British grocery giant Asda, the country’s second largest, has announced that it will no longer stock the Nintendo Wii U console in stores. This comes on a week or so after their decision not to stock Pikmin 3.
Asda, a subsidiary of Walmart, says the decision is so they can support more successful consoles and handhelds, which includes the Nintendo 3DS. The Wii U will continue to be sold online through their Asda Direct website, which allows for in store pickup if you want the console shipped to a store. However, the online stock is currently sold out due to a £100 price drop recently on their website. The 3DS is also sold out online due to a recent price drop, but they are expected to continue offering the hot selling system.
Asda says it still supports Nintendo and hopes to see the Wii U sales improve, though there are no plans to restock the console in stores at all this year. They will also stock Wii U games on a title by title basis on their website as well as continuing to support the company as a format holder partner. Nintendo responded to Asda’s decision by saying:
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.
This is another blow to the Wii U, but it’s still hard to count out Nintendo with their upcoming lineup.
