Wii U Discussion

[Firewind]

Re: Wii U Discussion

It's a bit more complicated than simply importing a console or video game to the UK:

1) Power outlets here put out 250v of power and have a completely different AC adaptor, so I will have to rewire not only the AC adaptor but also the entire Wii U to stop it from exploding when I plug it in, or find a transformer that will step down to the exact voltage that the Wii U required without going sploadey.

2) Retailers over here pretty much have HM Customs and Excise by the balls due to a lot of lobbying. If Customs search the package and find out what is inside they WILL hold the item until extortionate tax, duty fees and admin fees are paid.

3) If someone doesn't know how to fill in a Customs declaration form, the above WILL happen because the package has to be opened and searched, rather than someone checking it because there might be electronics in there.

Factoring in 1 to the price isn't too bad since it will still work out cheaper. Factoring in 2 to the cost is a major pain, I've lost several video games because of it because and this and 3 frankly it just wasn't work paying the extra costs to get a game released by Customs because they opened your package. I remember when I imported Pokemon Platinum, cost me $30 but the additional fees and tax because the package was searched meant it would have cost me $80 total for the game (and thankfully the game came out not too long after over here anyway). Same thing happened to Devil Survivor, Digital Devil Saga 2, Disgaea 4, Etrian Odyssey 1 and 2 (3 got through though), Persona 2 and Blazblue.

It's around the same price you're paying in the U.K. (if not more) in Japan.

it's about the same price when I convert the price in Yen to Euros, but converting it to GBP, we still pay more.

[Malacite]

Re: Wii U Discussion

I'll never understand that, given the very high value of the pound (despite Cameron's idiotic, draconian austerity doing far more harm than good).

[Firewind]

Re: Wii U Discussion

Retailers and Publishers love it. They basically just take the price in Dollars and sell it in the same number of units of Pounds/Euros/Kr, without actually converting the prices to net themselves a huge profit. Atlus actually admitting that that is why they region locked Persona 4 Arena is what pissed off their entire European fanbase.

Even with the insane taxes we pay in Europe (the UK alone has a 20% Sales Tax factored in to the prices of everything), we would still be paying less after tax is factored in if the prices were properly converted to GBP/Euro/Kr.

[Malacite]

Re: Wii U Discussion

WOW that's just bullshit - Christ, you'd think Parliament or the EU would step in and do something about that I mean honestly, that's just blatant markup for no real reason.

[Etra]

Re: Wii U Discussion

Soooo... Name is Monochromed if anyone wants to add me. >.>

[Icemage]

Re: Wii U Discussion

Pinging this discussion since the sales figures for most regions in January are in.

Wii U and PS Vita are both doing pretty poorly in their respective ways.

Wii U is currently estimated to have sold 57K in NPD (North America US+CAN), for the five week period in January (note: most monthly reports for NPD are four weeks long, so this means about 11K per week). How it managed to do even more poorly in its third month than PS Vita, I have no idea.

Europe data is extremely sketchy, and no one knows where the overall number is, but I can't find any reasoning anywhere that the Wii U is just short of invisible in every country except maybe France. None of the Wii U software has managed to crack the top sales lists (not even deluxe-bundled Nintendoland) outside of launch month in virtually every country, and nothing at all shows up on the lists for January. But see below.

Japan is probably the "rosiest"(?) region here, where Media Create indicates that Japanese weekly hardware sales have settled down to about 12K units per week. Better than the Vita's 8K per week, but that's not saying much. Give it some time, maybe?

Nintendo says they've shipped (not sold) just over 3 million WiiU as of Jan 1. According to the pixel-counters on NeoGAF who have analyzed Nintendo's charts for hardware sales at their last financial report last month, Nintendo had sold through just under 2M of those shipped units (890K NA, 627K JP, 425K EU). Since the only weekly trackers we have for hardware are in Japan, and Japan is clearly Nintendo's strongest market, one can only assume that other markets are behaving more or less similarly in terms of sales since no new software of note has been added to the Wii U catalog in any region since the beginning of this year, and Japan's weekly trackers trending down each week in 2013 (67K -> 21K -> 17K -> 14K -> 13K -> 12K).

Someone at Nintendo had best be hitting the panic button right now. Sony's about to blow the doors off of Console Generation 8 in less than 24 hours, and Microsoft won't be far behind them.

I still have faith that Nintendo knows what they're doing software wise, but I can't for the life of me figure out how this situation made any sense at all for them marketing-wise. They had their choice of battleground and timing to launch, and this was the best option they could come up with?


Icemage

[Malacite]

Re: Wii U Discussion

Hah, this is what they get for playing catch up and ignoring their core audience for so long.

[Firewind]

Re: Wii U Discussion

Like I posted in the other thread, the price for the console is still a stumbling point and the sheer lack of releases in the EU coming up for the Wii U is hurting sales in this territory in particular as well.

Amazon has the cheapest prices for a new Wii U:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nintendo-Wii...1354073&sr=1-2 (8GB version with no game £240)
Nintendo Wii U 32GB Premium Pack - Black: Amazon.co.uk: PC & Video Games (32GB version with no game £290)

For those who don't know, £240 is $368 and £290 is $444.45. Yes we pay the same amount for the base version as you do for the 32GB version (and Americans still whine about the price of gaming). The prices for new consoles are frankly, way too high in Europe and it took the first 3DS price drop to get people to actually start buying those things.

You also do not want to know what we pay for Vita Memory Cards over here but the high end ones cost more than a 3DS would cost in the US.

[Kailea]

Re: Wii U Discussion

yeah the Wii U game library is shameful right now, I know that the first year of a new system is always rough...but damn..... even in March when new games start rolling out again, I am only getting Monster Hunter 3 U, and Pandora's tower (yeah I know that is a Wii game.....but it will be played on my Wii U ;p)

[Icemage]

Re: Wii U Discussion

The controller will more likely be $99.99 and only launch window games will use one, later games will be able to use two, as the system can support up to two game pads. Nintendo just told devs to not release any games that require two game pads for a year or so.

$99 doesn't sound right at all. The standalone GamePad in Japan retails for ¥13,440. By current conversion rates, that's roughly $160 USD. Japanese pricing does tend to be higher, but not 60% higher.

For reference the retail price for the basic Wii U in Japan is ¥26,250 ($312 USD, +4% from US pricing of $300) and the deluxe edition is ¥31,500 ($375 USD, +7% from US pricing of $350).

If we assume a roughly 5% markup on the Japanese price, that would peg the standalone GamePad controller at about $150.

Looks like I was right about the controller pricing.

Replacement Wii U Pads $150 - NeoGAF

Someone on NeoGaf just had to replace a GamePad lost in airline luggage. Nintendo's charging them $140 + $10 tax + $5 shipping. $155.

No wonder these things aren't available on the open market. I can just imagine the backlash if someone buys it "for their Wii" not knowing it's a controller for a new console.


Icemage

[Malacite]

Re: Wii U Discussion

HAH, wow that's insane...

[Etra]

Re: Wii U Discussion

I honestly forgot I had a WiiU. Oops?

[cidbahamut]

Re: Wii U Discussion

Jesus fucking Christ...

$150 for the damn controller? At that price you're on your way to just purchasing another system, and you can forget about ever making use of local multi-player at that price point.

[Malacite]

Re: Wii U Discussion

Yeah so all that flak I took for blasting the estimated price of the controller when it was announced way back, according to sources from Kotaku/Destructoid that turned out to be totally right in the end?

I'll take those apologies now.


Seriously though Nintendo is out of their damn minds with that kind of pricing.

[Armando]

Re: Wii U Discussion

Yeah so all that flak I took for blasting the estimated price of the controller when it was announced way back, according to sources from Kotaku/Destructoid that turned out to be totally right in the end?

Even a broken clock is right twice a day.

While the pad's pricy, I can't think of a whole lot of reasons you'd destroy it. It's useless without the main console, so it's rarely going to leave your house. If it does, you'd probably lose both things; that guy's lucky (or unlucky) he packed them separately. It's not something you swing around (not that that was ever a legitimate excuse to fling your wii remote...) So unless your kids destroy it, I don't see any reasonable situations that would lead to a destroyed pad. I guess you could step on it, but why would you ever place it on the floor? I guess you could tip a glass of water, but why would you put a glass of water next to electronics? It could fall, but probably not more than three feet; it'd probably survive.