Nintendo Europe Plans Wii “Sampling Tour”

Officials from Nintendo of Europe have announced plans for a two month long roadshow in the UK and Ireland, which will present opportunities for the public to play the forthcoming Wii console – due to be launched in Europe on December 8th. The tour is scheduled to take place from November 10th to January 13th and will include over sixty locations during its run. A full list of dates and locations can be found at the official Wii UK website, with a focus on key mainstream and family events, including several shopping centers, as well as the The Good Food Show and Ideal Home exhibitions and Glasgow’s Irn Bru Carnival. The roadshow will feature two separate means for consumers to experience the Wii, with the first being a series of modular room sets that aim to simulate the console’s use in a home environment. The second “sampling mechanism” is a series of portable kiosks, presumably similar to existing displays in U.S. retail stores. “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," said Nintendo UK marketing director Dawn Paine. “Just as sampling and getting the hardware into people’s hands was so important with Nintendo DS, the same is very much true with Wii and we are making our largest ever investment in sampling for this campaign to ensure by launch that nearly one million people will have experienced Wii”.