TheDrowningMan
Member
you don't need a titanic neogaf post count to see the bead of cold sweat fall from the salesperson's brow when you ask why you should buy your little ernie this thing when he's already got an xbox.
"pikmin? is that the new halo game?"
do you know a single person who wants a wii u who hasn't been able to get one? because i can direct them to one of the mounds piling up around the confused demo booths i see every day.
Nope, but that's just it. No advertising, something in part reliant on the biggest retailers in your product sector actually selling the device, which isn't happening for the most part. You couldn't move without seeing promotional materials for Wii in 2006, but that isn't the case now.
Nintendo's marketing department isn't bothering and hasn't prioritised the biggest gaming retailers in the country. Odd moves whichever way you cook it, especially for a product as prone to brand confusion as this.
I see one of three realistic possibilities:
A) There really IS very limited stock, but Nintendo's crack team of marketeers failed to realise that you still need to drum up hype / market something, especially when it may well appear to the average consumer to be a simple (but very expensive) add on for an existing console. Ergo, it has not been selling.
B) It's a deliberately soft launch. Drip feed now, get it out there and start giving it the push when you slash the price and have full functionality with TVii etc.
C) The industry is fucked. If you're not an established supermarket franchise or this year's novelty, you are in trouble in the UK.
There are other possibilities but they rely on colossal stupidity from Nintendo (ignoring and potentially alienating their retail base) or the worrying prospect of supermarkets no longer stocking consoles nationwide until established (perhaps Vita was the final straw...), which of course would be horrible for the industry in general in this country.