From today, the Nintendo Wii will be available across the UK in two varieties: white with Mario Kart Wii and a Wii Wheel, or black with Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort. The console's price has changed too, dropping to around £129.99, but many retailers are taking the chance to sell the machine even more cheaply.
As we reported earlier this month, the £99 Wii is now a reality, with UK stores including GAME and Gamestation offering the machine for under £100, both in-store and online.
It remains to be seen whether these price drops can bring about a big upswing in the Wii's sales fortunes.
Update: To clarify, the Wii is only £99 in-store at Game/Gamestation when bought with a chart title. Its standard selling price is £119.99.
Comments 17
wii is dying. no games this year. new console on the horizon and a new handheld now.
we had a good time. no it is time to say goodbye
sold my wii to get the 3DS in march lol
Hey, hey, the wii isn't quite dead. We've still got skyward sword and a whole host of other games coming later this year.
Anyway, the wii still has a lot more to offer me, as there are still some great games i havn't played yet plus i have only recently gotten into the virtual console.
I feel kind of glad the Wii is dying - it generally means a few scattered, but high quality releases giving me the time and money to get them all. Infact the Wii is the only popular gaming machine I've owned since the Megadrive (Saturn, Dreamcast and GameCube inbetween) so I've been finding it hard to cope with keeping up this generation.
It makes me sad that people think the system is dieing. We are still loving ours (we've had it since launch).
I have a good number of games I'm looking forward to as well:
Rhythm Heaven
Zelda: Skyward Sword
Wii Play Motion
Kirby game (the proper one from HAL that was shown in video earlier this year!)
Xenosaga Chronicles
For me that is a pretty exciting slate of games to look forward to. I also have some back catalog I want to check out (Mario Sluggers, Power Tennis, Strikers, Smooth Moves, Red Steel 2, Fragile). Altogether I feel like the system has a lot of life left in it. At least for me and my family (we just got LEGO Pirates last week and have been loving it!)
I think it is a great time for someone to get the Wii for the first time, and a good time to be a Wii owner. It may be the last really fun year of the system, but it certainly is going out with some great looking games!
Just for info - Sainsbury (for one) is today selling the Wii bundle for £99 without the obligation to buy a chart title.
I for one don't think the Wii is dying - Nintendo is clearly repositioning it as the industry's "entry" console for young families and new gamers. The PS One survived for years in such a market position.
Meh, waiting for Hyper Nintendo. Wii didn´t have too many great games either (but at least the great games were supah, SMG2, SSBB, DKCR). Still we´ll get Zelda, but that´s all about it. NGC had much more great games from Nintendo.
Ok, let's make things clear. There's over 70 games on Wii worth playing. Once you're over those, I can think of a list of 50 VC games and 70 Wiiware ones to add to it. Should take you 4 years to play all of those.
"Oh, the Wii has no games that will launch this year that I want other than Zelda. Wii is doomed!". No it's not, there's this thing called a backlog that several of us have at home (mine sits at 20 Wii games, 20 Wiiware and 6 VC) and you can get several Wii games at great prices. I also own a DSi (with 15 games), PS3 (with 10 games), PSP (with 12 games) and iPhone (with 10 games) and their respective backlogs so I'm set for the rest of the year.
Oh, and the Wii has a 30+ million lead worldwide. The Wii isn't doomed. The Wii has already won this generation...
the wii is kicking Xbox and PS3 in the mouth when they're down in terms of prices at least
Will low price = higher sales?
Not with a new portable and potentially new console on the horizon. However, I will say that, for those that bite on this deal, will also be treated to Pandora's Tower, Last Story, and Xenoblade Chronicles, just to name some "worthwhile" titles coming in the Wii's end days.
The basic package needs to be £99.
No extra purchases required.
End.
@Kirk Why? You need to play something with the console anyways. I mean 1 game is probably not going to be enough.
I wonder if there is time to buy and sell 10 or so Wii's in order to spam the connection ambassador programme?
I sold my wii late last year as I never used it, so still haven't played the new goldeneye, dk returns, galaxy 2 etc. Now it's £100 I'm tempted to pick one up again. I need convincing though!!
At £100 its great value for a chistmas present for kids, that and the new budget range of games will mean it will be a good christmas for Nintendo.
I have a launch wii, my son saved up birthday money to buy his a year or so later and my little girl has always wanted her own and as a parent £100 is a good price for a christmas present. The fact that it comes with Mario Kart instead of wiisports is a bonus too because its one of the best online games for wii IMO. However we already have 2 copies of the game. lol
@3: I thought the Gamecube was pretty popular here if only for Smash Bros.
And I never knew you were a SEGA fan (judging by the consoles owned).
On-Topic: It took too long...I was hoping my family would use my Wii Fit much sooner.
Amazon UK have both the Sports resort pack and MK pack for under £100. I can see a few XBox or PS3 owners picking it up at this price just for Mario Kart. The new pack looks to me like it's firmly aimed at gamers who may "dismiss" nintendo, but everyone loves MK. At that price I can see a fair few picking it up.
I'm tempted to get a M.K pack for it to be a collectors version, I know it might not be but it does make it tempting. If I didn't have credit card bills to pay I'd buy it but then I might wait for another price drop maybe for Christmas, I still think Nintendo could still have a few cards up their sleeves...
If I was Nintendo I'd do the following...
Do a Mario Galaxy bundle at Christmas, maybe do a Mario 64 remake in Galaxy style graphics and to mark Zelda's 25th do a Zelda Wii collection disc..... I don't think however they will do another 'new' colour as they will be building up resources to put the new console into production. I wonder how many Wii's they will sell once some more details come out about project cafe? Do they need Galaxy bundles to shift more? I leave that to Nintendo to decide.....
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