Originally Posted by Justin42 The thing is too, the WiiU is launching in a very different world-- everyone's bowled using motion controls now, the Wii is in pretty much every home that REALLY wants one, the economy's been in the toilet for 4 years, etc, etc. I'm sure there's demand for this-- it's the first new home console launch in a long time. But honestly the launch lineup isn't THAT fantastic (at least IMHO), the console costs $50-$100 more than the Wii did at launch, the new functionality is a bit harder to really get excited about (Motion control in 2006 was just MINDBLOWING! Playing a game on a tablet.. not so much ) I'm sure it will be initially tough to get. Maybe even though Christmas. And I am sure Nintendo will do everything in their power to remind everyone of the craziness of the Wii launch and try to control the resupplies so that they're "moderately difficult but not impossible" to get one if you didn't pre-order. Enough to build hype, not enough to lose sales. This Christmas is CRITICAL for Nintendo to get a lead in "next next gen" before Sony and Microsoft start working to steal their thunder. I hate to admit it but I sort of pre-ordered on the hype. There's not a whole lot I want to play RIGHT NOW (well, at launch) but this is my hobby and I enjoy it, and I'm sure it'll be a fun system. (I will say-- I think people forget what a surprise the Wii was. I remember a LOT of people expecting it to bomb. Remember it launched 2 days after the PS3 and people thought the PS3 would steal all of Nintendo's thunder... but then it became apparent that weekend that while the PS3 was selling well, a lot more people wanted the Wii.. the hype about the Wii being impossible to buy sort of came up 'overnight' as the launch happened and suddenly everyone was out of stock. I think before that everyone had sort of low key expectations about the Wii and expected the PS3 to be massive)

I mostly agree, but I think another big thing to keep in mind is that many of the general consumers (buying for their kids or whatever) still don't understand that Wii U is a new console. Hell, a lot of these folks don't even know that it exists yet. I'm sure there are plenty of other towns like mine where people are completely oblivious to the world of gaming. Not too long ago, I was out shopping when I saw/heard a mother and her child arguing about the 3DS...he really wanted to get one for his birthday and she kept refusing because she couldn't understand that it wasn't the same thing has his GameBoy Advance. He was trying to show her that they are different products, but she insisted that he would just have to deal with playing new games on just the one screen. And while waiting for a manager at layaway, they asked me what the Wii U is and they had a hard time understanding that it's not a regular Wii that comes with an iPad.

Originally Posted by Deader2818 Wii U has one of the better launch line ups we have seen.

I definitely agree with this. There are some naysayers, but I am quite excited about the lineup. It's certainly the best lineup I've seen in the last several years.

Originally Posted by Justin42 That was kind of my point, many of the big launch titles aren't WiiU exclusives, at least not the entire game. I'm not saying it's a bad launch list, just that I don't really look at that list and see many "OMG MUST HAVE WIIU FOR .... " besides maybe NSMB and ZombiU. That said, Pikmin 3 was enough to make sure I get my WiiU preordered to be safe.

For me, it's all about Scribblenauts. I know I can just get it on the 3DS, and I will, but I've been wanting to play Scribblenauts on TV since the first game came out. I'm certainly not saying that it's my sole reason for buying the Wii U, but it is a huge draw for me.

Originally Posted by vcplant The mystery of no buyers today... 1) It was the front page of the Walmart ad on Sunday! Do people still read papers?

Obviously people do or else they wouldn't be sold anymore. Many, many people get the newspaper specifically for ads and coupons. But it's irrelevant anyway because the ad is also on the site, so even people who don't get the paper are likely to see the ad.

Even though it's on the front page, the way it talks about Layaway and such on the front page isn't quite as blatant as "MAKE SURE YOU COME IN NOW TO PRE-ORDER YOUR SYSTEM!" It almost reads like "yeah, we can put this on Layaway too..." I bet many people kind of miss the point of the ad, this is Walmart getting us all into their Layaway system using it as the preorder method.

Probably by the end of the week most, if not all, Walmarts will be sold out of the pre-order stock and many will be kicking themselves given how relatively easy it was today as long as you were persistent.

Plus Walmart is probably getting a very, very, very large allocation of systems given their relative size, especially considering Amazon's out of the equation for this launch. They have 4500 stores in the US, if each store gets 50 Wiiu's thats 225,000 systems... which is probably lower than they're really getting assuming the supply chain is working at 100%. It's probably "not quite as hyped as we think" combined with "large allocation" making today so easy.

I'm fairly hopeful for this but I do have a pretty bizarre track record of Walmart screwing up easy things, so we'll see. Thankfully my heart isn't TOTALLY set on a WiiU but if I get there on the 18th and my Layaway isn't there I'm sure I'll be a bit upset.

Wal-mart doesnt even really run weekly ads anymore so I think most people don't even look anymore tbh.

Damn, I missed this, so I guess it's off to my small town Wal-Mart tomorrow to try my luck.

I got the Wii after it first launched and I missed out in every local store. I went to a Circuit City where I knew the manager and he told me exactly how many consoles they were getting. We were there at like 1am behind a couple of other guys. I told them how many systems they were getting and we made a list of the first 20-25 people in line, so that when they came to give us the tickets for the system there would be no last second line jumpers. It worked out perfectly. One guy was just hanging out with his friends just to pass the time, he put his name on the list just because and he ended up selling his ticket for a hundred bucks or so. He was just going to play at his friends' house anyway. It pays to go hang out in these lines sometimes.

I wonder if Walmart is going to not preorder out the cheapy version so people have something to walk in and buy if they didn't preorder the deluxe. It would make sense for them anyway, best of both worlds. Oh, you didn't preorder, well we have some Retardo editions in stock.

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I think the reasons for the lack of preorders today are as follows:
1.) Walmart ads are not as popular as they used to be; I dont think people these days still check ads for deals really.

2.) In my case, I honestly did not even know what layover meant. In no way shape or form did I make the connection between layover and preorder. If it werent for this thread, I would not have gone to preorder, because I thought layover was just a way to finance a purchase into many smaller payments - my first reaction was "oh look its available for layover, but thats probably assuming you have on ordered on walmart.com or found one in store." I know I sound dumb, but I honestly think not that many people (like me) knew what layover exactly meant...

lol I was tired...*layaway

^

*Layaway

Id say 90% of pre orders for the WiiU are placed by gamers who keep up with the industry which includes all of us on here. The other 10% are friends who tag along and decide to get one or store employees. There isnt any hype, tv commercials, internet campaigns etc...showing the WiiU yet. The average person or store employee has never heard of the WiiU yet. The holiday season for the majority of America doesnt start until Thanksgiving weekend. Then I think Nintendo will start blitzing ads in primetime for the WiiU driving the Soccer moms and Joe dads to stores to get one for little Jimmy. Then the hysteria starts only if Nintendo has limited supply. I think thats their marketing goal...to drive up the hype during the holiday season with limited supply to get in everyones head, then capitalize on the years headstart on Microsoft and Sony.

I once had a layover my house.

You guys are making more wildly unfounded baseless speculations than Michael Pachter has all year.

Originally Posted by arsenalcrazy8 I think the reasons for the lack of preorders today are as follows: 1.) Walmart ads are not as popular as they used to be; I dont think people these days still check ads for deals really. 2.) In my case, I honestly did not even know what layover meant. In no way shape or form did I make the connection between layover and preorder. If it werent for this thread, I would not have gone to preorder, because I thought layover was just a way to finance a purchase into many smaller payments - my first reaction was "oh look its available for layover, but thats probably assuming you have on ordered on walmart.com or found one in store." I know I sound dumb, but I honestly think not that many people (like me) knew what layover exactly meant...

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/featur...out-wii-u.aspx
This video probably explains alot...

San Lorenzo CA Walmart is out of preorders.

The way layaway works at a store level is that when an item is sold, the inventory changes to show one sold. So the on hand for a store would show -6, if 6 were sold. They can easily pull the total sold compared to the other method they use.. They used the preorder gift card system for video games and the iphone 5. The giftcard was/is more of a hassle for employees then layaway also.

Originally Posted by htz http://www.gameinformer.com/b/featur...out-wii-u.aspx This video probably explains alot...

That sums it up. I even had the WM electronics guy this morning argue that its just an add on to the current Wii....I gave up. He is like "Dude, I KNOW about gaming. Thats why I work in the electronics dept" lol.

Originally Posted by Wanderlai That sums it up. I even had the WM electronics guy this morning argue that its just an add on to the current Wii....I gave up. He is like "Dude, I KNOW about gaming. Thats why I work in the electronics dept" lol.

At Walmart I saw that U Draw tablet thing for the Wii. I'm not even sure what it is really. I am wondering if people are thinking that is the Wii U and the new console is just them bundled together. I wonder how many people are going to buy that thing think it is the new system.

Originally Posted by htz http://www.gameinformer.com/b/featur...out-wii-u.aspx This video probably explains alot...

lol I had to rewind it because I thought he said he was beating his **** on top of a mushroom.

Originally Posted by htz http://www.gameinformer.com/b/featur...out-wii-u.aspx This video probably explains alot...

Nintendo Wii University was the winner of that video truly lol

Originally Posted by kayne2000 Nintendo Wii University was the winner of that video truly lol

I laughed so hard when he said, "I stand on this mushroom type thing and I constantly get beaten off and fall into the water." I couldn't believe he said that, lol. That goes to show you that Nintendo doesn't know what they're doing when it comes to advertising. I would say 80% of consumers don't even know about the Wii-U.

Originally Posted by CheapAssHustla I laughed so hard when he said, "I stand on this mushroom type thing and I constantly get beaten off and fall into the water." I couldn't believe he said that, lol. That goes to show you that Nintendo doesn't know what they're doing when it comes to advertising. I would say 80% of consumers don't even know about the Wii-U.

They do not need to advertise the wii-u at this point, since it will be sold out everywhere anyways. IF they do advertise now, it would be a war. So I think they are waiting for november/december to start advertising when they should have more units available

Originally Posted by iGen San Lorenzo CA Walmart is out of preorders.

Anyone else confirm they r done.