My bad, it did improve a bit.
1st M: 33 weeks
2nd M: 71 weeks
3rd M: 57 weeks
Although to be fair, the 3rd million covers 2 holiday seasons vs 1 for the previous 2.
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Wii U has sold 3 million in Japan
- Thread starter Ryng_tolu
- Start date
My bad, it did improve a bit.
1st M: 33 weeks
2nd M: 71 weeks
3rd M: 57 weeks
Although to be fair, the 3rd million covers 2 holiday seasons vs 1 for the previous 2.
Vital Tundra
Member
At least the people who own the console seem to buy the games. 33 percent own Splatoon for instance.
weird, I'm pretty sure it was there earlier today. IIRC the Wii U is up 40% from last year, which is very impressive even though the actual numbers are still pitiful. Last year it had Mario Kart and Smash and everyone expected it to die this year.
Poimandres
Member
Lowest point in 26 years is depressing. Damn. It must have been amazing to travel to Japan in the mid 90's when the market was booming, and consoles and games frequently released a year or more in advance of other territories (even longer sometimes for people stuck in a back water country like Australia!).
Which other titles do people think could realistically push console sales in Japan? FF15 and Persona 5 seem like solid bets, but what other "big" titles are on the horizon for the Japanese market? DQ would be 2017 right, and is also on NX which should be interesting to see unflold. Splatoon looks like the biggest surprise success of 2015, so I guess there could be some curve balls.
Anyway, based on the numbers alone looks like PS4 should overtake in 2016 but I'm no expert on Japanese culture!
pinkurocket
Member
That sounds so low, but at the same time it's impressive to know the install base of Splatoon considering these numbers. Hopefully they can release something with NX that's more appealing to consumers, because they have the IPs to sell it.
KratosEnergyDrink
Member
Last few weeks has seen a big sales spike for Wii U (big relatively to current console sales in Japan). If some NX devices show up in 2016 they will eat some PS4 (and Wii U) sales. If NX gets some big games like DQ and MH it will get a good chunk of console sales.
If the PS4 will outsell Wii U it will be 2017 earliest even without NX.
protomouse
Member
More like ITT: you can tell who is a diehard Nintendo fan.
Thanks for the update. Without the snark next time, please.
Mihael Mello Keehl
Banned
"wait no yup lol no this was 70k every week, but! Wii U lifetime Vita in years 3 MILLION 3.5 MILLION. Ahem let me correct you, no wait lol"
ArkhamFantasy
Member
It's not just the big games, the PS4 has a consistent lineup of quality japanese titles every month. It isnt going to have big 6 month droughts without a notable release.
Games like Star Ocean 5 arent a big deal on itse own, but it makes the difference between a 20k week and 25k, and that adds up.
The PS4 could also have a slim model/price drop this year, that would be huge but its obviously not a guarantee.
Poimandres
Member
That's the Nintendo holiday effect though, and PS4 is back to selling more than Wii U this week no?
Arkam
Member
I wouldn't go so far as to say a sucess. As I am sure Nintendo had MUCH loftier expectation prior to launch. However if you look at where the market and consumer sentiment 6 months after launch I would call this a decent recovery. At one point there was a lot of talk about it performing in line with the Dreamcast. If they end up eeking out ~4m in Japan I think they will be moderately pleased.
That's the New Years affect, also a part of the holiday boost. There are two phases of the holidays: Nintendo boost, Sony boost. The former is holiday season, the latter is post-New Years.
The attach rate is over 44%.
Splatoon is >1.32m ( and over 1.32m mean OVER, could be even 1.4m ).
Soon the attach rate will become over 50%.
This is my graph lol.
Poimandres
Member
So strange! I can understand the Nintendo holiday effect but the New Year Sony thing seems odd to me.
Money gifts get turned into things people want to buy that weren't already bought for them.
KratosEnergyDrink
Member
Of course, but only by 10k (Sonys post holiday effect) whereas Wii U had been 40k above PS4 the week before and 30k the week before. Last year PS4 had monthly sales only a few thousand above or sometimes below Wii U. Before PS4 will outsell Wii U lifetime it would take many month, even when Wii U suddenly stopped selling.
Console sales are poor in Japan anyway. So this is a sad numbers game...
Mihael Mello Keehl
Banned
Ay I participate in it too so you know some of us know its a mess
Canis lupus
Member
Nah PS4 outsells Wii U this year with our without NX. Big games, possible price cut, slim model, psvr wildcard...
"Last few weeks has seen a big sales spike for Wii U" It's the usual holiday sales spike that is bigger this year because the wii u is more desirable with more games. Wii U's already down almost 50% over last week and it's going to decline and the gap is going to grow.
Poimandres
Member
I guess that makes sense. So I guess the Playstation product buying demographic in Japan skews older than Nintendo? This is pretty interesting stuff.
I can't see Wii U doing too well this year with a new machine launching. What's even announced as upcoming for the year besides Star Fox and Zelda (which isn't a huge deal in Japan anyway right)? But from the looks of things Splatoon alone will keep it selling for a while which is insanely impressive.
Definitely agree on your final point. This is indeed a sad game
Yeah, you're actually kind of forced to stay within the confines of the topic there.
The 2015 YTD gap was 450K+ in favor of PS4. LTD gap is, what, 700K? I see the 2016 YTD gap being much bigger with NX coming.
SmokedMeat
Gamer™
Like that matters.
Vital Tundra
Member
Oh never mind. Splatoon is killing it there.
yongeandcollege
Member
Lol.
The Wii U was a massive failure coming off the Wii and consistently failed to meet Nintendo's own guidance. The 3 million in Japan is irrelevant and only looks OK due to the ghastly state of consoles in Japan. The WiiU will not beat the PS4 in Japan so what are we celebrating here?
Or just not as readily given as a gift. If anything, the ages would skew older in favor of Nintendo since its largely parents buying the gifts for their kids/the family vs. the post-New Years gifts being bought. Its just that the interests of the former demographics are very different from the latter ones.
I mean, its all kind of moot. The 3DS is crushing everything under foot regardless of if it was before or after New Years, especially if you look at software.
Post-Splatoon that gap is 150k (and this includes the release of MGSV). Basically, 300k gap was formed when the WiiU was tanking in sales with no key releases. The former is the important gap to keep in mind, because that's what the current market is for the these consoles, not what it was 7+ months ago.
PdotMichael
Banned
And how many key releases does the WiiU have this year and how many does the PS4 have?
I'm talking about the 2015 YTD numbers at the end of 2015. The most up-to-date numbers we have.
I believe your numbers are slightly off. Source?
NOLA_Gaffer
Banned
There's hyperbole and then there's hyperbole.
Right, and I was talking about how those numbers break down when you look at current market activity vs. how it looked seven months ago. The numbers by themselves lack context.
SmokedMeat
Gamer™
I guess we're pretending mobile doesn't exist?
ThIs thread is sad on both sides. I didnt want to post but:
Hm, Mario kart is around the same. So if it's 33% there, and around 50% WW or more, it must be well over 50 in a lot of places.
Hm, Mario kart is around the same. So if it's 33% there, and around 50% WW or more, it must be well over 50 in a lot of places.
Speaking purely on consoles/dedicated hardware.
Not sure why numbers need context. They're numbers.
All I was saying was that the YTD gap last year was 450K+. And the gap for this year will likely be wider.
Splatoon isn't exactly related to current market activity. It sells fine, but the WiiU went back to ~10k a week for quite a while after it was released.
Wii U sold terribly, this is no longer news. The fact that Splatoon basically reversed fate a bit for the system in the second half of the year is noteworthy.
People who think the PS4 is doing noticeably better are laughable. The console market has been shrinking and is continuing to shrink for various reasons including the declining birth population in Japan meaning not as many kids needing systems and you combine that with the fact that handhelds and mobile devices offer almost everything they could want, it's writing on the wall.
PS4 will eventually pass Wii U, if only because Nintendo is killing it this year and PS4 has 3 years left at least. But I don't see PS4 at more than 6 million LTD at the end.
People who think the PS4 is doing noticeably better are laughable. The console market has been shrinking and is continuing to shrink for various reasons including the declining birth population in Japan meaning not as many kids needing systems and you combine that with the fact that handhelds and mobile devices offer almost everything they could want, it's writing on the wall.
PS4 will eventually pass Wii U, if only because Nintendo is killing it this year and PS4 has 3 years left at least. But I don't see PS4 at more than 6 million LTD at the end.
RayearthRob
Member
And that's why you should post japan numbers only in mediacreate thread.
People don't understand the japanese market.
People don't understand the japanese market.
let's be serious though, the thing has sold like crap, the marketing has been awful. While they're making quality games i find it odd that not enough people care to buy them. They went from 100 million Wii's to 10 million Wii U's. What happened? was it 3rd party support being non existent? Was it the controller, the console being underpowered? i'm genuinely lost as to what went wrong with them this cycle.
I went and re-read, and my apologies. I thought it was a part of something else that Crhis was talking about with the gap breakdown before/after Splatoon, which was why I was trying to re-add the context.
It turned out Splatoon and SMM were the actual heavy hitters while SSB and to a lesser extend MK8 were hurt by the fact they were alternatives on the handheld space. I'm still amazed that Nintendo doesn't do an actual Bundle with Splatoon + another game at comparable price to what they are giving in the US/EU or announce more DLC beyond January.
Poimandres
Member
It's actually marketted pretty well in Japan from what I've gathered.
Why was it a failure?
- Didn't really have a target market (controller is off-putting for casuals, not powerful/appealing enough for "core" gamers)
- Lack of 3rd party support
- Poor marketing in most places
- Slow start getting appealing games out
- High price for what it provides
- Too little too late in terms of power
It's basically a case study of how to totally fumble in every aspect.
No worries. Thanks for clarifying - I felt like I was losing my mind for a second there.
Simbabbad
Member
It'd look way better if he used local numbers since Wii U is the #1 current gen home console in Japan, outselling PS4. Which should be an information posted in the OP. In reality, as said by others, Vita, PS4 and Wii U have comparable numbers if you align launch.
It's sort of strange to read the "OMG it bombed" posts given those informations.
Poimandres
Member
Not really, since PS4 is selling better launch aligned. Not much better, but still.
People sometimes conveniently forget the Wii U launched a year earlier. At the end of a generation a years head start isn't a big deal, but when you're talking 3 years vs 2 years it's not a fair compariosn.
It doesn't really matter when it's still selling as poorly as it is...the difference if the ps4 comes out ahead will be tiny.
It didn't appeal to the people who knew about it, and the people it would have appealed to didn't know about it.
Anyway, aside from the colossal failure of the Wii U, I think one needs a little perspective... ie, Wii U + 3DS vs PS4 + Vita, who's making more money, etc. (Nobody has much to celebrate compared with Apple.)