Nintendo: Good afternoon, Nintendo customer support. (Name) speaking, how can I help?
Mktg: Hi. It's my brother's birthday soon, and I was wondering about buying him the new Nintendo console, but I don't know whether it's going on sale.
Nintendo: I don't know. As far as I know it's going to be on sale next year, it won't be available this year. Are you talking about the one that was announced the other day?
Mktg: Yes, the Wii U.
Nintendo: That's right, yeah.
Mktg: I'm trying to find out some more details. Is it a proper console, or a handheld thing?
Nintendo: To be honest we haven't heard much information ourselves, only what was displayed at the E3 show. As far as we're aware it's a home console, which can be portable to a certain degree. I think they are treating it as a home console rather than a portable.
Mktg: So is this going to replace the old Wii?
Nintendo: I think what they are trying to do is look at it as a complete set, so you've got the Wii console as well as this one, and you can use it in conjunction with the Wii Fit board if you have that, and other accessories as well. It's going to be something to accompany the Wii as well as its own thing.
Mktg: How much will it cost?
Nintendo: There is no charge point on it at the moment, but I'm sure they'll release more details toward the end of the year.
Mktg: My brother has the old Wii - is that going to be phased out now?
Nintendo: As far as we know, there is still going to be support for the Wii for quite a bit, but as I said, there is no release for the new item yet.
Mktg: Will games work across both consoles?
Nintendo: The Wii U is more powerful than the actual Wii console, so I don't know how that is going to work.
Mktg: OK, thanks very much.
Nintendo: Bye.
VERDICT
Given the scale of the announcement, and the reaction from critics and bloggers, Nintendo should have had its customer-service teams primed to praise the Wii U. Instead, although the call-handler was polite and as helpful as possible, he was left high and dry without the relevant information. If the brand wants to create a buzz ahead of the product launch, it should be better prepared for enquiries.
SCORE: 4/10