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What happened to that 100M Wii audience?
- Thread starter StoppedInTracks
- Start date
SturokBGD
Member
You know, when you look at the fact that there were 100M units out there and the big 'core' third party games still didn't come, it should be no surprise that the Wii U isn't a hit.
Makes you wonder what the situation would be like right now if a) the Wii was an HD graphical powerhouse like the PS3/360 were, and - possibly more importantly - b) Nintendo had an online infrastructure on par with Xbox Live.
Makes you wonder what the situation would be like right now if a) the Wii was an HD graphical powerhouse like the PS3/360 were, and - possibly more importantly - b) Nintendo had an online infrastructure on par with Xbox Live.
axisofweevils
Holy crap! Today's real megaton is that more than two people can have the same first name.
The Wii was lightning in a bottle. The Wii U is far more complex, harder to understand and aimed at a difference audience.
I doubt very much whether any console will be able to attract an audience of 100 million going forward.
I doubt very much whether any console will be able to attract an audience of 100 million going forward.
gato_busta
Member
They're still playing Wii. Skylanders, Disney Infinity and Just Dance to be exact.
Nintendo killed themselves.... and this is from a Nintendo fan.
The Wii was fantastic but Nintendo drowned so much in its success that they forgot their core fans, the ones that have been with them since the beginning. They gave them the cold shoulder and only gave back something in return... Galaxy or Skyward Sword. Their focus wasn't on their core fans, but on their new audience. Then... the fad was over. Nearly two years of non software killed their goodwill with all audiences. Now they come back and mainstream forgot about them and the core as well. Even their fanboys. Sucks for them but they dug this grave.
The Wii was fantastic but Nintendo drowned so much in its success that they forgot their core fans, the ones that have been with them since the beginning. They gave them the cold shoulder and only gave back something in return... Galaxy or Skyward Sword. Their focus wasn't on their core fans, but on their new audience. Then... the fad was over. Nearly two years of non software killed their goodwill with all audiences. Now they come back and mainstream forgot about them and the core as well. Even their fanboys. Sucks for them but they dug this grave.
I said it then and I will say it now.
It was a fad.
About ~80% of that audience was never in it for the long haul. They were never going to get a followup console because, by the time it came out, they would be on to the next thing.
Nintendo got very lucky with 1 gimmick and decided to swing for the fences again with this gamepad that they don't even really support anymore with their games.
It was a fad.
About ~80% of that audience was never in it for the long haul. They were never going to get a followup console because, by the time it came out, they would be on to the next thing.
Nintendo got very lucky with 1 gimmick and decided to swing for the fences again with this gamepad that they don't even really support anymore with their games.
Manmademan
Member
It would be completely different. Hell, that's probably the biggest reason third party has jumped ship.
you can also put in "microscopic hard drive" as another reason, which ties into b.)
Publishers are making more and more sales from downloadable content and expansions, and a platform with 32 gigs of space for the premium or 8 (!!!) for the base is a joke here. It's almost as if nintendo had literally no intention of making a console that's aware that online is a thing.
D
Deleted member 752119
Unconfirmed Member
1. Quit gaming.
2. Moved on to tablets/smartphones for casual games.
3. Got older and moved on to Sony/ms.
2. Moved on to tablets/smartphones for casual games.
3. Got older and moved on to Sony/ms.
freenudemacusers
Member
plus going by the NPD results, people really seem to want that third party software.
Elvin Atombender
Member
I think a lot of people who don't really like video games thought: "Hey, that looks like fun!".
After they had bought a Wii they realized that they still didn't think gaming was that fun.
After they had bought a Wii they realized that they still didn't think gaming was that fun.
Ol No Bones
Banned
I know my parents bought it and played Wii sports with us kids when we were over for a few weeks than we never touched it again.
slightconfuse
Banned
The 30-40 year old audience they aimed at has moved on to phones and tablets now.
UnObtainium17
Member
A nintendo console with a healthy 3rd party support would have been incredible.. The reason why I stuck sony through the years because I know if i get their console I will get best of 1st and 3rd party games. Doesnt seem to be the case in a nintendo home console.
If Nindendo can make a console with the right gimmick and powerful enough to entice 3rd party publishers I would get it. Unfortunately WiiU isnt that (wii was cheap tho), and the price of admission for that console doesnt seem to be worth it.
If Nindendo can make a console with the right gimmick and powerful enough to entice 3rd party publishers I would get it. Unfortunately WiiU isnt that (wii was cheap tho), and the price of admission for that console doesnt seem to be worth it.
DracoBlade
Member
I grew up.
The Albatross
Member
If they do play games, their Wii is enough for them and they'd be bewildered by a controller with a touch screen in the middle of it. My ~65-year-old dad has a Wii, he enjoyed New Super Mario Bros and Wii Bowling. It's enough for him for the next 15 years to play that once every 6 months.
Ratchet1848
Member
They have moved on the same way they did after Cabbage Patch Kids, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Furby, Hula Hoops, etc. The "Hot Toy" phase only lasts 1-3 years. Most of the same 100mil people who bought the Wii will also run out and kill each other to get the next "Hot Toy" because that's what their children/grand-children want. It happens every year and it is rarely the same toy for more than 2 years.
JackDebian
Banned
Targeting the casuals is an incredibly risky move. I don't want to paint with such a wide brush but they tend to move on to things other than gaming when they get bored. When we get bored we move on to another game, casuals will move on to something else entirely. Nintendo hit the jackpot last time, however, catering to casuals is a constantly moving target, and Big N thought they could follow the same path and receive the same response from the market, which obviously hasn't happened.
diffusionx
Gold Member
They all got iPads.
Saint Gregory
Member
5) They've been buying PS360s since 2010 and aren't ready for another new console yet.1) Did they die out? Impossible, it wasn't only old people.
2) Did they move on to Xbox/ Playstation? Hard to say the systems are just recently launched and we cannot say anything except they would sell everything they had produced.
3) Did they move on to mobile? Probably not - Wii Sports cannot be replicated correctly on iPad for example. Same with Wii Fit.
4) Did they stop gaming altogether? Seems to me the correct answer
Wii gathered an highly impressive audience of over 100M users. Why isn't this audience moving forward to Wii U? It seems even 5%of those users did not bought a Wii U in its first year on the market. This is INCREDIBLE statistic.
What in the world is the 95% of Wii owners playing now!?!?!
Gaming companies... you have to get those people back. They cannot stop gaming now, the bigger our hobby is worldwide the better.
How was this not one of your possible answers?
BolognaSoup
Member
This is exactly right. My dad bought a Wii to play Wii Bowling and play Sports with his grandkids when they visited. He had never purchased a video game console for himself in his entire life. My aunt and uncle also bought one. Same kind of story. I really think these types of scenarios drove the vast majority of sales. These people bought maybe 1 or 2 games over the Wii's lifetime and were NEVER going to buy another console after the novelty wore off.
Chill Penguin
Member
Your #3 is a misguided conclusion. They absolutely moved onto mobile. Just because they enjoyed Wii Sports doesn't mean they're going to be chasing motion control gaming for the rest of their lives. They enjoyed it as a casual novelty, but have moved on. Those are the same people that all got ipads and are playing angry birds and candy crush.1) Did they die out? Impossible, it wasn't only old people.
2) Did they move on to Xbox/ Playstation? Hard to say the systems are just recently launched and we cannot say anything except they would sell everything they had produced.
3) Did they move on to mobile? Probably not - Wii Sports cannot be replicated correctly on iPad for example. Same with Wii Fit.
4) Did they stop gaming altogether? Seems to me the correct answer
Wii gathered an highly impressive audience of over 100M users. Why isn't this audience moving forward to Wii U? It seems even 5%of those users did not bought a Wii U in its first year on the market. This is INCREDIBLE statistic.
What in the world is the 95% of Wii owners playing now!?!?!
Gaming companies... you have to get those people back. They cannot stop gaming now, the bigger our hobby is worldwide the better.
We got my father-in-law a Wii. Only other games he own besides Wii Sports are ones I gifted him. Same thing with another friend of ours. We bought them a Wii, never bought any games. Other people that owned one, never bought anything outside of gifts we gave em. Bottom line, I couldn't get them to care about other games.
I can't be the only one.
diffusionx
Gold Member
Wii game sales were "good" but they were a combination of top-selling Nintendo titles (Wii Fit, Mario Kart, NSMBW, etc.) and shovelware like Carnival Games. Did you ever go into a GameStop in 2008? The Wii shelf was filled with $14.99 mini-game crapola, licensed crud, and Flash/third rate PS2 ports. That was what was selling.
Seriously - by 2011 the problem wasn't that no games were coming out. The iPad came out in 2010 and everyone moved on to the next font for casual gaming. The games were both cheaper and better.
The Wii was really cheap the Wii U is pretty expensive this is the biggest factor.
Also many of them don't even know the Wii U exists or are unclear as to what exactly it is. It is true though that many just bought it for Wii Sports and again would still buy Wii U if it was as cheap.
Also many of them don't even know the Wii U exists or are unclear as to what exactly it is. It is true though that many just bought it for Wii Sports and again would still buy Wii U if it was as cheap.
Dr. Randy Marsh
Member
They're waiting for Cranky Kong.
Black-Wind
Member
What happened is Nintendo failed to convey the proper message with the fucking WU.
Many Many MANY people didn't know if it was a Wii add on or what and didn't care enough to figure it out.
Also, Wii loss a ton of steam with the crowd later in Wii's life with MS and Sony trying to suck em up with their gimmicks.
Many Many MANY people didn't know if it was a Wii add on or what and didn't care enough to figure it out.
Also, Wii loss a ton of steam with the crowd later in Wii's life with MS and Sony trying to suck em up with their gimmicks.
Chill Penguin
Member
I will be surprised if PS4 doesn't hit 100 million. Although the overall market will shrink due to the casuals moving onto ipads, the core market is still growing. There is a new generation of kids that are "graduating" to PS4/Xbox and many of the older guys that grew up with gaming are still playing. When we were kids (i'm 30), no one over the age of 30 played, but now we have an entire generation of adults that grew up with video games and the market has retained quite a few of them. Add in the ever increasing overall population, and I see the core gaming market continuing to grow for a couple more decades.
My brother and I are just waiting (makes 2 future wii u owners).
Me for MK8 and my brother for X project and bayonetta 2.
Annnnd we are waiting too for another price drop. Packs of 300 euros are too expensive for us when you see that Wii has begun at 250 with wii sport.
Sorry Ninty but 300 is, psychologically, too much for millions of people (young ones or parents for a nintendo console) even there's a gamepad or not.
And personnally, I don't care about the sh..ty sales of it.
Android, iphone games are just good for 5 minutes (besides super hexagon) .
Me for MK8 and my brother for X project and bayonetta 2.
Annnnd we are waiting too for another price drop. Packs of 300 euros are too expensive for us when you see that Wii has begun at 250 with wii sport.
Sorry Ninty but 300 is, psychologically, too much for millions of people (young ones or parents for a nintendo console) even there's a gamepad or not.
And personnally, I don't care about the sh..ty sales of it.
Android, iphone games are just good for 5 minutes (besides super hexagon) .
nah, they also bought Carnival Games and Hasbro Board Games
You know I think you might have a point. The Wii was also doing some crazy software numbers. One of the Mario games did about ten mil like it was nothing. I think most people were exposed to the Wii granny phenomenon and, because it was so extraordinary, it stuck in people's mind. People assumed all Wii users belonged to this group.
But if we accept that there was a large audience on Wii that was separate from the Wii grannies and was actually into gaming, at least on some level, where are they now? And how can we classify this mysterious group?
But you have to admit that the Wii sales were at least partly driven by a mainstream fad.
Just for future reference, it's usually not a good idea to take a position on GAF that equates to "I don't care about the data or evidence, I have predetermined beliefs which cannot be changed." Not necessarily bannable, but typically the sign of a bad poster.
Actually what you say is the misguided conclusion, what kind of evidence we have a Wii Sports player jumped to Angry Birds or Candy Crush? The games are absolutely nothing alike, and there's no reason they exclude or substitute the other. The only thing they have in common is that gaming nerds hate those games to their guts, so of course from forums to the enthusiast press we all claim mobile "stole" those costumers, because it's all "casual crap", people on GAF and everywhere in the enthusiast side of gaming lump them all as if they were one homogeneous group when that couldn't be farther from the truth.
It makes no sense really when you think about it, having a smartphone does not prevent you from playing nor does it substitutes the experience Wii Sports or Wiifit give. This is more of an argument of why Brain Training and Nintencats failed on the 3DS, but does not really says anything about the Wii, and the 3DS certainly recovered anyway, so what gives?
Chill Penguin
Member
PS1 expanded the core gamer market. It got adults playing adult themed games such as Wipeout, Resident Evil, and Metal Gear Solid. They were not casuals like soccer moms and grannies. PS2 didn't lose their customers to a different market the way Wii did, they lost them to the 360. If anything the PS3/360 has expanded the core market further...by the time they stop selling they will be near 200 million combined.
It's also not a good idea to attack one person when the majority also feel the same.
If I took a poll and the majority said they felt it was a fad, would those numbers be false?
Zombie James
Banned
They targeted a casual, flavour-of-the-year audience and that's exactly what they got.
mattiewheels
And then the LORD David Bowie saith to his Son, Jonny Depp: 'Go, and spread my image amongst the cosmos. For every living thing is in anguish and only the LIGHT shall give them reprieve.'
I can't believe Nintendo stopped chasing the casual hordes that bought a Wii. That seemed to be their only chance at keeping momentum, but instead they framed the Wii U as a traditional game system and are back at square one with the same small audience that would've bought a Gamecube sequel.
Did they lose faith in their ability to capture non-gamers? They gave up the ghost so quickly when other devices grabbed their audience, and instead of following after them they retreated and tried to court the gamer to little effect.
Did they lose faith in their ability to capture non-gamers? They gave up the ghost so quickly when other devices grabbed their audience, and instead of following after them they retreated and tried to court the gamer to little effect.
He's not really attacking you, just giving you advice as one member to another, and he's quite right. Your stance doesn't make for good conversation and has a tendency to turn topics into echo chambers. :\
That's a poor counter-question. For one, your poll would not be statistically big enough to be relevant, especially in the face of hard data like attach rate numbers. For another, it would not be terribly accurate anyhow.
No one is attacking anyone lol, you and many are in denial, that is all, the numbers are there, you can continue to ignore them if you want.
Numbers can't change real world perception.
There wasn't a whole lot of variety for Wii owners. Take 2 wasn't putting their top development teams nor large investment in these products.
I'm not sure if this is supposed to refute my point, because it only reinforces it, as far as I can tell: the Wii managed to sell a great deal of software even though most third parties were not putting their top teams or large investment in software development. Now imagine how much software the Wii could have sold if that were not true, and the major publishers had supported the platform with a more proportionate amount of their resources.
I definitely think that's a factor, but release lists for the Wii were notably shorter in 2011 than they were in, say, 2009.