prices down by $50 as well. The console needed games. Bad. Maybe the holiday season will help, but it'll be tough to deal with the Wii U finally being compared side by side with the PS4 and XboxOne instead of the latter 2 being left out of the equation.

The Vita will get its own small shelf with games clearly laid out, but Nintendo games are just mushed together regardless of what the systems are or how new and prominent the games should be.

The PsVita probably has more predictable and consistent sales and as such is easier to stock in a manner that allows it a shelf. Nintendo has an issue of having loads of shovelware. I know the other consoles have a lot of shovelware too, but Nintendo's reputation for carrying shovelware titles has been a prolific 8 years strong thanks to the Wii. The PS2 had the "shovelware crown" Nintendo took it and now they don't want it anymore. Stores probably get sent more games that know they won't sell more than anything else when it comes to Nintendo's consoles.

Can you be surprised a console isn't selling well when you refuse to give it adequate, prominent, clearly laid out shelf space?

No, but ASDA and Target are probably surprised that multiple prices cuts in the past few months didn't sell the console.

Of course no-one's going to buy a Wii U if all its games are muddled up with the Wii games. That just makes it look like a Wii add-on, not a new console.

Maybe there should be more Wii U games. Maybe Nintendo should have done a better job of making the Wii U not look like an add-on. Hell, CNN was reporting the Wii U as just the controller when it was announced. Say what you will about the mainstream media, but the fact that the Wii U was mistaken at all is on Nintendo's shoulder's. The Wii U being a console has been so poorly communicated that Nintendo had to send every Wii on the planet a desperate message on the Wii message board to tell people that the Wii U exists and is a new console.

We can't keep blaming store for the failings of the Wii U's sales. This one is on Nintendo here.