Nintendo: Customers Unaware Wii U Is New Console

Nintendo UK marketing executive Shelly Pearce said many customers are unaware the Wii U is a new console.

Nintendo and Tesco teamed up to educate parents and children — particularly those who own a Wii — about the console. The company has booked in-store space at the grocery chain and will send a five-page leaflet to 300,000 Tesco customers who have purchased a Wii but have yet to buy another console.

“There was a big misconception at launch about what Wii U is,” Pearce told MCV. “And one of the big messages is that this is a new console and a new controller. There are many people out there that don’t know what this is.”

The Wii U has failed to match the sales of its predecessor, something that the company has repeatedly attributed to the lack of software.

“The basic version should have sold a lot, but the fact of the matter is that people are buying more of the premium version,” Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said last month. “So the issue is not there. I understand that the real issue is the lack of software, and the only solution is to provide the mass-market with a number of quality software titles.”

Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime also said that the console’s problems weren’t due to its name, but the “lack of a steady rate of software launches to motivate the consumer to drive buzz and engagement and to highlight the wide variety of uses of the GamePad.”

Pearce echoed Iwata and Fils-Aime’s sentiments.

“We haven’t had the sales we wanted on Wii U hardware,” she said. “We haven’t had the software for most of this year. But we have some quite ambitious numbers, particularly with some of our biggest franchises coming.”

Nintendo will be running TV ads for Mario, Donkey Kong, and Zelda through Christmas, as well as pushing an out-of-home promotional tour aimed at reaching 115,000 consumers. Pearce said interest in the console is growing, but that the company still has a long way to go in matching the success of the Wii.

“Our monthly tracking shows that Wii remains the No.1 console for brand awareness,” Pearce said. “This offers us a massive opportunity to convert Wii owners to Wii U. Interest is starting to grow but we know we have a lot of work to do.”