Wii UK Sampling Tour Kicks Off – Details Inside

Welcome to the Wii house!

Posted by Staff
Wii UK Sampling Tour Kicks Off – Details Inside
Nintendo has bullishly announced that it intends to have over one million people sample and play the Wii over the period of a two-month ‘Sampling Tour’, which is set to run from the 10 November 2006 to the 13 January 2007.

You will be able to get some hands-on time with the Wii if you head to one of 60 locations and special events planned across the UK and Ireland. Until you play Zelda, Monkey Ball, Wario and Wii Sports for yourself, you won’t ever be certain if the hype is justified.

In a press-relations-type release to the world, Nintendo explains:

“Because of the seismic shift (Earthquakes? It’s tin helmets time, lads! Paranoid. Ed.) in gaming and entertainment that Wii represents, sampling is key to the overall marketing campaign in helping people to understand Wii and just what it can do. Nintendo’s aim with Wii as with its handheld DS console, is to expand the gaming population and appeal to people who have never thought about picking up a games console at all. As a result the focus for the sampling is on key mainstream and family events and destinations from shopping malls including Bluewater Shopping Centre, Birmingham Bullring and Sheffield’s Meadow Hall to events including The Good Food Show, Ideal Home Exhibition and Glasgow’s Irn Bru Carnival.

The sampling will take place in two different ways. Firstly, taking its cue from the above-the-line strategy (Say what now?), the Wii will be shown off in a series of modular room sets that have been created to look like the living rooms, bedrooms and homes of people from across the UK complete with TV’s, sofas, bed and all assorted paraphernalia. The release describes this creative sampling technique whereby “people can simply walk into the room (which only has two walls for access and visibility) sit down and play away.

“The second sampling mechanic is a series of portable ‘busking units’ that enables much more reactive and tactical sampling. These units can simply be unloaded quickly and easily wheeled to their destination, used for a short time and then move on.”


Most tantalisingly, here is the first official mention of what Nintendo is calling the ‘Wii house’ (Stop giggling at the back!) described as follows:

“The central PR platform at the hub of Wii’s media relations strategy is a Nintendo house which again will reflect different rooms and ways to play Wii.”


The ‘Wii House’: A fan’s dream! SPOnG will be spending the day there on Monday and bringing you all the photos and a full preview of both the house and its rather special contents. We might even try to take a sleeping bag and see if Nintendo will let us live there, although, on second thoughts, why would we need to sleep?


Nintendo UK’s Marketing Director Dawn Paine had the following to say about the sampling campaign, “With each passing year, video gaming has become a more exclusive experience. The complexities of some of the newest games have alienated those who used to play games with their entire families. Wii changes all that. Nintendo has created the most inviting, inclusive video game system to date. Thanks to our unique controller, anyone of any age or skill level can pick up and play games on the Wii console and it’s key that we message this in all our communications”


Rest assured, dear reader, SPOnG will be bringing you full previews of every Wii launch title in the coming weeks as we approach the December 8th launch.

Comments

RiseFromYourGrave 3 Nov 2006 16:06
1/5
no solid tour date/location details yet guys?
Ditto 3 Nov 2006 16:53
2/5
Those immature "Ed" comments are really annoying.
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Ditto 3 Nov 2006 17:16
3/5
The tour stop nearest me is in an out-of-town shopping centre which no-one can get to easily - no way am I making a trip out of town just to play Wii.

Locations here:
http://ms.nintendo-europe.com/wii/?site=uk_tour.html&l=enGB
RiseFromYourGrave 4 Nov 2006 13:54
4/5
thanks for the link. the nearest me is the arndale. i havent been in there since they renovated it. might be worth popping down
fluffstardx 6 Nov 2006 13:18
5/5
No Newcastle? Not even Metro Centre, Europe's biggest shopping centre?

Bizarre.
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