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Forums - Nintendo - UK Retailer Confirms It’s Ditching Support for Wii U and Wii U Games… Sort of

MikeRox on 09 June 2015
bretonf said:
This reminds me of the late Gamecube era, when UK retailers already stopped stocking GC consoles and game... Which made me very disappointed, because that was the only console I owned from this generation.

The UK was never really fond of the Nintendo consoles, anyway. They're all about sports and shooting games.


Yeah I remember when Dixons Retail Group dropped GameCube within 12 months of release. And that was back when they were a pretty prominent video game retailer.

For people saying that a retailer like this doesn't count though, Supermarkets are a huge chunk of the UK game retail space now and Tesco (15% of the UK game market last year, 2nd to Amazon), Sainsburys and Morrisons also don't really properly carry Wii U anymore.



RIP Dad 25/11/51 - 13/12/13. You will be missed but never forgotten.

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Mummelmann on 09 June 2015
Tbone said:
Mummelmann said:


Hmm, can't say that I've noticed this. If anything, more and more stores are removing shelf space for the Wii U here in Sweden and Norway. GAME nearby has a tiny shelf (same with two other GAME stores I've been to), Media Markt at the largest mall in town has a shelf that holds about 20 titles, Gamestop have all but stopped taking in anything but the bundles and the shelf space is very small and often oddly placed.
This is in Stockholm, so I doubt that things are better in the smaller cities.
Conditions are much the same in Norway (I'm from there, moved to Sweden in 2013), if not even a bit worse.

I really don't think it's growing in Scandinavia. It's barely moving across the entire cointinent and the vast majority of those sales are from three countries (France, Germany, England). I would be surprised if the Wii U sells more than 400-500 units per week on average in Scandinavia.

The 3DS has moved decently though, and has quite a bit more space alotted in stores, both for games and SKU's.

Speaking of Game. They went out of business yesterday in Sweden.

http://www.game.se/


It did in Norway a couple of years back. No big mystery; ridiculous prices, both on new and used games, silly return policies, lackluster inventory and poor customer support. I have a GAME store only about 200 meters from where I live (Skrapan in central Stockholm), it's a ridiculous store.



Pavolink on 09 June 2015
Mummelmann said:


Here in Scandinavia, it's a total disaster to try to look for anything Wii U related in gaming stores, there just isn't any shelf space. In my closest Media Markt, the original Wii and DS has more shelf space.

This whole "well, this isn't the Wii U's best market anyway" argument just underlines my point; it has been selling really poorly in very many regions and this has caused retailers to drop support or severely cut back on stock, which in turn leads to even lower sales and a lessened global presence. North American retailers were trying to get rid of the Basic unit long before it was cut from production and distribution, same across all of Europe and in Australia.

If the biggest retailers in the biggest markets are scaling back on stock; that is hardly a healthy sign, and saying that "it is selling better elsewhere" is just simple smoke & mirrors to obscure the big picture; it is losing retailer support and has been doing so for a long time and this report is far from being an isolated incident despite some making it sound that way.

Yep. Here in my city (Guadalajara, México) is not exactly getting big space on shelves. In fact, Wii and DS games are sold on big retailers like Wal-Mart while it is hard to find anything releated to Wii U. I normally buy on certain big stores like Sears, but prices are high and difficult to find stock because the low shipments.



Proud to be the first cool Nintendo fan ever

Number ONE Zelda fan in the Universe

DKCTF didn't move consoles

Prediction: No Zelda HD for Wii U, quietly moved to the succesor

Predictions for Nintendo NX and Mobile


Tbone on 09 June 2015

@Mummelmann

Indeed. I didn´t find anything to buy lol. I still have my game card left with 800kr on it. Dunno if they can refund.

As for games. The order 1886 was 749kr, 50% off that is laughable.



 

Mummelmann on 09 June 2015
Tbone said:
@Mummelmann

Indeed. I didn´t find anything to buy lol. I still have my game card left with 800kr on it. Dunno if they can refund.

As for games. The order 1886 was 749kr, 50% off that is laughable.


Ridiculous prices, I paid 700 SEK for GT6... I have to work tomorrow, I hope there are PS4's and Wii U's left on thursday when I come home! 50% off is a fantastic deal!



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Pavolink on 09 June 2015
SpokenTruth said:
Pavolink said:


I agree in the last part. Nintendo will keep their plans of release NX in 2016.

Nintendo had playable Wii U's at E3 2011.  NX won't even be talked about at E3 2015 so a 2016 release is highly unlikely.

Wii U is not selling as good as Wii.



Proud to be the first cool Nintendo fan ever

Number ONE Zelda fan in the Universe

DKCTF didn't move consoles

Prediction: No Zelda HD for Wii U, quietly moved to the succesor

Predictions for Nintendo NX and Mobile


Pavolink on 09 June 2015
SpokenTruth said:

That's not a matter of sales.  That's a matter of what it takes to globally launch a product, dev kits and software.  Get marketing ready (E3 unveil), retailers, etc...  Has nothing to do with how well a previous console is selling and everything to do with the complexity of console development and launch.

Do you seriously believe sales doesn't matter?



Proud to be the first cool Nintendo fan ever

Number ONE Zelda fan in the Universe

DKCTF didn't move consoles

Prediction: No Zelda HD for Wii U, quietly moved to the succesor

Predictions for Nintendo NX and Mobile


Pavolink on 09 June 2015
SpokenTruth said:

Do you seriously think that sales of a previous generation device determine the time frame between public unveiling and actual product launch?


Yes, yes, yes.

If sales didn't matter Iwata would never mentioned NX believing consumers will shift to mobile. Another example was the great Wii success, a console that has a lifespan of 6 years, unlike the Nintendo 64 or Nintendo Gamecube (5 years only).



Proud to be the first cool Nintendo fan ever

Number ONE Zelda fan in the Universe

DKCTF didn't move consoles

Prediction: No Zelda HD for Wii U, quietly moved to the succesor

Predictions for Nintendo NX and Mobile