After news of January’s absolutely abysmal sales of Wii U in the states, UK retailers are asking Nintendo to do exactly what they did with 3DS to their home console: Cut the price, get some games, and start fresh.
“Wii U has not caught the public’s imagination yet. We need a killer app to drive sales, and a big marketing push to clearly communicate what Wii U is all about – it will probably be better to focus on the premium edition to do this.” – Tesco games buying manager Jonathan Hayes
“A price drop on the console or extremely competitive bundle options to encourage consumer take-up would be ideal.” Grainger Gamers’ commercial director Simon Peck
“Both the machine and software prices are too high to compete. The price point needs looking at but this alone will not fix the issue.” Founder of Xbite Nick Whitehead
“Lower prices should be led by Nintendo and publishers – not left to retail to discount down to the optimum price point.” Barkman Computers’ Nick Elliot
Ultimately the issue isn’t that the price is too high: It’s that the price is too high for what they’re offering for most people. Try as they may, I don’t think most gamers care about Monster Hunter, New Super Mario Bros., or even Pikmin. Third party support will be key if Nintendo wants to grow beyond just being a Nintendo-games box. Not that I would honestly complain if all the Wii U had was first and second party Nintendo games. That’s what I bought the thing for, after all.
The official Japanese Game & Wario site is now open. Visit it here.
Nintendo has posted information about some of Game & Wario’s mini-games along with screenshots. If you don’t understand Japanese, though, you may not get much out of it!
Having just released Digimon Adventure for PSP, Namco Bandai will reveal its next video game based on the IP in the April 2013 issue of V-Jump. The issue is officially due out on Thursday, though leaks will probably spring up before hand.
Adventure is just one of four projects that tie into Namco Bandai’s 15th anniversary plans for Digimon. Re:Digitize – also on the PSP – and an iPhone title were previously made available. This new game is the fourth anniversary-related project.
First up is The Flash vs. Shazam…
And next, The Joker vs. Lex Luthor:
Update: Bumped to the front page. Added in Epic Mickey 2 (Wii) and Crosswords Plus.
Best Buy is running a fantastic sale on a number of 3DS (and DS) games. Paper Mario: Sticker Star and Style Savvy: Trendsetters are both available for $19.99. Kid Icarus: Uprising, Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask, and Pokemon Black/White 2 are on sale for $14.99 each.
Links to all of the sale items are posted below:
$20 Games – Best Buy
Paper Mario: Sticker Star – Nintendo 3DS
Style Savvy: Trendsetters – Nintendo 3DS
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword – Nintendo Wii (sold out online)
$15 Games
Kid Icarus: Uprising – Nintendo 3DS
Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask – Nintendo 3DS
Pokemon Black Version 2 – Nintendo DS
Pokemon White Version 2 – Nintendo DS
Crosswords Plus – Nintendo 3DS
$12 Games
The following Rock Band Music Store songs will be made available on February 19:
Barenaked Ladies – “One Week” – keyboard support, previously released on Wii
Collective Soul – “Shine”
Fall Out Boy – “A Little Less Sixteen Candles, a Little More ‘Touch Me’”
Each song can be purchased for 200 Wii Points.
Source: Harmonix PR
Kotaku has obtained marketing materials for Ubisoft’s new IP, Watch Dogs, which indicates that the game will be released on “all home consoles” this holiday. The thing is, the wording is nebulous. What exactly does “all home consoles” mean?
Watch Dogs has only been confirmed for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC thus far. Could the Wii U be in the mix?
Kotaku also writes today that Watch Dogs started out as a Driver game. We’ve heard rumblings about this before, so it wouldn’t be too surprising.
