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[Pie and Beans]

Usually they have timed droughts, but I'm willing to bet something got fucked up on Nintendo's end that's going to result in a lack of games till after the FY ends.

It's a damn shame, but I do think they overestimated Mario.

Meanwhile 3DS murder. Seriously, they've gotta be very happy with those numbers all around.

Its easy to see what happened really: Mario 3D Land. A 3d Mario game, one of EAD's best in recent years, on a portable. When did they have to bother doing that in the past? Never. DS got a Mario 64 port, sure, but 3D Mario was console space. Did Nintendo internally expand in talent and manpower to such a point where developing 2 big new 3D Marios concurrently would be no thang?

Nope, so here we are. Miyamoto has taken way too long with Pikmin 3 because the guy has lost his director/development edge, and you get this shambles for the WiiU while 3DS looks strong (perhaps almost because Miyamoto and the old guard arent as overbearingly involved).

One of the two fronts has been broken, and I'm not sure theres much of a prize or desire for them to reinforce that one all over again.

 

[Kagari]

Wii U reaching PS3 2007 levels soon?

 

[SolarPowered]

If their only option is to completely scrap the wii u and start over they may as well just forfeit this console generation and move on to preparing for the next one. Luckily that's not their only nor best option. I do agree, opening the warchest should be happening now, but not for a complete system relaunch, but for securing exclusive content, producing content and lots of it and giving people something to look forward to. It's one thing Sony and MS know how to do, make you look forward to what's to come even if it is three years out. Hell people on this forum are STILL pining for The Last Guardian, so obviously it works to some degree.

Nintendo needs to remember that while Mario, and Monster Hunter are important, people still need GAMES to look forward to, to make them say "Hell yes i'm going to buy that for this game. It's GAMES that sell people, not technology, as proven with the Wii vs PS3 there and 3ds vs Vita there. They need to show some compelling software, only available on the system and it'd sell.

Trust me, showing a home Dragon Quest XI or something similar will move systems there.

F-Zero would probably be much cheaper than Dragon quest and it'd sell some systems in the West.

 

[metalslimer]

Its easy to see what happened really: Mario 3D Land. A 3d Mario game, one of EAD's best in recent years, on a portable. When did they have to bother doing that in the past? Never. DS got a Mario 64 port, sure, but 3D Mario was console space. Did Nintendo internally expand in talent and manpower to such a point where developing 2 big new 3D Marios concurrently would be no thang?

Nope, so here we are. Miyamoto has taken way too long with Pikmin 3 because the guy has lost his edge, and you get this shambles for the WiiU while 3DS looks strong.

One of the two fronts has been broken, and I'm not sure theres much of a prize or desire for them to reinforce that one again.

EAD Tokyo is a relatively new Nintendo team, and they have been expanding a lot, so yes they had the manpower to make both. Also part of the game was outsourced anyway. I expect a 3D Mario at the end of the year from tokyo

Wii U reaching PS3 2007 levels soon?

well ps3 did better this week in 2007 so....

 

[shinra-bansho]

Wii U reaching PS3 2007 levels soon?

I think it's already hit them, hasn't it?

 

[Kazerei]

Wii U reaching PS3 2007 levels soon?

Yeah, the weekly PS3 sales dropped to ~20k right after the holidays, and then to ~10k during the slowest part of the year. But the Wii U's launch was much stronger, so the launch-aligned LTDs won't be crossing streams any time soon.

 

[Raist]

Wii U reaching PS3 2007 levels soon?

See Road's post on page 1.

 

[Frodo]

Wow at the Wii U numbers! I sure was expecting a drop, but wasn't expecting it to go that low.

But, considering all platforms had a significant drop, are we reading the numbers right? I mean, this looks like a bad week for every single system that is not a 3DS. Is it the Wii U or is it the market overall?

What kind of numbers should the Wii U be pulling right now to be out of the Doomed zone?


Besides, what can Nintendo announce to make people buy the console now? Does announcements ever had a positive impact to drive sales up even when there is no game coming out in the same period? Honest question.

 

[Pai Pai Master]

Is 3DS destined to be the next PS2 in Japan? It looks like its going to eat up such a huge part of the market and has no real competition even from the Wii U.

 

[Yoshi]

So, YoY the number of titles being released in this period has nearly doubled? That's crazy!

Will you say the same if the Wii U manages to get six titles to release next year from january to march? One has to keep in mind that most of these games should have been in development, before the sales went down the drain.

 

[BlackJace]

Has anyone made the "Japan is slowly embracing the Wii U as its main console" joke yet?

 

[Deku Tree]

3DS is a beast.

 

[metalslimer]

Wow at the Wii U numbers! I sure was expecting a drop, but wasn't expecting it to go that low.

But, considering all platforms had a significant drop, are we reading the numbers right? I mean, this looks like a bad week for every single system that is not a 3DS. Is it the Wii U or is it the market overall?

What kind of numbers should the Wii U be pulling right now to be out of the Doomed zone?


Besides, what can Nintendo announce to make people buy the console now? Does announcements ever had a positive impact to drive sales up even when there is no game coming out in the same period? Honest question.

MHTri's announcement gave the 3DS a small boost, but the 3DS had already picked up some steam after the price drop. Nintendo just announcing games for wii u won't do anything. Basically people just want to see Nintendo hasn't given up. Practical results won't be known until later this year when the games drop

 

[Opus Angelorum]

Has anyone made the "Japan is slowly embracing the Wii U as its main console" joke yet?

Several have.

 

[Trevelyan9999]

Japan = all about the games


No Wii U games to buy = not buying the console


Simple, Nintendo just needs to get some games out. Since Nintendo already knows what they are planning to release, what Iwata said in that interview about the Wii U recently will be true in this case. You can't judge weekly sales so dramatically for the Wii U at this point in it's life cycle, it's just too early and Nintendo have admittedly said that they are still getting their "shit" together.

Iwata was very honest in that interview and this was why with these sales.......let's come back in June.

 

[Mpl90]

Is 3DS destined to be the next PS2 in Japan? It looks like its going to eat up such a huge part of the market and has no real competition even from the Wii U.

Eh, I said it earlier, but you're right: "DS-like domination with no Wii/PSP-like players in the game" sounds just a very difficult way to say PS2-like domination. If things don't change for Wii U and if PS4 doesn't have a good impact, it's the new PS2.

 

[metalslimer]

Japan = all about the games


No Wii U games to buy = not buying the console


Simple, Nintendo just needs to get some games out. Since Nintendo already knows what they are planning to release, what Iwata said in that interview about the Wii U recently will be true in this case. You can't judge weekly sales so dramatically for the Wii U at this point in it's life cycle, it's just too early and Nintendo have admittedly said that they are still getting their "shit" together.

Iwata was very honest in that interview and this was why with these sales.......let's come back in June.

lol you don't get to ignore a disaster just because you aren't ready to handle it (talking about iwata)

Eh, I said it earlier, but you're right: "DS-like domination with no Wii/PSP-like players in the game" sounds just a very difficult way to say PS2-like domination. If things don't change for Wii U and if PS4 doesn't have a good impact, it's the new PS2.

Not really. 3DS will never reach ps2 levels of support because of the western situation. In terms of dominance though it will likely be the only system this gen to cross 10 million.

errr, WiiU has DQX coming out in march.

That's not officially scheduled is it?

 

[cloudyy]

errr, WiiU has DQX coming out in march.

 

[Kimawolf]

Yeah Sorry Mr. Iwata, I didn't cut Sony slack for the Vita, i'm not cutting you any either. You botched this by playing it too close to the vest. Surely you have people running models and telling you ahead of time possible outcome scenarios for these situations.

 

[Mpl90]

lol you don't get to ignore a disaster just because you aren't ready to handle it (talking about iwata)


Not really. 3DS will never reach ps2 levels of support because of the western situation.

Pai Pai talked about 3DS being "the new PS2 in Japan", and I answered to that.

 

[Raelson]

I think the Wii U has enormous potential in Japan．If only they would announce some games...

 

[extralite]

Or Vita's failure will just help the PSP stay on the market for years to come.

Actually Vita's 'success' too will help PSP software to stay on the market for years to come. Since it has BC. Games with versions for both platforms are already appearing also. What the Vita holiday bump showed was that young Sony fans are interested in buying the Vita despite its grim outlook and just can't afford it normally.

It's rightly seen as a deluxe version of the PSP. Nintendo pushing DD will actually also benefit Vita's digital success in the long run. More acceptance will broaden the market for all competitors.

Eventually the devs that stayed on the PS2 transitioned to the PS3, with some like N1 or Gust leading the way. Atlus made the jump early this time.

 

[shinra-bansho]

Reading through the thread, I like how there are still a few people going with the "all according to keikaku" line of thought.

 

[metalslimer]

Pai Pai talked about 3DS being "the new PS2 in Japan", and I answered to that.

And that's what I was responding to lol. PS2 software sales likely won't be reached. My edit included that hardware sales will likely be as dominant.

 

[Kacho]

lol you don't get to ignore a disaster just because you aren't ready to handle it (talking about iwata)


Not really. 3DS will never reach ps2 levels of support because of the western situation. In terms of dominance though it will likely be the only system this gen to cross 10 million.


That's not officially scheduled is it?

What? You mean in Japan or WW? No way the market shrinks that much WW.

 

[73V3N]

Emergency Nintendo Direct incoming?

I'm expecting one next week.

 

[Mpl90]

What? You mean in Japan or WW? No way the market shrinks that much WW.

Japan.

 

[Kerub]

errr, WiiU has DQX coming out in march.

Do you think it will do better than the Wii version? Maybe people have been waiting for the Wii U version.

 

[Kagari]

errr, WiiU has DQX coming out in march.

An MMO port won't set the charts on fire.

 

[DR2K]

Holy shit @ Wii U drop. Barely doing 2x Vita isn't too good.

Just wait until it's doing half of Vita.

 

[Kacho]

Japan.

haha, ok.

 

[Raist]

Do you think it will do better than the Wii version? Maybe people have been waiting for the Wii U version.

It would need an insane tie ratio to do better than the Wii version. That's rather unlikely.

 

[Effect]

Every single game at that Nintendo conference was being worked on before the 3DS even came out. Animal Crossing is a sign of Panic mode Nintendo? The only real one I see there is Pokemon being released WW obviously as a response to mediocre western sales. THe biggest "panic mode Nintendo" thing they did this year was release both NSMB2 and NSMBU 3 months from each other.

I really hope that isn't a one time thing. I still feel that is a big problem. The 3DS support is coming from Nintendo and Japan. There can not be huge localization gaps with 3DS games or 3DS hardware sales will go down as they have. I just hope Nintendo understands that and isn't just making an exception for Pokemon and also will try to get 3rd parties to have releases closer together.

 

[Daedardus]

Just wait until it's doing half of Vita.

I see no reason why the vita will sell twice as much as the Wii U.

 

[cloudyy]

An MMO port won't set the charts on fire.

Do you think it will do better than the Wii version? Maybe people have been waiting for the Wii U version.

I'm pretty sure many will double-dip just to be able to play exclusively on the gamepad. And they get half-off if they already bought the Wii version.

 

[Kacho]

I wonder if Nintendo will put out some companion software on the Wii U that works with Pokemon X/Y. Kind of like what they did with the 3DS with Pokemon Black 2/White 2.

 

[Kosma]

I hope this means a price drop and some games!

I see no reason why the vita will sell twice as much as the Wii U.

Soul Sacrifice.

Vita will outsell WiiU that week

 

[airmangataosenai]

Wasn't obvious to anyone. Hindsights 20/20.

I know this was said a long time ago, but I've seen several people say it now and I really feel like it needs to end. People stayed relatively quiet about it back at E3 because people that didn't want to hear it silenced any criticism by bringing up how well the original Wii did, but the writing was always on the wall. We had indicators that they planned to launch over $300 with Iwata saying that it'd be the most expensive console for them to date, we knew about brand and naming confusion since back in 2010, and we knew that they lacked software since 2012.

I remember that last point coming up quite a bit back at E3, but diehard fans dismissed it as Nintendo just being overly secretive using the then rumors of Madden and CoD coming to the system as evidence. In reality, they weren't shown because of an agreement between MS and Activision regarding CoD and a sour relationship between EA and Nintendo regarding Madden.

We were promised by these people that all that was shown were 2012 titles ONLY and that the 2013 lineup would be known by now. Same as the rumored specs, it ended up being nothing more than wishful thinking. As expected, most of those games from the original launch lineup have been delayed not just into the "Launch Window" of the first 3-5 months of the system, but into the entire first half of 2013 all the way up until the next E3. Again, there are still no firm release dates for Pikmin, 101, or Wii Fit. Bayonetta will probably be the major Q3 release.

 

[thehypocrite]

I see no reason why the vita will sell twice as much as the Wii U.

A steady stream of games?

 

[orioto]

I see no reason why the vita will sell twice as much as the Wii U.

Vita selling 30,000 when a big game is released and WiiU going 15,000 in the next weeks is actually more than possible...

 

[hongcha]

I see no reason why the vita will sell twice as much as the Wii U.

It could happen the week Soul Sacrifice releases in March.

 

[michaelius]

If nothing happens in next 10-11 weeks Wii U will cross streams with Gamecube:

 

[Kosma]

Didnt 360 outsell PS3 too for a week or two?

 

[BladeoftheImmortal]

One question, what was the final tally for PS2 from MC?

 

[extralite]

I'm pretty sure many will double-dip just to be able to play exclusively on the gamepad. And they get half-off if they already bought the Wii version.

Why would they want to play exclusively on the gamepad? If you like to play online you're obviously not the audience who prefers local multiplayer or playing on the go. And I don't think anyone plays handhelds for the small screen.

And that's still paying for the console first, even though the price for the game is halved.

DQX succeeding on Wii U would be a result of good word of mouth of the Wii version and Wii U momentum. The latter they need to build again until DQX releases, the extent of the former remains to be seen. Double dippers will help but it won't be everyone who played the Wii version.

 

[Kosma]

Oh, come on. Weren't any of you guys around for the N64? All we had was like Mario 64 for the first YEAR. In hindsight, nobody is calling that console a failure. It ended up having some of the best games in the history of the medium.

Pilotwings.

Thats two amazing games already.

 

[crinale]

Didnt 360 outsell PS3 too for a week or two?

Yes, when PS3 had no game and 360 had some big software.

 

[wrowa]

Okay, I think some people will kill me for posting this, but it's a question I'm asking myself for a few weeks.

If Iwata decides (or is forced) to step down as the president of Nintendo, who would replace him?

I realized that we seem to know pretty much nothing about Nintendo's management. Who is there apart of Iwata? Who would be the one benefitting from a failure by Iwata? Would Nintendo even recruit someone from inside of the company or would they hire someone from outside? Would it remain in a developers hand or would a more traditionell businesman take over?

I don't want to imply that Iwata must or should resign, but seeing a struggling Wii U I'm always being reminded of that French "insider" article that was posted around the time the 3DS was struggling. In it was stated that Iwata is losing support from inside the company etc and it pretty much made the impression that he wasn't allowed to make another mistake again. Of course, the credibility of the article was questionable to say the least, but if there was more behind it (and even though there has been a lot of stuff in it that never happened, it at least got the Circle Pad attachment right), I wonder if Iwata can really survive another early price cut and struggling hardware. But anyway, I'm really not interested in a discussion whether or not it's something plausible to happen. I'm only interested whether or not we have a clue who could become his successor.

 

[evangd007]

For the audience at large, sure. For the few people who buy a Vita (the same people who bought a 360 and a PC-Engine back in the day), the ones who value what the Vita has to offer it might be okay. Keep the audience happy with which you're succeeding.

The question still remains, where will all the otaku centric PSP titles go? The PSP, like the Saturn, was an otaku centric console that did also succeed mainstream. Obviously Sony's aim with the Vita was to achieve this again. Right now it still looks more like an Xbox though.

Still, there is nothing to gain from putting games which are basically hand drawn flat graphics on the 3DS. Any game that is polygonal will have a nice 3D effect on the 3DS with little extra cost. HD on the other hand means you need better textures, raising cost. But hand drawn 2D won't benefit from stereoscopy at all and will just look nicer on an HD screen. The Vita is the perfect 2D handheld in the same way the 3DS is the perfect 3D one.

Since these 2D otaku games don't sell much anyway, putting them on the 3DS has no value for many of these niche developers. In the end they will arrive on the Vita most likely. The 3DS will own the market with huge to mid-range titles, but the Vita still has the chance to get the majority of really small titles and some mid-range successes as well.

We have a winner and we have a loser, I just don't think the Vita needs to be pulled from the market.

They will go to the 3DS because companies like to sell software. Technical considerations matter not. The Vita currently in Japan is the same kind of software sales wasteland that the PSP was in North America.

 

[shinra-bansho]

Somewhat random, but pertinent I think, question: Who is the Wii U's target market?

I think therein lies some of the problem. Because I can't find a simple answer to that question.

I'm pretty sure many will double-dip just to be able to play exclusively on the gamepad. And they get half-off if they already bought the Wii version.

I really can't see a large number of people buying a ¥26,250/¥31,500 system just to re-buy a (subscription based) MMO.