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Is Wii U still sold out ?

I'm wondering about the Basic.

What was Nintendo's logical thinking about their decision to release a $300 bare bones system with no "hook" game included (like Wii Sports/Nintendo Land) on launch day next to a sku with a much better value proposition?

I'm also wondering if on Christmas Eve wether or not there will be any Wii U sku's left on the shelves (white or black).

Because if you can walk into a retailer on Christmas Eve and see multiple, unsold, just-launched video game consoles, from Nintendo (more kid targeted than PS360), with a New 2D Super Mario game, and a new control method, for 299 dollars in 2012!? (ps2 launched at that price in 2000!), than some people in the marketing dept in San Fran or Seattle need to be given a final notice or worse it would seem... :/
 
lherre said:
In Europe didn't exist the 20 gb model. Only 60 gb models were sold here at launch.
Click to expand...

This has thrown me for a loop. Wikipedia says you're correct but I'm absolutely certain that the 20GB was available here in the UK because I wanted to switch my order when I saw the all-black finish in the shop.

.....woah.
 
SmokyDave said:
This has thrown me for a loop. Wikipedia says you're correct but I'm absolutely certain that the 20GB was available here in the UK because I wanted to switch my order when I saw the all-black finish in the shop.

.....woah.
Click to expand...

He was talking about Europe.
 
R-User! said:
I'm wondering about the Basic.

What was Nintendo's logical thinking about their decision to release a $300 bare bones system with no "hook" game included (like Wii Sports/Nintendo Land) on launch day next to a sku with a much better value proposition?

I'm also wondering if on Christmas Eve wether or not there will be any Wii U sku's left on the shelves (white or black).
Click to expand...

I assume it's two-fold. One reason is that they wanted a SKU closer in price to past consoles. I imagine "for as little as $299" was important to them in not feeling like they had released too expensive a console. Secondly, I don't necessarily know if I agree that the Deluxe offered a much better value proposition. I agree that it is if you're buying Nintendo Land anyway, but aside from that I don't think it's some sort of no-brainer call. I personally didn't care that much about Nintendo Land, so on launch day when I saw Basics in stock I just got that.
 
F#A#Oo said:
What he says is true...

The best sales launch for a console in the UK goes to the PS3...but the following week/s the sales were pitiful. Then there was all that business with regards to cancelled pre-orders which iirc was like 20-40 thousand, which was blamed on people hoping to cash in on e-bay sales from mass sell-outs.

This never happened because Sony supplied Europe and the UK very well for the demand...and so at no point in the UK at least was the PS3 sold out. People who wanted to e-bay PS3's realized this a few days before launch when places like GAME etc were still taking pre-orders and pretty much all retailers across the board were still taking orders.

Of course Sony still pretended like it was sold out...maybe they were talking about the 20gb model...which was indeed rare to find.
Click to expand...

Ok but there has to be a source. I want to see if it was actual sales and not based on a dollar amount which would be inflated due to the cost of the unit itself.
 
R-User! said:
I'm wondering about the Basic.

What was Nintendo's logical thinking about their decision to release a $300 bare bones system with no "hook" game included (like Wii Sports/Nintendo Land) on launch day next to a sku with a much better value proposition?

I'm also wondering if on Christmas Eve wether or not there will be any Wii U sku's left on the shelves (white or black).
Click to expand...

I'm happy they did because that is the system I wanted. The way the digital offer is handled is not convincing yet and I can always get an external hard drive if needed. I grabbed Nintendo Land for 40 bucks and as much as I love the game, I think it's overpriced at $60. The rest of what comes with the deluxe, I am not interested in.

As a consumer, I'm satisfied that I was given a bit of a choice even if I am in the minority of people here. You can see that the deluxe version doesn't have a better value proposition for me.

The question would rather be why aren't there way more deluxe packs produced/shipped than basic sets. Nintendo may have read the market wrong, but I will refrain from jumping to such a conclusion until we have some concrete numbers (if we ever do) over a longer period of time.
 
Steve Youngblood said:
I assume it's two-fold. One reason is that they wanted a SKU closer in price to past consoles. I imagine "for as little as $299" was important to them in not feeling like they had released too expensive a console. Secondly, I don't necessarily know if I agree that the Deluxe offered a much better value proposition. I agree that it is if you're buying Nintendo Land anyway, but aside from that I don't think it's some sort of no-brainer call. I personally didn't care that much about Nintendo Land, so on launch day when I saw Basics in stock I just got that.
Click to expand...

The people who think it is a much better value clearly do not have much of a clue about what Nintendo is really trying to do here. It's just like every asshole company, charge more for something of very little value. They do a better job than Apple or tablet vendors because it's only 50 more for the extra, albeit still very tiny, storage and the game. The problem is that it's Nintendo defining the value proposition. Plastic stands are not worth 20 fucking bucks and NintendoLand is not really worth 60 bucks. The price on the game is there just to get people to buy the deluxe. That's all fine and good if there are DX units in stock, but for a lot of places that is not the case. The end result is a lost sale if the customer is not willing to settle.

If they really wanted to release 2 SKUs they should have included the game in both because the Wii came with one and made the DX have more storage like 64GB. I wouldn't doubt that there are people out there who think about buying the thing, only see the white one, and get turned off by the fact that it does not include a game. The target market expects the fucking pack-in! I think it is just part of their terrible marketing. 2SKUs, high price, customer confusion, no in-store displays at 2nd level retailers such as Fry's
 
SmokyDave said:
This has thrown me for a loop. Wikipedia says you're correct but I'm absolutely certain that the 20GB was available here in the UK because I wanted to switch my order when I saw the all-black finish in the shop.

.....woah.
Click to expand...

UK did get the 20gb model. surprised to hear than Europe didn't.
 
Dinzy said:
Plastic stands are not worth 20 fucking bucks and NintendoLand is not really worth 60 bucks.
Click to expand...
The convenience of a charging cradle would be worth $20 to me.

You are right that Nintendoland is the problem. Many people want it, but the game alone cost more than the difference between the basic and deluxe. I suppose Nintendo just wanted to cement the new MSRP along with steering people toward the digital downloads (via the increased storage and bonus points promotion).
 
Consumers are without question averse to the basic SKU, but NOT solely by virtue of the fact that it is "barebones." Quite simply, Nintendo should consider dropping the price of the $300 basic set to $250 in the U.S. I could see the premium, in theory, remaining at its $350 price point. This minor alteration in pricing structure could really assist retailers in moving the apparently stagnant basic SKU. Premium set appears to be selling briskly, at the very least. Consumers, for the time being, see a solid value proposition here.

From my point of view, they're inadvertently framing the basic set as a HUGE loss (utility-wise), as the $50 reduction to the ticket (gain) doesn't justify the disproportionately harder-hitting losses (miniscule storage, no pack-in, no e-shop reimbursement incentive).

Of course, the data thus far is limited and it's difficult to foresee what late Dec. will bring to the table in regards to overall sales performance - break downs by SKU should be interesting. With that being said, I cannot help but feel that NOA really dropped the ball in failing to recognize that consumers do not view its individual SKUS in a vacuum.
 
Clay Davis said:
UK did get the 20gb model. surprised to hear than Europe didn't.
Click to expand...

Putting aside the fact that the UK is a part of Europe: Are you sure about Sony actually every selling that PS3 in the UK? Some retailers certainly have accepted pre-orders for a 20GB model, but I can't find any reference to any PAL 20GB consoles actually being produced.
 
theman5141 said:
Consumers are without question averse to the basic SKU, but NOT solely by virtue of the fact that it is "barebones." Quite simply, Nintendo should consider dropping the price of the $300 basic set to $250 in the U.S. I could see the premium, in theory, remaining at its $350 price point. This minor alteration in pricing structure could really assist retailers in moving the apparently stagnant basic SKU. Premium set appears to be selling briskly, at the very least. Consumers, for the time being, see a solid value proposition here.
Click to expand...

For the first week you would be right, but where I work, units are barely moving at all right now. And that's with a solid 20 EUR discount on both models and deals on games.

In fact, we sold maybe four or five Wii-U's total over the weekend, and that's including the sunday. There's over a hundred in stock.
 
Dinzy said:
The people who think it is a much better value clearly do not have much of a clue about what Nintendo is really trying to do here. It's just like every asshole company, charge more for something of very little value. They do a better job than Apple or tablet vendors because it's only 50 more for the extra, albeit still very tiny, storage and the game. The problem is that it's Nintendo defining the value proposition. Plastic stands are not worth 20 fucking bucks and NintendoLand is not really worth 60 bucks. The price on the game is there just to get people to buy the deluxe. That's all fine and good if there are DX units in stock, but for a lot of places that is not the case. The end result is a lost sale if the customer is not willing to settle.

If they really wanted to release 2 SKUs they should have included the game in both because the Wii came with one and made the DX have more storage like 64GB. I wouldn't doubt that there are people out there who think about buying the thing, only see the white one, and get turned off by the fact that it does not include a game. The target market expects the fucking pack-in! I think it is just part of their terrible marketing. 2SKUs, high price, customer confusion, no in-store displays at 2nd level retailers such as Fry's
Click to expand...

Well...

1. If you were going to get Nintendoland anyway, than the Deluxe would be, in reality, a better value proposition because it would be cheaper than buying a Basic and Nintendoland separately.

2. You would also get a GamePad stand for your coffee table or end table, a Cradle to easily drop and charge your GamePad and a Console stand that you could use if you wanted to change the orientation of your entertainment center at any given point.

3. You would get the Digital Promotion that runs until the end of 2014, so you would theoretically save money on your digital purchases if you decide to "go digital here and there throughout the promotion.

Those added items and savings program are why the Deluxe sells out first and the Basics are usually sitting as secondary options for the consumer.

Now, you can't paint everyone who thinks that the deluxe is a much better value proposition as someone who doesn't understand what Nintendo is doing here, because I understand exactly what they're trying to do; get the consumer to spend more money by enticing them with cheap-to-produce items so that they think they're saving money by buying them in the Deluxe set instead of buying them separately.

That's why they're selling and the basics are sitting; generally speaking from what I've seen at Target, Walmart, Best Buy, and Toysrus... :)
 
netBuff said:
Putting aside the fact that the UK is a part of Europe: Are you sure about Sony actually every selling that PS3 in the UK? Some retailers certainly have accepted pre-orders for a 20GB model, but I can't find any reference to any PAL 20GB consoles actually being produced.
Click to expand...

It was sold in the UK. Amazon had it listed as well as a various stores. I believe it was a limited model though.
 
Clay Davis said:
It was sold in the UK. Amazon had it listed as well as a various stores. I believe it was a limited model though.
Click to expand...

Guess you learn something new every day - I wonder whether Sony was willing to sell them in limited quantities to appease retailers that had put up pre-order forms too early, or maybe the initial plan was to release a 20GB as well?

(Tying this back to the Wii U sales question: A model being rare seems to be something that hasn't happened so far with Nintendo's newest offering!)
 
netBuff said:
Guess you learn something new every day - I wonder whether Sony was willing to sell them in limited quantities to appease retailers that had put up pre-order forms too early, or maybe the initial plan was to release a 20GB as well?

(Tying this back to the Wii U sales question: A model being rare seems to be something that hasn't happened so far with Nintendo's newest offering!)
Click to expand...

I think that might be it. I pre-ordered the 60gb personally, but I do vaguely remember there being a 20gb model at launch but it disappearing soon after.
 
Tratorn said:
Maybe Hamburg, but not in general. I see plenty here in Dortmund and even amazon isn't sold out.
Click to expand...

"Sold out" never means you can't get it anywhere. Even when the Wii has been "sold out" in 2006 till 2008 constantly you are able to get them in some places at every time and sometimes at amazon. Amazon.de obviously got a new load of Wii U these days.
 
klapauzius said:
"Sold out" never means you can't get it anywhere. Even when the Wii has been "sold out" in 2006 till 2008 constantly you are able to get them in some places at every time and sometimes at amazon.
Click to expand...

You're right that "sold out" generally doesn't imply that there literally isn't a unit to be found on a shelf anywhere. But it does generally imply things like "difficult to find" and "high resale value." When you're talking about a major online retailer having inventory, unless they just updated the inventory in their system recently (and I'm talking minutes, maybe a couple of hours tops), if I can just go to a website and order one, it's not "sold out."
 
I live in a pretty population heavy area. They had a bunch of in stock signs.

jbdmFySuCnZHJc.JPG
Click to expand...
 
R-User! said:
Well...

1. If you were going to get Nintendoland anyway, than the Deluxe would be, in reality, a better value proposition because it would be cheaper than buying a Basic and Nintendoland separately.
Click to expand...
Is this true? In Australia it's 300 for Basic and 69 for NL separate, whereas its 380 for Deluxe with NL, a saving of $11 going basic.

If you like white and aren't going to DL a plethora of games, Basic is better value.
 
Dinzy said:
The people who think it is a much better value clearly do not have much of a clue about what Nintendo is really trying to do here. It's just like every asshole company, charge more for something of very little value. They do a better job than Apple or tablet vendors because it's only 50 more for the extra, albeit still very tiny, storage and the game. The problem is that it's Nintendo defining the value proposition. Plastic stands are not worth 20 fucking bucks and NintendoLand is not really worth 60 bucks. The price on the game is there just to get people to buy the deluxe. That's all fine and good if there are DX units in stock, but for a lot of places that is not the case. The end result is a lost sale if the customer is not willing to settle.

If they really wanted to release 2 SKUs they should have included the game in both because the Wii came with one and made the DX have more storage like 64GB. I wouldn't doubt that there are people out there who think about buying the thing, only see the white one, and get turned off by the fact that it does not include a game. The target market expects the fucking pack-in! I think it is just part of their terrible marketing. 2SKUs, high price, customer confusion, no in-store displays at 2nd level retailers such as Fry's
Click to expand...
Speak for yourself. Imo nintendoland is worth more than 95% of all the 60 dollar games released this holiday. Content wise is packed to the brim and the production values are stellar. That is without taking into account the extra storage space and the delux store promotion.
 
wsippel said:
I absolutely believe that was the intention, but Nintendo is missing one extremely important ingredient to make it work: A lineup worthy of hype. I really like the system, but I can't recommend it to anyone looking at the 2013 lineup.
Click to expand...
No Pikmin 3? W101?
 
Today at Target, they had 7 basic and 10 deluxe systems just chillin in a case with a target employee trying to explain to people what a Wii U is.
 
Dinzy said:
The people who think it is a much better value clearly do not have much of a clue about what Nintendo is really trying to do here. It's just like every asshole company, charge more for something of very little value. They do a better job than Apple or tablet vendors because it's only 50 more for the extra, albeit still very tiny, storage and the game. The problem is that it's Nintendo defining the value proposition. Plastic stands are not worth 20 fucking bucks and NintendoLand is not really worth 60 bucks. The price on the game is there just to get people to buy the deluxe. That's all fine and good if there are DX units in stock, but for a lot of places that is not the case. The end result is a lost sale if the customer is not willing to settle.
Click to expand...


Unfortunately there is this stigma that Nintendo Land is a shallow mini-game collection (I blame E3), but I can assure you that this game is well worth $60. Ask someone who's actually played it. It's a shame that it's not packed in with every system, because it truly is a fully featured, high production product that really showcases how Nintendo has some of the best game designers in the industry. I've said it before, and I'll say it again... Nintendo Land is serious business.
 
Nintendo didn't learn from the 3DS. I was going to say, "I can't believe Nintendo would be so stupid", but we all know how that goes.

They really really should have released the basic and deluxe at $250 and $300 respectively. I really believe that $50 difference makes it so WiiU's are hard to find and possibly sold out nationwide. At the very least through the holidays.


Also Nintendo should have included a $5 off coupon for Pikmin 3 in every console.
 
Untalkative_Bunny said:
iknow, when I first palyed with a demo station, both me and my partner were like wtf? A demo station that has no demos to play. NOA at its finest.
Click to expand...

I was shopping for groceries earlier and decided to pop in at the Gamestop next door to get my impression of the Wii U. Yeah, I had the same reaction as you over the fact that there were no demos except for Rayman. Lame.

I thought the graphics were pretty good and I liked the controller tablet. I can see myself getting one sometime next year.

The PS Vita was relegated to the far corner of the store (the Wii U was right next to the entrance along with the 3DS). I was impressed with how light the Vita felt and how it was comfortable. Too bad I couldn't play a game as it was locked up. I asked the associate and he said that he was waiting for Sony to service it.
 
doing some christmas shopping today after work. toys r us had a couple white ones. no deluxes. best buy had two of each.

best buy also had a shitload of everything else. there were rows and stacks of ps3s and 360s. i was shocked. four vitas too, from what i counted.

both places the tustin marketplace.
 
If anyone is in Palm Beach Gardens, FL, I think the local Best Buy has them in stock.

I know they did as of a couple of days ago. Not sure of they're still in stock now.
 
My local Walmart has several basic and Deluxe units still. I'm not wishing bad on nintendo but I Hope these decent but poor sales cause them to do a price drop so I actually feel it's worth buying.there's no doubt that it will be worth a buy once it gets the games i'm anticipating. I'm also hoping for more colors soon but thats expecting too much
 
It took until this week, but I can finally find one just about anywhere here in Ann Arbor. I don't know if it's not selling well or Nintendo has done a great job with supply, but I'm glad to see that anyone needing one for Christmas won't struggle to find it.
 
SkyMasterson said:
Nintendo didn't learn from the 3DS. I was going to say, "I can't believe Nintendo would be so stupid", but we all know how that goes.

They really really should have released the basic and deluxe at $250 and $300 respectively. I really believe that $50 difference makes it so WiiU's are hard to find and possibly sold out nationwide. At the very least through the holidays.


Also Nintendo should have included a $5 off coupon for Pikmin 3 in every console.
Click to expand...

Nintendo were greedy with the 3DS at launch and priced it to profit instead of break even. It bit them and they ended up price cutting and then selling each further unit for a substantial loss. They recently cut that price again, so I'm still not sure it's profitable for them at the moment. So their main source of income (the portable market) is in flux.

Wii U is already losing money per unit at $299 / $350. It's not a substantial loss, as apparently they become profitable when a game is sold. So, "break even" territory. But any loss is relevant when the company doesn't have non-gaming divisions. If you're suggesting that Nintendo should have decided to lose an additional $50 per unit sold to drive up demand, you may not have been following their financial reports and stock price in the past year.

The Pikmin 3 coupon is a good idea, but you do get that already if you download Pikmin 3 directly when it comes out. That deluxe digital promotion gives 10% back in e-shop credit.
 
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