Nintendo Wii U "Basic Recall" sets stage for E3 reboot

It's apparent this afternoon that Gamestop is seeing the first of a line of Nintendo-send "Basic Recall" notes for the Wii U basic 8GB model. This model is the smallest and least expensive of the Wii U units out on the market today, this suggesting that the machine is not being called back by Nintendo because of any defect, instead only moving to usher in a new wave of lowered prices and higher capacities.

The Nintendo Wii U has been the subject of some controversy with this smallest model in the recent past, having provided users with an amount of storage space inside that is, in some cases, too small to hold some of the larger Wii U games on the market. As this point has been reached this early in the game, so to speak, it makes a lot of sense for Nintendo to move forward.

A similar situation occurred when Google's introduction of the Nexus 7 tablet had a smallest size of 8GB (this referring to internal storage as well). This tablet wasn't around long before the company introduced a 32GB model and moved their 16GB model down to the price point of the first release. The same will likely happen with Nintendo and the Wii U during E3.

According to the note sent to Kotaku, their retail source is being told to send back all Wii U 8GB models, these otherwise known as "Wii U Basic". The basic model currently costs right around $300 USD depending on where you pick one up, and a 32GB iteration runs $350 USD with "Nintendo Land" packaged with it.

With a bevy of new titles appearing soon for this console – not least of them Pikmin, Zelda, and Mario related – it appears that it's high time for the next generation to get a bit bigger on the inside.