The other day we reported on a UK-based supermarket giant selling off Wii U 8GB Systems for only £99. It seems this deal was just the tip of the iceberg, as more recently even better deals have been doing the rounds in Tesco and Sainsbury's stores around the country; unsurprisingly stock has been disappearing rapidly.
- Wii U Black Premium 32GB Lego City Undercover Bundle - £84.00 Instore @ Tesco
- Wii U 8GB Basic White - £89.99 @ Sainsburys National
We rang up Tesco in Preston to confirm the validity of the receipt below, and it is legitimate. Naturally all of these Lego City 32GB bundles are sold out already in that store.
Here are some other bargains that have been doing the rounds at Tesco:
- Nintendo 3DS stock clearance £44.00 instore @ Tesco Widnes
- Nintendo Wii Mini 8GB Red Console Instore @ Tesco - £29.00
- New Wii U Pro Controller - £10.00 @ Tesco
While it's great to see such amazing bargains on the UK high street, what do you think this means for the situation which the Wii U finds itself in? Could it be a deliberate effort to increase the UK install base and recoup money from future software sales? Surely anyone can agree that £84 / €111 / $126 for a premium Wii U with a game is quite the steal?
Alternatively, retailers could simply be clearing shelf space for Nintendo's upcoming launch of the New Nintendo 3DS and New Nintendo 3DS XL. Nintendo's overall coverage in UK supermarkets is typically limited, and these retailers may be cutting their losses to shift unpopular inventory to clear a little space for new products.
As always, let us know your thoughts on these developments. Also, we'd love to know if you snagged yourself a bargain too!
Comments 61
why do i never see such sales in germany? :/
NEED....PRO...CONTROLLER....
Whoah dat pro controller...
The deals ate great, but it doesn't send a good message. It makes me feel like nintendo is abandoning the U soon.
WOAH I need an new one but we dont have those discounts over here.
I want the procontroller and lego city undercover.
Damn!
Wow, I would buy at least 3 pro controllers at that price......and maybe even a second Wii U!
I'd like another pro controller for 10......maybe Best Buy will have another clearance on them in US
Shame my local Tesco hates Nintendo. Just Xbone and LameStation stuff.
£10 for Pro Controller?! I spent triple that a couple of weeks ago! I want in on these deals!
A great console with a great game at a great price. Sounds great to me.
And I join in the Pro Controller jealousy.
I hate it when people that own a console buy the same ones up and prevents other people from enjoying a great console and miss out on some cracking games. Then then can't afford it.
I would buy that Lego City bundle in a heartbeat and I already own a WiiU. Hopefully these deals will rekindle some excitement and awareness of the WiiU in that region.
Discontinuing these lines.
Im gonna get a pro controller a that price,hell im gonna get 4 and a second wiiu if possable.
My God, my nephews wanted a Wii U for Christmas but had to do without, I'd go get this straight away for them, anyone in Northern Ireland seen anything like this, or had any luck?
Hey guys,
Wii Mini has no data storage
This is the behavior of a store trying to clear stock of an unpopular product that no one wants. This is pretty unfortunate. Good deals for the consumers, but a bad sign for the Wii U.
It'll be interesting to see how they refill those shelves.
Awesome price, but I'm unlikely to have any opportunity to go to my local supermarket before the weekend. Besides, I doubt anywhere near me will have any good deals.
@Radbot42
It's not Nintendo abandoning the Wii U, it's the retailers giving up on Nintendo. Stores do not have infinite shelf space, and they need to get rid of the stuff that doesn't sell so they can refill the shelves with stuff that DOES sell.
When did they make an LCU bundle?
Seems like a store clearance sale to me, when the major game retailers start selling Wii U at these prices then we'll know Nintnedo has thrown in the towel on Wii U. But w/ the 2015 game line-up I just dont see that happening. If I ran a retial business I'ld probably want those big poorly selling boxes out of my store as well.
Target in US is constantly getting in new supply of the $99 Wii Mini, so even that is still for sale. Wii U is fine for now. Will even hit 10 mil sales someday. 15 mil is possible if they drop the price to $199 for Zelda Us release and then $99 for the long term after that.
I live near two sainsburys I don't think neither of them have the white Wii-U's!! Shame. I might check my nearest tesco's though but I don't remember seeing the lego Wii-U packs.
I need that pro controller.
This is a very worrying situation. I actually think this will have serious consequences for Nintendo and I question how much faith retailers will put into Nintendo next time they launch a console.
My local 'big' Tesco gave up on Nintendo a while back, now they only stock Sony, Microsoft, Skylanders and Disney Infinity products.
@6ch6ris6 I'm in the UK and never see such sales either. Why? Because there are about 5 of these in the entire country. Quite literally the end of the end of the line.
I'd much rather a slightly worse that anyone could pick up such as the $200 refurbished Wii U that Americans turn their nose at.
I think this is just more writing on the wall that unfortunately the Wii U will be following a GameCube cycle this time around. That isn't good or bad, just the situation we are looking at. I think eventually the Wii U will be remembered like the Gamecube and Dreamcast as a system that had a lot of good games on it, but never had a chance it deserved.
Nintendo will give it a good four years and then announce something new. I am not sure what that will be or if it will just be a half step like the "New" 3DS. There are just too many negatives clinging to the console marketwise for them to stick with it through the entire cycle.
Not surprised in the least Supermarkets are getting out of selling the Wii U, it's a niche product that they can't justify the space for. To be honest, I've seen a lot of supermarkets stop selling the XB1 and PS4 as well due to space, and not really having the real sales people to sell them.
Game is still selling Wii U's from £149.99 to £269.99, Argos £149.99 to £249.99, Smyths from £169.99 to £239.99, Toys R Us from £149.99 to £284.99. I would imagine you can still buy them in HMV and Currys as well.
My Tesco hasn't had anything Nintendo related to months! At that price I get another black wii for my bedroom! The only good deal ive got lately was a wii fit meter from game from £4.99
Yet another reason to buy Lego City Undercover.
@jedisquidward
It's soo good. Got it for Xmas, finished the story mode, but still tons to do. My only gripe is the initial loading times, otherwise a great game!
This is sad. Retailers are sort of giving up on Nintendo.
This is a war I wouldn't mind seeing waged in North America. Move more systems, increase user base, clear shelves of older bundles then release some very competitive new bundles later this spring… and announce said bundles at E3.
And move software and peripherals… At those prices, and with great software out there (some also at discounted prices) I can see the attach rate easily being 3 or 4 to 1 here.
Well that is good cleaning out the old bundles. Hopefully that means new bundles are on the way. Still say they need a smash bundle. Too bad we don't have that in America.
It's a shame they don't seem to sell anything in the Havant tesco. Lego Marvel and, I think, Star Wars Angry Birds are the only Wii U games in there.
Are pro controllers region-locked? Ten pounds compared to 50 USD would be a steal if I could import one for that price. I could use a spare.
That is crazy - like half the price my partner paid for her kid's 8GB with two games. I bought a Pro Controller from Tesco in December for £34 - which is a good price, but a tenner? I'd buy another one at that price if the two I have wasn't already indulgent.
Tesco still sells the MK8 bundle at a more normal price.
I got MK7 from them on a whim for £17 yesterday. (Dunno why really).
Let's be honest, they're clearing the shelves to fit more PS4s in there
Same for the vita http://www.pushsquare.com/news/2015/02/tescos_selling_off_the_playstation_vita_for_p49
Both are bombing for Tesco, clearly.
I have yet to see a Wii U in any UK supermarket. I would be buying everyone I know Wii Us for these prices
AAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHH!! I'm going to Tesco's right now to grab another 3DS!
People have no excuse now. These are fantastic prices.
If anyone has a game near them I picked up a gioteck controller, great piece of kit. Doubles as pro controller and classic controller
Probably them just trying to get rid of stock from a few years ago so they stop selling Nintendo stuff completely.
I can't make much sense of it. These retailers have been stocking Wii U products at uncompetitive prices for months and months, then slash them massively due to poor sales?
If they'd have been selling them at competitive prices, minus £5 or £10, instead then they'd have seen much better sales and wouldn't need to be slashing them now.
This isn't good news apart from for the few people who grab a bargain
This is simply down to Tesco closing down some stores due to extremely poor financial results. No reflection on the Wii U. Supermarkets here in the UK have been reducing game and console stock for a while now.
Too bad I live in NA and they would never do anything cool like that.
Meh.... Who honestly buys games in super markets these days? I was in our local Tesco the other day and thought I'd see if any bargains.... No Wii U software and the likes of Call of Duty Ghosts on PS4 for £45.00!? No thanks! Regardless of what game I'm buying and for which system I own, would never buy games in a supermarket. Even the experience seems off some how?!
Those prices are crazy!!
I'll buy 3 controllers at that price and a 32Gb Wii U to put it in the bedroom!!
@BLPs
Can you post a photo of it?
"Alternatively, retailers could simply be clearing shelf space for Nintendo's upcoming launch of the New Nintendo 3DS and New Nintendo 3DS XL."
Wouldn't it make more sense than to discount the existing stock of 3DS/XL's? Can't say I'm surprised though, whenever I walk into a game store there are entire walls several yards long of new/used Xbox 360 and PS3 mostly, but now even the PS4 and Xbone walls are starting to expand past a single shelf or two. I always find the 'Nintendo Shelves' near the back with one shelf for new/used 3DS games mixed together, one shelf for new/used Wii u games mixed together, a small case with DS games without cases in blister packs, and a middle of the room shelf stuffed with Wii games.
The friggen panasonic 3DO had more games on it than the Wii U. It's kind of embarrassing. I love my Wii U, but I never thought I'd see a major console dip worse than the N64.
I buy all my N stuff from BIG W in Australia all the other retailers either don't stock Wii u or are a rip off like EBgames
All they had left at my nearest tesco's were nunchucks for £6! that's all they had.....
I was pretty gutted that they didn't have any Mini Wii's for £29.00, they only had the price stickers!!
And 2DS's for £90.00, had they been a bit cheaper, cough, cough £60 I would have got one.
@Darknyht
I wish it was following the GameCube. The GameCube had third party games.
I picked up a Wii U Pro controller at my Tesco yesterday for £10 but they were charging £59 for a Wii Mini.
I wonder if its worth having another look today to see if the price has gone down...
@Quorthon The Gamecube like the Wii U suffers from a reality of the market. People and marketing will always bring things down to a two way fight. It's us versus them: Republicans vs Democrats, AT&T vs Verizon, Microsoft vs Apple (PCs), Microsoft vs Open Source, iPhone vs Android, Coke vs Pepsi.
Once upon a time it was Nintendo vs Sega. Then it became Sony vs Nintendo. Since the Gamecube era it has been Sony vs Microsoft for the general public. Unless Nintendo finds a way to disrupt the market (like the Wii did for about 18 months), they will continue to be the Sprint, Windows Phone, or RC Cola to the bigger guys.
@Darknyht
At least the GameCube was intended to be a part of it's generation. Granted, in that specific generation, it was Sony vs nobody as MS and Nintendo together still sold 100 million fewer than Sony. That was hardly a competition.
Microsoft changed that with the X360--and was helped by Sony stumbling hard. But yeah, you've got a point, for the most part, things stabilize in a one-on-one style competition.
Well, there's also T-Mobile.
I heard something recently that Blackberry was trying to get a law passed that would require app makers to put their apps on Blackberries as well as Android and iOS. I sincerely hope that was from the Onion, because it's pretty stupid.
Sadly I think this simply re-enforces the belief amongst many gamers, that the Wii U is a) worthless and b) a failure. I don't know how many £35 games people are going to buy for a console that they spent less than £80 on. I expect that they will simply snap up the cheap third party titles that are doing the rounds, which will further confirm their belief, that the Wii u can't handle "proper" games. I'm sure that Nintendo has no hand in this. Like another commentator said, it's just supermarkets clearing out underperforming lines. I'm a Nintendo fan. I've literally got the t-shirt. I have a cupboard full of Wii and Wii U games. It makes me sad to see something I believe in devalued.
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...