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Topic: Is your local GAME/game stop/ best buy doing enough to promote Wii U?

Posts 1 to 20 of 43

ninjafox

As we enter the holiday shopping season where the majority of Wii U owners are hoping Wii U's fortunes start to change for the better with a new marketing campaign from Nintendo and a decent selection of exclusive games now available I was thinking about how much retailers are doing to promote Wii U.

I have been in 4 different GAME shops in the UK in the last few months and in none of them Wii U games were easy to find. It was only because I was looking for them I knew they would be there, imagine if you were a non Wii U owner you might not see them at all!
In the GAME where Wii U games were most visible they were right next to the checkout so you did see them but chances are you were already waiting to buy your game/console. In the others Wii U games have been in the middle of the shop next to pre-owned games and in one case had a board above them saying Wii not Wii U!

Are Wii U games easy to find at your local games retailer?

ninjafox

sinanziric

if you visit GAME.co.uk website you will see two squares = PS4 and XBOX ONE on the main page! Where is Wii U "Square button"? It's not there.
If that's how they behave ONLINE you can only imagine what is happening with retail stores.

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DanMan82

At my gamestop, the wii u games used to be right in the front of the store, but they have since been moved to the back of the store and the spot where they used to be now has 3DS games and smart phone accessories. Maybe once the U gets more momentum going, they will be moved up front again.

Edited on by DanMan82

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Captain_Toad

Heh, it depends. I saw a gamestop employee wearing a Super Mario 3D world cat ears. They're just plain cute.

Edited on by Captain_Toad

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Solado

I went into my local GAME UK today.
The store has been reworked, on the left side of the store is all in Green with the walls plastered with XBOX ONE material. It has a demo on display and all the 360 games on the wall too. On the right hand side of the store was all in blue with PS4 all over the wall /demo unit on display and PS3 games all on the wall.
However, in the middle isles, the store being 2 isles long store was all the Wii U stuff. They had an impressive information poster with all the Wii U information on with all the games on display. I couldn't find assasins creed black flag, but they certanly had mario 3d world on pre-order and pushing it. Supprisingly people next to me were talking about buying a Wii U - The sales guy even told them it was a worth while upgrade and supported the old wii library which was nice to hear.
The 3DS was on the opposit side as you would guess.

Alot of people were drawn towards the XBOX ONE and PS4 stands but some people did pick up or stop to look at the Wii U games / posters.

Edited on by Solado

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CanisWolfred

They did until the Xbox One came out. But then again, last time I was there was on Friday, when the Xbox One came out. We'll see when I'm there next week what they're doing now.

Edited on by CanisWolfred

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ninjafox

sinanziric wrote:

if you visit GAME.co.uk website you will see two squares = PS4 and XBOX ONE on the main page! Where is Wii U "Square button"? It's not there.
If that's how they behave ONLINE you can only imagine what is happening with retail stores.

There is no excuse for just listing PS4 and XBOX ONE on the main page as they are not limited by space like they are in store. I understand they want to promote the latest consoles but chances are they are sold out so why not put Wii U on there and show that there is an alternative to these consoles. It really feels like people just think next gen is just about PS4 & XB1 and Wii U does not count!

ninjafox

Jazzer94

Went to one of the bigger Game Stores (Westfield Stratford) on Friday, the Wii U section had been significantly reduced in size due to PS4 and Xbox One sections being added which both had playable display units(Wii U unit was no longer there). At first I actually couldn't find the Wii U section as it was being blocked by a table piled high with Xbox One controllers and accessories and an employee trying to sell them when I realized I had to loop round and was browsing the Wii U section a Game employee kept trying to prompt me into the Xbox One area as I was trying to choose a game ( ended up getting Rayman legends for 20 pounds new ) I can understand why he was doing this as it was the Xbox Ones launch day it was just a bit annoying to see less Wii U games on display. To end on a good note as I was queuing I saw three Wii U sales (And about twenty Xbox One sales).

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ninjafox

Solado wrote:

I went into my local GAME UK today.
The store has been reworked, on the left side of the store is all in Green with the walls plastered with XBOX ONE material. It has a demo on display and all the 360 games on the wall too. On the right hand side of the store was all in blue with PS4 all over the wall /demo unit on display and PS3 games all on the wall.
However, in the middle isles, the store being 2 isles long store was all the Wii U stuff. They had an impressive information poster with all the Wii U information on with all the games on display. I couldn't find assasins creed black flag, but they certanly had mario 3d world on pre-order and pushing it. Supprisingly people next to me were talking about buying a Wii U - The sales guy even told them it was a worth while upgrade and supported the old wii library which was nice to hear.
The 3DS was on the opposit side as you would guess.

Alot of people were drawn towards the XBOX ONE and PS4 stands but some people did pick up or stop to look at the Wii U games / posters.

Good to hear that your local UK GAME are promoting the Wii U and that people were considering buying one. Great that staff were explaining benefits of Wii U over Wii. My last conversation with a GAME staff member was at a store that had recently re-opened a guy who was working there came up to me and said "Are you a Battlefield guy?" to which I replied no he then said "More into COD then are you?" again I said no he was surprised by the fact I am not a huge war FPS fan and just said if you need anything come and ask me. It's sad that some people will never know the joys that Nintendo can bring.

ninjafox

sonicfan1373

In Canada my local EB Games does carry most Wii U games and accessories and they are clearly marked and put visibly on shelves also they actually separate the Wii U games from the Wii games (which is something other general chain stores [like Target, Wal Mart]) do not do well. On the promotional front the situation is a bit different. There are no Wii U posters, Nintendo stuff is typically the last page of their flyer (except for the occasional 3DS game or deal), sometimes they advertise certain multi-platform games (like COD: Ghosts) that are on the Wii U but they do not show the box art along with the other versions of the game, and worst of all there is no Wii U demo unit (or even 3DS ones) in any of my local EB Game stores (they have one for PS4, Vita, Xbox One). Many of these things I feel is Nintendo's responsibility as well. For example, usually console companies have to rent space for their consoles from stores.

Nintendo seems to have purchased demo station space at other non-gaming specific electronic and chain retailers (although the orginization of shelf space is terrible) and there are more flyers in these places as well. I guess Nintendo is focusing more on families and non-gamers who purchase their things from non-gaming stores because they might think that gamers already know about the system. I think Nintendo does need step-up its efforts in all retail spaces though.

Edited on by sonicfan1373

sonicfan1373

hotlfusion

The Game Stores in my area are crappy when it cmes to the wii u. Couple weeks back I visted 3 in the South West of London and not one had a copy of COD:Ghost wii u. I eventually got a copy from a privately own store.

I am keen to see what happens with the SM3DW launch.

hotlfusion

brooks83

Perhaps there is something different at these games stores, but companies (i.e. Nintendo) purchase the shelf space from the retailer. It's not really the retailer deciding that the don't like Nintendo and are pushing them to the back. Maybe Sony or Microsoft paid more for the front of the store space. And even if this doesn't apply to game stores, they are still going to want to put the hot new products up front.

brooks83

UTXGamer

When I went to pick up my copy of SM3DW last night, the employees were wearing those cat ears. They were also wearing Xbox One t-shirts though.

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noname001

Beats me, I rarely go those sorts of stores. But recently I've been hearing the WiiU mentioned in radio ads for stores, which is nice!

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SCRAPPER392

Last time I was at GameStop(which was before the PS4 and XBox One launch), the Wii U section was near the back of the store by the PS3 section on the opposite side of the XBox 360/One shelf. One whole side is dedicated to Xbox, in other words, with PS Vita and 3DS sharing a wall, and PS3 and Wii U sharing a wall.

EDIT: Also, Wii, DS, and PSP share one of those shelves in the middle of the store.

There was also only a PS4 kiosk at the one I go to regularly, with 2 other stores having the Wii U kiosk. As far as I can tell, Nintendo has a decent spot at the stores. The only time Wii U looked like it was pushed to the side, was when I went to Best Buy a couple weeks ago and Xbox One and PS4 had a whole display of stuff that wasn't released yet. i.e. cardboard cutouts and posters that take up a whole mid section shelf.

There was obviously a bunch of nothing, though, unless you still count Xbox 360 and PS3 as part of the current(and most relevant) market.

Edited on by SCRAPPER392

Qwest

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skywake

All of the EBGames around here have a good quarter of the shop devoted to Nintendo stuffs and equally a quarter devoted to Sony and Microsoft. Then a slither of PC gaming and the rest is loot... most of which is Nintendo Plushies and shirts. All of the major retailers around here have a whole row devoted to Wii U just as they have rows devoted to all of the other platforms except Vita and PC which have much smaller shares. From memory all of the ones I've seen have the Nintendo stuffs right up the front and in particular the Wii U.

However if I go to EB's website they have eight tabs across the top:
Home, PS4, XBox One, PS3, XBox 360, PC, 3DS and More

.... so

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MAB

skywake wrote:

All of the EBGames around here have a good quarter of the shop devoted to Nintendo stuffs and equally a quarter devoted to Sony and Microsoft. Then a slither of PC gaming and the rest is loot... most of which is Nintendo Plushies and shirts. All of the major retailers around here have a whole row devoted to Wii U just as they have rows devoted to all of the other platforms except Vita and PC which have much smaller shares. From memory all of the ones I've seen have the Nintendo stuffs right up the front and in particular the Wii U.

However if I go to EB's website they have eight tabs across the top:
Home, PS4, XBox One, PS3, XBox 360, PC, 3DS and More

.... so

Yeah, the brick & mortars in the land of oz are generally fair to all the systems (except VITA) and I find JB Hi Fi to be the best all round... But as a DIGITAL 4 LYFE ambassador this doesn't really matter because my local Coles Supermarket gets raided of all its eShop cards while I do my grocery shop after work

Untitled

MAB

RetroChaos

Sadly not. The release of Xbox One and PS4 has made the Wii U and it's games less present and obvious in the store.

RetroChaos

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SofaKing

When I went to game.co.uk I found the tab for the Wii U no problem. With both the mobile and full site.

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