Why is the UK shunning 3DS/WiiU harder than elsewhere? (Virtually absent from top 40)

[zippy]

RolStoppable said:

Carl2291 said:
The Wii was sold primarily to the expanded market. Primarily. Its not something that people talk about for the fear of getting moderated, jumped on or whatever... But the Wii really was a console with a userbase that simply wasnt dedicated. They werent all Mario fans, they didnt really care about Zelda, they couldnt give a shit about Metroid and Kirby is irrelevant.

They liked Wii Sports. They liked Wii Fit. Children loved playing the mini games and adults loved plugging the Wii in for some party games on the weekend piss up.

Nintendo abandoned that market and released a console more aimed at PS3 and 360 gamers, as you can tell by software released at launch and throughout 2013. To these gamers, Nintendo games arent a priority and thus the system isnt an attractive purchase. The mass market werent going to jump onto a system that offered them nothing. Another 2D Mario wasnt going to cut it and the people who want tablet games already have a tablet.

Its overpriced. The competition is far more promising. Better Nintendo software is available on a platform that actually has support, the 3DS. They also lost a large chunk of the mass market to Xbox already, thanks to Kinect.

Wii U is in deep shit here and in all honesty, I dont expect Nintendo to drag it out of the hole. I dont think theyre capable of dragging it out of the hole.

That explanation doesn't work either. If you take historical sales of Nintendo home consoles into account, then all countries of Europe are pretty much the same. There was never a really big Nintendo presence anywhere, with totals of less than 10m consoles sold across the entire contintent.

Your point about Kinect is also doubtful, because I don't think there are enough software sales to back it up. And the Wii U doesn't even have tablet games.

I don't have any real explanation either, but instead of population breakdowns, marketing, Nintendo's hardware and software direction and the like which should all be virtually identical in every country, perhaps it has to do with availability of Nintendo's new systems. How do retailers stock them, how do they present them, that kind of stuff. If they mix Wii and Wii U, and DS and 3DS in a pile, then there might be less distinction and awareness for consumers than in other parts of the world. If shops put out store ads that don't make a distinction either, then that would emphasize that problem. As a non-UK resident I can't say how the situation is, but I'd look at that over things that are virtually equal across the whole of Europe.

I can confirm Rol, that many stores in the UK lump DS/3DS and Wii/Wii U games together. There is STILL confusion as to what a Wii U is to a lot of people. Some stores get it right, but some just dont care..i wish Nintendo would open a Nintendo store on the high street, like Disney have done for themselves.