Games analyst speculates that uninformed retail staff are partially to blame for poor Wii U sales

Posted on October 15, 2013 by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Nintendo, News, Platforms, Wii U

“There was nothing that you could put in front of everybody that said, ‘This is what the experience is.’ I think one of the things that was a real indicator of that was just, anecdotally, if you went into a retailer and you talked to somebody in the games department, they didn’t even understand what it was. I did the secret shopper kind of thing, and they would say, ‘Well, there’s no difference between the Wii and Wii U.’ I’m standing there, looking at them, going, ‘Wow!’ I think that right there was an anecdotal piece of evidence [showing] that people didn’t get it.
“There should have been a Wii Sports-type game that let everybody get it. Those huge franchises would have gotten the loyal Nintendo person, but it was Wii Sports that got all the people outside the Nintendo world to look and say, ‘This is a really, really neat, fun thing to do.’

“I think there was something really special about the Wii and the way that whole thing happened that they didn’t even know was going to happen. I don’t think there was the possibility that the Wii U was ever going to repeat that. I’m not sure they expected that [either].”

– IHS Electronics & Media’s Senior Games Analyst Christine Arrington

Arrington does not give any details on her research, and the only concrete evidence she brings to the table is anecdotal. This appears to be purely speculative.

Benzinga, Via NintendoLife