Nintendo Hopes Cash Will Convince You To Use Your Wii U

[Earnest Cavalli]

Nintendo Hopes Cash Will Convince You To Use Your Wii U

Adding money to your Wii U's eShop account will net you a 10 percent bonus courtesy Nintendo, in what may be the most transparent cry for attention since your teenaged goth phase.

Nintendo's WII U hasn't exactly been the smashing success the company might have hoped. It's not a bad system, but it is graphically inferior to the consoles Microsoft and Sony are about to release, and more crucially, the device's selection of games is woefully lacking. The technology behind it is quite cool, and if you find something you like to play on the Wii U it's a great console, but the trouble is in actually finding something you'd want to play.

In an effort to make that a bit easier, Nintendo is willing to straight up give you money to use its latest system. Specifically, anyone who adds $50 to their Wii U's eShop account between now and July 28 will receive an extra $5 automatically. Deposit $100 and you earn $10. Pretty simple, right?

If this scheme intrigues you, keep in mind that these bonuses are not instantaneous. According to Nintendo, those people who qualify for the extra cash will receive a code via email on August 2 that they can redeem for their money. It's interesting to note that August 2 happens to be a mere two days prior to the release of Pikmin 3 - and by "interesting," of course I mean, "Nintendo really, really wants you to buy Pikmin 3."

Full details on this promotional offer can be found by visiting Nintendo's official site. You've only got five days left before this initiative runs out, so if you were planning to pick up something for the Wii U anyway - Earthbound, anyone? - it's not such a bad deal.

Source: Nintendo [http://club2.nintendo.com/rebate/?om_rid=AACgMx&om_mid=_BR7dqcB80CqYli&eid=EM10116#.Ue7gOmSgndL]

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[Dragonbums]

I'm not sure you can really call this a scheme though.
It's pretty straight forward and only those who give a shit about Nintendo e-shop in the first place would consider it.
You also don't consider the fact that some people will buy a physical copy of Pikmin 3 anyway so this would have zero effect on them.

Also how is this specific thing a "cry for attention"? They are giving you benefits for investing money into their online store.
Why don't you complain about the fact that if you buy Shin Megami Tensei and Fire Emblem now, you get $30.00 in store credit on the e-shop when you register it on their Club Nintendo account?
That is an even more blatant attempt at getting people to buy the game, then say getting a $5.00 bonus just before the release of Pikmin 3.

At the end of the day, if people were planning on getting a Wii U for Pikmin, they were going to get it anyway regardless of this promotion.
Same as if didn't want to get a Wii U next month, this promotion will have zero effect on anyone.

In other words, this is hardly a good enough deal to actually sway anyone to get their console.
The fact that you are presenting it as such is a gross over exaggeration of what the whole thing really is about.
The title of this article and some of the wording in it kind of seems to me that you are looking for a sensationalist kind of reaction to something that isn't that big of a deal in my opinion.

 

[CriticalMiss]

From the headline I was kind of hoping this would be about a price drop rather than a sort-of-a-sale-but-not. They'd probably get more interest by having an actual sale, give everything a 10% discount for the same period and you don't need to faff around with sending out codes and people get their discount right away.

 

[Denamic]

Also how is this specific thing a "cry for attention"?

Just like to point out that, as you said yourself, this is a promotion. It's a cry for attention by definition.

 

[Roxas1359]

Why don't you complain about the fact that if you buy Shin Megami Tensei and Fire Emblem now, you get $30.00 in store credit on the e-shop when you register it on their Club Nintendo account?

That's only for the US and Canada, the rest of the world gets shafted from that deal as it's not being offered to them. Poor Europe, screwed by Atlus again. *weeps for European friends*

OT: Really I was planning on getting a Wii U anyway and this is a nice thing, although I don't really think that it's a "huge" incentive to buy the console, really just a little bonus.

From the headline I was kind of hoping this would be about a price drop rather than a sort-of-a-sale-but-not. They'd probably get more interest by having an actual sale, give everything a 10% discount for the same period and you don't need to faff around with sending out codes and people get their discount right away.

Honestly I would not mind a small price drop on the Wii U, but that's probably gonna happen in November since that's when the other next-gen consoles come out. Although since the Wii U is already cheaper than both the Xbox One and PS4 they might not do a price cut until later.

 

[Covarr]

Not at these rates. Lower the prices on Virtual Console games, have a big digital-only sale, and then maybe you'll have my attention.

What Nintendo needs to realize is that as long as downloads are attached to the system rather than to the account, a downloaded game is worth less to the consumer than a disc-based game. Obviously, they would rather us buy those because we won't resell them as readily, but even so I'd rather buy games on disc most of the time; the best thing they can do to counteract that is charge less for downloads (or attach them to accounts instead of to machines).

P.S. Thanks

 

[go-10]

guess it's time to buy Earthbound, Mighty Switch Force 2, and The Cave

 

[Mr. Omega]

First, this is obviously an attempt to get people to buy Pikmin 3 digitally as well as early. Maybe they're hoping to get people to get stuff like Earthbound or other stuff as well. Now then, engaging snark...

So trying to promote a new game is a "desperate scheme" now. Right. Nintendo SHOULD be using loads and loads of Day 1 DLC or retailer exclusive DLC like REAL publishers do! Trying to incentivize early consumption by rewarding people instead of treating everyone like a thief who needs to prove their innocence? What is this, the 80s?

 

[Dark Knifer]

So trying to promote a new game is a "desperate scheme" now. Right. Nintendo SHOULD be using loads and loads of Day 1 DLC or retailer exclusive DLC like REAL publishers do! Trying to incentivize early consumption by rewarding people instead of treating everyone like a thief who needs to prove their innocence? What is this, the 80s?

This made me laugh.

OT: It's certainly better then day one dlc etc but I don't think they will pick up until games start coming out, which it will just like the 3ds but maybe not quite as good.

 

[Teoes]

*weeps for European friends*

Spoiler: thanks bro

I've been playing Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones and getting into it, so buying Awakening is becoming a matter of when, not if. I was getting all ready to gamble on this Shin Megami Tensei 4 thingy, thinking what they hey, free eShop moneys, right? No. I'm in Europe and can go suck on a dead dog's nose. Thanks Nintendo.

Slightly more on topic, is anyone else reading that and thinking "10%, is that all? Try harder!"? I mean, I know I'm totally spoiled by online sales for PC games, but that seems a bit of a lame attempt to court customers. I can't speak for the Wii-U eShop, but there's a reason I've not bought any download 3DS titles yet - apart from Virtual Console stuff and Pullblox - and that's because they cost more than they do in the brick & mortar store (and Amazon, which doesn't exactly count for these things). There can't be a good reason for that.

 

[Eternal_Lament]

On the one hand, the move on it's own isn't necessarily a bad one. Sony does something very similar for when you purchase stuff off of their online store. On the other hand, the low amount given combined with the strict time-frame just seems weird. First note is what you get for what you put in. $5 for each $50 dollars, while not the worst deal, is something I don't see making you reconsider purchases. In order to make the most of it, you would need to already be purchasing something that costs more than $45 (cumulatively) So let's say you're buying a game on the e-shop, and hypothetically the price comes out to $50 or more; fair enough, you were already making the purchase, this is just an added bonus. But that's not the goal here is it, no, the goal is to have people buy more than they would to get the bonus. Again, fair enough, but for only $5 you'd need to already be making a purchase of at least $45.01 to be making a net-profit. As mentioned, Sony does something similar, but they offer $10 for a $50 cumulative purchase. The advantage is that since most non-AAA or recent games cost between the range of $10-$15, the incentive of course would be it gives you the opportunity to play a game for "free" while giving you the sticker price for any reserve purchases. Sure, you need to be already buying something to the tune of $40.01 to make a net-profit, but $10 is easier to justify as "free game" money. For $5, I can't imagine the same reaction. A piece of DLC, maybe some small pieces or even an older game, but I don't think $5 is enough for people to go "Well I can try this out and still have the money left over for something else" Sure, it offers $10 at $100, but if you're already buying something between $90-$100, I'm guessing that you're less likely to see the $10 as "Sweet, get to try out that game!" and more as "Oh, that's nice I guess."

All that can be justified though if, indeed, game prices on the e-shop are cheaper than other platforms (not sure, seeing as I don't have a 3DS/Wii-U) However, what I don't understand is the time-frame. Only 5 days for this type of deal? Bringing up Sony again, this is something they do on a monthly basis, and as far as I know still continues. I don't understand why you would implement this deal for only 5 days. Maybe they can't afford to make this ongoing, but 5 days is a short time-frame to really even consider making enough purchases. Even just doing it for a month can take the strain of having to buy things "NOW" and is more likely to buy things over the course of a month rather than only 5 days. Now let's say the e-shop prices are all on discount for this period, then we have something. The incentive, besides just buying stuff at a cheaper price, also promotes the dollar principle I was talking about earlier, because you're less likely to see $5 as DLC money and more as game money considering what the discounted sticker price would be. However, seeing as how there is no mention of any discounts, I can only assume this is not what they are doing, and as such I can only look at this time-frame and think of how too short it is for the value you'd actually be getting.

 

[Scars Unseen]

Also how is this specific thing a "cry for attention"?

Just like to point out that, as you said yourself, this is a promotion. It's a cry for attention by definition.

And yet when other publishers/distributors run promotions, they aren't described as such. Point is, the article is showing heavy bias, perhaps where it isn't deserved. There's at least one game that's being sold for 10% off in this week's Big Deal on the Internet article, but no one's talking about "schemes" or "transparent cries for attention" in that article. The headline and opening blurb read like they were written as a salvo in the fanboy console wars, and its bad enough when those are coming from the audience. It's kind of disappointing to see that coming from the author.

 

[Dragonbums]

Also how is this specific thing a "cry for attention"?

Just like to point out that, as you said yourself, this is a promotion. It's a cry for attention by definition.

True, however the fact that we have separate terms like promotion and "cries for attention" emphasizes that one is a desperate plea to get someone to notice them when they were before grossly unnoticed.

Promotions are good. They are healthy for business(when you don't corrupt the concept) it's expected for businesses of all types to promote themselves in any way possible.
When we hear promotion in it's most basic concept, it's generally seen as a good thing

However when you say "cry for attention" it has a bad ring to it. It's tasteless. Trying to gain attention from people who will never give it to you in the way you want them to. Whiny, bratty, etc.
Nobody wants to be called out on "crying out for attention."
Hence why the author using such a phrase forsomething far less significant than say the $30.00 e-shop credit Fire Emblem x Shin Megami Tensei "promotion" annoys me. If anything THAT is more close to a cry for attention then say getting an extra $5.00 in e-shop for simply putting $20.00 in your account.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

I...really don't see how this is a scheme of any sort. It's no more a scheme than the SMT x FE promotion going on and I wouldn't be surprised if we see more of them. I mean, seriously, would anyone be surprised if Nintendo does something where by registering Zelda: Wind Waker HD and A Link Between World you get eShop credit? In all honesty I'd like to see stuff like this more often

 

[Weaver]

I'd buy a WiiU if they just flat out gave me $100 in eshop credit.

 

[Atmos Duality]

It's not a bad system, but it is graphically inferior to the consoles Microsoft and Sony are about to release, and more crucially, the device's selection of games is woefully lacking.

"Not a bad system"
*immediately gives two big reasons for why it's a bad system*

I don't follow your line of thinking here.

But I do understand Nintendo's Pennies From Heaven approach to sales and "deals"; namely, that they're barely deals at all.
10% is a little more than enough to cover tax on purchases.

 

[Olas]

In yesterdays news, Valve cried out desperately for attention last week with it's Steam Summer Sale, the last death cries of what must clearly be a dying business.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

In yesterdays news, Valve cried out desperately for attention last week with it's Steam Summer Sale, the last death cries of what must clearly be a dying business.

Gotta love when people make jokes that are context ignorant.

 

[OldNewNewOld]

The Escapist "Journalists" can make even the best news sound negative.
Seriously, they are effectively giving you 10% discount on online store purchases.
Add to that the 10% that you get for buying the WiiU Delux (how come that so many people don't know about this? You get 10% of every online purchase back on your e-wallet and is there anyone who bought the basic pack?), that's a 20% slice. Buy 5 games and get 1 for free.

While this certainly isn't something that would make someone buy a WiiU, it is a nice promotion from Nintendo's side and it's disgusting that you try to make it sound negative. For fucks sake, it sounds like it's an evil scheme from which the consumer won't profit at all.

This certainly isn't PC sales level, but it is a nice start and there is absolutely nothing that could be considered negative in this.