Gamers angry at 'rip-off' Wii bundles

As the chronic Wii shortage continues on the high street, retailers have come under fire from gamers for selling the Wii console only to those buyers willing to fork out extra for a games bundle.

Research carried out by MCV has found some retailers will only sell Wii consoles as part of a games bundle costing £400, which is more than double the cost of the standalone system.

The trade paper found Gamestation, Zavvi, HMV, Toys R Us and Woolworths stores refused to sell a standalone console, selling them only as part of games bundle, charging from £250 for a two-game pack at HMV to a £400 five-game bundle at Gamestation.

There has been outrage across online gaming forums, with one member stating: "I've just been out to buy a Nintendo Wii and found I couldn't buy just the console, but I was asked to buy a Wii with games I didn't even want. With the Wii shortage, retailers are ripping people off by forcing them to buy games with the console so they can get as much money out of the customer as possible."