THE WII U LAUNCH SOFTWARE STRATEGY RETAIL RESPONSE
JAMES HONEYWELL, HEAD OF CONSUMER MARKETING
We’ve had a horrible year at UK games retail. Is Wii U a turning point? Absolutely. A new piece of hardware makes people very excited. Hopefully people will go out there and buy lots of games. Ultimately we want to have a good Christmas, and I’m sure all the retailers want to have a good Christmas too. Having something like this so close to that season will work for everyone.
There were 24 launch titles. Just two were from Nintendo. How are you working with third parties?
Depends on the individual publisher, what kind of games they have, what kinds of exclusivity deals they might have, but we’ve really been trying to integrate with them. We’ve included their advertising in and amongst ours. If you go to our sampling activity, you’ll find their titles as much as you’ll find our own. We’ve been working with their communities to make sure their most avid fans are getting the chance to play their games on our format.
Our third party publisher partners are very important to us. They offer games that we don’t offer and it’s about having a breadth of titles, having something for everyone, whether they’re a casual or hardcore gamer, we want to make sure we have all the titles that you want.
It’s always been true of Nintendo products that it’s all about the hands-on experience. So if we can get people to come down and have a go, then buy one themselves and show it to their friends and family, that’s the key to making it a great launch.
What steps are you taking to build momentum beyond Q1? Nintendo always makes sure it launches games throughout the year. We don’t really focus particularly on Christmas. We’ve got a strong line-up all the way through the year. We always have the marketing to support that. We have plans to take sampling all the way through the year. For us, it’s not just about launch, it’s about building momentum and maintaining that over a long period of time.
ANDY YATES, UK SALES DIRECTOR
How have you involved retail in the excitement in the run-up to launch and beyond? Store managers have been crucial to building excitement and the timing of the retail autumn conferences proved to be a perfect platform for driving advocates of
Early visibility of January deliveries is still unconfirmed therefore our message to is that stocks remain tight.
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Wii U triggering a surge of excitement moving into peak season as managers got hands on with the new console.
Pre-order campaigns have been the cornerstone of the retail strategy in the run up to launch and the trade have responded brilliantly with really visible and
exciting campaigns. We also have interactive pods strategically placed in-store and Wii U branding emerging online and in-store.
Can you give us an update on what stock availability will be like in the run-up to Christmas? Will that change in the New Year?
Although stock of Wii U will be tight for the launch date, we have always been confident about improved availability for Christmas and this confidence will prove to be justified over the next four weeks as regular shipments of Wii U arrive in the trade throughout December. Early visibility of January deliveries is still unconfirmed therefore our message to retail is that stocks will remain tight.