In addition to Nintendo 2DS announcement, Nintendo of America announced a $50 dollar price drop for the struggling Wii U console. We’ve just gotten word from Nintendo Australia will not be following suit. As of this point there are no current plans for a Wii U price drop in Australia or New Zealand.
This also follows news that Nintendo will not be bringing the Wind Waker HD Limited Edition to our shores, or the Wii U Wind Waker HD bundle.
The limited edition for Wind Waker HD was rather snazzy, featuring a Ganondorf figurine, so I find this news rather disappointing.
As for the price drop, the statement coming from Nintendo Australia didn’t necessarily rule out any future price drops. I suspect we’ll definitely see one, but probably not before Christmas.
Comments
67 responses to “No Current Plans For A Wii U Price Drop In Australia”
No price drop for AU – are they crazy. They’ve already had a mediocre launch and with 2 new consoles less than 3 months away they’re really going to have to do something drastic if they’re going to grab those Christmas dollars
And this Nintendo, is why we’re no longer friends!
Makes sense. 10,000 consoles sold in Europe and Australia combined in the last quarter. Clearly the price is right for the market, especially with 2 highly anticipated consoles ready to join the fun in 3 months. Expect EB Games and JB Hifi to be re-arranged once again and Wii U pushed into that dingy corner that no-one ventures into in the shops
PS4 in exactly 3 months 😀
A lot of EBs have already rearranged and moved Wii U to the back.
So we’re not seeing that bundle? That’s rather disappointing, i’d have actually considered a purchase if they’d brought it here, along with the price drop. The fact we’re not seeing EITHER of those things is a complete fail.
Well that’s kinda BS. We must be paying nearly double after the price drop in the US?
edit: I’m an idiot.
No….
199 USD is $254 NZD, the current price for a the lower model Wii U on Mightyape.co.nz (One of the few retailers that still even bother to sell the Wii U is $450 NZD (when not on sale), that seems pretty close to double to me.
I already knew this 2 days ago. damn slow kotaku. it’s because sales in Australia are better than most regions already…
Not sure how you knew this, given that Nintendo Australia only confirmed the information this morning…
Exactly. I don’t work for Nintendo in Australia 🙂
They only found out this morning. Same with the 2DS console, the rest of the world knew before Nintendo Aus.
I’d love to see your source. I’m sure kotaku would appreciate the tip in the future as well.
Remember Australia getting the world exclusive first release of New Super Mario Bros. Wii?
Nearly a week ahead of the rest of the world?
Then someone went and uploaded the image for torrenting. And this is what we get since then.
If that’s true Nintendo are incredibly childish. It’s not true, Nintendo are just arse holes to Australians… they have been for decades.
I am really mad about this news, something to finally convince me to get a Wii U. But we haven’t had it all bad, Aus and NZ were one of the only people to get the Ocarina of Time collectors edition. And we got the best Oot 3D preorder bonus. AND we got the Gold Zelda Wii Remote. But yeah, our Club Nintendo sucks ass, and I want this bundle. Fuck you Nintendo.
Nintendo clearly does not want the Wii-u to sell
WiiU will be a DISTANT 3rd in Australia in 12 months time. An exclusives machine just like the Gamecube.
Not trying to sound like a fanboy, but isn’t it already a distant third to XBOX 360 and PS3? Granted I loved my GameCube even with it’s limited library.
Too early to judge on being 3rd already. 9 months compared to 7-8 years but the whole ‘gen’ thing is all screwed up now.
Love my Gamecube too. But have about 15 games for it (probably about 25 on the Wii, 15 each on PS2 & PS3) compared to 50 to 60 games on 360.
The Wii is still outselling it. The Vita’s outselling it. The 2DS will probably outsell it. Next year the Wii U as it stands will still struggle against the current generation, let alone the next gen. There’s only so many consoles people will buy to play the latest Zelda and Mario games on
You know you’re in trouble when your sales trajectory looks worse than the Vita’s. 🙁
And, unlike the Wii U, the Vita DOES have a confirmed price drop kicking in next week which should boost it further ahead.
So tempting to buy a second Vita and get some sweet ad hoc action going on…
I’m taking the plunge once the price cut takes effect. Too many Vita games from PS+ and PS3 cross buy titles to not have one anymore. I doubt I’ll actually buy many games for it, though – PS+ and cross-buy will probably give me more than I’ve got time for anyway.
Agreed. I’m fighting a losing battle at the moment. I just finished the MGS HD that I got from PS+, am now onto Lego LotR, and have Ninja Gaiden Plus sitting on my PS3 along with New Little King’s Story and Urban Trials. To top it all off, I got Spelunky and Stealth Inc 🙁 My 32GB card is full of games I haven’t played yet!
I didnt think I would buy many games for my Vita mostly just PS+, but 3 months down the line I have 6 physical games, 2 digital and 2 from PS+, not as many ps+ games as i would like.
The biggest problem is storage for all the digital gam, but I love the thing and I use it every day
Don’t forget you can keep the downloaded copies on your PS3 and just load the ones you’re playing onto your memory card!
Unless you’re one of the many who are steadily growing uncertain about the PS4 and Xbox one. Or one of the many that has a decent PC and no need for next gen. Just give me good exclusives and Nintendo has the best.
Well there goes my reason to consider buying one
Weak. I was planning on buying the Wind Waker console bundle.
same, and with a price drop it would have guaranteed a sale.
At this point, it’s like they’re asking people to avoiding buying their products.
… and here i was thinking I’d be going to get one in a couple weeks… oh well
Who wants to buy me one?
no takers?
really?:'(
Is anyone actually surprised at this, i mean seriously. Lets look at this. A game that actually could appeal to the core gamer comes out last week with fuck all fanfare, not much if any marketing and
allegedly a low amount of copies shipped.
So you have to ask yourself about in some ways how serious are Nintendo about this market. Clearly right now not very. 3DS releases have recently been plagued by low ship counts (although thats been fixed now i admit) and Wii U games have had no advertising really. Has anyone seen pikmin 3 advertising. I saw one television ad and thats about it and nothing for W101.
And then you have the situation where region locking makes the proposition of importing to save money generally a poor experience.
if Nintendo wants to give the ACCC and other various organizations like Choice the ammunition to start hammering the Government about region locking laws (like they have been recently) they show are giving them an easy ride to do so.
argh, sure are 🙂
It’s a nice reminder of how irrelevant Australia is to most companies as well. We literally mean nothing on a global scale.
Nintendo has indeed fixed up local 3DS stock, Fire Emblem is easily available in most places now, along with a selection of others which were near impossible to find a few months ago.
I was trying to find Zelda OOT at eb not even one copy … makes me wonder if they want to make money or not to find a incredible game like that to have no stock …
The zelda wii-u was going to be my only reason to buy one, but nope, not getting one now.
(fyi, i’ve had every single western nintendo console, including every single hand-held)
Nintendo, why you do this? T.T
I bought my Wiiu witht he dicksmith sale (100 bucks off) not knowing that they had the zelda bundle coming out and now that its not coming here i’m relieved in a way but i want that statue! going to eb to get rayman today for the wiiu so i’ll ask them to see if were getting it or not…
What a coincidence – I had no plans for a Wii U purchase!
They’re playing right into my hands, muahahaha!
My reaction to this announcement (and the Wind Waker stuff):
It just shows that Nintendo doesn’t want you to buy its products, if the Wii U bundle with Zelda came out in aus and small price drop happened I would get one without even thinking about it.
Disappointing news Nintendo, very disappointing.
I was tempted to pick up a Wii U if this price drop came through, but I’m not now.
lol, Wii U bundle with an HD remake…. Nintendo are completely eff’ed
Wow, I guess Nintendo just really hates Australia.
Sorry kids, there will be no shiny new WiiU under the xmas tree this year. There will be a shiny new PS4 though 🙂
Hopefully this is the last console from Nintendo, they obviously can’t compete in the business.
thats just a dumb statement….they have millions in the bank. Plus there are people out there who want nintendo stuff. If you dont then dont read the articles just to make negative comments
People do like Nintendo stuff, but it is behind a large pay wall to get that stuff. Nintendo could make as much money as they are no buy developing their IPs for other systems.
Clearly there are not enough people out their now who want to buy nintendo stuff, And he is fine to make a negative comment, Ever heard of a little thing called FREEDOM OF SPEECH? he is free to make a negative comment if he has read the article, no rules against that.
AFAIK, your statement is the dumb one
I hope its not the last one they do, they have a strong history and some great IP.
They just need to pull their shit together take and look at some of the other consoles to see what they could add, instead of walking it’s own road
I love you Nintendo but you make it really hard sometimes. Nintendo Au needs to get their shit together, our country seems to miss out on way too much, even the e-Shop releases are delayed and/or limited.
Maybe just wait for the PS4 or Xbox One. The services may not be great, but they sure as hell will be better than what Nintendo are offering.
I already have a Wii Yu, which I love, I just wish Nintendo’s services in Au were better. The e-shop seems to be a long way behind the rest of the world in terms of releases and their support services seem to get referred to Europe for almost any reason. I have a 360 but doubt I’ll get an X-Bone, Microsoft and Sony clearly don’t care about their customers as much as they do their bottom line.
Why haven’t we launched a retaliation twitter campaign yet?
Well thats me not buying one this year then.
Swearing and rant. you have been forewarned.
Are you fucking serious Nintendo? No, really, are you? I was going to buy a wiiU on the Special edition wind waker console alone. I would then probably get some games. Stop screwing us over! Australians are a bit used with being screwed over on game releases but at least we can kind of get around that. I would write to Nintendo Australia if I thought it would do anything, but I’ve done it once before and was completely ignored.
I have grown up with Nintendo and I do like you guys but man, it’s like you took a shit on us. Yes, this is that big a deal to me. WiiU is the only console I don’t have at the moment and while I can kind scrape through the 5 games to buy it, I don’t really have enough to race out and buy it. The Wind waker edition is what made me sit up and consider it. Now I have been seriously let down.
Wonder if I can import it from the UK. I could buy an Australian power cable.
Oh and missing out on the price drop is just making it worse.
Double edit: Just checked, can get one from the UK. Just need a different powercable/adapter
Interestingly this relates to my story about how I have “No current plans to buy a WiiU”
Well, that’s fine, even more incentive not to buy one. Those guys have never been very kind to the ANZ market.
Price drop wont make me buy this piece of crap. i have too much dignity.
It is a game machine…… You have fun with them……… It’s a form of play!
What has dignity got to do with play time?????
Loosen up dude
No price drop or the Zelda bundle? Welp, guess I’m not buying one this year after all. GG Nintendo.
Disappointing.
Genuine, serious question, no trolling:
There are a very limited handful of titles that have made me consider a wii/wiiU/3DS. Nintendo has horrible regional pricing/gouging, region-locking the hardware and software, and sometimes straight-up doesn’t release shit here.
With all that in mind, is there any reason beyond beyond the ‘convenience’ of picking things up in a retail store that I would purchase Nintendo hardware and software in Australia, if I was interested in playing Nintendo games?
(Edit, that might actually be a question for TAY, I will ask it there.)
I was actually going to buy a Wii U in this bundle. Now I’m not.
Good going Nintendo, fantastic marketing.
I’m almost 30. I’ve been a Nintendo fan for life. I was going to get this wii U bundle when it hit. I’ve been struggling to justify supporting Nintendo. This is the last nail in the coffin. RIP old friend, at least I have the memories. If you ever do get your stuff together I’ll be too old to care .
no price dro eh?
Me thinks this is the first of a firensale. Wish I had waited:-(
http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/115133
The Wii U is slowly starting to get a few releases that I’m interested to play, but until it gets a price drop I find it really difficult to justify the purchase…
Very disappointed Nintendo, when I heard of this bundle (and the price drop) I dumped my PS4 plans and decided to go back to Nintendo for the first time since Skyward Sword. But now I think I might still go for the PS4 not the WiiU simply because the PS4 is only $50 more and much more powerful. American companies need to stop leaving out Australia and New Zealand, we are 1st world countries and need to be supported with your games and consoles, it is frankly ridiculous and you have probably just screwed yourself over by annoying all of us Aussies! Think about it Nintendo, don’t be morons.
Yep, agreed. The WiiU Windwaker Bundle was going to be my return to Nintendo (even though ive already played the hell out of Windwaker and Pikmin years ago on the Gamecube). Nintendo, you cant do anything right. Thats it for me. Missed opportunity with millions of Zelda fans in Oz and Nz. Check u next generation if your still around… Later… Sony is getting my dollar$