How can HMV slash the price by £140 unless either they are selling at a loss to get rid of them or Nintendo have sold them stock at a much reduced price. It's a huge kick in the teeth to early adopters who may have paid up to £350 for the same package.
Should we expect to see the basic wii u's going for £149 or even £129 soon?
However you spin it this is not good. The original wii had people waiting for stock at full price long after launch but now even at close to half price sales are sluggish.
This seems like the N64 all over again. Launched in the UK at £250 it was a total failure, dropped to something like £150 in a month or so. Spent most its life at £80-100 as a budget console.
I do wish I'd waited before buying a wii u. I got a wii u premium for effectively £250 with tekken and sonic transformed after trading in nintendo land immediately and using as many vouchers and discounts as I could. I was happy with that price but it looks like only months later I could have saved a considerable amount of money. I also believe the price drop hasn't stopped yet.