Major UK Retailer Asda to Stop Selling Wii U at Retail

It’s no secret that Nintendo’s latest console has been having a difficult time penetrating the market since its release (a stark contrast to its last console), but things have just gotten worse for the Wii U: Major UK supermarket Asda has ceased the stocking of Wii U consoles, games and accessories. If you’re not familiar with Asda, it’s not some paltry store: scattered around the UK are some 550+ Asda supermarkets.

Perhaps even more alarming is the fact that Asda is owned by Walmart, the world’s third-largest public corporation. If Asda has pulled out of the Wii U market, then we must wonder if things have become so dire, that Walmart might follow-suit. Given Nintendo’s importance in our video game history, we can only hope that will not happen.

This move was first reported by Computer & Video Games, and it’s being stated that the company may continue to sell certain games on a “title by title merit basis“. Otherwise, you may be able to find Wii U stuffs on Asda’s website.

It’s worth noting that Asda isn’t a supermarket that merely sells a couple of electronics on the side; according to C&VG, the company is currently stocking the PS3, Xbox 360, Vita and “several hundred games” for them. As we talked about a couple of weeks ago, Nintendo certainly could have rolled its Wii U out quite a bit differently. The fact that most games people are looking forward to aren’t slated for release until next spring isn’t helping anything at all.