Avoiding Ripoff Wii Bundles

Over Christmas a friend was looking for somewhere with Wii's in stock. I saw a local Game outlet had some, but I discovered they only had them bundled with three or more (rubbish) games, for an extra eighty quid over the RRP. Twice I returned, to find the same.

I object to bundling like this, which reduces consumer choice in the games they buy, and is a flagrant rip-off, taking advantage of customers struggling to find a Wii, which has consistently sold out ever since it was launched.

It turns out that Nintendo object to bundling too, since it artificially increases the Wii's asking price, undermining the console's position as cheapest current-gen offering. Their official policy is to reduce shipments of Wii's (read: boxes full of cash) to infringing retail outlets.

With this in mind I discovered that, even after assuring me they had none available, the store management and staff would then practically fall over themselves to press an unbundled Wii into my hands for RRP, as soon as I started asking for the store number and manager's name.

The bastards.