UK Consumers and Retailers Shun Nintendo Wii Mini Launch

By Jorge Ba-oh 22.03.2013 9

UK Consumers and Retailers Shun Nintendo Wii Mini Launch on Nintendo gaming news, videos and discussion

Nintendo Wii Mini launched today to a quiet response in the UK from both consumers and retailers.

The revised Wii hardware, which lacks component support, online play and SD-card storage, is aimed at the casual market who perhaps wishes to pick up the six-year old hardware at a budget price.

However actually finding a Wii Mini to purchase in the UK may be rather tricky. One of the bigger branches of GAME told Techradar that it doesn't intend to stock the console given demand from potential consumers has been low - "We've pretty much had nothing. None at all".

Fellow entertainment house HMV also don't have plans to sell the Wii Mini given the lack of interest, but may reconsider if it picks up.

Given the absolute lack of Wii U support and abysmal start to the Wii Mini, can Nintendo UK do anything to turn home console fortunes around?

Comment on this article

You can comment as a guest or join the Cubed3 community below: Sign Up for Free Account Login

Preview PostPreview Post Your Name:
Validate your comment
  Enter the letters in the image to validate your comment.
Submit Post

Comments

Flynnie is offline. Flynnie 22.03.2013#1

Stupid move...lacking any really need at all and is practically the same price as the current model Wii. Anyone other than an insane collector would be crazy to pick this up. Having said that i bet that this would be going for quite a fair bit of money in a couple of years on auctions sites and the like.

I don't blame the retailers to be fair. Even if it was priced at £50 it would be a bit excessive.

 
welshwuff is offline. welshwuff 22.03.2013#2

its seen second hand wii's for same price that have all features. It's as pointless as the gameboy micro.

 
Flynnie is offline. Flynnie 22.03.2013#3

welshwuff said:
its seen second hand wii's for same price that have all features. It's as pointless as the gameboy micro.

I love my Micro though! At least its smaller than anything else! I didn't have any GBC Or GB games so i didn't care too much for the loss of backcompability...i can see what you mean but at least the GBM had a use...this doesnt!

 
welshwuff is offline. welshwuff 23.03.2013#4

hee i love the micro too, its adorable! but you cant denie its redundancy.

 
TAG is offline. TAG 23.03.2013#5

Good. The Wii Mini was a dumb idea. It's a pared down Wii, but the cost doesn't nearly reflect how pared down it is.


welshwuff said:
hee i love the micro too, its adorable! but you cant denie its redundancy.

It was tinier. Tiny can be a good thing for handhelds. Remember when people thought tiny phones were cool? The Gameboy Micro came out during that time. I miss those days.

TAG: That American Guy

"If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone." Romans 12:18
 
jesusraz is offline. jesusraz 23.03.2013#6

Sad thing is, though, Wii is actually selling more than Wii U this year in the UK, and DS is selling more than 3DS! Smilie

Adam Riley [ Director :: Cubed3 ]

UNITE714: Weekly Prayers | Bible Verses
 
Mandown is offline. Mandown 23.03.2013#7

Good, Nintendo clearly need to learn.

 
Flynnie is offline. Flynnie 24.03.2013#8

Adam Riley said:
Sad thing is, though, Wii is actually selling more than Wii U this year in the UK, and DS is selling more than 3DS! Smilie

This doesn't suprise me, Nintendo clearly don't know how to market the differentiations between consoles enough. I would have rather them called it Wii 2 rather than Wii U. At least it shows that it is a general successor. 

Maybe people have wised up to Nintendo re-hashing handhelds as well, i remember working for GAME and Currys and mothers buying DSi's to replace DSlite's thinking it was a whole new console. Granted there were new features but still the same underneath. Maybe that's what they are thinking with the 3DS and 3DS XL. At least the 3DS is really churning out killer titles though, Fire Emblem and Luigi's Mansion alone are really tempting me to get one let alone the library of games!

 
radorn (guest) 30.03.2013#9

They should have made it cheaper and maybe a bit smaller.
I mean, with all the stuff they removed from it, at least they should make the price and size follow the same philosophy, otherwise it's pointless, especially when you can get a second hand Wii with FULL FUNCTIONALITY for less.

Subscribe to this topic Subscribe to this topic

If you are a registered member and logged in, you can also subscribe to topics by email.
Sign up today for blogs, games collections, reader reviews and much more
Site Feed
Who's Online?
Sandy Wilson

There are 1 members online at the moment.