General Nintendo sales/business discussion topic (previously: The Wii U Thread)

[Blue Blood]

I tried pre-ordering one on Best Buy this morning. It said it was still available at my local store, but when I tried to go through with my order, it said my debit card couldn't be processed. I didn't think Best Buy charged for a preorder... Were they charging for the full thing right then and there (if so, that's stupid) or was it simply a reserve fee? If it was the latter, it probably should have said something. Now, the system is listed as unavailable at my store. I had a chance to reserve it this morning, but got fucked over.

Fucking beautiful.

Get down to your local store, and any other stores Best Buy or otherwise where you can reserve as soon as possible. Or go online if that's your best shot. I think I've heard that Best Buy have already reached their pre-order quota.

I've got Premium Package pre-orders in place with GAME for £309.99, Amazon for £299.99 and Zavvi for £274.99 right now. I'm gonna cancel all my orders except the best deal before launch of course. Hopefully I'll get to play them off against each other like I did with the 3DS. For that I had orders with Amazon and GAME, and eventually cancelled the GAME one. Then they called me up pleading for the order and ended up saying "okay, we'll charge you for the 3DS and £10 accessory pack, but we'll give you Rayman and Monkey Ball for free". Or something like that. It was an insanely good deal.

[Conando]

You're going to have to try the online stores for Target, Sears, Toys 'R Us, and Walmart. I was burned by not pre-ordering a Wii, so I got on it right away this time.

[Wraith]

I made the same mistake I made last time. Thinking I could just waltz into the store and buy one.

[Autosaver]

[Conando]

Nothing ships on Sundays, that thing is full of shit. What they tend to do is ship it on Friday so you get it Monday, though.

[Autosaver]

Nothing ships on Sundays, that thing is full of shit. What they tend to do is ship it on Friday so you get it Monday, though.

It says Shipping BY 11/18.

[Thrippa]

I find it annoying that the Walmart bundle - which is all I can preorder - includes a Wiimote+ in white, pink, or blue. I'm getting the black system, and I already HAVE a white Wiimote+, and the pink and blue are just hideous. Why don't they offer the black one that I want anyway and that would match the console I'm ordering? I picked Lego Undercover for the game - for once they have multiple games on the list I actually want.

Oddly, they say that I should receive my order between September 19th and November 29th. If they send me the Wiimote early I can take it to the local store and see if I can swap it out for a black one. (I also have the Skyward Sword gold one; it's nice to be able to tell which is whose at a glance). I lucked out on the Wii launch and snagged #19 of the 20 Walmart had that time, after Amazon totally blew the launch (up until 3 days before the Wii launch they assured us they would be doing preorders; 24 hours prior to launch they said, sorry, they weren't after all). At that time I was an hour from the closest Walmart, but fortunately I was out that way to do some other shopping. Where I live now I do have a local Walmart - but any other game/ electronics store is an hour or more away. It's not so much that I require one on launch day, I just want to be assured of one in a reasonable time. With the Wii I figured I might have to wait til after the Christmas rush if I couldn't preorder; it was April before I saw one on the shelves, and that one was gone withing an hour of my seeing it.

[Tornado]

It's possible. Stores have a set quota that they are allowed to fill so that they (and Nintendo) have at least some systems on hand for the launch for people who want to camp out or whatever. If they screwed up their preorder system and went over it, they would have no choice but to drop some of the preorders and refund the money.

[The Kid]

I called my Best Buy to see if they still allowed preorders and the nice lady on the phone told me that they stopped preorders solely because it was too close to launch (I don't know if I believe that). But she did say that they would have plenty on the day of the launch and that I could just call the morning of to hold one. I brought up the whole Wii fiasco from years back and she assured me that it wouldn't be the case this time.

In other news, I looked at the Wii U page on Nintendo's site and there are preorder page links up for a variety of stores (including Sears and Target) but none of them are available. So... who knows how many will be available at launch and if people will still be able to preorder them anywhere.

[Conando]

Some places are better at tracking their quota too, I know Best Buy and GameStop are. Haven't heard many negative things about the others but, there are no TRU stores around here anymore, so I can't speak for them.

[KHCast]

Well I don't plan on getting a WiiU until Christmas anyway, so this doesn't really worry me. I do however hope though that the people that are trying to get it launch can pick one up.

[Conando]

I tried to get a Wii for Christmas, not on launch, and failed miserably. I had to get it from Canada for 75 dollars more.

[Lady Soniko]

Why is there only a Premium bundle for the Black console, but not the White? what kind of marketing plan is that? :l

[Conando]

It's to differentiate the SKUs by look. It's like how Xbox 360 had 2 different colors. The Elite was black, and the Arcade was white.

Edited September 16, 2012 by King Of Awesome

[The Kid]

Honestly I don't care too much if I have to wait a week or two to get a Wii U. I just don't want it to take a few months like with the Wii.

Do we know how long the Premium model is going to be around for, anyways?

[Barry the Nomad]

Once Bayonetta 2 releases, I plan on getting one off craigslist for $100. It'll be only the console bit and a power cord. It'll be scuffed up, but will work. I already have the controllers and sensor bar from my Wii. Assuming Bayonetta 2 doesn't reguire the gamepad, I'll be set.

[Conando]

You'll probably just be able to use a classic controller, if you have one.

[Lady Soniko]

yeah it's not the point though is it? they're offering the same console, with less than half the stuff you get with the black one, for £49 cheaper, because its White in colour? it's like the bare bones console, like the 360 Arcade...

i want the fucking white one, not another black console to go with my PS3 & 360, jesus.

[Wraith]

I'd much rather have the White one as well. I'll probably just get the basic set because I don't need that much space.

[MykonosFan]

Getting a bit worried now. Best Buy has my pre-order as an "Order In Process". I like to think that means it's waiting until it comes out to change the order status, but I'm concerned that it may mean that they are re-checking their pre-order allotment.

I ordered it about 12 hours ago in the morning. Surely if they couldn't fulfill it I would have heard back from them by now...right?

[Conando]

You're fine, it says Order in Process until they actually send it to you. Or in the case with my 3DS XL, when I picked it up.

[KHCast]

Yeah you guys might want to hurry on your purchases if you can.

I'm lookin forward to hopefully getting myself a black WiiU for Christmas.z

[Marcello]

Once Bayonetta 2 releases, I plan on getting one off craigslist for $100. It'll be only the console bit and a power cord. It'll be scuffed up, but will work. I already have the controllers and sensor bar from my Wii. Assuming Bayonetta 2 doesn't reguire the gamepad, I'll be set.

I seriously doubt Bayonetta 2 will support the Wiimotes or any Wii controllers. I bet it'll be able to use the Pro Controller, though.

Edited September 16, 2012 by MarcelloF

[Tornado]

Do we know how long the Premium model is going to be around for, anyways?

Based on the probable manufacturing cost differences between the two, if one of the models is going to get dropped it would probably be the normal one.

yeah it's not the point though is it? they're offering the same console, with less than half the stuff you get with the black one, for £49 cheaper, because its White in colour?

No. They are offering the premium one in black because black is a "premium" color when it comes to electronics.

Edited September 16, 2012 by Tornado

[SonicHOG]

I reserved mine at Toys"R"US yesterday, so I'm pretty much set for Nov. 18.

Now, to pick which games I'm going to get at launch.....