Retail News, Retail Features - Page 7 of 8

The first time the Wii has had a drop in price in those regions

It was only two months ago that Nintendo announced that the black Wii console would be available to Australian gamers after many envious glares at their Japanese and European counterparts. Now it seems that gamers down under not only have a choice of what colour they want their console to be, they'll also be paying less for it..

An amusing April Fool's joke that highlights the importance of checking service contracts

April Fools is a bit like Marmite: you either love it or hate it. Those that hate it will see no purpose to assigning the light-hearted act of pranks and jokes to a single day of the year. Those that love it will relish in being a nuisance to others, safe in the knowledge that it's justified. This year, video..

RRP still the same

It’s been a while since we’ve reported on the price of the Wii following its up down up down charade last year, but the drought stops here. A recent survey by UK trade magazine MCV of 25 retailers has shown the console’s cost to consumers now stands at a measly £155.56, nearly £25 lower

Ignorance no longer an excuse when buying games

Nintendo has revealed new kiosks for display in major retail outlets in Japan. They come in two flavours: flat screen devices for counters and retail kiosks for floor display. Both come with wonderfully hi-tech touch screens and cameras. Customers will be able to pick up any DS or Wii game and flash...

Paint the town red with Mario's latest adventure

We don't have our press copy of New Super Mario Bros. Wii yet, but those lucky chaps over at Kotaku do - and they've taken some photos of the packaging to tease us with. Normally we wouldn't report on something as banal as this but the fact is the case for NSMB Wii looks fantastic. It's made of red instead of white plastic, so it's sure to stand out..

UK's biggest games retailer may ignore feudal Japanese epic

Following our story last month where Rising Star Games' MD Martin Defries said some UK retailers weren't interested in Muramasa: The Demon Blade, we decided to do a little ringing around of GAME and Gamestation stores to check on the preorder availability of this fantastic game and were...

Some shops not interested in swords and beautiful animation

Although we love Muramasa: The Demon Blade around here, it seems UK retailers are less than optimistic about the game's success, with some stores refusing to stock it completely. Martin Defries, managing director and general head honcho of the game's UK publisher Rising Star Games, wrote into UK trade mag MCV recently to highlight the..

Yet another colour out of production in Great Britain

The DS has been available in more colours than there are fish in the sea, but survival of the fittest dictates that some must be struck from the gene pool, so it's with regret we inform you that the pink DS Lite console will soon no longer be available within the UK. Okay, so it's probably not the worst news you've had all day, but considering..

Will come in a new box too

Back when the DSi was announced, Nintendo revealed that the new handheld would pack more horsepower under the hood than the DS and Lite. It certainly wasn't the first time the company had released an incremental upgrade to handheld hardware; apart from the obvious color screen, the Game Boy Color was essentially a slightly beefed-up Game Boy, complete with exclusive games..

Tough economic climate results in price hike for Brits

We reported a while back that UK retailers were looking into increasing the RRP of the Nintendo Wii in light of the weak value of the Pound. Nothing seemed to happen for a while and it looked as if the situation had changed, but we've just been tipped off that the price increase IS coming, and...

Recent retail disappointments haven't dented Sega's confidence

As much as we loved Madworld and House of the Dead: Overkill, neither title sold particularly well, which has led many 'industry experts' to suggest that mature, hardcore games just can't find an audience on Nintendo's console. In the light of two high-profile commercial bombs you'd expect Sega to step back from mature gaming and..

Sales nearly doubled on last year's total

When the Wii was released super-publisher EA caught a bit of flak for not giving the format the respect it deserved. Thankfully the company has changed its attitude and has been duly rewarded with a massive jump in sales. According to EA's financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2009, 14% of its overall revenue was generated by titles on..

They still have £107,000,000 left to pay, however

Back in 2002 it was revealed that during the 1990s Nintendo's European operation had been colluding with retailers to keep the price of its software and hardware artificially high. Such naughty-type action was brought to the attention of the European Commission and Nintendo was promptly slapped with a whopping £134,000,000 ($199,000,000) fine..

More power to the customer or missing the point entirely?

If you head on over to the popular online store Amazon and look around a little you can find something pretty weird: A listing for World of Goo on the Wii. Reading the item description reveals that this is not actually the game, but rather a code you can enter in the Wii Shop to get the game (Presumably, you have to enter it instead of a Wii..

The Japanese simply cannot get enough of this machine

According to Japanese magazine Famistu, the Nintendo Wii crossed the '8 million sold' mark in Japan on April 19th. Enterbrain has also released the top five selling Wii games in Japan (it's worth pointing out that Wii Sports was not bundled with the console): 1. Wii SportsLaunch: 12/2/06Life-to-date: 3,481,469 copies 2. Wii FitLaunch:..

Game designer predicts poor sales performance for high-profile FPS

With past ‘hardcore’ failures like No More Heroes, House of Dead: Overkill and (more recently) Madworld, the Wii is getting a reputation for being a casual gamers’ machine first and foremost. This certainly doesn’t bode well for Sega’s upcoming FPS title The Conduit...

Falling Wii sales to blame

Following the news that Wii sales were 17% down on this point last year, the value of Nintendo’s stock has plummeted by 7.5%. It’s hardly a shocking plunge but considering the general shoddy state of the global economy at present it certainly could have been a lot worse.

UK retailer Gamestation appears to be preparing for a price rise.

As we reported a month or so ago, Nintendo recently increased the price of Wiis to retailers by up to £20, reflecting the increasing strength of the Yen versus pound sterling. At the time it was unsure whether or not retailers would pass the price increase to customers, but now we’ve seen the first signs that the cost to consumers..

These are tough times for many people, but apparently not for Nintendo.

According to Credit Suisse analyst Koya Tabata, the cost of manufacturing a Wii console has gone down by 45%. If this number is accurate, that would mean each Wii sold is bringing in nearly twice the profit as in previous years. And yes, the Wii most definitely brings in profit per sale, around $6 USD each actually. If you take..