Wii U consoles and games will no longer be stocked in UK supermarket chain ASDA’s 555 stores, according to the retailer. It will, however, continue to stock games online via a title-by-title basis.
CVG reports that the Wal-Mart owned chain will cease the sale of all Wii U console models, games and accessories in-store, and that only a few related products remain on the ASDA Direct website, including basic white Wii U consoles. This could just be a sell-through of remaining units however.
An ASDA rep confirmed the dropping of Wii U to the site in a statement that read, “ASDA continues to offer customers a selection of Wii U games and accessories through Asda Direct, but these ranges are currently not on offer in Asda shops.”
They added that new games would only appear on ASDA Direct on a title-by-title basis, presumably for ones they know will sell well, “Asda will stock [Wii U] games on a title by title merit basis as they come along through Asda Direct. We will continue to support Nintendo as a format holder partner.”
Pikmin 3 was not stocked by ASDA according to CVG’s sources, and it’s unclear if the chain will re-consider its stance down the line.
Nintendo added in its own statement, “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.”
What do you make of the above? Does it bode badly for Nintendo? Could you see ASDA picking up the format again if sales improve? Let us know below.
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