Jump to content
Welcome to the new Forums! And please bear with us... ×
N-Europe

Wii U General Discussion


Hero-of-Time

Recommended Posts

I'll be shocked if they don't do a conference this year. They'll just seem even more out of the console race if they don't have their own show whilst Microsoft and Sony do, even if at this point they're in the race with a broken leg anyway.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Given the state the Wii U is in, I think they are aware that the best thing for them to do is to constantly show off new games, whether it's eShop stuff or a new F-Zero. If they did that in a conference, the atmosphere would be insane...!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mario Kart 8 Wii U bundle for £220...! All those people saying they couldn't do it for around £200 must be feeling pretty stupid right now, that's a pretty big price drop! Assuming retailers are still making 30% profit (typical for electronic goods/consoles), it means Nintendo are selling the console for around £170 to retailers.

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00E4LGGY0/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=B00E4LGGY0&linkCode=as2&tag=prog-21

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mario Kart 8 Wii U bundle for £220...! All those people saying they couldn't do it for around £200 must be feeling pretty stupid right now, that's a pretty big price drop! Assuming retailers are still making 30% profit (typical for electronic goods/consoles), it means Nintendo are selling the console for around £170 to retailers.

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00E4LGGY0/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=B00E4LGGY0&linkCode=as2&tag=prog-21

 

They're not selling it for £170... Amazon are taking a hit in the hope that it'll increase sales (and are probably hoping that consumers pick up some other games and accessories along with it). I bet that they're making almost no margin on it at all (consoles in general are usually very low margin, usually 10-15%, goods anyway - it's the software that retailers really make money off...)

 

The one major exception to this rule was the PSP Go, which ha a whacking great retailer margin slapped on the price because they couldn't make any money on the software (obviously, because it was all digital). Consoles can get away with being low margin because they are the blades that well the high margin razors that are software...

Edited by Dcubed
Link to comment
Share on other sites

They're not selling it for £170... Amazon are taking a hit in the hope that it'll increase sales (and are probably hoping that consumers pick up some other games and accessories along with it). I bet that they're making almost no margin on it at all (consoles in general are usually very low margin, usually 10-15%, goods anyway - it's the software that retailers really make money off...)

 

Given Amazon's relationship with Nintendo, I doubt that is that case. If anything, it's Nintendo that would have to be aggressive.

 

I'm currently talking to some of my old buying partners at John Lewis; should hopefully be able to post any updates regarding Wii U prices/how much they get them for. I know for a fact that Nintendo were selling them to retail for around £240 at launch though, which retailers loved as they thought they'd fly off the shelves. Nintendo themselves sold them at 'a small loss' to retailers, so it was likely costing them around £220 to produce. The question is whether they've been able to cut costs significantly over the last 18 months.

 

Edit. John Lewis were offered a new Wii U bundle (assuming it's the Mario Kart one) for just under £200. It's likely that the amazon's and GAME's of the world were offered it for slightly less as they would be buying it in bulk, compared to a retailer like JL which tends to sell less overall units. This is apparently also significantly cheaper than they were told it would be just a few weeks ago, so Nintendo are clearly being aggressive here. They also have no plans to sell any further software on top of what they already have, so it's a very cautious approach from JL.

Edited by Goron_3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mario Kart 8 Wii U bundle for £220...! All those people saying they couldn't do it for around £200 must be feeling pretty stupid right now, that's a pretty big price drop! Assuming retailers are still making 30% profit (typical for electronic goods/consoles), it means Nintendo are selling the console for around £170 to retailers.

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00E4LGGY0/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=B00E4LGGY0&linkCode=as2&tag=prog-21

 

Oooohhhh that's cheap. Is that £100 less than a PS4? and bundled with one of the biggest selling games of the last gen. If that does not shift hardware then nothing will.

 

I really wish they would allow you to use two gamepads on one Wii U. I know this was discussed as an option in the pre launch days, but heard zip since. I want to buy a second (white) Wii U for upstairs (as the gamepad won't work up there, (nice one Nintendo, make a wireless controller that pretty much needs to be tethered to the console) and would love to have some dual gamepad multiplayer.

Edited by Clownferret
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Given Amazon's relationship with Nintendo, I doubt that is that case. If anything, it's Nintendo that would have to be aggressive.

 

I'm currently talking to some of my old buying partners at John Lewis; should hopefully be able to post any updates regarding Wii U prices/how much they get them for. I know for a fact that Nintendo were selling them to retail for around £240 at launch though, which retailers loved as they thought they'd fly off the shelves. Nintendo themselves sold them at 'a small loss' to retailers, so it was likely costing them around £220 to produce. The question is whether they've been able to cut costs significantly over the last 18 months.

 

If it was a "small loss" then it would be costing Nintendo more than £240... More like £260+

 

Also you're thinking of Amazon US... Amazon UK still has a very good relationship with Nintendo, unlike their US counterpart...

 

Not to mention that because of the Wii U's poor sales so far, they've not been able to benefit from economies of scale like they normally would've been...

Edited by Dcubed
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm worried for Mario Kart. As Cube's said, we don't know a lot of the structure of the game and I, at the moment, am not a day 1 purchase due to what I felt was weak online in MK7. I think many people and Nintendo are expecting MK8 to push Wii U's off the shelves and sell a ton in itself too - I don't think it'll do as well as we expect in the first few weeks though.

 

That Sears $99 clearout is a noteworthy sign of the Wii U's situation imo. Additionally I went into Bluewater HMV a couple weeks ago too and they've officially dropped all their Wii U stuff now apparently.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm worried for Mario Kart. As Cube's said, we don't know a lot of the structure of the game and I, at the moment, am not a day 1 purchase due to what I felt was weak online in MK7. I think many people and Nintendo are expecting MK8 to push Wii U's off the shelves and sell a ton in itself too - I don't think it'll do as well as we expect in the first few weeks though.

 

That Sears $99 clearout is a noteworthy sign of the Wii U's situation imo. Additionally I went into Bluewater HMV a couple weeks ago too and they've officially dropped all their Wii U stuff now apparently.

 

A multiplayer Mario title couldn't sell Wii U's at Christmas. MK8 won't make a difference to the situation, imo.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A multiplayer Mario title couldn't sell Wii U's at Christmas. MK8 won't make a difference to the situation, imo.
I think it will more so because Mario Kart is the 'go to' Nintendo title for the casual audience.

 

It's certainly the closest I'm coming to picking up a Wii U, and if I had the money and the price was a little more attractive (because there's not a whole load of other must haves for me on the system), then I probably would.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think £220.00 with MK8 is a reasonable enough price, they simply must market this now, if they don't it'll be all for naught and they'll not shift as many as they'd hoped.

 

I say reasonable as opposed to good/decent because if you look at the release dates for the rest of the year it's so sparse that it cannot be clarified as a good/decent price in my eyes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I still think 220 is a bit steep to the average consumer; ideally if they could have got it all somewhat under 200 then it starts to look better to casuals, who are probably aware this is on a different level to the other consoles.

 

I agree.

£179.99 would be perfect, AKA GC territory.

But...in regards to value Nintendo are offering a new console AND a gaming tablet (kinda). Surprised Nintendo haven't solely pushed that approach to advertising seeing as they wanted the console to be invisible. It would at least give it some added value.

 

They should also have done some offer where you can trade in your Wii and get the system for £50 cheaper as well. Then donate Wii's to charity foundations or something.

 

Just DO something... :blank:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...