ASDA stores suspend all Wii U products effective immediately

cloud493

Retail giant Asda is no longer stocking Wii U consoles across its 555 retail outlets, dealing a new blow to Nintendo's bid to reverse the console's fortunes.

The grocer, Britain's second-largest, has suspended stock on all Wii U games, consoles and accessories across its stores, though eight products (all released during the Wii U's November 2012 launch) remain available on the Asda Direct website.

CVG understands that the company did not stock Nintendo's latest release, Pikmin 3, a widely acclaimed title which entered at number two on the UK all formats charts.

The Minworth Asda in Birmingham, which is the retail chain's largest UK outlet, told CVG it has no Pikmin 3 games or Wii U systems in stock. The customer services team was unable to find any consoles online.

An Asda representative has confirmed the move in a statement sent to CVG:

"Asda continues to offer customers a selection of Wii U games and accessories through Asda Direct, but these ranges are currently not on offer in Asda shops."

The retailer is not stocking 3DS systems online either - despite the handheld outselling the Xbox 360 and PS3 in the UK and across the US, while 3DS software sales are outperforming the competition too.

Asda is still selling PS3, Xbox 360, and Vita, as well as several hundred games for those platforms. It is also taking pre-orders for Xbox One and PS4.

Nintendo has issued a stament to CVG, which reads:

"Nintendo UK does not comment on specific business practices with individual retailers. However, as we have seen with Nintendo 3DS, software sells hardware, and with titles such as Wonderful 101, Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD and Super Mario 3D World already announced for this year as well as the recently released Pikmin 3 and New Super Luigi U having reached number 2 and number 6 in this week's chart respectively, we are looking forward to the year ahead on Wii U."

It is unclear whether Asda will restock the system or its games in the future.

Accepting blame

The suspension of Wii U stock comes after the Walmart-owned company slashed the Wii U basic console price down from £250 to £200, and then from £200 to £150.

Nintendo chief executive Satoru Iwata has said he accepts the blame for the Wii U's sales figures, which stood at about 3.45 million by April. Pikmin 3 sales in Japan are thought to have given the system new momentum in the region.

"Because we're always trying to be unique, it takes some energies on our side to [make] people understand the real attractions about whatever we are doing," Iwata said in June.

"We have been unsuccessful in coming up with one single software with which people can understand, 'OK, this is really different," he continued.

Third party publishers have expressed a cautious approach to Nintendo's new system.

Though Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick said he was "disappointed" by the Wii U's performance at launch, the publisher has committed to delivering six new Wii U games, including Call of Duty: Ghosts.

Ubisoft, meanwhile, has said that although its Wii U launch game ZombieU was "unprofitable", the publisher remains supportive of the system.

EA recently revealed it has no games in development for Wii U. Though it says it will restart development on Wii U games when it becomes a viable platform.

In May, CVG revealed that Nintendo is to begin a Wii U resurgence campaign towards the end of the year, spearheaded by a new 3D Mario game.

That title was later revealed at E3 as Super Mario 3D Land.

Bit of a set back. http://www.computerandvideogames.com/421340/asda-suspends-wii-u-stock/

penev10

Gamecube all over again?

GC had a better software line up by the time it was pulled by some of the High Street chains.

ShadowHearth

Stocks Ps Vita, but does not stock 3DS... Retailers makes complete sense indeed. :rolleyes:
I would not write Wii U off just yet.

Adamcp898

tbf I'd say when making the decision sales performance to date of the console has a far bigger weight than say looking ahead to upcoming titles and possible sales bumps. If it performs well in the coming months they'll restock it but it's bad publicity to come out no matter which way you look at it.

Retr0gamer

Balls, these guys had the cheapest WiiU you could buy

jaykhunter

Wait, why aren't they selling WiiU's anymore? Is it poor sales? It's not a clear article.

Retr0gamer

Ah wait they aren't selling them only in store. So it means nothing then really considering they aren't selling the 3DS which is the best selling console at the moment.

Radiosonde

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Ah wait they aren't selling them only in store. So it means nothing then really considering they aren't selling the 3DS which is the best selling console at the moment.

They're out of stock on line, and they may well never be in stock again. Must have just wanted to clear stock and be done with it.

Actually, I can't even find an option for either Nintendo console on their online store.

Hercule

ASDA do not believe the Wii U reaches a satisfactory profit margin to warrant its' shelf/floor space in stores - Especially compared to other electronics like TV / Laptops / Tablets, more then likely the poor sales combined with low margin on a lower value product made it perform so badly - They felt they could better utilize the store space selling toilet rolls or 2litre bottles of fanta (or Ipads/Phones)

It is not a reflection on the quality of the actual hardware but a side effect of the customer apathy it has garnered due to a lack of a strong USP.

Adamcp898

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Ah wait they aren't selling them only in store. So it means nothing then really considering they aren't selling the 3DS which is the best selling console at the moment.

I don't know they answer to this either so nobody jump down my throat if I'm 100% wrong, but......

Do ASDA run their own site when it comes to certain products? I think Tesco direct used be part run at least by a different company when it came to non foodstuffs and so that could be why it's just the stores who have stopped carrying the console and not an indication of confidence or lack of in the product.

calex71

Adamcp898 wrote: »

I don't know they answer to this either so nobody jump down my throat if I'm 100% wrong, but......

Do ASDA run their own site when it comes to certain products? I think Tesco direct used be part run at least by a different company when it came to non foodstuffs and so that could be why it's just the stores who have stopped carrying the console and not an indication of confidence or lack of in the product.

CD's and Games were stocked by a different company in tesco yes, well at least they used to be. Don't think thats changed though.

Newaglish

Does anyone have an idea of the breakdown in console sales between game stores (like GameStop) and supermarkets (like Asda/Tesco)? I wonder what kind of an impact this would have

Radiosonde

Wii U sales somehow even worse than anyone thought...just 10,000 of them sold in Europe/Australia in three months. I'd say Iwata on borrowed time at this stage. I've just bought one, I'm really looking forward to the software coming up over Xmas, but this thing had better start swimming or it'll sink like a stone.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/japan-video-game-maker-nintendo-back-in-quarterly-profit-mostly-because-of-cheap-yen/2013/07/31/d278a4fe-f9b5-11e2-a954-358d90d5d72d_story.html

Adamcp898

Radiosonde wrote: »

Wii U sales somehow even worse than anyone thought...just 10,000 of them sold in Europe/Australia in three months. I'd say Iwata on borrowed time at this stage. I've just bought one, I'm really looking forward to the software coming up over Xmas, but this thing had better start swimming or it'll sink like a stone.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/japan-video-game-maker-nintendo-back-in-quarterly-profit-mostly-because-of-cheap-yen/2013/07/31/d278a4fe-f9b5-11e2-a954-358d90d5d72d_story.html

Don't see anywhere with European only figures but the 160,000 units worldwide between April and June isn't great.

cherryghost

They badly need a price cut or at least a new bundle.

Radiosonde

Adamcp898 wrote: »

Don't see anywhere with European only figures but the 160,000 units worldwide between April and June isn't great.

http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2013/130731e.pdf

There aren't Europe only figures as such, but you can see on the last page of the link...'other', rest of world (excludes japan and the americas).

dmcg90

Debundle the controller, market it as the Wii 2.. profit!

cloud493

I don't know how nintendo thought they could release such a crazy expensieve product with such a lack of software and make it work, least in the first year. The odder thing is they were already in a similar situation two years ago with the 3DS, and they did everything right for that, price cut, began feeding in the high quality games, etc. Meanwhile we're waiting till October for the first really big Wii U game, and its an enhanced port.

richymcdermott

if it were not for the announcements of sonic, bayonetta 2 and xenoblade i would have sold my wii u to fund the ps4.

while i think the wii u will be alright in its lifespan i cannot see it getting any multiplats that the ps4 and xbox one will get.

Nollog

cloud493 wrote: »

I don't know how nintendo thought they could release such a crazy expensieve product with such a lack of software and make it work, least in the first year. The odder thing is they were already in a similar situation two years ago with the 3DS, and they did everything right for that, price cut, began feeding in the high quality games, etc. Meanwhile we're waiting till October for the first really big Wii U game, and its an enhanced port.

I guess, like the 3DS they were counting on third party games to fill the gap for their own releases.
Also, Miyamoto held back pikmin 3 from launch, which hurt them a little.
But it's the same old story, Nintendo launching their console without games and the third party not putting any effort in until it's sold 20 times as much as the competition.
I remember Iwata and Reggie both saying they learned from the 3DS and it wouldn't happen again. LoL.

cherryghost

I've said it once and I'll say it again, the Wii U's failure is partly to blame on the 3DS. They are literally their own competition.

ShadowHearth

Video games have been hurt in recent years by the popularity of smartphones and other devices that also deliver online entertainment.

From that article posted above. What a bull****... Nintendo ( and traditional gaming ) did not suffer from Mobile gaming and 3ds is more then prove of this. Wii U failing because of the price tag, lack of gaming, lack of third party support and 3DS being generally better gaming bundle.

I agree with Cherry, Wii U need a price cut. Monster hunter 3 bundle is 380eu-400eu. 400eu is PS4. The classic controller should come in as standart with Wii U.

As i said before, I would not write off Wii U just yet. they still got a chance to bring it around this holiday season, but it will be really damn hard with ps4 and xbox one out.

cloud493

It definitely needs a price drop. Drop the basic bundle, make the premium 250 euro and bundle nintendoland as standard.

Radiosonde

ShadowHearth wrote: »

I agree with Cherry, Wii U need a price cut. Monster hunter 3 bundle is 380eu-400eu. 400eu is PS4. The classic controller should come in as standart with Wii U.

As i said before, I would not write off Wii U just yet. they still got a chance to bring it around this holiday season, but it will be really damn hard with ps4 and xbox one out.

What difference would the Pro Controller make? I dont think people hating the GamePad is the problem...most of them have never even tried it, and it has all the same buttons and sticks (except for i;m not sure if the triggers on the Pro are analogue)

cloud493

The gamepad is great. Super awesome tech, works really well.

Captain Chaos

cloud493 wrote: »

It definitely needs a price drop. Drop the basic bundle, make the premium 250 euro and bundle nintendoland as standard.

The Basic should be deleted completely and the premium should be the only SKU but with more storage maybe 64Gb-80Gb.

Retr0gamer

The WiiU's failure has very very little to do with a lack of software. Contrary to popular believe the vast majority of a console's sales are not down to gamers that are clued in with what happens. The problem is Nintendo's failure to communicate with the public that the WiiU is out and that it's not just another peripheral for the Wii.

I have friends that wouldn't be too clued in on games and when they talk about the next generation of games they always ask me what Nintendo is going to bring out and are suprised when I tell them the WiiU is out and the response is always "oh I thought that was a new controller for the Wii".

abbir

The Wii U has had a lack of games, it is overpriced and is very poorly marketed. I've seen a couple of Pikmin adverts recently (which is a great game) but before that I hadn't seen any for months. They had Monster Hunter ads on but it was only for the 3DS version. They didn't even mention "also available on Wii U".

I can't believe they've made so many of the same mistakes they made with the 3DS again. People thinking it is just an extension of the previous machine and not a brand new system. A long drought in game releases.

People saying bundle the Pro Controller instead, why? There is nothing wrong with the gamepad, it is very comfortable to use, has really nice buttons and dpad, the analog sticks work great. The only problem is it doesn't have any analog triggers and the Pro Controller doesn't have them anyway.

Personally I think the Wii U needs a price cut, some new games (which seem to be coming, finally) but above all else it needs some good advertising. They basically need a relaunch.

Radiosonde

abbir wrote: »

Personally I think the Wii U needs a price cut, some new games (which seem to be coming, finally) but above all else it needs some good advertising. They basically need a relaunch.

Hopefully they are deliberately holding off the advertising at the moment, and really push out the boat "relaunch"-style in the run up to Xmas, when they'll have a decent enough roster of exclusives.

Retr0gamer

WE all wrote off the 3DS which is on track to being one of the best selling consoles of all time and the Vita is bouncing back as well so there's definitely the potential for the WiiU to start doing well. This XMas will be very important to the console but I still think it needs a price cut because as it stands just a few euros more will get you a PS4.

CastorTroy

Main difference between 3DS and Wii U is 3DS only had to compete with smartphones and the Vita. Wii U is basically competing with PS3, 360 and the 2 new consoles.

I think a good idea to get gamers interested in Wii U would be to bite the bullet on season passes and include them in all third party games they release. Gamers will be interested as it will save them money in the long run. For example, no need to pay more for new maps in COD.
And developers will be interested as it'll mean they're guaranteed to get paid for DLC for every copy of the game they sell as opposed to only a percentage.