Asda confirmed their new policy to CVG, with stores not even bothering to stock key new release Pikmin 3 – despite it reaching number two in the software sales chart this week:
‘Asda continues to offer customers a selection of Wii U games and accessories through Asda Direct, but these ranges are currently not on offer in Asda shops,’ said a spokesperson.
A seemingly random collection of hardware and software is still listed on the Asda website, but the Wii U console is currently out of stock and given the news it’s unclear whether it’ll ever be available again.
Although Wii U sales have been dire since launch, primarily because of a lack of games, the timing of Asda’s move is peculiar given that this month sees the release of Pikmin 3 and the beginning of a string of more prominent releases.
Stranger still is that the Asda website is currently listing all 3DS consoles as being out of stock, despite still selling a number of games and offering pre-orders for future titles such as Pokémon X/Y.
Although the Wii U has struggled since launch the 3DS has been the best-selling console in the UK for the last two months. This may imply some sort of falling out between Asda and Nintendo, and certainly Nintendo are aware of the situation as they already have a prepared statement:
‘Nintendo UK does not comment on specific business practices with individual retailers. However, as we have seen with Nintendo 3DS, software sells hardware, and with titles such as Wonderful 101, Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD and Super Mario 3D World already announced for this year as well as the recently released Pikmin 3 and New Super Luigi U having reached number 2 and number 6 in this week’s chart respectively, we are looking forward to the year ahead on Wii U.’
Although there’s nothing stopping Asda from restocking both consoles the situation is reminiscent of the early days of the GameCube, when a number of UK retailers stopped selling the console due to similarly low demand.
Asda has already tried selling the Wii U console at a lower price, but without any new games to stimulate demand it had predictably little effect.
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Source: http://metro.co.uk/2013/07/29/asda-drops-wii-u-and-3ds-refuses-to-stock-pikmin-3-3903179/
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