The Wii finally went on sale in the UK at the stroke of midnight, drawing huge crowds on London’s famous shopping street.
At Nintendo’s official event in HMV on Oxford Street, celebrities Ian Wright (footballer), Nell McAndrew (model), Pat Cash (tennis player), and Ricky Hatton (boxer) turned up to play Wii Sports.
Meanwhile at Game, glasses of champagne were given out to the first customers through the doors as well as baseball caps, scarves, blankets, and pizza while people were standing in line.
Game’s marketing director Anna Macario said, “We’re so pleased with the turnout. I’ve never seen a queue go round the block here before. I know so many people personally who have never bought a console before but who are now after playing it. It’s universally appealing.”
She added that the company would be getting more stock in from Nintendo before Christmas, but that she didn’t know as yet when or how much.
Nintendo UK’s product manager Rob Lowe believes that the launch events in the UK had been a huge success. He said, “I think this is the biggest launch we’ve ever had. It’s also great to see so many girl gamers in the queue. I think one in 10 was a girl gamer.”
Asked whether he believed that Nintendo’s approach to make a console that tried to appeal to everyone had paid off, he raised his arms to gesture to the crowd behind him and said, “Yes, definitely.”
So the strategic of creating fun and family-themed games to appeal for all ages is working.
But despite satisfying all the customers who queued all the night to get their hands on the console, Nintendo hasn’t yet shipped the full quantities it has promised to some retailers…
You will be lucky to stroll into your high street store without pre-ordering it…
But fear not, the UK division of Nintendo are trying everything possible to meet the high demand by re-supplying more Wii consoles in time for Christmas.
“We are pulling out all the stops to replenish stock in the run up to Christmas,” a Nintendo spokesman said.
Hopefully Nintendo can please all its customers in time for the New Year.
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flo says:
Wiicked ! : )
but my special agent in the UK just told me it’s hard to find one yet. ><
Dec 08, 2006, 5:05 pmYink says:
Yeh i went around for market research purposes all over the city and there is no wii’s left in the city or the uk to buy. But more shipments are on there way over to the uk, so people who haven’t got a wii may well still be able to before Christmas.
Dec 08, 2006, 5:06 pmflo says:
pfew. catastophe was so close : )
Dec 08, 2006, 5:15 pm