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[cyberheater]

There was only ever a 1 year window that has been well and truly blown with terrible marketing and customer confusion

And a truly crap launch line up by Nintendo's standard which completely failed to capture the public in any way.

 

[Y2Kev]

Lol. I'm wondering what was the game which was supposed to sold millions.

I bet it was ACIII.

The platform has been pronounced dead by Western third parties.

I wonder if it will be more dead to third parties than the Wii, though. There was still some measure of interesting Western development on Wii. Epic Mickey, de Blob, Dead Space: Extraction, Boom Blox, some Ubisoft titles...there were some things worth mentioning.

I wonder if we will ever see that here.

 

[cloudyy]

Millions for Zombi U if this is the "high budget" Wii U game? Sorry but it had Red Steel written all over it, even before it released. The bad mouthing from the reviews also didn't help.

 

[Haunted]

If were talking predictions, here's Mario's take on the next console generation as a whole:

I don't have much of an opinion on what they might achieve in terms of an install base. But my general opinion is this next console generation is going to fail. The infrastructure for retail sales is crumbling, console platform manufacturers are still wanting to control content and prices too much, and the shift to other platforms (of consumers and dev support) in the meantime has been significant (my reasoning is more nuanced, but those are the big ticket items).

Not iPhone specifically, but the business models it allows e.g. digital distribution, software as a service, free to play. PC, web, smartphone and tablet are where the growth is and where consumers are going.

Unless console manufacturers open their platforms up in a similar way by not curating content so aggressively and allowing publishing and pricing control by individual companies they will flounder.

Where the market is at right now, tech specs are irrelevant. Content and access to it is the driving factor for success.

doom and gloom all around

 

[The Mana Legend]

Considering Iwata said they're not dropping the price anytime soon because the system is still being sold at a loss... I guess it'll be interesting to see what PS4/Xbox are priced at in comparison.

I think if the Wii U is super dead around holiday season and the PS4/720 prices aren't terrible (around $400), Nintendo will take the loss, lower the price, and hope they make it up with software sales or something.

Manufacturing costs should be down by then, too, I'm assuming.

 

[FyreWulff]

What was that high budget wiiu game?

The answer is: none, because selling "millions over time" at a console launch is so unrealistic that whoever brought up that market plan should be fired for their idiocy.

 

[GulAtiCa]

Not really? People assumed third parties would latch onto the 3DS over time off of the success of the DS alone. The same cannot be said for the WiiU which was, for lack of better words, doomed like the Wii from the start.

Except for that the 3DS saw major 3rd party game drops (like Assassin's Creed and Saints Row) around the 3DS price drop.

 

[Nirolak]

I bet it was ACIII.



I wonder if it will be more dead to third parties than the Wii, though. There was still some measure of interesting Western development on Wii. Epic Mickey, de Blob, Dead Space: Extraction, Boom Blox, some Ubisoft titles...there were some things worth mentioning.

I wonder if we will ever see that here.

Millions for Zombi U if this is the "high budget" Wii U game? Sorry but it had Red Steel written all over it, even before it released. The bad mouthing from the reviews also didn't help.

Ubisoft explicitly referred to Rayman and ZombiU as low resource investments, so yeah, Assassin's Creed 3 would be far more likely.

 

[ShockingAlberto]

So I have an honest question here...is there any reason why Nintendo can't survive as a major third party player if it comes down to that?

It presumes the talent will stay and not just go elsewhere.

Sega was supposed to be king of third parties when they ended their hardware production. Instead, they're having trouble printing discs and rolling back almost their entire retail presence.

 

[prwxv3]

but it worked though. Some people were like OMFG wiiU games. But then they're all TBD. and farrr off. WWHD is a stopgap by nintendo itself to plug a hole.

even WWHD is not big enough to plug up the hole that is the WiiU 2013 lineup.

 

[ozfunghi]

So... sloppy and late ports are supposed to have sold "millions" on a platform that has just launched. Even if WiiU sold double or triple the current numbers, that is some wishful thinking.

 

[Taurus]

Actually Nintendo, let the rest of the game industry crash and burn, and concentrate creating even more awesome 1st party games that won't be available anywhere else = success.

The Wii's 3rd party situation sickened me, and now with Wii U it's purely disgusting.

"Hey, there's money on the table!
-Leave it, it's Nintendo money and we don't want that."

Also: DOOOOOOOOOOOMED!

 

[chubigans]

It presumes the talent will stay and not just go elsewhere.

Sega was supposed to be king of third parties when they ended their hardware production. Instead, they're having trouble printing discs and rolling back almost their entire retail presence.

Yeah, that's true. I wonder what will happen to Nintendo...it's kinda strange to think we might know by the end of this year.

 

[cyberheater]

The answer is: none, because selling "millions over time" at a console launch is so unrealistic that whoever brought up that market plan should be fired for their idiocy.

Read the OP. The projection was that they would sell a million over time on the WiiU platform. Not straight away.

 

[Dave Meltzer]

That's not Nintendo. The've adamantly said that without their own hardware they will not be in business.

Things change. The days of selling your own hardware has to be coming to an end.

 

[farnham]

Ubisoft explicitly referred to Rayman and ZombiU as low resource investments, so yeah, Assassin's Creed 3 would be far more likely.

But ac3 is a port

 

[PhoenixDawn]

Right now is the time Nintendo should be capitalizing on big first party releases, not later in the year. Already the hype for next gen is massive, and combating that with what, Zelda, just isn't going to do the trick this fall.

The problem with that is that whenever Nintendo has come out with big first party games at launch, third party publishers bitch and moan that Nintendo games are suffocating/sabotaging the sale of the 3rd party games. So when Nintendo tries to listen and holds back on releasing 1st party games for the first few months as in the cases of 3DS and Wii U in an attempt to open up for 3rd party titles to get attention, the sales aren't there because the console hasn't been selling as well as it likely would if there were top-tier Nintendo games available.

 

[goomba]

It'll be funny yet sad if WiiU comes right and ends up beating ps4 and xb3 then more third parties starve to death because they backed the wrong horse (again)

Could it be scribblenaughts ?

 

[Kagari]

but it worked though. Some people were like OMFG wiiU games. But then they're all TBD. and farrr off. WWHD is a stopgap by nintendo itself to plug a hole.

Is it helping sales?

 

[Mithos]

What about Epic Mickey 2 ? Big budget game that completely bombed.

If I had to pick a game I think is was, that fits the bill.

 

[GDGF]

Troubling

 

[JABEE]

Out of curiosity, can anyone tell me who the original poster is?
(Like reputation on info and such).

Founder of Sidhe Studios

 

[Redhood]

Considering Iwata said they're not dropping the price anytime soon because the system is still being sold at a loss... I guess it'll be interesting to see what PS4/Xbox are priced at in comparison.

But i heard that WiiU was profitable with one unit plus one software sold.

 

[StoppedInTracks]

Ubisoft explicitly referred to Rayman and ZombiU as low resource investments, so yeah, Assassin's Creed 3 would be far more likely.

Batman?

 

[sacrificengineer]

Looks like Wii U will be in the similar position as Gamecube. But Gamecube at least had competitive hardware. The Wii phenomenon won't repeat this time, it seems.

Still, Gamecube was much more interesting platform than Wii, IMO. Wii U can become the same thing at very least.

 

[ShockingAlberto]

My guess is AC3, though I also have to wonder how much the bad word of mouth after the PS3/360 release hurt it.

Would be curious what the PC sales are, as well.

 

[Can Crusher]

You know what my guess is:

Activision Skylanders


Extreme seller on current gen, but not enough young kids can afford a WiiU so the series is selling rather poorly on Wii U.

Skylanders came out on Wii U? Heck that might be it. Would make sense that Activision would expect Skylanders to become pretty big in a Nintendo system. But at the same time, it doesn't make sense that initial purchasers would be interested in it.

So I don't know, I'm sticking with AC3 or BLOPS2.

 

[PapaJustify]

I had a data point yesterday at lunch with a high budget Wii U game that was hoping to sell "millions" over time. It only managed "tens of thousands".

It's certainly ZombiU and that sheds some light on the recent Rayman Legends developments...

 

[Haunted]

I bet it was ACIII.

I wonder if it will be more dead to third parties than the Wii, though. There was still some measure of interesting Western development on Wii. Epic Mickey, de Blob, Dead Space: Extraction, Boom Blox, some Ubisoft titles...there were some things worth mentioning.

I wonder if we will ever see that here.

Good point. I think we won't even see that level of B-Tier support (Deadly Creatures, Mushroom Men, Monster Lab(!)) beyond that first wave of games that are too far along to be cancelled already.

It is a similar trajectory as with the Wii, but we're seeing it happen even earlier this time around. Early enough to stop those "neat" B-level efforts from happening.

 

[prwxv3]

Things change. The days of selling your own hardware has to be coming to an end.

that did no review well so its not that.

 

[EmCeeGramr]

So I have an honest question here...is there any reason why Nintendo can't survive as a major third party player if it comes down to that?

Nintendo's entire production is based on being able to develop games for Nintendo hardware. Take that (and the amount of money lost for Nintendo to go third party) into account, and the idea that Nintendo will keep the same quality of output (Nintendo's defining grace) as a third party is really shaky.

 

[chubigans]

Batman?

You know what, I bet it is Batman! I forgot about that game...strong push from Nintendo, marketing dollars...yeah, I bet that's the game.

 

[Nirolak]

But ac3 is a port

And?

People usually have pretty high expectations for their SKUs even if they're multiplatform.

Not performing is usually what causes them to get dropped, like when we lost lots of PC SKUs until sales started going back up on the digital side.

 

[Doc Holliday]

The wii u could have sold millions and they still wouldn't be getting 3rd party. They would find some other excuse for not bringing out games.

 

[goomba]

Scribblenaughts ?

 

[The Mana Legend]

It's certainly ZombiU and that sheds some light on the recent Rayman Legends developments...

But it wouldn't make sense since Zombi U was low budget and sold more then "tens of thousands of units."

 

[Xellos]

The amount of doom and gloom surrounding this launch is incredible. Iwata has his work cut out for him trying to turn this around before everyone jumps on the 720/PS4 bandwagon.

 

[tkscz]

OT: Well it's Nintendo's fault at this point. Have you seen the US WiiU commercials? None of them point to the WiiU NOT being a controller for the Wii. How the hell is Nintendo not seeing this? People still think the WiiU is a controller for the Wii and won't pay 250 - 300 dollars for a tablet controller. So it won't sell here, and probably never will until Nintendo kills off the Wii. And by then it would be too late. The other 2 next gen consoles are going for full family entertainment as well, and probably WILL make sure people see that these are different consoles.

 

[msdstc]

The thing is nobody cares about gimmicks anymore... 3d, eyetoy, kinect, so on... just give us games please.

 

[Pachterballs]

Ubisoft explicitly referred to Rayman and ZombiU as low resource investments, so yeah, Assassin's Creed 3 would be far more likely.

but why would AC3 be expensive? Its not exclusive so the only work would be port+pressing of discs (inventory) - which wouldn't make it any more expensive than say zombiiU. the specs on the wiiU is also equvialent to ps3/x360 so I don't think they needed a big team to make the port happen

 

[PapaJustify]

But it wouldn't make sense since Zombi U was low budget and sold more then "tens of thousands of units."

What do we know about ZombiU figures?

 

[evangd007]

That's nice. Why didn't PS3 projects get cancelled en masse when that had a shitty launch? Like the Wii U, the PS3 was the follow-up to the previous generations market leader. I see situational parity.

Also, the funniest part IMO is "high budget game". I don't see anything high budget from 3rd parties on Wii U.

I don't know what's funnier: the fact that a Wii U third-party launch game was said to be "high budget" or that a million copies of sales was expected in the window from launch to now. I wouldn't put it past EA making that statement about Mass Effect 3. They have the capacity to be both that arrogant and dumb.

 

[The Mana Legend]

The amount of doom and gloom surrounding this launch is incredible. Iwata has his work cut out for him trying to turn this around before everyone jumps on the 720/PS4 bandwagon.

Iwata turned around the DS and the 3DS after their atrocious starts. Home consoles are a different story, but he's capable of doing it.

 

[farnham]

Well its a good thing third parties never contributed anything to wiis success

The amount of doom and gloom surrounding this launch is incredible. Iwata has his work cut out for him trying to turn this around before everyone jumps on the 720/PS4 bandwagon.

Iwata has to leave.

 

[Draft]

It's so weird. GAF has many posters that are astute market analysts and they all seemed certain that Wii's success meant that the WiiU was also going to succeed, in spite of all the worrying sales data. Could it be they were wrong?

 

[Mononoke]

Considering Iwata said they're not dropping the price anytime soon because the system is still being sold at a loss... I guess it'll be interesting to see what PS4/Xbox are priced at in comparison.

Does anyone know the actual cost of the tablet/controller?

Seems to me, if that really took up the cost for making the system, then this was ultimately the worst decision they made.

 

[Taurus]

It'll be funny yet sad if WiiU comes right and ends up beating ps4 and xb3 then more third parties starve to death because they backed the wrong horse (again)

Could it be scribblenaughts ?

There's some shitty times ahead for many developers as well as publishers. Many will crash and burn.

 

[Ninja Scooter]

Nintendo turned the 3DS around when it was all doom and gloom, they can do it for Wii U as well.

Though that certainly applies in Japan, but the 3DS still isn't exploding in NA is it?

We need support on that end too, did DS ever TRULY take off at least in it's first year or so in NA?

Pokemon will do the trick, but any 3rd-party success stories in NA on DS?

How did the DS COD games do?

3DS and Wii U are selling to completely different markets.

 

[dampflokfreund]

Considering Iwata said they're not dropping the price anytime soon because the system is still being sold at a loss... I guess it'll be interesting to see what PS4/Xbox are priced at in comparison.

Sorry, I don't believe that. The hardware itself is just PS3 level, the GamePad can't be THAT expensive.

 

[Nirolak]

but why would AC3 be expensive? Its not exclusive so the only work would be port+pressing of discs (inventory) - which wouldn't make it any more expensive than say zombiiU. the specs on the wiiU is also equvialent to ps3/x360 so I don't think they needed a big team to make the port happen

Mario said the game is high budget, not necessarily that the port was.