I'll answer these in a different order as it'll help.

2) You need an account with Nintendo in order to download anything from their eShop, so, yes, you do need an account. Any purchases you make will be tied to this account. And subsequently, the account is linked to the console.

1) Since purchases are tied to an account, you don't lose any of your purchases if you factory reset your Wii U. And if your console gets lost, stolen, destroyed, etc, just call Nintendo and they can restore your purchases to a new console.

3) This is a tricky one as there are changes coming but I'm not sure how extensive they are. Short answer is yes. Long answer is below.

Presently, if you sell your wii u, your account is tied to your console so the games will be transferable to the new owner, even if you factory reset your Wii U prior. This is because Nintendo created the Wii U to be a family system and it allows multiple accounts to be created on one Wii U. And purchases from other accounts are accessible to everyone else on that one Wii U.

If you sell your Wii U later and get another or to get the upcoming (codenamed) Nintendo NX then you'll need to contact Nintendo to transfer the ID before you initiate the sale (getting an ID transferred after the Wii U leaves your hands may indeed be possible as well but I can't be certain).

In the future, Nintendo has spoken of the desire to have an accounts system (in fact, the new accounts system launches tomorrow afternoon) and everyone believes this means that you'll soon be able to manage your purchases and not have the account tied to a specific console (you cannot have two Wii U's and one identical Nintendo Network ID on both).

If you haven't bought this you'll likely hear more people chime in about the upcoming Nintendo NX and to wait before your purchase. Only you can decide but my take is that if you're interested in the system, it's better to buy it now and enjoy the games (particularly Splatoon!) and wait till the Nintendo NX has a decent library of games before making a decision on whether to get that. There are a great deal of highly rated exclusives on the Wii U you can enjoy right away - in fact, they have the most exclusives compared against what's available on the Xbox One and the Playstation 4. Also, while rumours seem to point towards an end 2016 release, no one other than Nintendo knows for sure and there are other factors that point towards that release date being unlikely.

Here's the HUKD Wii U Owners community - http://www.hotukdeals.com/misc/hukd-wii-u-owners-thread-share-your-nintendo-network-id-miiverse-1430216
And here's the HUKD Splatoon community - http://www.hotukdeals.com/misc/hukd-splatoon-shoot-out-2275545

We're a fun bunch. Promise. :smirk:

​Of you want a cheaper deal you could go for this one posted earlier today. It is cheaper but to be honest for a 7 year old the 2 games on offer here will be better suited. Here is the link to the other deal anyway http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/nintendo-wii-u-premium-pack-mario-maker-artbook-amiibo-199-using-code-rakuten-pixelelectronics-2422540

No worries. If there's a price drop to happen, it's unlikely to happen soon. Just buy it now as there's a vibrant community in Splatoon and other Nintendo games now. No real sense in waiting much if your interested in the games and the console. Price hasn't fluctuated much for a long time - other deals you might see may only be up to £20 less and you might not get either or both these games.

A 7 year old and that Wii game pad might not be a good combination, get him a normal wii, they can be had for a song, and you got a terrific back cat of games, and he can drop the controllers all he wants, they are solid.

REally? Sorry to hear that - I think you may have gotten a tough one in terms of a customer service person. Hope you get it sorted quickly. I have read that they too want a lot of information but there are many people who have had to jump through less hoops than you in order to achieve the same result.

In all fairness i think ive enjoyed the Wii U / 3DS more than the Xbox One so far. It is expensive compared to the deals last year, however the console has a lot of fun exclusives.

For a long time £140 got you an 8gb Wii U with Mario Kart, sure its only 8gb, however as you say 32gb is nothing anyway. So i took the money i saved buying the 8gb console and got a 64gb usb drive. So a 72gb console for £160.

I could have got a 2.5" hard drive, however physical games are a lot cheaper than downloadable games, so space is not really an issue. I just need enough for a game updates and the odd E-Shop only game.

I think it is expensive as a 'deal' here compared to other offers.....given that the Wii U is now 3.5 years old and there have been far better offers albeit with one game. However I would not really call it dated. Yes by design it is only marginally better than the 'previous' generation consoles Xbox 360 and PS3 but not really any more expensive than either of them at retail price.

I would never have bought one as a sole console though, but with (still) a lack of exclusives worth playing on the PS4 it makes for an interesting addition for any gamer in my opinion.

To be fair, 32GB can last for quite a while unless you bought a lot of games digitally. Even now, with loads of digital games in my Wii U, I've 'only' used up 100GB. Including a HDD would have increased the cost of the Wii U by a fair bit.

Had PS4 Xmas 2013, had Wii U March 2014, It cost me half the price of my PS4 and I have far more quality exclusive games over the past two years on the Wii U than I have on my PS4.....seems better value to me to be honest.

People complaining about storage are prob more used to how Sony and Microsoft deal with it. There are no big installs for disc-based games on the Wii U. You could conceivably go disc-only, have a whole bunch of games, and never run into space issues on a 32GB Wii U.

​Thanks, I will update.