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Forums - Sales Discussion - Wii U at Best Buy - not looking great

zippy on 24 October 2014

Perhaps its bare because they cant restock the shelves fast enough due to demand :)



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thegamerpad on 24 October 2014
sc94597 said:
thegamerpad said:

Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo has representatives that visit each store, generally about once a month.  They're the ones that go to the store and replace broken demo controllers, update the demo disks, put up some of the marketing/posters/etc for upcoming games.  They're the ones that go to the retailer and make sure that their product is being represented properly.  Microsoft and Sony's employees seem to be doing a great job at it, they seem to be doing a great job at keeping the retailer informed on the upcoming releases too.  I see pre-order displays for the PS4 and XB1 games but do not see them for Wii U games.  I also own a PS4 and the releases are on the shelves Day 1.  The games section is always well organized and stocked, even though they're clearly getting more traffic and customers fumbling through them.  The Wii U section tends to be harder to make look nice because it's so under stocked with so few games to choose from so it looks sparse and almost like a clearance section. 

All of this points to Nintendo either cutting down on representatives, not training them properly, or just putting no importance on the representatives that visit the store.    Those corporations, Microsoft, Sony, Samsung, Apple, Whirlpool, BeatsbyDre (I know it's apple) all of them basically buy representation in the store and shelf space.  Nintendo seems to not care or see the importance of their brand in the store and are expecting the consumers to be educated on the product, walk in and buy it.  That is what you or I do, but that is not what your average consumer does.  Besides having a demo playing Hyrule Warriors they need to have the section stocked with copies of Hyrule Warriors, stocked with the already released hits of the Wii U and promoting the upcoming games on the Wii U.  That is how you get someone to impulse buy a Wii U or start considering buying the system that previously hadn't paid attention to it.

I honestly haven't seen a demo for any console for years. I figured they broke far too much and it was too costly for it to be worth the extra marketing. Especially touch screen consoles like the 3DS/DS (and the would be Wii U.) There are Xbox 360 controllers attached to what used to be a demo in my Walmart, but they are not connected to anything now, for example. So I can't comment on that. But I just want to make sure you are not ignoring the issue of retailers not ordering some of these games because they don't believe there is much demand for them in the first place. I just can't see how a company not putting certain WIi U games on the shelves, but keeping them in the back is Nintendo's fault. It seems to me as if they want that shelf-space for something they think will sell more. Anyway, at my Walmart there were many displays for Mario Kart 8 and SM3DW, so certainly this is a localized issue and not the generalized one you are making it seem to be. I mean, if a company doesn't want to buy so many copies of a game, it isn't Nintendo's role to persuade or force them knowing that the company probably has sound reasoning for not stocking such games at those levels. This is especially true for games like Hyrule Warriors which are somewhat niche and Nintendo wants to maximize the supply to areas in which it will sellout. Nintendo's role should be more in advertising their games through media, and that is where I believe they are doing poorly. Anyway, if what you say is true, why doesn't this issue extend itself to 3DS releases? The 3DS section at my Walmart and at the few Gamestops I frequently go to tend to be the largest and most varied sections. 


Those companies usually pay for better locations within the store of where to put their products.  Sometimes it does come down to what is more popular, but the companies pay for their locations in the departments too at times.   Nintendo does have a strong relationship with Wal-Mart though, and they have for a long time.  Nintendo tends to value Wal-Mart more than any of the other retailers out there, they're usually the best stocked with consoles and games from launch and throughout a system's life.  They do this I believe because Wal-Mart is the biggest retailer in America.   Nintendo seems to also put some value in Target and Toys'R'Us.   Everything outside of that it's almost like they don't care at all.

I think 3DS covers a lot of shelf space at GameStop due to DS, GBA, GB etc all being one of the biggest attractions to kids, and the used market there is a huge library of 3DS/DS games so they can't generally be shoved into a corner to be ignored as easily as the Wii U.  But I see the 3DS treated the same as Wii U at Best Buy and other retailers too, GameStop does give it more attention than they do the Wii U...I really don't know why though other than what I speculated at the start of this paragraph.

I am not anti-Nintendo at all.  I buy almost all of their products day one.  There are just a lot of areas as a whole that I see where NOA is dropping the ball and NIntendo in general.  Fortunately, their games are the only thing that deliver consistently, and that is the most important thing.



Mnementh on 24 October 2014

LOL, I should post a photo of our local Saturn (electronics shop in germany). The Vita section is only one shelf to begin with, but there are PSP-games among the Vita games. More importantly: half of the shelf is already filled with DS-games, as the DS-section loses more and more in favor of 3DS-games.

Had to go to another shop today though to pick up Special edition of Bayonetta 2 with the first game included, as it was sold out in the Saturn.



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t3mporary_126 on 24 October 2014

What an alarming anecdote picture! But I'm inclined to agree based on the NPD numbers. I thought Best Buy would have more Wii U presence thanks to Smash Fest and last year's E3 demos appearing there exclusively.



Jay70sgamer on 24 October 2014

This is really silly because I live in NYC and every best buy,toys r us ,target,walmart and gamestop has basically every wii u section filled with wii u games as well as ps4 and xbox1 etc....it's the area that you live in I have yet to see at any of these stores in NYC to have a bare wii u section and in NYC there are hundreds of these stores ...just saying



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ICStats on 24 October 2014
kowenicki said:
what was the pstv section like? did it even have a section?

genuine question.

Heh, no it was in some mixed shelf with some PS4 stuff.  Only saw one basic PSTV and one PSTV+LEGO+Controller bundle, so I bought the basic PSTV.



My 8th gen collection

irstupid on 24 October 2014

Haven't been to best buy in a couple years, but wow that looks liek shit.

No wonder your best buy doesn't sell any Wii U games or systems with that presentation. Put some better organizaiton, clean it up a bit, ect.