Hoping for a Wii U price-drop before Christmas? Look elsewhere. Despite a US price drop in September, and a 200% increase in sales following, Nintendo Australia today announced it’ll instead be creating two new Wii U Basic Pack bundles to counter the likely holday battle from Sony and Microsoft.
Starting November 14, any Wii U Basic Pack purchase can bring with it Just Dance 2014, Nintendo Land, a Wii Remote Plus and the regular essentials in that edition, such as the white console and 8GB of internal storage.
If that doesn’t float your boat, from November 21, a Skylanders SWAP Force bundle will also be available, with the basic console, Nintendo Land, Skylanders SWAP Force starter pack which includes three Skylanders figures, and two exclusive characters (Colour Shift Wash Buckler and Blast Zone) as well as a Collector poster, trading cards and sticker sheets.
While it’s an improvement from the stock standard basic pack, with an added game and some other goodies, the Basic Pack only has 8GB of storage, already dominated by ‘system data’. If you’re looking for more than what’s on offer there, the Premium Pack will still cost $90 more than in the US.
It’ll be interesting to see whether a killer app will save Nintendo, such as Super Mario 3D World or other exclusives coming next year. Otherwise, with already dated hardware, a lack of third-party support, and a price tag that isn’t truly justified, the Wii U might continue to be left in the dust.