I went game shopping today (didn't actually buy anything mind you) and I noticed some disturbing things. I went to 6 game shops. I found this:

Need for Speed Undercover: Tons of PS2, PS3 and 360 copies. No Wii copies found.

Call of Duty World at War: Tons of PS2, PS3, and 360 copies. No Wii copies found.

Sonic Unleashed: Tons of 360 copies found. A few Wii copies.

Shaun White Snowboarding: Tons of 360 copies, quite a few PS3 copies. Only a few Wii copies.


Now, I know this is anecdotal evidence and it kills baby seals and everything, but I live in the city of Utrecht which is one of the biggest cities in the Netherlands. I though "what the hell" and asked the retailers (2 of them are friends of mine) what was up with this. Responses:

2 retailers didn't know Call of Duty and Need for Speed existed for the Wii. They checked their computer but couldn't find them. 2 retailers said they didn't want to order Wii versions of multiplatform games. 1 retailer said Nintendo was not printing enough discs of Call of Duty and Guitar Hero (wtf? don't they mean Activision?)

A friend of mine works at a local gameshop and he said his boss didn't like the Wii and therefore was hesitant to sell Wii games. They sell some Wii games but only old games, none of the new releases are found there.

I know this is a case of the chicken or the egg. But it seems retailers are not giving Wii games a chance to sell. I read on this site and on Gamefaqs that the Wii version of Call of Duty was nowhere to be found. Sonic Unleashed should sell MUCH better on the Wii than on the 360, but retailers see "Wii" on the game case and don't even want to sell it, ignoring the massvie succes of Mario & Sonic Olympics and Sonic & Secret Rings.

I find this a very disturbing trend, especially if this is the case in other countries too.

Anyone care to share his view?

supply and demand dude, simple as that

I dont find this problem over here. Anyone not wanting to make money because of personla opinion might not be surviving long though.

I spent a month looking for Okami, and Disaster and COD is nowhere to be found

Retailers oblivious to the existence of Wii titles is supply and demand?

"1 retailer said Nintendo was not printing enough discs of Call of Duty and Guitar Hero (wtf? don't they mean Activision?)"

I believe that Nintendo has their propriety discs, which they were short of last year (around christmas too I think). All 3rd parties have to use that disc.

Does the Netherlands have a different marketshare %, that deviates greatly from the WW marketshare, or is the wii ahead?

Well not many wii gamers buy non nintendo games maybe those stores have decided to not to stock 3rd party games

That is strange, especially since the Wii is so big. It isn't like that here in the US.

I think it's more retailers that are retarded in your area. Over here, you can find anything for any platform in pretty much every store. Also, people here are too capitalists to care about their personal opinion when selling stuff. If you can't fin a Wii game, it's because we get shipments that are too small (Guitar Hero).

You know that you can read on this website before posting ignorant comments.