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[Impeccable]

As I posted in the Wii U Sold Out thread, according to Eurogamer's Nintendo UK interview, their strategy seems to be:

Soft launch now.
Get the enthusiasts to buy it.
Enthusiasts will show it off to friends & families over holidays.
Lure the mainstream in 2013 with games like Sing Party and Wii Fit U.

Exactly the same plan of action for Sony and the Vita.

 

[Miles X]

Right.

Wii LTD is approaching 10 million in the UK. Like everywhere else, it was a phenomenal success.

Do you have a source for that?

 

[Averon]

As I posted in the Wii U Sold Out thread, according to Eurogamer's Nintendo UK interview, their strategy seems to be:

Soft launch now.
Get the enthusiasts to buy it.
Enthusiasts will show it off to friends & families over holidays.
Lure the mainstream in 2013 with games like Sing Party and Wii Fit U.

If that's their, plan, they bet badly. The Wii U needed strong momentum out the gate. They have less than a year before the deluge of Sony and MS's next systems starts. They don't have the luxury of time to sit around hoping the enthusiasts will bite and does word-of-mouth evangelizing for them.

This is pretty much Sony's plan with the Vita. We are all seeing how well that's playing out for them.

 

[confuziz]

Do you have a source for that?

afaik it is more like 8-8.5 million..

Also, NPD says Wii is on like 40 mil in US. there are 300 mil people in USA and 60 in UK.

1/5th of 40 is 8, and the markets are very much alike. So 8 million seems about right.

 

[AHA-Lambda]

I understand WiiU software has fallen far on the charts but didn't the 40k HW number from last week compare quite favourably to the 360/PS3/Wii launches?

 

[Pie and Beans]

I understand WiiU software has fallen far on the charts but didn't the 40k HW number from last week compare quite favourably to the 360/PS3/Wii launches?

No. Behind Vita, which admittedly had from a Wednesday to achieve 60k, rather than the WiiU from a Friday, but still this is Christmas Shopping Season, that was February.

 

[Sho_Nuff82]

Do you have a source for that?

Need to find more recent numbers, but as of January 2009 Nintendo sold 4.9 million Wiis in the UK, and held ~50% console marketshare.

http://www.edge-online.com/news/uk-lifetime-hardware-sales-revealed/

 

[zomgbbqftw]

I understand WiiU software has fallen far on the charts but didn't the 40k HW number from last week compare quite favourably to the 360/PS3/Wii launches?

PS3 did 165k in March. So no.

 

[Burai]

If that's their, plan, they bet badly. The Wii U needed strong momentum out the gate. They have less than a year before the deluge of Sony and MS's next systems starts. They don't have the luxury of time to sit around hoping the enthusiasts will bite and does word-of-mouth evangelizing for them.

This is pretty much Sony's plan with the Vita. We are all seeing how well that's playing out for them.

And worst of all they don't even have a hook for the enthusiast crowd. NSMBU and Nintendoland are casual as hell and enthusiasts will already own the third party games on PS360.

 

[Miles X]

Need to find more recent numbers, but as of January 2009 Nintendo sold 4.9 million Wiis in the UK, and held ~50% console marketshare.

http://www.edge-online.com/news/uk-lifetime-hardware-sales-revealed/

Tanks, similar to US then, almost reached 50% there. Still if those are the last numbers, there's no way to tell if it's at 8m or 10.

 

[AHA-Lambda]

As I posted in the Wii U Sold Out thread, according to Eurogamer's Nintendo UK interview, their strategy seems to be:

Soft launch now.
Get the enthusiasts to buy it.
Enthusiasts will show it off to friends & families over holidays.
Lure the mainstream in 2013 with games like Sing Party and Wii Fit U.

That is a bloody awful plan.

PS3 did 165k in March. So no.

No. Behind Vita, which admittedly had from a Wednesday to achieve 60k, rather than the WiiU from a Friday, but still this is Christmas Shopping Season, that was February.

I thought I remember last week that Wii also launched at about 40k and 360 did 30k. Did I imagine this? =/

 

[Little Old Man]

Here is the simple problem with the Wii-U. It shouldn't have been called the Wii-U.
That right there is the root of all confusion for consumers, much like with the 3DS.

Add in things like Wii Fit, and a whole raft of other Wii add ons, it is no wonder consumers have no clear idea what the Wii-U is. Same with the DS: DS, DS Lite, DSi, DS:XL, 3DS). How is a consumer meant to clearly identify what is what at first glance, especially when the systems look similar?

Playstation and Xbox stick to clear linear naming systems, with distinctly different looking successors. Nintendo should catch on, it should have named it the Wii2, or something else entirely.

 

[michaelius]

Tanks, similar to US then, almost reached 50% there. Still if those are the last numbers, there's no way to tell if it's at 8m or 10.

Banned site should be in +/- milion accurate range for total sales (after all they are adjusting it each time they had more Wii sold than Nintendo shipped )

 

[Miles X]

Banned site should be in +/- milion accurate range for total sales (after all they are adjusting it each time they had more Wii sold than Nintendo shipped )

They've been as much as 30% out, besides when Sony announced 5m in UK they had it at 5.3m and didn't bother to adjust it.

 

[zomgbbqftw]

I thought I remember last week that Wii also launched at about 40k and 360 did 30k. Did I imagine this? =/

You must have.

360 - 70K
PS3 - 165K
Wii - 105K

First week sales, all launched on Friday, so they are comparable to Wii U.

 

[Dabanton]

As I posted in the Wii U Sold Out thread, according to Eurogamer's Nintendo UK interview, their strategy seems to be:

Soft launch now.
Get the enthusiasts to buy it.
Enthusiasts will show it off to friends & families over holidays.
Lure the mainstream in 2013 with games like Sing Party and Wii Fit U.

If that's their plan then good luck.

The further we get out the less the hardware is going to look attractive to those sort of consumers.

 

[Saiyar]

Need to find more recent numbers, but as of January 2009 Nintendo sold 4.9 million Wiis in the UK, and held ~50% console marketshare.

http://www.edge-online.com/news/uk-lifetime-hardware-sales-revealed/

Eurogamer

We hope it'll build on the launch base of the Wii. In the UK the Wii is now around 8 million [sold] and we hope to attract all of that 8 million - hopefully more.

That is from a nintendo exec last month.

 

[AHA-Lambda]

You must have.

360 - 70K
PS3 - 165K
Wii - 105K

First week sales, all launched on Friday, so they are comparable to Wii U.

Ok I must have mixed up some numbers in my head for something else XD

yeah those wiiu numbers are pretty bad =s

 

[Pie and Beans]

I thought I remember last week that Wii also launched at about 40k and 360 did 30k. Did I imagine this? =/

360 did 70k and was a real sellout due to simultaneous launch and very real stock issues. There was a lot of UK anger at simply not being able to buy the box.

 

[Miles X]

Eurogamer


That is from a nintendo exec last month.

Awesome, thanks!

360 must be so close to that.

 

[AHA-Lambda]

360 did 70k and was a real sellout due to simultaneous launch and very real stock issues.

I know that one all too well, was a pain in the arse to get a 360 at launch but I managed it

 

[Pie and Beans]

I know that one all too well, was a pain in the arse to get a 360 at launch but I managed it

I trust you've had to buy one again since! "You only have yourselves to blame, you wanted us to make them faster, so we cut corners.."

 

[AHA-Lambda]

I trust you've had to buy one again since! "You only have yourselves to blame, you wanted us to make them faster, so we cut corners.."

Aye 2 more
Never done a console launch since and don't plan to.

 

[Delusibeta]

So, Wii U stumbles and the UK market is dying?

I know UK sales have been down dramatically this year, but let's be honest, Wii U was never going to be the console to stir up the excitement again.

Anecdotally perhaps, but people are genuinely eagerly anticipating 720/PS4 news here. It's been too long between generations, and we're seeing the results of that in sales slumps across the world.

I'm not saying 720/PS4 will fix everything, but they'll definitely get the ball rolling. That coupled with a Wii U price drop + a likely barrage of must-have Nintendo games late 2013 and the industry will finally start to pick up again.

It better, because if the Xbox 3 & PlayStation 4 also starts off poorly, then I'll be happy to declare the UK video game market dead outside of smartphones and tablets.

 

[radioheadrule83]

As I posted in the Wii U Sold Out thread, according to Eurogamer's Nintendo UK interview, their strategy seems to be:

thanks for that, here if anyone wants to read it
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...o-hopes-fears-why-hardcore-fans-secret-weapon

I didn't know about the online passes thing (namely that EA / Ubi games that have online passes on other consoles, don't need one on Wii U)

 

[SmokyDave]

thanks for that, here if anyone wants to read it
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...o-hopes-fears-why-hardcore-fans-secret-weapon

I didn't know about the online passes thing (namely that EA / Ubi games that have online passes on other consoles, don't need one on Wii U)

Hmmm...

EA and Ubisoft games such as FIFA 13 and Assassin's Creed don't have Online Passes on Wii U but do on other platforms - something a lot of gamers will see is a good thing. Is that a decision from Nintendo to enforce that?

Shelly Pearce: We want to leave it up to the publishers to define their own online strategy for their games, but it is very much their decision.

So they could have one if they wanted to?

Shelly Pearce: Yeah, it's very much what they want to deliver.

If it's what they want to deliver, why do they use online passes on the other two?

Something smells fishy and it ain't my lunch.

 

[radioheadrule83]

Hmmm...

If it's what they want to deliver, why do they use online passes on the other two?

Something smells fishy and it ain't my lunch.

I was trying to think about it just now and perhaps its because there's no trade in market on the Wii U yet... that's what those things are there to combat right? Its not been pirated either like the others. With regard to FIFA, it could well be that EA just think it'd be one cheeky move too far to ask for online pass money.

 

[SmokyDave]

I was trying to think about it just now and perhaps its because there's no trade in market on the Wii U yet... that's what those things are there to combat right? Its not been pirated either like the others. With regard to FIFA, it could well be that EA just think it'd be one cheeky move too far to ask for online pass money.

Could it be that due to the quirks of the account system, there's no mechanism in place to get it working?

I'm pretty confident that if they could do it, they would do it. Still, maybe not.

 

[Mpl90]

As already said in the other thread, Paper Mario debut seems in line with what happened the last time a Mario RPG came out on a portable console

http://www.chart-track.co.uk/index....p&ct=110032&arch=t&lyr=2009&year=2009&week=41

Here you can see Mario & Luigi's debut in overall Europe

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=376803


And to be useful too, Irish top 20

http://www.chart-track.co.uk/index.jsp?c=p/software/ire/latest/index_test.jsp&ct=210015

As expected, NintendoLand disappeared.

 

[radioheadrule83]

Could it be that due to the quirks of the account system, there's no mechanism in place to get it working?

I'm pretty confident that if they could do it, they would do it. Still, maybe not.

Maybe, but I doubt it. It could maybe be as a result of not knowing exactly how to implement it due to the SDK being in flux at the time of development though... Miiverse and other online features didn't go live until the day 1 update.

Technically, I can't see there's a problem. My brother and I can log-in two separate accounts on Call of Duty at the same time and independently ratchet up EXP on our accounts, no problem with the account system there. They're already working on Mario DLC and Ninja Gaiden is getting some in the not too distant future, and all that stuff will work across accounts too... I don't really see why an online pass would be any different. On 360 when you activate an online pass, it seems to download a file or something to the system that authorises you online on that system, I imagine they'd just do something similar on Wii U. If anything it'd probably be easier on that, as they're not dealing with a walled garden like on Xbox Live, just their own servers. My guess would be its not implemented as a conscious choice in those games... either because they don't need the protection of online passes at the moment, or because they didn't have the time or something.

 

[El-Suave]

These UK charts still show the Wii has major influence over the casual audience.

Seriously - Just Dance 4 at number 2 and Just Dance Disney Party at number 28.
Makes me think that games like SiNG Party may have an audience.

Sony didn't manage to transition its Singstar success from PS2 to PS3, people just don't see the benefit of the upgraded expensive hardware. Why dhould Wii U do better with the transition from Wii for this kind of game.

 

[lunchwithyuzo]

And a massive DS and GBA userbase...

3DS is no DS or GBA for that matter. It was the handheld division bring home the bacon for a very long time for Nintendo while the home console division was fucking up.

GBA was a boon for sure, but GC itself was incredibly profitable with a better attach rate than even 360. Even though GC moved roughly half as much software as GBA (versus roughly a quarter the userbase), manufacting costs kept margins much more slim on GBA. Even "fucking up" console side, Nintendo made far more money than SCE or MS on their consoles.

 

[Graphics Horse]

Wonderbook > Wii U.

Haha damn, hadn't noticed that. Book of spells name always passes me by.

 

[AdventureRacing]

The wii U is in such a tough spot. I really feel like they are in a much worse position than sony was in and i also don't think they are willing to make the same moves sony did to get the PS3 to where it is. It's going to be interesting to see how they turn this ship around.

I know it's only been a week or 2 but that can be very telling and you can tell that the appeal of the console isn't there right now.

I think people need to consider that the 2 years of nothing at the end of the Wii's life (well, Skyward Sword, XenoBlade, Last Story, and Just Dance) really turned off consumers who would have lined up day one for Nintendo's new console. As said above, when MS murdered the Xbox, the 360 was right there. Consumers may feel burned and are taking a wait and see approach. Or, worse yet, they've already upgraded to PS360 during the Wii drought, and Nintendo has lost them as customers for at least 4-5 years.

It's one way to explain the soft launch even in the presence of NSMB U, which is supposed to be one of their heavy hitters..

This is exactly why i think the PS4/720 shouldn't wait until 2014. Even though it wouldn't be quite as bad i still feel like you should strike while the iron is hot. I know everyone rants about how they need to milk this generation for all it's worth but i don't think that's the right move. They can still support the 360/PS3 and reduce to price to try and get PS2 like legs. Stalling out and risking the success of your next product (which is a very important gen imo) is a bad idea.

 

[radioheadrule83]

I know it's only been a week or 2 but that can be very telling and you can tell that the appeal of the console isn't there right now.

Can any of you guys think of another Internet-era console launch where we haven't had an exciting sizzle reel of upcoming first party games for a console?

This, to me, is the first. I understand why they're doing it... they do believe NSMBU and NintendoLand are great titles (they are). They want the third party launch software to do well, they want the likes of Rayman and Wonderful 101 to have interest in early 2013 too... they probably also want to save their Mario, Zelda and Metroid punches for when they need them. And yes, we know about DQX/MH3 (up-ports more important to Japan) and Bayonetta (we've seen nothing of it yet), but this is the first launch I can think of where we haven't really seen what the major backing first party has in mind for the console. We get the idea behind the console, but we haven't yet seen the vision. Sony were so desperate to show us what they had in mind, that they basically fabricated a lot of their E3 2005 footage. I hate to say it, but I prefer what Sony did there to what Nintendo are doing now. It's the hardcore who will take this thing up first and show it to other people... and without teasing us with what EAD, Retro, Monolith, and others are up to, that's just not as easy to make happen as they'd like to believe.

 

[AdventureRacing]

Can any of you guys think of another Internet-era console launch where we haven't had an exciting sizzle reel of upcoming first party games for a console?

This, to me, is the first. I understand why they're doing it... they do believe NSMBU and NintendoLand are great titles (they are). They want the third party launch software to do well, they want the likes of Rayman and Wonderful 101 to have interest in early 2013 too... they probably also want to save their Mario, Zelda and Metroid punches for when they need them. And yes, we know about DQX/MH3 (up-ports more important to Japan) and Bayonetta (we've seen nothing of it yet), but this is the first launch I can think of where we haven't really seen what the major backing first party has in mind for the console. Sony were so desperate to show us what they had in mind, that they basically fabricated a lot of their E3 2005 footage. I hate to say it, but I prefer what Sony did there to what Nintendo are doing now. It's the hardcore who will take this thing up first and show it to other people... and without teasing us with what EAD, Retro, Monolith, and others are up to, that's just not as easy to make happen as they'd like to believe.

This is definitely true and it's part of the reason there is so little excitement for the console even on places like this. I'm a pretty big nintendo fan but right now i'm not very excited about the console. I don't even expect a bunch of new IP's or anything. I just want a glimpse of what nintendo is developing. Right now there is nothing.

 

[Rolf NB]

It is not selling out and infact floundering at Christmas with a New Super Mario Bros at release. Its in trouble, theres no spinning it. Wonderbook is selling more in the UK charts. WONDERBOOK.

To be fair, it is not at all unusual that a game on an established platform outsells a system. It happens all the time, at any part of a console lifecycle ... except near launch. Say, Call From Doodie sells 5M within a week. What are the odds that its target systems also sell 5M units that week? Roughly zero. The game can sell such big numbers because there are already >>100M systems out there that can play it. But its effects on hardware sales are not even visible at this point.

 

[pieatorium]

We don't have any info about hardware sales. We don't have exact numbers about software sales. Nor about tie-ratio. We have scarce information about Europe in general. UK has a Top 40, many other countries have barely a Top 10. I don't think it's good to overreact and say the Wii U is a failure basing on a UK chart.

We know that 7 games sold over 50k because Halo's sales for this week were given, We can say Farcry sold at least 90k because of the minimum we have for it from last week.

your first post of

My god, UK market is really dying. Funny that some time ago, people were saying it would have been overcome Japan, lol.

doesn't really fly. This weeks UK sales are not above japans for http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=502792

But to call it dying based on these weeks is quite silly, 6 months ago when 5k would get in the top 10 yeah sure but the big holiday games are selling like big holiday games do for the most part.

To be fair, it is not at all unusual that a game on an established platform outsells a system. It happens all the time, at any part of a console lifecycle ... except near launch. Say, Call From Doodie sells 5M within a week. What are the odds that its target systems also sell 5M units that week? Roughly zero. The game can sell such big numbers because there are already >>100M systems out there that can play it. But its effects on hardware sales are not even visible at this point.

Hes not talking about COD though, he is talking about a game thats generally considered to be performing poorly

 

[zomgbbqftw]

To be fair, it is not at all unusual that a game on an established platform outsells a system. It happens all the time, at any part of a console lifecycle ... except near launch. Say, Call From Doodie sells 5M within a week. What are the odds that its target systems also sell 5M units that week? Roughly zero. The game can sell such big numbers because there are already >>100M systems out there that can play it. But its effects on hardware sales are not even visible at this point.

Yeah, bit this isn't about COD or FIFA. It's Wonderbook. Wonderbook.

Let's go back to the UK Wii sales thread, I posted:

"They are now back in stock, but again, they say that both 360 and PS3 have higher sales than Wii U, and they have had more inquiries for PS3 12GB+Book of Spells than for Wii U (probably reflecting Sony's massive advertising push)"

From a retail source. That Wonderbook has outsold Nintendo Land comes as no surprise to me and shouldn't to GAF either, at least people reading that thread.

 

[Fabrik]

Can any of you guys think of another Internet-era console launch where we haven't had an exciting sizzle reel of upcoming first party games for a console?

This, to me, is the first. I understand why they're doing it... they do believe NSMBU and NintendoLand are great titles (they are). They want the third party launch software to do well, they want the likes of Rayman and Wonderful 101 to have interest in early 2013 too... they probably also want to save their Mario, Zelda and Metroid punches for when they need them. And yes, we know about DQX/MH3 (up-ports more important to Japan) and Bayonetta (we've seen nothing of it yet), but this is the first launch I can think of where we haven't really seen what the major backing first party has in mind for the console. We get the idea behind the console, but we haven't yet seen the vision. Sony were so desperate to show us what they had in mind, that they basically fabricated a lot of their E3 2005 footage. I hate to say it, but I prefer what Sony did there to what Nintendo are doing now. It's the hardcore who will take this thing up first and show it to other people... and without teasing us with what EAD, Retro, Monolith, and others are up to, that's just not as easy to make happen as they'd like to believe.

Yeah I agree. Nintendo needs to build excitement and show the system is future-proof. Pikmin 3 is not enough.

 

[metalslimer]

Highest WiiU game is at 27

That about does it for the WiiU, then

Haven't you been arguing for months that Vita will be fine lol?

 

[CrunchinJelly]

As already said in the other thread, Paper Mario debut seems in line with what happened the last time a Mario RPG came out on a portable console

http://www.chart-track.co.uk/index....p&ct=110032&arch=t&lyr=2009&year=2009&week=41

Here you can see Mario & Luigi's debut in overall Europe

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=376803


And to be useful too, Irish top 20

http://www.chart-track.co.uk/index.jsp?c=p/software/ire/latest/index_test.jsp&ct=210015

As expected, NintendoLand disappeared.

Why do you always try and spin with comparisons of chart positions which mean jack shit?

 

[RukusProvider]

The majority of the people nintendo lured in were not 'real' gamers as it were, maybe I should say dedicated ... anyway, they were never going to be loyal and stick around.

Mobile and tablet gaming is as big of a threat to Nintendon wiiu in the west as it is to dedicated handhelds. That's the audience the wii had won over for a period.

 

[Captain Smoker]

Why do you always try and spin with comparisons of chart positions which mean jack shit?

What's wrong about his Mario RPG comparison?

 

[Graphics Horse]

Why do you always try and spin with comparisons of chart positions which mean jack shit?

If you're in this thread there's usually not much to do other than compare chart positions.

 

[Pie and Beans]

To be fair, it is not at all unusual that a game on an established platform outsells a system. It happens all the time, at any part of a console lifecycle ... except near launch. Say, Call From Doodie sells 5M within a week. What are the odds that its target systems also sell 5M units that week? Roughly zero. The game can sell such big numbers because there are already >>100M systems out there that can play it. But its effects on hardware sales are not even visible at this point.

Yeah, bit this isn't about COD or FIFA. It's Wonderbook. Wonderbook.

Let's go back to the UK Wii sales thread, I posted:

"They are now back in stock, but again, they say that both 360 and PS3 have higher sales than Wii U, and they have had more inquiries for PS3 12GB+Book of Spells than for Wii U (probably reflecting Sony's massive advertising push)"

From a retail source. That Wonderbook has outsold Nintendo Land comes as no surprise to me and shouldn't to GAF either, at least people reading that thread.

Its not even just a case of this not exactly being a COD or Fifa or selling to a six year old console's install base, heres the secret magic eye fucking reveal moment of why Wonderbook selling more than the Wii U's top titles is astounding:

Its fucking Playstation Move required.

Yes, thats right, the punchline that became so unfunny to even keep trolling sales data with that was Playstation Move, has actually found a killer app. There is now a Playstation Move install base and the additional peripheral that is the Wonderbook that is selling more than the latest Nintendo console during the Christmas shopping season. BAM. YOUR MIND JUST EXPLODED.

 

[pieatorium]

What's wrong about his Mario RPG comparison?

Industry as a whole down by percentage and luanching at a different time of the year

 

[metalslimer]

Why do you always try and spin with comparisons of chart positions which mean jack shit?

Isn't everyone in here saying wii U is a bomb based on chart position comparisons? Not that it isn't, but there is no solid way to do comparisons.

 

[pieatorium]

Isn't everyone in here saying wii U is a bomb based on chart position comparisons?

Comparisons to what is currently in the chart, not what was in the chart 3 years ago

 

[Graphics Horse]

Its not even just a case of this not exactly being a COD or Fifa, heres the secret magic eye fucking reveal moment of why Wonderbook selling more than the Wii U's top titles is astounding:

Its fucking Playstation Move required.

Yes, thats right, the punchline that became so unfunny to even keep trolling sales data with that was Playstation Move, has actually found a killer app. There is now a Playstation Move install base that is selling more than the latest Nintendo console. BAM. YOUR MIND JUST EXPLODED.

A lot of that could be the bundle for £180 which includes camera, move, 12gb ps3 and book of smells.