British supermarket chain Asda has introduced a second Wii U price cut of £50, having slashed the console’s price tag by the same amount in early March. The drop applies to both the basic and premium versions of the console, which can now be purchased online for £149 and £199 respectively. It’s unclear if the price cuts will be permanent or simply limited time offers for the upcoming UK bank holiday weekend, with the Walmart subsidiary currently offering 33 per cent off the regular price of all Wii consoles.
Either way, the price reductions come at a time when Nintendo is struggling to hit Wii U sales targets, with company president Satoru Iwata stating this week: "We have not been able to solidly communicate the product value of Wii U to our consumers yet, which has been a grand challenge for us.” He added: "Some have the misunderstanding that Wii U is just Wii with a pad for games, and others even consider Wii U GamePad as a peripheral device connectable to Wii. We feel deeply responsible for not having tried hard enough to have consumers understand the product." Nintendo is currently sending out messages to Wii owners via the WiiConnect24 service explaining that Wii U is “an entirely new system” and “not just an upgrade”.
