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Can Nintendo really turn the Wii U around?

N64>GC>Wii U in terms of sales, and all three consoles were basically Nintendo only machines. The Wii U's pitiful sales are simply proving that the Wii was nothing more than an outlier. Lightning in a bottle. As much as people hate to say it, yes, a FAD.

Are you talking about current sales at the relative point in the life-cycle or all-time sales?

It takes them a year and a half to figure this out?

The console's been out for 6 months.
 
why is the gamecube used as the metric? it sold pretty well to begin with then petered out

i mean 360 and ps3 also tracked behind gamecube to start with .....
 
I think it will ultimately fall short of the Gamecube in sales and in it's game library.

There are a few upcoming exclusive games that could sway me to buy one.
Titles like Pikmin 3, Wonderful 101, Bayonetta 2, Zelda, Mario Kart 8, Super Mario 3D Land.
A price drop would be great, it's not worth the asking $430 AUD at the moment.
 
With this disastrous launch? Absolutely. The damage is done and the ship has sailed.

Expect a few spikes in sales when the Nintendo games come out and nothing more...
Sony should have packed up its bags in 2007 then, I suppose.

Omitting launch-season data allows me to highlight greater visual discrepancies between the two consoles.

Then it's not "comparing sales performance", is it? Launch data is part of sales performance. And considering the data isn't cumulative sales, you would still be able to highlight the points of data you're trying to highlight with the inclusion of launch data.
 
mario kart 8 would have started it, everyone loves mario kart

judging from impressions from the best buy wii u e3 in store demo everyone was playing that

such a mistake to not go with mario kart in the winter/holiday :(




it can but its gonna have a rough time
 
Are you talking about current sales at the relative point in the life-cycle or all-time sales?



The console's been out for 6 months.

They all but abandoned the Wii 2-3 years ago yet their games still aren't ready for Wii U. Their have been clear and known issues with the Wii U's vision and potential marketing since it was first unveiled. If their leadership didn't have the foresight to avoid any of those pitfalls before why exactly are you giving them the benefit of the doubt now?
 
I think the new mario and Dk will drive sales. They should have had MK in time for the holidays. That was a real system seller on Wii.
 

Pretty much. It was the product that sold itself. My freakin parents have one. My Mom wanted one to "workout her mind" and I guess because she thought it would be good for guests like me.

The problem with Wii U isn't marketing, it's the product. I've heard older people in real life say stuff like "why are there 2 screens? What am I supposed to do with this? I have an iPad." Whereas the motion controls were insta learning.
 
I feel like it'll perform under the GameCube in the end. I think Wii was a fluke - people also bring up DS and 3DS, but remember that Nintendo is largely uncontested in the portable space, they haven't had any serious competition outside of PSP and Vita - both of which Sony dropped the ball on.

There's also that the original Wii actually seemed like a novel product for its time, with the Wii U Nintendo comes off as a copycat considering the sudden rise in popularity with tablets.
 
They all but abandoned the Wii 2-3 years ago yet their games still aren't ready for Wii U. Their have been clear and known issues with the Wii U's vision and potential marketing since it was first unveiled. If their leadership didn't have the foresight to avoid any of those pitfalls before why exactly are you giving them the benefit of the doubt now?

Thank you for ignoring my question. I don't see any point in responding to you if you're going to argue like that.
 
They could "turn it around" insofar as I think it's very possible to not have lower than GameCube life time sales.

But there's no way the thing is ending up in anything but 3rd place ...unless MS continues to actively self-sabotage, which I guess is possible?
 
Nintendo will absolutely turn things around. It will take some time of course, but I think they can sell more than the GC when all is said and done.
 
Pretty much. It was the product that sold itself. My freakin parents have one. My Mom wanted one to "workout her mind" and I guess because she thought it would be good for guests like me.
Lol... Wii's success had nothing to do with marketing yet somehow your mom knew about it. If your mother knows about a gaming machine so much as to buy one then something's going right at Nintendo's marketing department.

The problem with Wii U isn't marketing, it's the product. I've heard older people in real life say stuff like "why are there 2 screens? What am I supposed to do with this? I have an iPad." Whereas the motion controls were insta learning.
And how do you answer these questions? Marketing.


I mean seriously, do you all not remember the Mario Sunshine ads? Nintendo's ads are cringeworthy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WPteMFkI2k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqkNPcUMffU compared to this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0p7uJp25BlE
 
Eventually it starts to sound like 'That data didn't match the point I was trying to make, so I discarded it.'
Launch data is always extremely volatile due to artificially inflated demand caused by lack of supply, the proliferation of hardcore fans buying day-one, and mounds upon mounds of artificial hype.

I felt like a fair starting point for discrepancy comparison was January, after all of the launch hysteria had sufficiently subsided.


Then it's not "comparing sales performance", is it? Launch data is part of sales performance. And considering the data isn't cumulative sales, you would still be able to highlight the points of data you're trying to highlight with the inclusion of launch data.

Fine. :-P

Here is the discrepancy table since launch:

vh41fuz.png
 
Thank you for ignoring my question. I don't see any point in responding to you if you're going to argue like that.

what question? About sales? I'm talking all time when all is said and done. It is looking very likely Wii U won't even reach Gamecube's LTD numbers. It certainly isn't on track to by any stretch. And releasing the same games that didn't sway people on GC (Pikmin, Mario, Zelda WW, Mario Kart) 10 years later and expecting them to kickstart the system seems silly to me.
 
I see Wii U bringing up the rear in this generation. Even if consumers reject the XBO, most will go PS4 because of strong and familiar third-party titles that Wii U simply won't be getting. No Madden. No FIFA. No GTA. Potentially no CoD. No Battlefield. No Final Fantasy. No Destiny. No Metal Gear Solid.

NONE OF IT.

That forces Nintendo to rely too heavily on first-party titles and ramp up quantity to keep pace, and even then-- it won't be enough to compete.

Wii U will ultimately be a secondary console for some, especially once the price drops and once there's more software to choose from. The last-place finish won't bankrupt Nintendo or force the company into third-party, but it will raise questions about the company's strategy with the platform and some of the decisions that took place before, during, and after launch.
 
why is the gamecube used as the metric? it sold pretty well to begin with then petered out

i mean 360 and ps3 also tracked behind gamecube to start with .....

All details of Nintendo consoles are measured in Gamecubes. In terms of power, the Wii was two Gamecubes duct taped together, and the WiiU is four Gamecubes taped together. Same thing with sales data. The Gamecube is a solid unit of measurement, being a cube and all.
 
Ninja's mother bought a Wii because she saw it on Oprah. And yes, that's effective marketing.

Nintendo needs to do two things to get Ninja's mother to buy a Wii U. Bring back Oprah, and make a game that Oprah will find captivating.

Once again, that isn't going to be Smash Brothers.
 
mario kart 8 would have started it, everyone loves mario kart

judging from impressions from the best buy wii u e3 in store demo everyone was playing that

such a mistake to not go with mario kart in the winter/holiday :(




it can but its gonna have a rough time

I don't think it's a mistake at all, 3D World, Sonic, etc will keep up the sales for the Holiday, and than Mario Kart 8 will keep up the sales after the Holiday.
 
Eventually it starts to sound like 'That data didn't match the point I was trying to make, so I discarded it.'
Why exactly do people want to focus on sales from 6 months ago, at launch, when they don't provide any real insight into baseline demand?

The Wii U sells 11K a week in January - "Well, look at November."
The Wii U sells 13K a week in March - "Well, look at November."
The Wii U sells 8.5K a week in May - "Well, look at November."

The Wii U essentially had one good week of sales - to a core Nintendo fanbase at launch. It's December failed to match the $599 PS3 and if we had a week by week breakdown, I would not be remotely surprised if despite the holidays the system declined throughout the month, as occurred in Europe.

November is irrelevant to its current sales and trends.

All of this notwithstanding, the inclusion of GCN November and December would not paint a favorable picture for the Wii U anyway.
 
I feel like a Mario Kart Wii U bundle this holiday for $199 or $249 would have completely salvaged the system's outlook. Now I am not that sure... I am sure we'll get a price cut once the games start coming, but there is very little momentum this point and I don't know that the games at this year's E3 will have a massive effect on 2013 sales.
 
Lol... Wii's success had nothing to do with marketing yet somehow your mom knew about it. If your mother knows about a gaming machine so much as to buy one then something's going right at Nintendo's marketing department.


And how do you answer these questions? Marketing.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqkNPcUMffU compared to this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0p7uJp25BlE

Marketing doesn't solve the problem. Wii U's pad is not intuitive. It's large, complicated, and jarring. Marketing doesn't tell the user how to use the product, only show what the product does. And Wii U doesn't do something easy that catches fire on talk shows and word of mouth.

I'm nearly 30. When I saw Wii with friends, it wasn't typical Nintendo games. It was a party game for maybe 1 hour. Beer, queso, Wii Sports, sports, and talking. That's what it was to many people. It was never about Pikmin, Kart, etc.

The kind of games that Wii sold on have already been released. Pikmin, Kart, and Mario aren't going to sell these systems.

Why are you posting Sony and Microsoft stuff? I'm a PC gamer primarily, tend to own all consoles (probably will skip X1).
 
the ONLY time they've done this is with 3DS, and, as many people have pointed out, their advantages in the portable market do not directly translate over to consoles. People act like Nintendo has some Midas touch-esque history with this. Prior to that they failed to turn around GC and failed to turn around N64 despite their best efforts.
I'm not just talking about the ones that have turned around from failure (and it is arguable to call the GCN and especially the N64 a "failed" console, anyway.) The Gameboy, SNES (in America), and DS were underestimated on their marketing positions, and all it took was a few games to reignite them. For the Gameboy, it was Pokemon. For the SNES, it was DKC and SMW2. For the DS, it was Nintendogs in Japan and NSMB. For a non-Nintendo example, there was X360 and Kinect. The 3DS is only the most recent turn-around console.

If we look at Wii U and 3DS releases starting in August, Nintendo has set up their systems with potential system-reigniting games during a short period of time. It is possible for all of them to fail, but such a combination should not be easily dismissed. I hope that Nintendo is prepared to advertise the Wii U's resurgence and these games.
 
Makes a fine system till the PS-4 hits arrive IMHO and that's a year or so out.

The Wonderful 101
Super Smash Bros Wii-U
Bayonetta 2
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (comes out in NOV something else is certainly in the pot already....)
Mario Kart 8
Yarn Yoshi
Sonic Lost World
Wii Fit U
Monolith Soft's Xneogears
Nice, late 2013 into 2014 schedule of crap i cant get anywhere else ...yeah I'm good.

3rd party?
it's a desert . But when you have Platinum and Retro Studios and a possible deeper SEGA connection...? I could give a flying 747 if EA and others were on board the poorly named /marketed console...I wouldn't have time for their games anyway...cept for Dark Souls II...Yeah one can dream.
DS1_49670_640screen.jpg
 
Marketing doesn't solve the problem. Wii U's pad is not intuitive. It's large, complicated, and jarring. Marketing doesn't tell the user how to use the product, only show what the product does. And Wii U doesn't do something easy that catches fire on talk shows and word of mouth.
Marketing solves the problems of answering those questions you just asked and it's no more jarring than a tablet with buttons.

The kind of games that Wii sold on have already been released. Pikmin, Kart, and Mario aren't going to sell these systems.
Err, no they haven't?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_Wii_video_games

Wii Fit U and Wii Party U aren't out. Mario Kart isn't out. Mario 3D World isn't out. Smash Bros isn't out.

34 million units at Mario Kart is nothing to scoff at and as I previously said these are mostly new people that were introduced to the franchise that would likely be willing to buy a Wii U.


Why are you posting Sony and Microsoft stuff? I'm a PC gamer primarily, tend to own all consoles (probably will skip X1).
Comparing marketing strategies deployed by other companies... don't really see what's confusing about what I posted.
 
I don't see the Wii U selling more units than the Gamecube. By the time Mario Kart and Smash Bros come out, the console will be almost two years old. Other than a new Zelda game, I don't see them having another major system seller during the consoles lifespan. What will they make? Another Mario game? Another Metroid game? Another Star Fox game? Another Mario Party game? Another Paper Mario game? Another Kirby Game? Another Nintendo game from an old forgotten franchise that has no selling power? Their system sellers are aimed to the ever-shrinking nintendo hardcore. What they need to do is to start calling Japanese developers to start supporting the Wii U. Call Sakaguchi and offer him a 3-game contract. Imagine a Nintendo vs. Capcom fighting game. They can do so much more, but yet they will always pull the same stuff as ever.
 
Launch data is always extremely volatile due to artificially inflated demand caused by lack of supply, the proliferation of hardcore fans buying day-one, and mounds upon mounds of artificial hype.

I felt like a fair starting point for discrepancy comparison was January, after all of the launch hysteria had sufficiently subsided.

Then that should be explained in the OP. I know it's not your OP, but still.

what question? About sales? I'm talking all time when all is said and done. It is looking very likely Wii U won't even reach Gamecube's LTD numbers. It certainly isn't on track to by any stretch. And releasing the same games that didn't sway people on GC (Pikmin, Mario, Zelda WW, Mario Kart) 10 years later and expecting them to kickstart the system seems silly to me.

Well, two years ago people were predicting that the 3DS wouldn't make 50 million units and, if Nintendo's prediction's for this FY are correct, it will reach it soon enough. I'm not arguing that the Wii U will definitely change course, but it *could*. It has a fairly decent line-up for the next two quarters and hopefully at least Mario Kart makes it out FYQ4, maybe in February or March.

And when I say fairly decent I want to be clear that I mean relative to both the 3DS and Wii. Many of those franchises may indeed not sell as well on Wii U, but they have strong predecessors.
 
Yes! They should take advantage of the PS4-U concept, a perfect 2nd console for next gen.

No but seriously, I think Nintendo will survive on their games alone, although I do worry that they'll continue to play it a bit safe and take less risks only because they need to release their games at a good pace. I think the answer to this is more collaborations like Luigi's Mansion 2, etc. and reach out to to other western and Japanese developers to work on their franchises... maybe even make new ones.

I say this all the time but Nintendo really should collaborate with From Software and do a exclusive Souls game for Wii U. Things like that would really help them.
 
I don't see the Wii U selling more units than the Gamecube. By the time Mario Kart and Smash Bros come out, the console will be almost two years old. Other than a new Zelda game, I don't see them having another major system seller during the consoles lifespan. What will they make? Another Mario game? Another Metroid game? Another Star Fox game? Another Mario Party game? Another Paper Mario game? Another Kirby Game? Another Nintendo game from an old forgotten franchise that has no selling power? Their system sellers are aimed to the ever-shrinking nintendo hardcore. What they need to do is to start calling Japanese developers to start supporting the Wii U. Call Sakaguchi and offer him a 3-game contract. Imagine a Nintendo vs. Capcom fighting game. They can do so much more, but yet they will always pull the same stuff as ever.

wii sports , wii fit were two new IPs that made the wii
 
I think their goose is cooked.

Smash will probably give a small bump, Mario as well. Mario Kart should give a decent sized bump, but I don't think it's going to sell millions of people on the console. Mario Kart may have sold jillions on Wii, but the real killer app for the Wii was there from day 1.

I think people are overestimating the appeal of these games on their own. Quality Nintendo franchises will net you Gamecube numbers. To get beyond that you need something more. Without a clear message of what makes the console unique and appealing, and a high price, and poor 3rd part support... the Wii U will flounder. To make matter worse, even Nintendo seem to be struggling to come up with interesting ways to make use of the Gamepad. It doesn't look good, and I think their hat is fresh out of rabbits.
 
Best buy and Nintendo packed many stores with the e3 demo. IMO it worked. Lets give it some time before we call in the cavalry just yet shall we?
 
Yes! They should take advantage of the PS4-U concept, a perfect 2nd console for next gen.

No but seriously, I think Nintendo will survive on their games alone, although I do worry that they'll continue to play it a bit safe and take less risks only because they need to release their games at a good pace. I think the answer to this is more collaborations like Luigi's Mansion 2, etc. and reach out to to other western and Japanese developers to work on their franchises... maybe even make new ones.

I say this all the time but Nintendo really should collaborate with From Software and do a exclusive Souls game for Wii U. Things like that would really help them.

LOL, good luck with that. They are already working with Namco on Dark Souls. And they rumored to be with Sony on Demon's Souls 2.
 
It hasn't even been a year, nothing is set in stone. It's also difficult to guess at the upcoming dynamic between the consoles. Every generation has its own surprises and reversals. The main thing is for Nintendo to release a decent variety of different types of software without long delays. It seems like something Mario is always in the works, but I can't help but wonder if following the recent and near future releases of tons of Mario titles whether those teams might not be freed up to focus on other franchises. SM3DL, NSMB2, NSMBU, NSLU, and SM3DW is a whole lot of Mario in a relatively short space of time.

I think it'll end up doing a little worse than the Gamecube.
I don't think it'll reach Wii levels of success, but I also don't buy the Gamecube sales or lower predictions. The DS and Wii expanded Nintendo's potential base considerably, Nintendo just needs to give those people the right excuse to jump on board. It's a different equation than the NES > SNES> N64 > GC drop off. If I had to take a stab in the dark, I would guess Wii U will sell anywhere between 40 and 60 million.
 
I'm pretty confident that they can! Nintendo has been in some right spots and I'm confident that they can at least find moderate success. As long as I have some cool games to play on my Wii U, I'll be satisfied.
 
Sure they can.

Get some good games out there, lower the price, and hire a new marketing agency.

That might not render them this generations market leader, but it should jump start things.
 
I think their goose is cooked.

Smash will probably give a small bump, Mario as well. Mario Kart should give a decent sized bump, but I don't think it's going to sell millions of people on the console. Mario Kart may have sold jillions on Wii, but the real killer app for the Wii was there from day 1.

I think people are overestimating the appeal of these games on their own. Quality Nintendo franchises will net you Gamecube numbers. To get beyond that you need something more. Without a clear message of what makes the console unique and appealing, and a high price, and poor 3rd part support... the Wii U will flounder. To make matter worse, even Nintendo seem to be struggling to come up with interesting ways to make use of the Gamepad. It doesn't look good, and I think their hat is fresh out of rabbits.

What he said.
 
The result of current Iwata's direction is a stark lack of diversity in their 1st party portfolio. Now that they lost the casual boom to iOS, it's back to the same old.
It's working alright for 3DS because they have some nice 3rd party support, but on Wii U the lack of any prolific Rare-like second party is hurting them a lot.
 
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