Nintendo UK marketing director Shelly Pearce has said too many consumers are still not aware that Wii U is a new console.
In May, it emerged that Nintendo was sending messages to Wii ownersvia the WiiConnect24 service stressing that Wii U is a brand new console and "not just an upgrade". And now Nintendo UK wants to drive that message home by rolling out a new marketing campaign, MCV reports. This will include booking in-store space at Tesco and sending a five page leaflet to 300,000 of the supermarket's customers who bought a Wii but haven't picked up another console.
Pearce said: "There was a big misconception at launch about what Wii U is. And one of the big messages is that this is a new console and a new controller. There are many people out there that don't know what this is."
"We haven't had the sales we wanted on Wii U hardware. We haven't had the software for most of this year. But we have some quite ambitious numbers, particularly with some of our biggest franchises coming.
"Our monthly tracking shows that Wii remains the No.1 console for brand awareness. This offers us a massive opportunity to convert Wii owners to Wii U."
Nintendo's most recent quarterly financial report showed that worldwideWii U sales came in at just 160,000 in the three months between April and July.