Mega-online-retailer Amazon isn’t selling Wii U consoles directly yet, as a result of a bitter feud between them and Nintendo. While some third party dealers are selling Wii U’s through Amazon, the company isn’t selling any firsthand. In fact, Amazon isn’t selling any Nintendo consoles directly as of now. But luckily, it looks like there light at the end of the tunnel.
According to rumors, it all started with the original 3DS. Amazon had a huge lot of unsold 3DS consoles and wanted to sell them at a discount. Nintendo said no, and forced the retailer to sell at the original (and very steep) price point.
This made Amazon go though their 3DS inventory and look for even the tiniest errors and faults in the console, and then returned them to Nintendo. This reportedly pissed off Nintendo so much that they stopped shipping hardware to the retailer. And hasn’t shipped anything since.
Kotaku asked Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime about the issue, but he refused to comment. He did acknowledge that Amazon as a direct sales company “does not carry any Wii U hardware”. There are some third party retailers selling the Wii U on the site though, and usually at a steep premium — the Basic set can be had for $500.
Getting Amazon to sell the Wii U directly should be a big priority for Nintendo. It’s the biggest online retailer in the world — certainly in the US — and getting them on board is crucial for Wii U sales. Amazon was one of the biggest sellers of the original Wii. At a time when the Wii was sold out across the US, Amazon always seemed to have some units in stock.
There is a sign of good news, though: Amazon is selling Wii U games at the moment, and Amazon UK appears to be selling the Wii U. Furthermore, some users are reporting that they’ve started selling the 3DS XL. Hopefully this means it’s only a matter of time before we see the Wii U on the storefront.
The Wii U has been available for pre-order across the world, and has sold out many places in the US. Last time we checked, it was sold out completely at Target, Best Buy, Kmart, and Sears.
The Wii U will launch on November 18, 2012 with two SKUs, a Basic version for $299 and a Deluxe set for $349. For more, check out a full breakdown of the two models and what they include.
