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[PrimaNocta]

Haven't played my Wii U in months but I'd buy Zombie U if I found it for $20-$25 online.

 

[oatmeal]

Such a shame. ZombiU was my favorite game last year.

Easily the best Wii U game, since nothing else out right now really takes advantage of the second screen.

Nintendo, you're fucked.

 

[FyreWulff]

I really doubt that $150 price tag for gamepad is real though. It doesn't have high res capacitance screen, nor it has large battery. Nintendo is clearly trying to milk the money as much as they can, while they can.

At this point WiiU at $199 doesn't even look like a bargain.

Cap screens aren't -that- much more expensive. What the Gamepad doesn't have that other cap-touch devices do have though, is economy of scale.

If you sell more of something, you can order in bigger batches at a time and get lower prices. The GamePad comes with the system. They do not (currently) expect to sell you another one after you buy a console, and even when they do they'll only be able to sell you one more due to the limitations of Wireless N. This drives up the price of the component. They can sell 360/PS3/Wii controllers at lower margin because up to 3 or more will be purchased by each console owner.

 

[Father_Brain]

I'm not sure if I'm reading this post correctly. Is your position that you think ZombiU was such a high budget title that they needed to sell several million copies to break even?

I would highly doubt that its sales target was much higher than 500K worldwide, if that.

 

[ReaperXL7]

I dont know if its off topic or not, but honestly, it's alittle sad when Ubisoft says that they were happy with ACL's sales on the PSVita, but not so with Zombie Us on the WiiU. I guess it really is a situation on Nintendos side that they have built an audience that for the most part, only wants Nintendos output with maybe some minor exceptions here or there.

I will be curious to see how Rayman Legends does on each platform respectively, could the WiiU end up with the lowest selling sku, or is it a genre that WiiU fans will take to more easily?

 

[prwxv3]

I dont know if its off topic or not, but honestly, it's alittle sad when Ubisoft says that they were happy with ACL's sales on the PSVita, but not so with Zombie Us on the WiiU. I guess it really is a situation on Nintendos side that they have built an audience that for the most part, only wants Nintendos output with maybe some minor exceptions here or there.

I will be curious to see how Rayman Legends does on each platform respectively, could the WiiU end up with the lowest selling sku, or is it a genre that WiiU fans will take to more easily?

Rayman should do ok since Ninteno actually cultivated a audience for platformers. But it's not good enough for the game to be exclusive.

 

[Fox_Mulder]

I'm sorry for you Nintendo

 

[Raist]

How can I not use it? Red Steel slots right into the gimmick that was Wii and it used cell shaded graphics. You swung a Wiimote around to play it. It was Wiitarded.

ZombiU was a part of good launch numbers actually. WiiU sold more in its first 6 weeks than the 360 and PS4.

Nobody wanted to give it a try because it is a core focused game and the 3 biggest gaming sites gave it terrible review scores.

ZombiU is WiiU's Red Steel, there's absolutely no way to dispute this. It's a core title making use of the console's main controller.
It was the second best-selling WiiU title at launch in the US. Not sure why you think that no one wanted to try it.

WiiU sales quickly setting a new all time low post-launch is what killed its sales. You can't expect any title to sell well when the console hits 50k or lower sales per month a couple of months after its release.

 

[MickeyPhree]

Haven't played my Wii U in months but I'd buy Zombie U if I found it for $20-$25 online.

Shop around. You easily could.

 

[GetemMa]

Nintendo made some big mistakes with developing the wii u. They cheaped out way too much and they are paying more for it which is ironic.

If they at least made the whole system twice as strong as the ps3 with good development tools, it would have a chance to catch up to the market and publishers wouldn't be risking as much.

How do you get in the HD era of gaming just to barely match 7 years worth of hardware? It's so illogical. At the very least be between a ps3 and ps4 in terms of capabilities. It would hardly cost that much more.

I don't think they cheaped out. I think we would be surprised to learn the manufacturing costs of the WiiU. They put the money in the wrong places because they didn't know what kind of system they wanted the WiiU to be. It tries to straddle the line between casual Wii gamers and core gamers.

I remember an interview where Miyamoto called the inclusion of the gamepad "somewhat reckless." I know what he meant now. Instead of putting that money into the fundamentals of the system hardware and making a true next gen system or making a less expensive system, they put $50 of manufacturing costs into the controller. It made the WiiU neither inexpensive to produce nor next gen which made it neither a casual system for Nintendo games nor a core system for the rest of the industry. It's too expensive for the kids/casual audience and it doesn't have the chops for the 3rd parties games the core gamer expects.

They got caught in two minds. Now it is a system purely for Nintendo fans. As a fan of Nintendo I don't mind that because I have a PC/360 and a PS4 coming. But the price will have to drop and they need Wii Sports U, Kart, and some more casual hits because that is all they can hope for to drive sales. The core aren't buying a WiiU beyond the very loyal Bayonetta fans and the people dying to play X, which might be a couple million consoles at the absolute most.

 

[Haunted]

pearls before swine.


Second best WiiU game out there right now.

 

[I am Michael Bolton]

pearls before swine.


Second best WiiU game out there right now.

Not saying much.

 

[soldat7]

Doesn't excuse the Wii U owners that didn't buy ZombiU of course. SHAME ON YOU

Zombie fatigue.

 

[FyreWulff]

I'm not sure if I'm reading this post correctly. Is your position that you think ZombiU was such a high budget title that they needed to sell several million copies to break even?

In an industry where a title that sold 3.5 million copies was considered a failure, I want to see Ubisoft's math to make Zombi U profitable. It's a problem endemic to all of the big publishers, but especially perplexing when you're releasing a game on a new console with a smaller userbase and subsidization from Nintendo via console bundles.

 

[GetemMa]

ZombiU is WiiU's Red Steel, there's absolutely no way to dispute this. It's a core title making use of the console's main controller.
It was the second best-selling WiiU title at launch in the US. Not sure why you think that no one wanted to try it.

WiiU sales quickly setting a new all time low post-launch is what killed its sales. You can't expect any title to sell well when the console hits 50k or lower sales per month a couple of months after its release.

I've stated repeatedly why I think few wanted to try it: awful scores from the top 3 game reviewing sites in NA.

Despite their similarities, Red Steel differs from ZombiU tremendously because it had the Wii gimmick backing it. That was a huge deal. There was a Southpark episode about it. It was all over the news. The touchscreen on the Gamepad is just not that easy to sell as swinging a sword around in your hand with the Wiimote. Red Steel had the benefit of casual appeal, which I don't think ZombiU had and it certainly didn't benefit from any exposure in pop culture prior to launch.

 

[Haunted]

Not saying much.

It's a great game.

 

[Steve Youngblood]

I would highly doubt that its sales target was much higher than 500K worldwide, if that.

That would be my assumption as well, though I'm no expert on the matter. I was just confused by the assertion that Ubi probably needed to sell more copies than Nintendo's shipment estimates, which I assume was referring to hardware. It's been a while since I've read the earliest shipment reports, but I'm pretty sure that the shipment numbers through the holidays was something like 3 million units worldwide.

 

[x-Lundz-x]

Even with minimal third party support to me the Wii U is worth it. From August into next year Nintendo support is worth it for me. How long does a game last for you? 1 week each game?

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=594761
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=512617

how can you say your Wii U will collect dust?

I'm personally not interested in eshop/arcade games. And half of the games you listed in the second thread are on / will be on superior platforms (hardware wise i.e. PS4/XBO).

The only games I would ever have an interest in playing are Nintendo First party titles, which are very few and far between in the grand scope of things. So yes, only playing a Mario / Zelda / DK game every few months does not sound appealing to me right now to make the investment. If the Wii U was 200 bucks, sure. Not 300 plus.

 

[Bumhead]

So easily the most unique and interesting third party experience on the Wii U absolutely tanked to the point where a sequel is completley ruled out and it's had a knock on effect on other exclusives staying exclusive on the platform.

Every single time somebody moans about the likes of EA withdrawing support or tries to blame it on some sort of shady behind the scenes fallout, they need linking to this. As far as third parties are concerned, the Wii U is fucking dead and a complete irrelevance. There is no incentive or reason to commit resource to this system.

 

[B.O.O.M]

Jeeze I've been commenting on posts like this for months. It sparked my rant on why quoting 'that banned site' even for arguments sake is not only stupid but downright damaging due to the false sense of success it gives for releases to people who seemingly only purchase successful games. Why do I even bother.

Again, the issue here is Nintendo. They've simply not manage to get anyone intrinsically interests into what the wii u offers, outside of the 700k or so people who wanted nsmbu

Edit: no 3rd party game is anywhere near 500k ww. Okay I think I'm just done talking about it ha

daaaymn...I thought there should be at least 1 maybe 2 one million+ games. I was wrong by a big margin then. Yikes

FU EA, again FU, 1000 times, what a ton of F(*&^^ BS.

What a butthurt company, wow, they just keep on bashing, we don't care EA, we don't care. Sad just sad. I passed on your NFS and all your games, I just cannot take this complete BS.

-_- This is just sad

In this thread I have seen people complain about the quality, reviews, marketing. People need to understand..these sales are horrid no matter what excuse or reason you come up with. This was bundled at launch to make it even worse

 

[69wpm]

I've stated repeatedly why I think few wanted to try it: awful scores from the top 3 game reviewing sites in NA.

Despite their similarities, Red Steel differs from ZombiU tremendously because it had the Wii gimmick backing it. That was a huge deal. There was a Southpark episode about it. It was all over the news. The touchscreen on the Gamepad is just not that easy to sell as swinging a sword around in your hand with the Wiimote. Red Steel had the benefit of casual appeal, which I don't think ZombiU had and it certainly didn't benefit from any exposure in pop culture prior to launch.

The difference between Red Steel is even bigger. Red Steel had clever marketing with nice tv ads, it was a FPS which appeals to a much, much bigger crowd than yet another zombie game which isn't even focused on action like L4D for example. Now some might say: So what? Yes, what. It does matter because not everyone wants a survival horror like ZombiU. The biggest mistake Ubisoft did in my opinion is changing the direction from Rabbids From Outer Space to ZombiU. I think the first title had much more potential than yet another zombie game, and this comes from somebody who loves Zombies.

 

[kswiston]

WiiU sales quickly setting a new all time low post-launch is what killed its sales. You can't expect any title to sell well when the console hits 50k or lower sales per month a couple of months after its release.

I think this point really needs to be emphasized. Other than the month before the price cut that was deflated for obvious reasons, the 3DS' worst month of sales in the US was almost 3 times as high as the Wii U's sales in May. The PS3's worst month was twice as high as the Wii U in May 2013. Most systems don't have sales under 40k units for a month until their successors are out.

 

[Mikey Jr.]

Well, that certainly is damning.

 

[adamsappel]

ACL was a pack-in at one time. ZombieU had that luxury as well, right?

I bought the ZombiU bundle, though I was most interested in the Pro Controller. ZombiU seemed like a good game for the half-hour I played, I'm just a fraidy-cat.

If you want the Nintendo audience to get excited for games like ZombiU, Nintendo should have similar games themselves to help drive that desire. I'm a firm believer in the idea that it's been a horrific mistake that Nintendo hasn't done more to invest in western development to get those kinds of games onto their consoles, and this has certainly been a strong argument in favor of that idea.

I don't understand why Nintendo is so slow to bring out their own sports titles. Even if they're not Mario Golf, Tennis, etc., I think simpler sports games would do well (but please, not with Mii's). Did those "Backyard" games sell on Wii? I would love to see an NFL Street-like game. Nintendo needs to accept and embrace the reality that 3rd parties aren't going to make a lot of games for them, and finance them in-house.

I will be curious to see how Rayman Legends does on each platform respectively, could the WiiU end up with the lowest selling sku, or is it a genre that WiiU fans will take to more easily?

I plan on getting it for WiiU (and Vita). Origins is one of my favorite games ever, and bought it for 360, Vita, 3DS and iOS (Rayman Run).

 

[Averon]

Bu bu bu third parties are conspiring against Nintendo!!!
If this piece of news doesn't illuminate why third parties are avoiding the Wii U like the plague, nothing will.

 

[KillerTravis]

Woah this is so sad. I loved ZombiU.

 

[troushers]

This interview is dodgy. No direct quote of the most incendiary statement. Is "not even close" Chris Morris' opinion? What Guillemot said? A contextual remark, removed from its original significance?

I'm suspicious because Iwata Asks detailed that ZombiU went through a whole reconceptualisation from its initial humans versus aliens concept. They had to throw away a whole bunch of work and start over, so it cost more than normal, not necessarily due to the platforms sales, but because of a protracted development process.

Is this a case of a contextual change to better fit the theme of the article?

 

[Raist]

I've stated repeatedly why I think few wanted to try it: awful scores from the top 3 game reviewing sites in NA.

You're giving me an opinion based on... well nothing but the assumption that review scores actually impact sales.

I'm giving you hard facts: ZombiU was (just like RS) by far the best selling 3rd party launch title in several countries, and only second to NSMBU and/or Nintendoland. This is completely incompatible with a lack of interest in the title due to poor reviews.

So if overall the LTD numbers are disappointing, it's mostly because the platform isn't sustainable.

 

[metalslimer]

But hey if you put effort into an original 3rd party title obviously Wii U owners will buy it right? Or did Ubisoft not market it enough even though it was bundled in? Or did Ubisoft not try hard enough? It must have been Ubisoft trying to fight Nintendo. I guess the excuses have run out this time. Well we still have a year left to see games like Rayman, Splinter Cell, Assassin's Creed, and Watch Dogs crater.

Edit: no 3rd party game is anywhere near 500k ww. Okay I think I'm just done talking about it ha

Ouch even shipped? Then again it would be a pretty impressive attach rate since Wii U probably hasn't reached 3 million yet.

 

[Sendou]

But hey if you put effort into an original 3rd party title obviously Wii U owners will buy it right? Or did Ubisoft not market it enough even though it was bundled in? Or did Ubisoft not try hard enough? I guess the excuses have run out this time.

What Wii U owners ?

 

[John Harker]

daaaymn...I thought there should be at least 1 maybe 2 one million+ games. I was wrong by a big margin then. Yikes



-_- This is just sad

In this thread I have seen people complain about the quality, reviews, marketing. People need to understand..these sales are horrid no matter what excuse or reason you come up with. This was bundled at launch to make it even worse

Yea. It amazes me how people are presented with actual facts, and instead of discussing around it, they just fall back on the same tired arguments over and over.

People still focusing on the names of the games, their budgets, their reviews, their boxarts. These are not the larger issue. ZombiU didn't fail to hit expectations due to any of this. As other people pointed out, many people who purchased the game, really like the game. The larger issue is that Nintendo put out a console that has sold roughly 1.1MM units NA in 9 months and has one Mario game with a 70% attach rate... and the next highest game, regardless of publisher, is 150k.

Nearly all of those users only want Mario. People bought the Wii because they wanted the Wii. They bought a ton of games with it because they were sold on the concept of what it did for them. The features excited them. They wanted to experience a lot of what it had to offer, at least for awhile. Publishers saw launch attach rates of 30%. You want that. You target that. You'll take 10% and 10% is good too... when the system itself has a ton of hardware momentum. Wii U doesn't. So you want 30%. Whose even getting 10% now? These are just rough targets and obviously not everyone builds their financing to these models, but attach rate is the best number to really look at here.

Nintendo needs to sell people on the Wii U tablet aggressively and get people to understand why the console itself is something they need. Right now, people bought the Wii U for Mario. You're fighting for scraps with around 300k users who are willing to buy more than just Mario. I really want them to succeed... I want everyone to, given I want the industry to grow, and someone has to target females and bring younger demo into the industry at higher price points than Apple and Android do, but the reason I probably spend more post-energy on Nintendo related things is because they really are in a bad spot, and they have to start repositinoing and spending and I'd love to see that happen asap.

 

[metalslimer]

Yea. It amazes me how people are presented with actual facts, and instead of discussing around it, they just fall back on the same tired arguments over and over.

People still focusing on the names of the games, their budgets, their reviews, their boxarts. These are not the larger issue. ZombiU didn't fail to hit expectations due to any of this. As other people pointed out, many people who purchased the game, really like the game. The larger issue is that Nintendo put out a console that has sold roughly 1.1MM units NA in 9 months and has one Mario game with a 70% attach rate... and the next highest game, regardless of publisher, is 150k.

Nearly all of those users only want Mario. People bought the Wii because they wanted the Wii. They bought a ton of games with it because they were sold on the concept of what it did for them. The features excited them. They wanted to experience a lot of what it had to offer, at least for awhile. Publishers saw launch attach rates of 30%. You want that. You target that. You'll take 10% and 10% is good too... when the system itself has a ton of hardware momentum. Wii U doesn't. So you want 30%. Whose even getting 10% now? These are just rough targets and obviously not everyone builds their financing to these models, but attach rate is the best number to really look at here.

Nintendo needs to sell people on the Wii U tablet aggressively and get people to understand why the console itself is something they need. Right now, people just want Mario. You're fighting for scraps with around 300k users who are willing to buy more than just Mario. I really want to succeed... I want everyone to, given I want the industry to grow, but the reason I probably spend more post-energy on Nintendo related things is because they really are in a bad spot, and they have to start repositinoing and spending and I'd love to see that happen asap.

Hopefully people can realize this situation and stop complaining about bad 3rd party ports, marketing, etc. and just hope that Nintendo gets their shit together. Because we could be looking at a system completely barren of 3rd party support by mid next year. People saying Nintendo doesn't need EA, well that may be true but EA's decisions are not in a bubble and 3rd parties also can see what they are doing.

 

[ThoughtsOfSpeaking]

Call it trolling, call it whatever but I honestly belive for 3rd parties the WiiU is a dead console. Outside the Nintendo faithful it will be a total non factor 2 years from now. That isnt to say there wont be any good games to play, but the majority of third party games are going to be portable ports and shovelware. I dont even think it will be getting ports of legacy (PS360) versions of many 3rd party games.

 

[Raist]

The larger issue is that Nintendo put out a console that has sold roughly 1.1MM units NA in 9 months and has one Mario game with a 70% attach rate... and the next highest game, regardless of publisher, is 150k.

Holy crap. That's abysmal.

 

[Sendou]

Hopefully people can realize this situation and stop complaining about bad 3rd party ports, marketing, etc. and just hope that Nintendo gets their shit together. Because we could be looking at a system completely barren of 3rd party support by mid next year. People saying Nintendo doesn't need EA, well that may be true but EA's decisions are not in a bubble and 3rd parties also can see what they are doing.

Basically Ubisoft did everything that I see fellow Wii U owners wanting from EA. Original games using strenghts of the platform and well done ports on time. Yet they didn't find the success. Nintendo has completely dropped the ball with Wii U.

Call it trolling, call it whatever but I honestly belive for 3rd parties the WiiU is a dead console.

That's correct. Although I would like to note that Wii U is becoming a home for many indie developers too.

 

[Bumhead]

Call it trolling, call it whatever but I honestly belive for 3rd parties the WiiU is a dead console. Outside the Nintendo faithful it will be a total non factor 2 years from now. That isnt to say there wont be any good games to play, but the majority of third party games are going to be portable ports and shovelware. I dont even think it will be getting ports of legacy (PS360) versions of many 3rd party games.

Every single one of those things is true now, nevermind in 2 years.

 

[prwxv3]

Hopefully people can realize this situation and stop complaining about bad 3rd party ports, marketing, etc. and just hope that Nintendo gets their shit together. Because we could be looking at a system completely barren of 3rd party support by mid next year. People saying Nintendo doesn't need EA, well that may be true but EA's decisions are not in a bubble and 3rd parties also can see what they are doing.

Ninetendo need third parties more then ever with the WiiU. WiiU games take far more resources and time then Wii games so third party games are needed to fill the gaps. Nintendo can survive without third parties but that does not mean they do not need them.

 

[69wpm]

Yea. It amazes me how people are presented with actual facts, and instead of discussing around it, they just fall back on the same tired arguments over and over.

People still focusing on the names of the games, their budgets, their reviews, their boxarts. These are not the larger issue. ZombiU didn't fail to hit expectations due to any of this. As other people pointed out, many people who purchased the game, really like the game. The larger issue is that Nintendo put out a console that has sold roughly 1.1MM units NA in 9 months and has one Mario game with a 70% attach rate... and the next highest game, regardless of publisher, is 150k.

Nearly all of those users only want Mario. People bought the Wii because they wanted the Wii. They bought a ton of games with it because they were sold on the concept of what it did for them. The features excited them. They wanted to experience a lot of what it had to offer, at least for awhile. Publishers saw launch attach rates of 30%. You want that. You target that. You'll take 10% and 10% is good too... when the system itself has a ton of hardware momentum. Wii U doesn't. So you want 30%. Whose even getting 10% now? These are just rough targets and obviously not everyone builds their financing to these models, but attach rate is the best number to really look at here.

Nintendo needs to sell people on the Wii U tablet aggressively and get people to understand why the console itself is something they need. Right now, people bought the Wii U for Mario. You're fighting for scraps with around 300k users who are willing to buy more than just Mario. I really want them to succeed... I want everyone to, given I want the industry to grow, and someone has to target females and bring younger demo into the industry at higher price points than Apple and Android do, but the reason I probably spend more post-energy on Nintendo related things is because they really are in a bad spot, and they have to start repositinoing and spending and I'd love to see that happen asap.

You're right, but Ubisoft could've used ZombiU to show how the Wii U works and why the Gamepad is so great. They didn't because they didn't market this game at all. I don't believe for a second with a few nice tv spots showing the interaction with the gamepad it wouldn't have convinced more people to buy it. Most people probably thought: Oh well, yet another zombie game, I'll pass. ZombiU is not your typical zombie game, most people failed to realise that.

 

[SirIgbyCeaser]

ubisoft knew the risks.

 

[Yoshi]

Ouch even shipped? Then again it would be a pretty impressive attach rate since Wii U probably hasn't reached 3 million yet.

We at least know that Sonic Kart 2 was shipped 310k times and I thought ZombiU was the best selling 3rd Party Wii U game?

 

[metalslimer]

So instead of blaming 3rd parties, what can Nintendo do to change the situation somewhat?

Comarketing Ubisoft's big hitters this fall? Doing more publishing in general like with Platinum games?

You're right, but Ubisoft could've used ZombiU to show how the Wii U works and why the Gamepad is so great. They didn't because they didn't market this game at all. I don't believe for a second with a few nice tv spots showing the interaction with the gamepad it wouldn't have convinced more people to buy it. Most people probably thought: Oh well, yet another zombie game, I'll pass. ZombiU is not your typical zombie game, most people failed to realise that.

Even the typical zombie game should have sold more. And if the excuse for not buying other 3rd party games is that they are bad ports why didn't they go out and buy Zombi U? It had a good word of mouth it seemed. Its like JH said, people bought the Wii U to play Mario.

 

[oatmeal]

I did my part, I bought it twice. Once digital and once physical.

 

[Raist]

You're right, but Ubisoft could've used ZombiU to show how the Wii U works and why the Gamepad is so great. They didn't because they didn't market this game at all. I don't believe for a second with a few nice tv spots showing the interaction with the gamepad it wouldn't have convinced more people to buy it. Most people probably thought: Oh well, yet another zombie game, I'll pass. ZombiU is not your typical zombie game, most people failed to realise that.

I don't think it's Ubisoft's job to explain the hardware's functions to customers...

Nevertheless, they did just that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_v10dej2Is

It's actually better done than Nintendo's IMO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T93W4YmkAH0

 

[Mupod]

Zombi U is amazing in a lot of ways but you can play it for an hour and realize this game did not have a smooth development history. I mean, I sat through a long load screen only to try and open a door, which took minutes because it had to load the next area.

It's still saddening that ubisoft doesn't seem interested in a sequel because there's so much potential there. There's a lot of old Resident Evil fans who want a game like this, although sometimes when posting in survival horror threads I wonder if they're even aware Zombi U exists.

 

[Shaanyboi]

You're right, but Ubisoft could've used ZombiU to show how the Wii U works and why the Gamepad is so great. They didn't because they didn't market this game at all. I don't believe for a second with a few nice tv spots showing the interaction with the gamepad it wouldn't have convinced more people to buy it. Most people probably thought: Oh well, yet another zombie game, I'll pass. ZombiU is not your typical zombie game, most people failed to realise that.

Ubisoft's job isn't to sell hardware. Yet they still did a better job showing off the hardware than Nintendo did.

 

[Honey Bunny]

With the power of SmartGlass!

With the power of a HUD more like

 

[prwxv3]

So instead of blaming 3rd parties, what can Nintendo do to change the situation somewhat?

Comarketing Ubisoft's big hitters this fall? Doing more publishing in general like with Platinum games?

Some of GAF won't like this but Nintendo should start cultivating audiences that buy third party games. Just having a audience that buys platformers and kart racers won't cut it for third parties

And I am not saying Nintendo should stop making platformers or kart racers in favor of bro shooters. Sony cultivated a audience that buys third party games and they still green lighted games like puppeteer, sly 4, Tokyo Jungle, ect

 

[B.O.O.M]

Yea. It amazes me how people are presented with actual facts, and instead of discussing around it, they just fall back on the same tired arguments over and over.

People still focusing on the names of the games, their budgets, their reviews, their boxarts. These are not the larger issue. ZombiU didn't fail to hit expectations due to any of this. As other people pointed out, many people who purchased the game, really like the game. The larger issue is that Nintendo put out a console that has sold roughly 1.1MM units NA in 9 months and has one Mario game with a 70% attach rate... and the next highest game, regardless of publisher, is 150k.

Nearly all of those users only want Mario. People bought the Wii because they wanted the Wii. They bought a ton of games with it because they were sold on the concept of what it did for them. The features excited them. They wanted to experience a lot of what it had to offer, at least for awhile. Publishers saw launch attach rates of 30%. You want that. You target that. You'll take 10% and 10% is good too... when the system itself has a ton of hardware momentum. Wii U doesn't. So you want 30%. Whose even getting 10% now? These are just rough targets and obviously not everyone builds their financing to these models, but attach rate is the best number to really look at here.

Nintendo needs to sell people on the Wii U tablet aggressively and get people to understand why the console itself is something they need. Right now, people bought the Wii U for Mario. You're fighting for scraps with around 300k users who are willing to buy more than just Mario. I really want them to succeed... I want everyone to, given I want the industry to grow, and someone has to target females and bring younger demo into the industry at higher price points than Apple and Android do, but the reason I probably spend more post-energy on Nintendo related things is because they really are in a bad spot, and they have to start repositinoing and spending and I'd love to see that happen asap.

150K? ouch

I agree wholeheartedly. The fault lies with Nintendo for the current situation. It's their job to push the system and what makes it unique.

 

[metalslimer]

Hopefully whatever contract they have with Nintendo expires and they can port to other platforms although I doubt a late port is going to do anything at that point with new consoles out. Sad we've lost a new IP so soon into the new gen.

 

[fart town usa]

Zombi U is amazing in a lot of ways but you can play it for an hour and realize this game did not have a smooth development history. I mean, I sat through a long load screen only to try and open a door, which took minutes because it had to load the next area.

It's still saddening that ubisoft doesn't seem interested in a sequel because there's so much potential there. There's a lot of old Resident Evil fans who want a game like this, although sometimes when posting in survival horror threads I wonder if they're even aware Zombi U exists.

It doesn't take "minutes" to load anything in the game. I think that's a bit of an exaggeration.