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[Snakeyes]

I fully expect Nintendo's next console to have a 4 core version of the same CPU tbh, again clocked higher and with more cache, probably 16GB's of Ram and a 2 / 2.5 TFLOP GPU. They will again be 4x weaker than Sony & MS's next consoles but release a year before imo.

I'm sure they'll keep using a strategy that really worked out well for them with the U.

 

[SmokyDave]

Edit: bleh, off topic.

 

[Glass Rebel]

Yokai Watch is selling well below my expectations, at least from a few weeks ago. Even then I thought it would sell closer to 80k first week. 100k LTD is the mark it needs to pass to not be terrible/bad IMO. Wonder how the late anime tie-in is going to affect its (or the sequel's) sales.

 

[Days like these...]

I love Nintendo but I'm not one of those delusional fans. Hardware #'s are lower than I expected I figured mid 30's. Oh well they just have to stick it out like they did with the game cube.
Having said that I think those 'concerned fans' saying Nintendo should dump the Wii u and start from scratch have ulterior motives. It's just a guise. They know full well that dumping the Wii u this early is suicide.

 

[Codeblue]

I also assume you only ever see me in Nintendo threads and none of the many others I participate in. Thats on you.

This isn't a Nintendo thread.

 

[RM8]

People who like beefy systems acting like WiiU wouldn't be bombing if it'd be stronger, lol. The thing doesn't have games, therefore it doesn't sell. It's perfectly capable of running every single game it's currently not getting. This is absolutely not a power issue, Nintendo would simply have a way more costly bomb on its hands.

 

[TreasureHunterG]

Iwata has himself said that they WILL spend a decent amount of money on game development but only for certain franchises like Zelda, there is absolutely no need for WiiU to be any more powerful than it is unless Nintendo wanted full third party support and 1) I don't think Nintendo are all that bothered by third party support outside of the big yearly selling franchises like CoD, Fifa, Madden, Just Dance, WWE ect and 2) there is no guarantee third parties would support a powerful Nintendo console as the Gamecube showed.

To sum up, Nintendo are doing the right thing hardware wise in my humble opinion and it will pay dividends the generation after PS4/XBO.

Then it makes no sense for why you believe WiiU will reach GCN/N64/Half-Wii numbers without proper third-party support. Nintendo franchises alone won't manage themselves to reach those numbers, neither Nintendo have enough studios to fill an entire year line-up, hence WiiU's yearly schedules will have huge roles with restrictive third-party support. That'll disencourage new buyers and seriously affect it's sales and credibility.

While Nintendo platforms are being treated as secondary platforms only for Nintendo games, don't expect them to sell GCN/N64/Half-Wii numbers. That'll never happen.

 

[Pie and Beans]

How on GAF are you escaping the ban hammer with daily posts like this?

I dunno marc^o^. Seems like you're calling for my banning on a pretty regular basis these days from a particularly well-worn and yet dangerous backseat position of this here vehicle.

Just enjoy the ride. I don't have any shares invested in any of these corps, so whoevers taking the beats in whatever generation is just a clownish figure of fun we all get to laugh at. We make predictions ourselves and some of ours play out and vindicate us as truly glorious prophets of our time.

 

[test_account]

The fact that you couldn't use the gamepad with multiplayer NSMB at launch on the WiiU showed early that Nintendo didn't know what they were doing with the thing.

What was this? You mean NSMBU or using it for NSMB for Wii (through backward compability)?

 

[Cosmozone]

People who like beefy systems acting like WiiU wouldn't be bombing if it'd be stronger, lol. The thing doesn't have games, therefore it doesn't sell. It's perfectly capable of running every single game it's currently not getting. This is absolutely not a power issue, Nintendo would simply have a way more costly bomb on its hands.

In a sense, yes, it is a power issue. Mainstream loves power and you have to catch mainstream in one way or the other to be successful.

Edit: I wonder by how much, though. To get on par with the competition powerwise is impossible for Nintendo. The question is if a moderate power boost would have helped them. I'm in the yes camp, though it's hard to estimate for me. I'm not really a mainstream person.

 

[plank]

I wouldn't mind paying $400 for Pikmin 3 although a price cut would help. Its just that I'm broke at the moment. Just saying.

 

[RM8]

In a sense, yes. Mainstream loves power and you have to catch mainstream in one way or the other to be successful.

Mainstream doesn't love power. A strong system has never been commercially successful by virtue of being strong. Again, WiiU is not even getting PS360 ports, this is not a power issue.

 

[Aquamarine]

FAMITSU SALES, WEEK 28, 2013 (JUL 08 - JUL 14)

3DS - 40113
[B]WII U - 20728[/B]
VITA - 15192
PS3 - 12913
PSP - 5617
WII - 1212
360 - 297

I predict a swift drop back to <10K in Week 29. Looks like Pikmin 3 is in line with the other two Pikmin games in terms of moving hardware...i.e. its effect is quite weak.

 

[noobasuar]

Sucks to see the numbers. I always want Nintendo to do well even if they do have missteps here and there.

Also not surprised by the reactions. People love to hate on things that they don't own espacially when it's from a company that has a software in a league of its own above most companies in the industry.

 

[airmangataosenai]

Mainstream doesn't love power. A strong system has never been commercially successful by virtue of being strong. Again, WiiU is not even getting PS360 ports, this is not a power issue.

Technically it is. If the Wii had the power to do quick ports ala the early days of the 360 we'd see it get those titles too.

 

[Darryl]

The sales were pretty strong for the low install base. The moved consoles consoles alongside the console were lower than I expected, but I also expected the moved consoles to have legs.

It was also really hot to the level of heat wave in Japan last week, and it came out in a holiday weekend where people were not in the streets. Even the Pokémon Centers were fairly empty and that seldom happens.

This has an effect on sales. I'm not saying this to spin but as an explanation. You need to factor in all the factors in order to make a determination.

Holy crap at the responses to this. He even put a disclaimer at the end to prevent the kneejerk brigade and yet it happened anyways. Come on guys, this is a normal informative post. Foot traffic happens. Japan is a small territory and the impacts of stuff like that have a larger effect than you would normally imagine it.

 

[Apophis2036]

This may well be true. But when the general videogame market that they traditionally rely on doesn't give two shits about their current output, the distinction that you've mentioned in your post above between GAF and the aforementioned video game market becomes highly irrelevant.

GAF may as well be speaking for the general videogame market, with the Wii U's current state of affairs, worldwide.

A blind man could see that WiiU's three major issues are the price, the lack of games and the lack of advertising. All three should be fixed in the coming months as they effectively relaunch the system, people asking Nintendo to scrap the console after a year are mental.

For your second statement I completely disagree, GAF and forums like it are extremely hardcore videogame fans, who disect screenshots and every morsel of information.

Even the majority of people who would call themselves big gamers probably check IGN or some other big news outlet a few times a week, discussions of sales, hardware power, resolutions, 'omg the textures on the ground on Pikmin 3 mean I can't possibly enjoy it' only go on here and places like here.

I feel fairly confident in saying that at $249, with a marketing blitz and Zelda, Mario and DKC, Nintendo could outsell PS4 and XBO combined in North America this winter.

NA is literally Nintendo Land but not at $349 with no big name games or advertising. The reality is that at least 50 million of the 100 million Wii owners have no idea what a WiiU is, let alone have a reason to buy one, that will chance big time in the coming year *IF* Nintendo aren't stupid.

 

[Cosmozone]

Mainstream doesn't love power. A strong system has never been commercially successful by virtue of being strong. Again, WiiU is not even getting PS360 ports, this is not a power issue.

Oh, I think it does. Keep in mind that mainstream has multiple characteristics. There's one mainstream population that caught on with the Wii, I'm not talking about this one, I'm talking about the gamers. The one that can be pulled one with the PS2 can control space shuttles type of PR. Most discussions and hype even on GAF are about graphics and power, I think it can't be denied.

 

[impact]

Also not surprised by the reactions. People love to hate on things that they don't own espacially when it's from a company that has a software in a league of its own above most companies in the industry.

Very true, its almost like you forgot when media create threads were 10 pages of 3DS fans celebrating Vitas poor sales. Yawn.

 

[Wynnebeck]

FAMITSU SALES, WEEK 28, 2013 (JUL 08 - JUL 14)

3DS - 40113
[B]WII U - 20728[/B]
VITA - 15192
PS3 - 12913
PSP - 5617
WII - 1212
360 - 297

I predict a swift drop back to <10K in Week 29. Looks like Pikmin 3 is in line with the other two Pikmin games in terms of moving hardware...i.e. its effect is quite weak.

I bet ya Vita drops below 10k before Wii U.

 

[MarkusRJR]

Mainstream doesn't love power. A strong system has never been commercially successful by virtue of being strong. Again, WiiU is not even getting PS360 ports, this is not a power issue.

A strong system has better potential in getting games (ports mainly) though. Basically none of the next gen engines run on the Wii U. But as you said, the Wii U's situation it's more than just power (as they aren't even getting 360/PS3 ports), but it's still a major factor. Making a system easy to port to is always a positive.

Better hardware -> easy to develop/port on -> more games -> more relevance/interest in marketplace -> more console sales (theoretically; there's more problems than just a lack of games with the Wii U)

Speaking of which, I'm already getting worried as to how little third party support the Wii U will get once the cross gen development is over with in a year or two.

 

[RM8]

Technically it is. If the Wii had the power to do quick ports ala the early days of the 360 we'd see it get those titles too.

More power doesn't equal quick, easy ports. See PS3. Since the thing doesn't have games and it's not like more PS360 games would set it on fire, it'd simply be a more expensive bomb. It wouldn't even have the benefit of an eventual nice price gap against PS4. GCN and N64 existed, guys.

 

[Apophis2036]

I'm sure they'll keep using a strategy that really worked out well for them with the U.

You are judging a console based on it's first 9 months, how was the 70 million selling PS3 doing after 9 months ?. It was also overpriced and had a lack of software.

As PS3 and more recently 3DS have shown it's foolish to judge consoles on their first year on the market.

 

[H_Prestige]

Very true, its almost like you forgot when media create threads were 10 pages of 3DS fans celebrating Vitas poor sales. Yawn.

Or before that when it was just a big circle jerk over Wii and DS sales.

You are judging a console based on it's first 9 months, how was the 70 million selling PS3 doing after 9 months ?. It was also overpriced and had a lack of software.

As PS3 and more recently 3DS have shown it's foolish to judge consoles on their first year on the market.

The ps3 only ended up with 9 million in Japan, far below the ps2. This was despite having high quality games and fixing the price issue.

The Wii U is not going to have the game support the ps3 and 3DS have.

 

[noobasuar]

Very true, its almost like you forgot when media create threads were 10 pages of 3DS fans celebrating Vitas poor sales. Yawn.

Meh. It's a lot easier to be happy about a portable failing when you have a company like Sony that decides to release a handheld and doesn't even have a decent amount of its own studios working on it and doesn't even secure any big exclusives and just hopes that third parties will do all the work for them.

If Sony actually put in a little bit of work into making the vita succusful than I doubt people would be as happy about it failing.

 

[Raist]

You are judging a console based on it's first 9 months, how was the 70 million selling PS3 doing after 9 months ?.

Much better, and with a prospect of good 3rd party support.

 

[Pie and Beans]

You are judging a console based on it's first 9 months, how was the 70 million selling PS3 doing after 9 months ?. It was also overpriced and had a lack of software.

As PS3 and more recently 3DS have shown it's foolish to judge consoles on their first year on the market.

Both 3DS and PS3 had big third party pledges to future support. WiiU does not have that. PS3 and 3DS had clear roadmaps to decreasing prices swiftly. Due to GamePad, WiiU does not have that. The comparisons are just never apt.

 

[Apophis2036]

Then it makes no sense for why you believe WiiU will reach GCN/N64/Half-Wii numbers without proper third-party support. Nintendo franchises alone won't manage themselves to reach those numbers, neither Nintendo have enough studios to fill an entire year line-up, hence WiiU's yearly schedules will have huge roles with restrictive third-party support. That'll disencourage new buyers and seriously affect it's sales and credibility.

While Nintendo platforms are being treated as secondary platforms only for Nintendo games, don't expect them to sell GCN/N64/Half-Wii numbers. That'll never happen.

I believe partial third party support will come for WiiU once they improve the install base, Reggie practically confirmed it when talking with Geoff at E3.

With regards to your second point, the video game market has grown massively since the N64 and GC, they are now 17 and 12 years old so imo even a Nintendo only console (as long as it's priced and marketed right) can still sell 50 million units in it's life time, won't 3DS be closing in on 40 million this winter already with the arrival of Pokemon, MH4 and Zelda ?.

 

[MarkusRJR]

More power doesn't equal quick, easy ports. See PS3. Since the thing doesn't have games and it's not like more PS360 games would set it on fire, it'd simply be a more expensive bomb. It wouldn't even have the benefit of an eventual nice price gap against PS4. GCN and N64 existed, guys.

The PS3 was a clusterfuck with split ram and the cell. Hard to develop on and stupidly complicated developer tools. It was just poorly thought out in regards to game development for third parties. Implying power has anything has to do with how difficult is was to program for is a bit of a stretch.

 

[H_Prestige]

Holy crap at the responses to this. He even put a disclaimer at the end to prevent the kneejerk brigade and yet it happened anyways. Come on guys, this is a normal informative post. Foot traffic happens. Japan is a small territory and the impacts of stuff like that have a larger effect than you would normally imagine it.

No it doesn't. You might as well start bringing in astrological reasons for the WiiU's failure.

 

[Lord_Byron28]

You are judging a console based on it's first 9 months, how was the 70 million selling PS3 doing after 9 months ?. It was also overpriced and had a lack of software.

As PS3 and more recently 3DS have shown it's foolish to judge consoles on their first year on the market.

I don't think many are saying that the Wii U is doomed and has zero hope. They are saying given the current information Nintendo has shared to us on their Wii U plans the outlook doesnt look spectacular. Its sales will of course improve as we approach the holiday season and when big system sellers such as DK, Mario, Mario Kart and SSB arrive on the system. However, given what Nintendo has currently shared with us the system's future doesn't look bright and a best case scenario is looking at GCN level sales.

With all of that said Nintendo could have some other big surprise titles in development in addition to a price cut and a steady stream of heavy hitting software which could drastically improve its sales. However that remains to be seen and we can only discuss what Nintendo has currently shown us.

 

[Apophis2036]

Much better, and with a prospect of good 3rd party support.

But the two main reasons it was struggling are the same reasons WiiU is struggling (too expensive and a lack of software). Of course Nintendo need to throw a massive marketing budget at it aswell but I think that's a given at this stage.

 

[Mario007]

I bet ya Vita drops below 10k before Wii U.

Vita hasn't been below 10k since the week before price-cut.

Meh. It's a lot easier to be happy about a portable failing when you have a company like Sony that decides to release a handheld and doesn't even have a decent amount of its own studios working on it and doesn't even secure any big exclusives and just hopes that third parties will do all the work for them.

If Sony actually put in a little bit of work into making the vita succusful than I doubt people would be as happy about it failing.

Wow it's hilarious how you can substitute Sony for Nintendo and Vita for Wii U and it actually fits as well. It's incredibly how the two made pretty much the same mistakes.

 

[twothunder]

Looking at the Wii-U sales. It's pretty much what could be expected. Pikmin did pretty well considering the low userbase. Was hoping for a bit bigger Wii-U bump ,but.... well.. It's Pikmin. Not Smash or Mario Kart.

 

[BuzzJive]

Come for the sales, stay for the meltdowns.

Just all round delicious.

The ironing is delicious.

 

[marc^o^]

I dunno marc^o^. Seems like you're calling for my banning on a pretty regular basis these days

Huh, no? That must be the second time I express your posts are borderline, and I never requested a mod to ban you. Usually provocative posters with the aim of inciting an angry response don't last, so I'm asking you what is your secret sauce?

 

[impact]

Meh. It's a lot easier to be happy about a portable failing when you have a company like Sony that decides to release a handheld and doesn't even have a decent amount of its own studios working on it and doesn't even secure any big exclusives and just hopes that third parties will do all the work for them.

If Sony actually put in a little bit of work into making the vita succusful than I doubt people would be as happy about it failing.

So basically, you're a Nintendo fanboy. It's only ok to celebrate system failures when its Sony, :lol what a fucking joke.

 

[Snakeyes]

I believe partial third party support will come for WiiU once they improve the install base, Reggie practically confirmed it when talking with Geoff at E3.

lmfao

That ship has sailed dude.

 

[Lord_Byron28]

Vita hasn't been below 10k since the week before price-cut.

Wow it's hilarious how you can substitute Sony for Nintendo and Vita for Wii U and it actually fits as well. It's incredibly how the two made pretty much the same mistakes.

Not really as Nintendo has all of its big studios developing for Wii U with all of their flagship titles while Sony only had a few of their studios working on the Vita and a lot of them were the B or C teams.

 

[Into]

Holy crap at the responses to this. He even put a disclaimer at the end to prevent the kneejerk brigade and yet it happened anyways. Come on guys, this is a normal informative post. Foot traffic happens. Japan is a small territory and the impacts of stuff like that have a larger effect than you would normally imagine it.

He put a disclaimer at the end because he saw that he was just spinning numbers, so he wanted to shoot that notion down immediately, yet it is so obvious. If you are going to bring the weather to explain (lets be honest: spin) sales numbers to make them look better, then you may as well bring astrology, economics, seasons, other forms of entertainment and whatever else you can possibly think of. And you need to do this with every game released from now on, unless Pikmin 3 and Wii U somehow deserve this extra level of wild excuses to soften the blow. Pikmin 3 did well for all intents and purposes, Wii U did not.

If PS4 and/or Xbox One do poorly on launch, and anyone uses the "well its really cold out there!" they will rightfully so get laughed out of the building.

 

[TreasureHunterG]

I believe partial third party support will come for WiiU once they improve the install base, Reggie practically confirmed it when talking with Geoff at E3.

Reggie is the least trustworthy source I would rely on. He don't give a shit about advertising Nintendo's own products, what makes you believe he'll bother going after third-parties? He won't.

The only way for Nintendo to change their approach toward third-parties is shaking up their management division. Their current is very conservative and rely only on their own first and second-party games. Even Iwata told, some time ago, he does not believe in third-party support:

http://www.gamecubicle.com/news-nintendo_gamecube_famitsu_iwata_interview.htm

We don't believe in overwhelming third party support. However, we're certainly talking with more developers about the possibility of working together. Frequently, developers use our platforms solely for their own self-interests, so it's hard to form management relationships.

That'll hardly change while Iwata is still in charge.

 

[Mario007]

Not really as Nintendo has all of its big studios developing for Wii U with all of their flagship titles while Sony only had a few of their studios working on the Vita and a lot of them were the B or C teams.

Yeah it's not like Nintendo released Wii U with no 3rd party support and hoped people would buy the system simply cause it's the new Nintendo console, left the system for dead for more than a half a year and are now caught off guard, struggling to get their own games out.

 

[SmokyDave]

Meh. It's a lot easier to be happy about a portable failing when you have a company like Sony that decides to release a handheld and doesn't even have a decent amount of its own studios working on it and doesn't even secure any big exclusives and just hopes that third parties will do all the work for them.

If Sony actually put in a little bit of work into making the vita succusful than I doubt people would be as happy about it failing.

So if Nintendo launched a device with poor first party support and banked on non-existent third parties, would it be OK?

Not that they ever would, obviously!

 

[Haines]

odd that people yell doom even when wiius sales go UP.

hopefully pikmin has legs

 

[noobasuar]

So basically, you're a Nintendo fanboy. It's only ok to celebrate system failures when its Sony, :lol what a fucking joke.

Idk how you got that out of what I said. Hardware is nothing without software so if you release a handheld and don't bother to have any of your top studios making games for it, dont bother to pay for any big exclusives, don't bother to lock up your biggest third party exclusives (monster hunter) than you deserve to fail and people shouldn't feel sadness for something failing when the company putting it out wants to do absolutely nothing to make it a product that people want.

 

[Apophis2036]

Both 3DS and PS3 had big third party pledges to future support. WiiU does not have that. PS3 and 3DS had clear roadmaps to decreasing prices swiftly. Due to GamePad, WiiU does not have that. The comparisons are just never apt.

Despite what people think about the WiiU hardware, I don't believe it's the tablet that's the expensive part, according to the guy from Chipworks the main CPU/GPU/eDRAM part is worth $100 alone and because of the extremely custom way they build hardware, who knows what else is in there that is adding to the cost.

Of course the tablet controller is far more expensive than a standard controller but didn't GAF come to the conclusion that it cost about $40 tops for the controller ?.

The price of the console is a combination of greed on Nintendo's part and the customized hardware which managed to fit in a tiny console that only uses 30 watts of electricity.

It doesn't help when the CEO sets such massive goals for financial results either which basically means a $50 price cut is all they can really do in 2013.

 

[michaelius]

A blind man could see that WiiU's three major issues are the price, the lack of games and the lack of advertising. All three should be fixed in the coming months as they effectively relaunch the system, people asking Nintendo to scrap the console after a year are mental.

Those are merely symptoms while the real cause is fucked up hardware.

- difficult to program with weird architecture -> no 3rd party support
- obsession with low power consumption -> underpowered hardware -> no reason to buy Wii U for gamers and no reason to pick Wii U versions of the few multiplatforms it has -> no 3rd party support
- failed gimmick noone cares about including Nintendo own first parties -> increased cost -> less sales

 

[Apophis2036]

lmfao

That ship has sailed dude.

Time will tell.

 

[SmokyDave]

Idk how you got that out of what I said. Hardware is nothing without software so if you release a handheld and don't bother to have any of your top studios making games for it, dont bother to pay for any big exclusives, don't bother to lock up your biggest third party exclusives (monster hunter) than you deserve to fail and people shouldn't feel sadness for something failing when the company putting it out wants to do absolutely nothing to make it a product that people want.

Sounds to me like you're just hating on something you don't own.

Well, that or you're a massive hypocrite. Could be either.

 

[TreasureHunterG]

Despite what people think about the WiiU hardware, I don't believe it's the tablet that's the expensive part, according to the guy from Chipworks the main CPU/GPU/eDRAM part is worth $100 alone and because of the extremely custom way they build hardware, who knows what else is in there that is adding to the cost.

Of course the tablet controller is far more expensive than a standard controller but didn't GAF come to the conclusion that it cost about $40 tops for the controller ?.

The price of the console is a combination of greed on Nintendo's part and the customized hardware which managed to fit in a tiny console that only uses 30 watts of electricity.

It doesn't help when the CEO sets such massive goals for financial results either which basically means a $50 price cut is all they can really do in 2013.

Very interesting points.

Could you please provide sources to these? Especially the GAF thread coming to the $40 controller price?