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34,000 pieces of Wii U software were sold in the UK in January (incl. NintyLand)

SmokeMaxX

Member
When's the fiscal year end? Some are saying Nintendo's not doing anything at this point to maximize their numbers for this fiscal year. I can totally see that since I'm 100% positive that they're not THIS incompetent. They don't even have advertisements out for the console.
 

DBT85

Member
but X360 and PS3 did 1355K in january 2013 and 1433K in January 2012.. how is that tanking..?

To be fair the Wii dropped off massively in the same time.

In 2012 there were 2.778m units shipped

In 2013 there were 2.111m units shipped.
 

Bumhead

Banned
Nintendo has sold like dogshite in the UK for a long time now.

Define "a long time"?

The hype for the DS and Wii was hysterical here for years.

I think the fact the Wii U is a pretty bad product, that's too expensive, with not enough even half decent never mind system selling software, that's not being marketed, has much more to do with this than some myth about Nintendo's popularity in the UK. See the post above about Nintendo themselves regarding the UK as one of their biggest markets.
 

anastazius

Neo Member
crossposted from the Activision Wii U thread:

What puts people off are the insane £54.99 RRPs for Assassins Creed 3 and BLOPS 2, and now that shops have finally gotten around to selling the 'gamer' games at under £40, its too late.

We've had loads of Wii U's traded in at work already due to the lack of software and terrible marketing Nintendo have done. I've begun taking my Wii U in to work to show customers the full range of online features, as the demo units are useless at showing off the full features of the console.

Ironically, there's a decent range of good games, but we barely receive any of them where I work.

Wii U game we've never had in stock, despite being one of the biggest GAME stores in the North West:
Skylanders Giants Starter Pack
NBA 2K13
007 Legends
Transformers Prime
Funky Barn
Warriors Orochi 3 Hyper
Sing Party (we only received 1 copy on launch day)

Customers come in and presume that games aren't out yet or are only available in America.
I guess its our head office's fault for not ordering stock from the suppliers due to low demand, but if we don't have the games on the shelves, customers aren't aware of them.

And now Rayman Legends, which we've had massive interest in from loads of customers as its been playable on all the demo units for months now, has been delayed till September. Nice move Ubisoft. Oh AND Scribblenauts Unlimited has been indefinitely delayed in the UK (though that's more of a last-minute patching issue or something, I just hope it comes out soon).
 
UK in general is tanking with the game industry.

Yes the top 10 in UK charts tend to be pretty low relative to several years back, but that is to be expected given the economy/length of the generation. Really though there just isn't much interest in the WiiU at the moment.

PS3 & 360 sales have been declining steadily, but are still strong due to all major releases, online infrastructure, and back catalogs. For many gamers there is still no killer app ala Wii Sports, with few things in the coming months to get excited about. Couple that with new Sony and Microsoft machines in the near future, poor marketing, and rather limited promotion by retailers it's no surprise the system and software is doing poorly.
 

Plinko

Wildcard berths that can't beat teams without a winning record should have homefield advantage
Just another terribly planned launch.
 
tumblr_lo797nPpBc1qjtcaf.gif
 

ArtHands

Thinks buying more servers can fix a bad patch
What was nintendo thinking for having last gen months old ports for its launch library? They deserves it, moreso for allowing so many exclusives to go multiplatforms.
 

CrunchinJelly

formerly cjelly
In January the following Wii U games were released in the UK:

Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge
SiNG Party
Marvel Avengers
NBA 2k13
 
When's the fiscal year end? Some are saying Nintendo's not doing anything at this point to maximize their numbers for this fiscal year. I can totally see that since I'm 100% positive that they're not THIS incompetent. They don't even have advertisements out for the console.

I have this feeling that they're waiting for manufacturing costs to drop towards the end of the year, lower the price, and push it heavily this holiday with Mario Kart/3D Mario/Whatever is released.

Nintendo isn't this incompetent. They know what they're doing, even if GAF is pretending they don't.
 
The market has changed significantly since Wii came out. The (vast) market that bought the Wii have no need to switch to an HD console, have moved onto iPads and would probably be confused when faced with a huge controller with lots of buttons. Wii U is a massive fuck up in that regard.

I bought mine on launch day (in incase you were wondering).


Also, Wii U is £299.99 here which while not being very expensive compared to iPads and such things, other consoles are fucking cheap in comparison.


The argument of the UK generally being a bit fucked with regards to people not having any money is strange one. Everyone has iPhones and iPads, money is just going towards different things now.
 

Randdalf

Member
Incredibly poor. Without any meaningful releases in the future god knows how this will change. I'm looking forward to Monster Hunter but it isnt the answer.

God help the Wii u this year. Especially when next gen hype builds.

I honestly believe that the next wave of next-gen is going to disappointment to some degree as well, sales-wise. The large majority of sales in the UK are of FIFA and Call of Duty, why would the average joe pay £400+ for a console which will likely have a stripped down version of their favourite game, and they won't be able to play it with their friends either? I also don't think Kinect 2.0 is going to persuade anyone to buy a Durango, given how almost universally terrible games using it have proven to be, that market is being gobbled up by people content to tap away happily at their phone screens because they have no real interest in games, just a desire to waste some time.
 
Mmm, yeah. I'm actually a little more worried about that than I am the Wii U. I assume the original Wii is significantly bolstered by Just Dance, there?

Wii software is also cheap these days
3DS is bad in the UK and US. Nintendo needs to start showing games in marketing.

Same with WiiU. There should be posters of NSMBU.

I have a hprrible feeling NoE does not see UK as a worthwhile investment over a generation. Their probably right.
 

Ushojax

Should probably not trust the 7-11 security cameras quite so much
The games market in the UK is in the toilet and Nintendo as a brand has faded massively in the last 2 years.

I very much doubt new consoles from MS and Sony are going to do much better though, there is simply no appetite for new platforms here. The 360 and PS3 have offered and will continue to offer new CoD and FIFA games, that is all people want. They don't have the money for new consoles right now.
 

Pineconn

Member
Shocking news: Absolutely nothing relevant was released on Wii U in January. Although it would have been nice.

Let's have this talk in a few months.
 

anastazius

Neo Member
If Lego City Undercover gets delayed for even a day, I will get my choking gloves out.

Heck, they should capitalise on the Wii U early adopters starved for games and release it mid Feb instead of the end of March.

Do it Nintendo.
 

darkside31337

Tomodachi wa Mahou
Not surprised really, but this doesn't account for digital sales does it? I know that the only games I've bought for Wii U in the UK were digital.

Harker had pegged Wii U digital sales for major releases somewhere around 2-3%.

Ubisoft said their Vita digital sales were about 15-20%. I just cant see how Wii U digital sales are that significant right now considering most people didn't even connect their Wii to the internet.
 

Danielsan

Member
Well let's be real, what were people supposed to buy? There are no great game releases at all beyond the initial batch of Nintendoland, New Super Mario Brothers U and Zombi U.

Can't wait for that ambassador program.
 

1138

Member
Worse than vita....
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I bought 3DS day one, and im not doing the same mistake twice. Right now there are no WiiU games that i feel the need to buy, and the announced titles dont do much for me either.
 

Porcile

Member
The 3DS is console with a pretty bloody good software library and even that sells terribly over here. The UK is really in dire straits at the moment and I don't see expensive new consoles bucking the trend either. It certainly feels like to me from my own experience - working at a university, that buying video games isn't anyones real priority any more.
 
Ubisoft said their Vita digital sales were about 15-20%. I just cant see how Wii U digital sales are that significant right now considering most people didn't even connect their Wii to the internet.

Not saying digital sales are high but the idea Wii=WiiU is pretty stupid.
 

Plinko

Wildcard berths that can't beat teams without a winning record should have homefield advantage
What games does Nintendo have coming out between now and this fall?

Lego City Undercover, which I think looks fantastic. Not much else, though.

The learned nothing from the 3DS launch even though they said they did.
 

Randdalf

Member
Well let's be real, what were people supposed to buy? There are no great game releases at all beyond the initial batch of Nintendoland, New Super Mario Brothers U and Zombi U.

Can't wait for that ambassador program.

It already sells at a loss... reducing the price is impossible at the moment and by the time they do, the window for an ambassador program will be long past. They were only able to reduce the 3DS's price so dramatically because they were selling it a massive premium that they incorrectly predicted customers would lap up because of the strength of the brand.
 

SmokeMaxX

Member
I have this feeling that they're waiting for manufacturing costs to drop towards the end of the year, lower the price, and push it heavily this holiday with Mario Kart/3D Mario/Whatever is released.

Nintendo isn't this incompetent. They know what they're doing, even if GAF is pretending they don't.

Yeah, they'll definitely push their software titles harder when they are actually about to come out. I just feel bad for the third parties who stuck their neck out early for the WiiU and then Nintendo kinda abandoned the console for its entire "launch window." Plus the fact that Nintendo's basically ignoring the WiiU will stifle development for software from 3rd parties when they evaluate sales. Nintendo knows what it's doing and I can kinda understand what they're going for, but they still have a lot to overcome.

EDIT: Oh yeah and as an early adopter, I'm kinda annoyed at how Nintendo's treating the system. I want to play games on it, but I can't because it has close to no games.
 
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