UK Retailer Asda Suspends Wii U Sales

[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.

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.

To your point about the ads, lets be real here, most games in general don't have TV ads. That's the internet's territory now. Sites like this very one here rely on gaming ads. The Wii U doesn't really need a price drop here in Canada. We wanted games. Just like everywhere else. We wanted launch title games and we didn't get them. Doesn't matter how cheap the console is if no one is buying games. The Ouya is a perfect example of that. Nintendo releasing good games this holiday season is waaaaaaay too late for them to be doing so. And none of the titles coming out look to be console movers.

Pikmin is kinda niche.
Same with the Wonderful 101.
Rayman Legends is a sequel to a game that sold the least on a Nintendo console a year ago.
The new Mario game seems to be the game to shoulder all of the moxy that the Wii U has to offer and it didn't really generate the massive excitement that Mario titles used to.
Still No Zelda, Metroid, Kirby, StarFox in the horizon. And the new Smash Bros doesn't come out til next year.
And lets be frank, as good of Nintendo as it was to fund Bayonetta 2, that game will most likely flop pretty damn hard when it comes out.

I want Nintendo to succeed, but its going to take the collective of gamers to get a rope, a pick up truck and literally pull the heads of Nintendo out of the early 2000s.

 

[mad825]

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.

I thought Morrsons were second? Then Sainsburys and so forth.

OT: Don't care and not going to weep a tear, there isn't an ASDA store for 20+ miles from where I live...And london is only 30~ miles from where I am.

 

[Roxas1359]

To your point about the ads, lets be real here, most games in general don't have TV ads. That's the internet's territory now. Sites like this very one here rely on gaming ads. The Wii U doesn't really need a price drop here in Canada. We wanted games. Just like everywhere else. We wanted launch title games and we didn't get them. Doesn't matter how cheap the console is if no one is buying games. The Ouya is a perfect example of that. Nintendo releasing good games this holiday season is waaaaaaay too late for them to be doing so. And none of the titles coming out look to be console movers.

Wii U needs a price drop around here if you ask me because the Deluxe unit to me is about $50 too expensive otherwise I would have already bought it. I want Nintendo to succeed too, but like Sony and Microsoft they are extremely stubborn and don't want to change their ways.
For many we know that the games are coming, but it feels like the Wii U was launched early to try and get a bigger foothold in this generation, but that's backfired a bit. They've actually recently come out saying that the earthquake back in 2011 was part of the cause of these delays, but this could also be applied to Sony as well as they actually got hit a bit worse since some of their manufacturing plants were completely destroyed.

As I've said, I want Nintendo to succeed, but they need to bit the bullet and lower the prices really, I mean Sony did that for the Vita in Japan and it proved helpful; however like Nintendo Sony is too stubborn to lower the price of their system and memory card elsewhere around the world.

 

[momijirabbit]

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.

What Shopper's are you going to? I have been there before and I have never seen any consoles.

 

[xyrafhoan]

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.

What Shopper's are you going to? I have been there before and I have never seen any consoles.

Most Shoppers stores have a small electronics section with all the major systems and a small game and peripheral selection along with SD cards and camera equipment if the store is big enough. Nothing substantial but usually they'll get the guaranteed best sellers. It's definitely not a primary focus of their business since I think many stores are still trying to sell off DS Lites.

I'm not really surprised that the WiiU with its poor sales has been relegated to online sales but I thought the 3DS was really picking up steam and was handily outperforming the PSVita. 2013 had a flood of great system selling games. Are their sales numbers for Nintendo specific hardware and software that bad to axe such a good system from store shelves?

 

[J Tyran]

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.

This is my impression too, they seem to be dumping Nintendo rather than products that are not selling all that well. To speculate it might be because they had a falling out with Nintendo over the price cuts they have been doing, they cut the Wii U down quite a lot and where one of the cheapest places to pick up a 3DS.

It wouldn't be the first time something like this has happened, ASDA has fallen out with all kinds of manufacturers over large price cuts in the past.

 

[Sonic Doctor]

This is my impression too, they seem to be dumping Nintendo rather than products that are not selling all that well. To speculate it might be because they had a falling out with Nintendo over the price cuts they have been doing, they cut the Wii U down quite a lot and where one of the cheapest places to pick up a 3DS.

It wouldn't be the first time something like this has happened, ASDA has fallen out with all kinds of manufacturers over large price cuts in the past.

It wouldn't surprise me, since people are saying that ASDA is owned by Wal-Mart. I work at a home improvement store and my manger told me once that he once a week has to go to competing stores and scope things out for price changes and such, and he gets information on competition company practices.
He said that the reason Wal-Mart tends to beat other stores on prices is because it bullies company manufacturers into giving them a certain price, that when they go to one, they basically say, "This is how many we want and you WILL give it to us at this price, or we will no longer sell your product at our stores, and we will instead do more business with your competitors."

Wal-Mart is just that, a bully. It is just like the whole minimum wage increase that Washington D.C. wants to implement for that area. Wal-Mart said that if they go through with it, they will pull out of D.C. in that they won't build the planned stores they were working on for the area. Though it has gone far enough that other retailers are actually siding with Wal-Mart. It's just plain stupid anyway, since the whole country needs a minimum wage increase, at least three to four dollars higher than it is.

 

[suitepee7]

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

long story short, supermarkets in the UK are no longer JUST supermarkets. now, for more explanation...

the big 3 are tesco, sainsburys and asda, and they each sell these kinds of things. the biggest stores will have more, for example the store i work at is 4/5 regular supermarket, and 1/5 clothing, electricals (TVs, ipads/tablets, phones, cameras, games consoles and dvds/cds) and homeware (its a pretty big store, so theres a decent selection of stuff). the smaller stores will have considerably less. the asda in my town is a two storey one, with downstairs being the regular supermarket and upstairs being all the rest. personally i'd see this as a fairly big hit. asda tend to only be bigger stores afaik, so the majority WOULD stock electronics and you can be damn sure they'll do the next-gen consoles in the store itself.

 

[AgentLampshade]

Ah, Asda. I hear your game of the week adverts every day, andd every day I chuckle. It's been Ride To Hell for about 3 weeks now.

And yes, ASDA is "part of the Wal-Mart family."

 

[Strazdas]

Holiday season has potential? lets be honest here, even if the new mario/zelda be the wrost game ever made, its going to be sold out in an instant, because thats how mario/zelda works.

 

[J Tyran]

snip

snip

Yep thats the kind of thing the supermarkets here do, including ASDA. Its been hitting farmers really hard, the big supermarkets approach the farmers as an oligarchy and insist on a certain value for produce and its leaves them with no choice but to accept. The only thing keeping some of them going are EU/UK farming subsidies, the big supermarkets have even been fined for price fixing a few times.

 

[CrystalShadow]

Well, there's been a sign in my nearest Asda since the Wii U launch stating they only have stock available online...
I always found it really strange.

But the news that they basically seem to be getting rid of ALL Nintendo stock (even stuff that obviously sells really well), has got me baffled?

What kind of argument have they gotten into with Nintendo? Or did someone pay them off?

It just doesn't make sense...

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

Holiday season has potential? lets be honest here, even if the new mario/zelda be the wrost game ever made, its going to be sold out in an instant, because thats how mario/zelda works.

I wouldn't be so eager to throw all the eggs in the holiday basket for Nintendo this time. There isn't that much to look forward to for the holidays for the Wii U contrary to what people like to believe.

Pikmin 3 comes out in a week and being the niche title that it is, the sales for it will probably decline decently by holiday season.

Rayman Legends comes out in just over a month and a half, but it no longer being an exclusive removes the need to buy a Wii U for it.

The Wonderful 101 comes out in the middle of September and will most likely be either another niche title in terms of sales or a sleeper hit in the vein of No More Heroes.

And Super Mario 3D world comes out in December which in my opinion is about a month too late. I think having the game that is most likely to move units coming out a month after the new consoles come out is a mistake.

Most of the games people want to get a Wii U for aren't coming this holiday season. They're coming in 2014.

 

[Quellist]

If the Wii U dies before X gets released i'm going to hold ASDA personally responsible. Probably i'll construct a giant robot out of cardboard boxes and protest outside my local store

 

[Strazdas]

Holiday season has potential? lets be honest here, even if the new mario/zelda be the wrost game ever made, its going to be sold out in an instant, because thats how mario/zelda works.

I wouldn't be so eager to throw all the eggs in the holiday basket for Nintendo this time. There isn't that much to look forward to for the holidays for the Wii U contrary to what people like to believe.

Pikmin 3 comes out in a week and being the niche title that it is, the sales for it will probably decline decently by holiday season.

Rayman Legends comes out in just over a month and a half, but it no longer being an exclusive removes the need to buy a Wii U for it.

The Wonderful 101 comes out in the middle of September and will most likely be either another niche title in terms of sales or a sleeper hit in the vein of No More Heroes.

And Super Mario 3D world comes out in December which in my opinion is about a month too late. I think having the game that is most likely to move units coming out a month after the new consoles come out is a mistake.

Most of the games people want to get a Wii U for aren't coming this holiday season. They're coming in 2014.

im not arguing with that. what im saying is that people are going to buy SUper Mario 3D world despite its quality in december, because thats what mario crazy does.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

Holiday season has potential? lets be honest here, even if the new mario/zelda be the wrost game ever made, its going to be sold out in an instant, because thats how mario/zelda works.

I wouldn't be so eager to throw all the eggs in the holiday basket for Nintendo this time. There isn't that much to look forward to for the holidays for the Wii U contrary to what people like to believe.

Pikmin 3 comes out in a week and being the niche title that it is, the sales for it will probably decline decently by holiday season.

Rayman Legends comes out in just over a month and a half, but it no longer being an exclusive removes the need to buy a Wii U for it.

The Wonderful 101 comes out in the middle of September and will most likely be either another niche title in terms of sales or a sleeper hit in the vein of No More Heroes.

And Super Mario 3D world comes out in December which in my opinion is about a month too late. I think having the game that is most likely to move units coming out a month after the new consoles come out is a mistake.

Most of the games people want to get a Wii U for aren't coming this holiday season. They're coming in 2014.

im not arguing with that. what im saying is that people are going to buy SUper Mario 3D world despite its quality in december, because thats what mario crazy does.

That's fair. Though I don't think the Mario Crazy is as strong as it once was considering the response to Super Mario 3D World wasn't that big. Especially when looked how people went nuts over SMB Galaxy.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Im sure its to do with money. From what i gather supermarkets only make money on the food, they sell the games and movies cheaper at a low profit margin to get people in the store and do all their shopping in one place. Games are sold cheaper in supermarkets than in game stores. I dont buy nintendo consoles as their games dont interest me, but it always sad that they never have more games from other companies on their system. Like the Wii, there is always a huge jump in console sales when a Zelda or Mario is released.

 

[Strazdas]

That's fair. Though I don't think the Mario Crazy is as strong as it once was considering the response to Super Mario 3D World wasn't that big. Especially when looked how people went nuts over SMB Galaxy.

i sincerely wish this was true. BUt all you need is a look at how E3 reacted to mention of new Zelda.....

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

That's fair. Though I don't think the Mario Crazy is as strong as it once was considering the response to Super Mario 3D World wasn't that big. Especially when looked how people went nuts over SMB Galaxy.

i sincerely wish this was true. BUt all you need is a look at how E3 reacted to mention of new Zelda.....

Are you talking about the tech demo from the Wii U announcment or the Zelda Wii U title that was hinted it vaguely this year? Either way I agree that Zelda still gets the most excitement going for Nintendo these days.

Mario Crazy and Zelda Crazy are two different beasts. I think people are going through a bit of Mario fatigue things to the re-re-re-releases of New Super Mario Bros(insert console name here). SMB Galaxy 2 being a retcon of the first and not a true sequel also didn't help. And the Super Mario 3D world looks to be continuing the trend of Mario titles being scaled back in scope, which is unfortunate. Needless to say, the Mario hype train is slowing down, and I think after 30+ years its about time.

LoZ on the other hand is still a franchise that Nintendo can bank on for being a console seller. Probably because it hasn't been milked dry with spinoffs and minigames.