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Asda (Major UK Supermarket) to stop selling 3DS/Wii U

thechemist

Member
I was suggested to create a new thread for this, originally was posted in a different thread.

I just saw this topic on HUKD regarding Mario Kart 8 for £20, LM2 for £10, deal seems store specific but one of the comments stuck out to me.

All asda stores will not be selling ds, 3ds, wii or wii u games in store as part of a range change in 8 weeks. Stores have been told to clear through at discretion with sale stickers. If your local store hasn't done this yet, they may just be holding on a while, as they won't get a credit for the markdown, and may be waiting on a central price change.

Asda is large supermarket in UK, quite sad really that they will stop selling Nintendo stuff, on the other hand it will mean discounted 3DS/ Wii U stuff.
 

fernoca

Member
Didn't ASDA said they dropped the Wii U in 2013?

Seems they drop it whenever sales are bad, then start selling them again when there's interest. Makes sense, since retailers in the end are all about demand, sales and profits.
 

Roo

Member
I'd understand them trying to get rid of Wii U and DS games/consoles but 3DS too?
that's weird.
 

Kathian

Banned
Supermarkets are refocusing across the board. They've all been frightened into realising if their not the best at their core business (day to day purchases) their side ranges will collapse with then.
 

SmokyDave

Member
They barely bothered anyway. Same with Tesco and Sainsburys. Nintendo are lying face down in the UK gutter, rolling around in their own puke.

I'd understand them trying to get rid of Wii U and DS games/consoles but 3DS too?
that's weird.
3DS shifts far less software at retail than either of the consoles. Even the PC beats it at retail. It's not that surprising.
 

pswii60

Member
Supermarkets are refocusing across the board. They've all been frightened into realising if their not the best at their core business (day to day purchases) their side ranges will collapse with then.
Indeed their competition is now coming from the likes of Aldi and Lidl who don't even sell things like videogames.

As for Nintendo, this gen has felt very GameCube era, when in fact it's probably even worse than that. They'll really have to do something drastic to turn things around again next gen. They've got to win the minds of not just the consumer, not just the third party publishers, but also the retailers.
 

JoeM86

Member
Weird thing is that they dropped the Wii U, but I always see them stocking the Vita, despite that selling worse.
 

pswii60

Member
Weird thing is that they dropped the Wii U, but I always see them stocking the Vita, despite that selling worse.
Vita just forms a single shelf as part of the 'Sony' section though. And Sony may give POS incentives to Asda on PS4 on the back of it.

Nintendo doesn't really have anything else to back themselves up with.
 
Unsurprising. I never shop in Asda for more than their (epic) create your own pizza's, never mind buy video games there. Even in my local Tesco which is about double the size, the wii u, 3ds and pc get about a shelf all jumbled in together, so I wouldn't expect much more from Asda.
 
All video games - even ps4/bone - have seen greatly reduced shelf space recently in my local supermarkets.

Nintendo stuff suffers the most obviously.
 

LOCK

Member
So if shelf space is reduced for video games in general, then where do you guys buy games?

Legit curious.
 

pswii60

Member
All video games - even ps4/bone - have seen greatly reduced shelf space recently in my local supermarkets.

Nintendo stuff suffers the most obviously.
Indeed, aside from the console gaming market contracting somewhat (especially after Wii/DS explosion subsided), more and more people are buying and pre-ordering their games online and/or downloading digitally from Live/PS Store. The supermarkets will be all over CoD and FIFA again this year though.
 
So if shelf space is reduced for video games in general, then where do you guys buy games?

Legit curious.

UK here and there are loads of game stores Game, grainger games, CEX, and god knows how many independent game stores, must be at least 7 game stores within half a mile of my local town
 
So if shelf space is reduced for video games in general, then where do you guys buy games?

Legit curious.

It was always weird to me that games (and especially consoles) are sold and agressively pushed in supermarkets in the UK. In Germany you either buy them online or in the major electronic chains like Media Markt or Saturn
 

Decider

Member
It was always weird to me that games (and especially consoles) are sold and agressively pushed in supermarkets in the UK. In Germany you either buy them online or in the major electronic chains like Media Markt or Saturn

I wouldn't say that they're aggressively pushed. Chart stock only, halfheartedly shunted out onto shelves among discount shovelware, perhaps. The only time I've had cause to buy a game from a supermarket is when it's heavily discounted, largely because poor buying decisions resulted in an excess of stock that needed to be shifted.
 

Terrified

Member
Unsurprising - my local Asda has had a handful of games up, and literally three placeholder signs for 2DS, 3DS/XL for around the past 18 months now, and the Wii U was dropped donkeys ago. Most other shops in the area undercut them on price too.
 

pswii60

Member
So if shelf space is reduced for video games in general, then where do you guys buy games?

Legit curious.

Supermarkets still stock all the major PS4/XBO releases. And you've still got stores like GAME, Argos, Currys/PCW, HMV, smaller game stores like Grainger etc.

But I think most of us with any sense buy online these days.
Asda sounds like a typo, I wonder what the real store was supposed to be called.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asda

I hate ASDA. Somehow they manage to make every single one of their stores in to the most unpleasant shopping experience possible, attracting the scum of society in every aisle too. My local large Co-Op just converted in to an ASDA and whilst around half the price, just being in there since the change makes me want to slit my wrists. ASDA were always a bit shitty but then when Walmart bought them it just went to a whole other level of shitty.
 

LoveCake

Member
I also thought ASDA had stopped stocking Nintendo games a few years back, no ASDA close to me so i never go into one.

Slightly off topic i know, but maybe relivent, my local HMV has in the last few weeks put a tiny Nintendo games shelf up, just a couple of WiiU games, more 3DS games though, next time i am in i take a photo.

I wonder with the PS4/X1 sales taking off the WiiU is being considered as last gen with the PS3 & X360? (I know the WiiU isn't but i think it maybe being bundeled in like that in the corprate meetings).
 

ConceptX

Member
Asda sounds like a typo, I wonder what the real store was supposed to be called.

Asda is an abbreviation of Asquith and Dairies, The adoption of the Asda name occurred in 1965 with the merger of the Asquith chain of three supermarkets and Associated Dairies, they have been owned by Wal-Mart for several years now and I believe are the second biggest supermarket with 17-18% share with Tesco the frontrunner with closer to 30%...if you are so inclined to know.

It's odd and not so odd really, unless a supermarket has a deal on (a lot of times these deals aren't even advertised), they are towards the bottom of a list of where to buy anything related to gaming.

Online with Amazon, or stores with Argos/Game/Etc for gaming purchases, I know of no one who thinks of any of the supermarkets first or sometimes at all, when purchasing a console or game.

I thought the 3DS was doing better than it is though, that was surprising.
 
Didn't ASDA said they dropped the Wii U in 2013?

Seems they drop it whenever sales are bad, then start selling them again when there's interest. Makes sense, since retailers in the end are all about demand, sales and profits.

They still sold the console online I believe, and at leaststocked the software and accessorise in stores. This seems to be a complete abandonment of all Nintendo products entirely,

Honestly, it's not hugely surprising. The WiiU is basically dead in the uk, and while a lot of 3DS's have been sold, software sales are utter wank. There's also not the same nostalgia here for Nintendo as there is in alot of other places.

I'm kind of expecting other supermarkets to follow suit soon enough. There's barely any sign of Nintendo anywhere these days, and what little there is ends up sitting on shelves for months.
 
I'd understand them trying to get rid of Wii U and DS games/consoles but 3DS too?
that's weird.
Why? 3DS is selling like shit right now globally, it's probably the same story for the UK.

Isn't bone doing considerably worse than PS4 in Europe, maybe it will be next.

In the UK? No, XBO is doing pretty well. A bit of a drop from the 360 but a lot better than the PS3 did.
 

Taker666

Member
None of my local supermarkets have stocked Wii U or 3DS games for years. I did spot a Mario Kart 8 bundle once at one of them..and a Pokemon 2DS bundle..but that's it. I've not even seen an Amiibo in one either.

They likely won't stock NX either unless Nintendo are willing to spend heavily to get shelf space. My local Asda has never stocked Wii U from day one.
 
ctrl+f vita



Isn't bone doing considerably worse than PS4 in Europe, maybe it will be next.
It doesn't show so they clearly have confidence.
It's 50 50 at this store. Games wise at least, I would say that PS has a bit more hardware and accessories than MS. The Nintendo section has been replaced with films so overall it is a small loss for the games department space wise.
 

NewGame

Banned
I remember Harvey Norman in Australia dropped the Gamecube because of poor sales.

Crawling on hands and knees when the Wii came around.
 
I remember Harvey Norman in Australia dropped the Gamecube because of poor sales.

Crawling on hands and knees when the Wii came around.

Well Nintendo has been dropped by Dick Smiths and Kmart since then in Australia
Pal land isnt going so well for Nintendo.
 
To be honest nobody's going to my local ASDA to buy videogames anyway. Time was you could guarantee supermarket such as ASDA would sell games for a good £10 less than anywhere else, and they'd have considerable shelf space dedicated.

Now in my local ASDA, there's absolutely horrid selection, they'll have the 2-3 "big" PS4/XBO games out, usually at GAME prices. No thanks.
 
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