Who is Wii in South Africa
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The Wii has hit all time record sales in the US & UK, with retailers smiling from ear to ear, with queues and queues of people lining up outside stores, to get their hands on what has been the best selling console for the last 2 christmas’s running.
(source: Techcrunch)
The Wii is an awesome console, and anyone has given the tennis or golf a run, will know what I am talking about. I bought myself one last month, and literally can’t keep my hands off it. Except 1 small problem. The Core group. The same people who bring us Macs in South Africa, have been chosen as the official distributor for the Wii console in South Africa. Why the problem. The Wii was launched towards the end of September nationally, and launched with 3 games.
- Wii Sports (included in every console pack)
- Wii Play (A collection of 9 mini-games, and comes packaged with a second remote)
- Legend of Zelda:Twilight Princess (GROSSLY overpriced at R599)
Today, 1 week before Christmas, there are STILL only 3 Official games available. Yea, there are loads more on the shelves at the Toys-R-Us, but these have been imported by Ster Kinekor to try and stimulate interest in the console. The core group, have not marketed the console at all. They have put a few boxes in stores, and left it to the retailers to set up a few demo models for people to test. I went into a store this weekend, and one of the sales assistants told me that they weren’t allowed to set up one. How crazy is this ? The worlds best selling console and people are not allowed to try it out ?
Recently a game called “Super Mario Galaxy” was launched in the US & UK. It was recorded as one of the fastest selling games of all times, and has achieved an average of 97% on gaming review sites. Yet, you won’t be able to find it on any South African store shelves.
Have Nintendo & The Core group missed the boat in South Africa ?
Popularity: 11% [?]
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Comments
Marc, you know that I am interested in getting a Wii, but I too have found that none of the retailers have a demo model out for people to play. Freakin stupid.
A family member of mine works for Incredible Connection, and she says that in a few of their stores, they setup the Wii in the window, and got people to play from the outside. They said they sold sh*t loads of Wii’s because of it.
I haven’t heard much about the Core Group, but from the brief few things I have heard, they sound like 1 stupid corporate import company, that hasn’t got a clue. ;-) Agree?
Stii & Jason. Thanks for the comments.
It does seem that I am not the only one thinking that core stinks. I am honestly not sure how they get to become distributors of such high profile products in South Africa. It really is a pity, as there is such a huge market and potential here, that it COULD actually work :(
re the comments about Core Group - who else supports macs in SA?
Are the others any good as mac resellers / dealers?
@mn there are some excellent resellers like C3 in Cresta, Johannesburg. Problem is, they can support up to a certain level then even they need to refer you to Core :(
I’m a die hard Apple fan. It is one beautiful and solid piece of machine. There is one huge problem with Apple in SA and that is the Core group. Their service stinks. Talk to anyone who has had business dealings with their executive director and ask them what they thought. Shocking that such a great product can be tainted by such a lousy company. I’m living in fear for the day that one of my Macs have issues. There is no company in George that supports Mac and that means I’ll have to send it away. To them. Not a nice thought.