Wii Mini's UK launch met with general disinterest

Wii Mini
Wii know you're cute, but your time's up

Poor Nintendo is having a bit of a rough one at the moment, and that bad luck seems to be continuing with a lack of consumer interest in today's launch of the Wii Mini.

One of Game's flagship stores told TechRadar that it wasn't even stocking the console because demand has been so exceptionally poor, despite having pre-orders up on the site beforehand.

"We've pretty much had nothing. None at all," they said.

HMV also told us that it's not stocking the console at this present time, suggesting interest has also been extremely minimal. It did add, however, that it would consider selling it in the future if demand picked up.

Nintendo's scaled-down Wii is a last attempt to squeeze the success of its former console, which has sold almost 100 million worldwide. But with the Wii U now available, and the PS4 and Xbox 720 on their way, it's little surprise that no one wants an outdated platform - even with its £80 price tag.

Where did it all go wrong?

Interest in the console, which launched in Canada in December 2012, could still pick up but its lack of most of the Wii's capabilities makes it a difficult sell.

Fred Huet of Greenwich Consulting, an international consulting firm for telecoms and media, told us in a statement: "Today's release of the Nintendo Wii Mini has an air of panic about it, with closest rivals PlayStation and Xbox set to release updated consoles later this year.

"However, unlike its rivals, Nintendo has scaled back on features from a six year old console that is already suffering from severealy restricted functionality at best. This leaves Sony and Microsoft in a far more comfortable position to compete in the connected TV space."

On its announcement, the Wii Mini had people scratching their heads when they discovered the console would come without Wi-Fi, 480p support or GameCube compatibility.

We approached Nintendo for a response and will update if we hear back.

Hugh Langley

Hugh Langley is the ex-News Editor of TechRadar. He had written for many magazines and websites including Business Insider, The Telegraph, IGN, Gizmodo, Entrepreneur Magazine, WIRED (UK), TrustedReviews, Business Insider Australia, Business Insider India, Business Insider Singapore, Wareable, The Ambient and more.


Hugh is now a correspondent at Business Insider covering Google and Alphabet, and has the unfortunate distinction of accidentally linking the TechRadar homepage to a rival publication.