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Apparently, all the Wii Us were recalled at my local Best Buy

jstripes

Banned
That sucks. I was hoping for fire sales before the Switch launches. I was hoping to get one below $200.

Same. I picked up one of those $79 GameCubes. But I guess Nintendo doesn't want to appear desperate by having a fire sale.

I honestly wonder how many units they have left in the channel.
 
I'd love to be surprised, but I seriously doubt the price aggression of a company that's still selling New 3DS XLs for $199. If they couldn't cut costs years into the life of the Wii U to justify selling under $299, I'm gonna hazard a guess that they probably won't come in much lighter with a more powerful system with a much better controller screen.

I think there's a few things going on there:

- 3ds is still pretty in-demand, especially with a best selling Pokemon game, so they're selling them for as much as they can get away with doing so. Don't know what numbers Nintendo put out for Xmas, but judging by availability 3DS has sold well this holiday by the looks of it.

- Wii U never sold enough for economy of scales to drive down the cost of manufacturing that would lead to the flexibility to pass those savings to the consumer. And by 2015( even 2014), with most heavy hitters out( Mario Kart 8, Smash Bros, Bayonetta, etc) not moving the sales needle, I think it was clear by then that the system's fate was irreversible.

I wouldn't judge the price of the Switch based on either scenario. I'm sure Nintendo knows that 1) they're entering a current market with entrenched Sony and MS consoles in the 75 million range and easily available for $250-300, and 2) this is supposed to appeal to handheld gamers as well who are more accustomed to sub $200 pricing( you'll recall how quickly the 3ds price dropped back in 2011), so I wouldn't expect a $299 pricetag. $249 is a sweet spot if they can successively pitch that the Switch is a '2 birds with one stone' type of deal.
 

joecanada

Member
Why is Nintendo so stubborn with Wii U pricing? It's as if they don't want the console to sell.

More consoles in people's homes = more software sales

Nobody's going to buy that shit for a premium price at this point.

Nintendo is pretty clear they won't devalue their products. Even if they don't sell at all. I'm not sure it's the best strategy but it doesn't bode well for cheap switch either.
 
Seems bizarre to do this a week before christmas but same by me in Chicago Suburbs

Was in best buy in the last 2-3 weeks and saw some Wii Us so must've been pretty recent
 

NolbertoS

Member
Damn, I wanted a 2nd Wii U for the 2nd Game pad mostly, but now seeing as how Nintendo is causing panic, we'll be fighting tooth and nail for a Wii U. I'm debating buying one soon, but hopefully its the Wii U getting ready to be slashed in prices.
 
Rather than clearance them off, Nintendo would rather take the unsold ones back to use them for "parts". I'm sure some of those elements could be used for Switch.
 

RedFyn

Member
Damn, I wanted a 2nd Wii U for the 2nd Game pad mostly, but now seeing as how Nintendo is causing panic, we'll be fighting tooth and nail for a Wii U. I'm debating buying one soon, but hopefully its the Wii U getting ready to be slashed in prices.
If you do, just grab a $200 "refurbished" one off their website.
 
Nintendo can probably make more money galvanizing and re-using the parts than they can actually selling the thing. Nobody will buy a Wii U for under $150 right now.
 
If these things were sitting on store shelves, Nintendo already made their money on them.
That's not how this works..

Each retailer gets return money through thier claims department. This is why you have return polices in stores and the reason they accept broken items.also why they want or would rather have complete packaging etc as this is what some companies will require. Consider it a large hit. Not sure what your even getting at.

Rather Nintendo already made money or not is irrelevant to this news.

Typical markup on these things at least at store level can be 0 percent while games are 15 or more.

This obviously domesnt say what Nintendo's mark up to the retailer is but it's obviously one that is a decent profit more than likely. Which has all been loss through claims and sending them back.
 

Lgndryhr

Member
Stock for them has been dropping locally since before Thanksgiving. I checked Best Buy website, Gamestop, Target, and Wal-Mart. They all show out of stock online and locally. Brickseek shows only 21% in stock nationwide for Target and 41% for Wal-Mart.

GameStop has this though:
http://www.gamestop.com/wii-u/consoles/mario-kart-8-wii-u-32gb-pre-owned-edition/139853
Did they just send them back to corporate then turn them into used to offload the inventory?

I'd buy a Wii U / Game Bundle (nintendoland doesn't count) for no more than $200 right now just to have one. If it was $150 without a game I'd jump all over it.
 

Kagoshima_Luke

Gold Member
They probably don't want people buying the Wii U at discount, as that will potentially take them out of the market for the Switch in a few months. If I had waited until now to get a Wii U, I'd probably focus on grabbing titles I missed on that instead of buying another Nintendo system so soon after.
 

Trojita

Rapid Response Threadmaker
I can't wait until the first time someone needs a Wii U gametabletpad replaced and we find out they stopped making anymore.

Nintendo Employee: Wii U, what's that?
 

Malice215

Member
Went to the Best Buy by my job which had a stack of Wii Us and 8 more that an employee wheeled in over the Thanksgiving holiday and they're all gone now.

I was expecting the 3DS inventory to dry up once the $99 models sold out, but wasn't expecting the Wii Us to be recalled. I was thinking about grabbing a second for the gamepad, so I guess I'll figure out which Wii U stuff that I want before that's gone.
 
Stock for them has been dropping locally since before Thanksgiving. I checked Best Buy website, Gamestop, Target, and Wal-Mart. They all show out of stock online and locally. Brickseek shows only 21% in stock nationwide for Target and 41% for Wal-Mart.

GameStop has this though:
http://www.gamestop.com/wii-u/consoles/mario-kart-8-wii-u-32gb-pre-owned-edition/139853
Did they just send them back to corporate then turn them into used to offload the inventory?

I'd buy a Wii U / Game Bundle (nintendoland doesn't count) for no more than $200 right now just to have one. If it was $150 without a game I'd jump all over it.

Do you know how I could use Brickseek to check all of the skus at my local stores?
 

ViciousDS

Banned
Walmart, Best Buy, target and Meijer all have their cases completely empty but packed with games, sky landers and other stuff.



I haven't seen a WiiU since before Black Friday. Even Black Friday they were empty and I know it wasn't because they were selling like hot cakes.
 
I'm so glad i got that 150 dollar discontinued bundle at Target a while ago. I would have missed out on some great games otherwise and I'm not going to pay Nintendo full price for a failed system.
 

Cepheus

Member
Seems to me that the recent announcements of cancelled WiiU versions of games makes a lot more sense now and Nintendo is going full original Xbox with the WiiU and trying to kill it as quickly as humanly possible.

This is why I think Zelda Wii U will probably get canned. If they're recalling their systems they have even less of a reason to release it.

Now I have to make sure that nothing bad happens to my Wii U. They're going to be very hard to find in the future.
 

Seems like there's a bit of a run going on... from walmart.com via 3rd party seller:

pN5hJRX.jpg
 
I think Target still has some in stock (But not online).

300$ wayy too much for me though especially because I just bought a PS4 uncharted bundle for 200$ (including tax).
 
I got a Wii U a few weeks ago at an HEB Plus. They had a $50 off coupon and claimed they would be getting in more. I checked last week and they didn't even have space for a Wii U.
 

GravyButt

Member
So anyone want to buy my console? Broke the tablet last year in a freak drop. Sent it in for repairs. Got lost in transit and nintendo basically said oh well. So been sitting here collecting dust for a while!!

Still kind of stinks because I was hoping for a solid sale soon to grab a bundle or something
 
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