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Wii U sales compared to PS2, 360, PS3, & Wii - Not doomed

After going through the Wii U Launch Sales Age - What went wrong? and the NPD December 2012 Sales Results threads, it seems a lot of posters on here are proclaiming that the Wii U is selling poorly and that the console is doomed. One of the reasons stated is that the Xbox 360 is selling so much better, again proving that the Wii U is not in demand (primarily due to the lack of a real next-gen HW). So I decided to look up the sales data for the 360, PS3, and Wii for the first 6 months of it's life. I also looked up data for the PS2 to compare to the launches of the "next gen consoles" as well.

The Wii U surprisingly is not doomed! Despite the hyperbole shown on the forum, the Wii U is selling quite well and is doing better than the Xbox 360 and PS3 were doing at the same point in it's consoles history. It also shows that the PS2 was outselling the Xbox 360 month to month consistently.

So what do I expect this to change? Absolutely nothing! Those with an agenda will continue to predict the doom of Nintendo as they always have over the decades, despite how well the system sells. I just wanted to at least at some facts to the discussion instead of the usual rhetoric.

Nov 2005
PS2 – 546,000
Xbox 360 – 326,000

Dec 2005
PS2 – 1,463,000 (up 48% compared to Dec 2004. Points back to GAF, link broken)
Xbox 360 – 281,000

Jan 2006
PS2 – 317,000 (Down 45% compared to Jan 2005 at 488,000)
Xbox 360 – 231,000 (50k fewer consoles in Jan than in Dec)

Feb 2006
PS2 – 300,000
Xbox 360 – 160,000

Mar 2006 (couldn't find any concrete data)
PS2
Xbox 360

Apr 2006
PS2 – 207,000
Xbox 360 – 295,000

Nov 2006
PS2 – 664,000
Xbox 360 – 511,000
PS3 – 197,000
Wii – 476,000

Dec 2006
PS2 – 1,400,000
Xbox 360 – 1,100,000
PS3 – 490,000
Wii – 604,000

Jan 2007
PS2 – 299,000
Xbox 360 – 294,000
PS3 – 243,000
Wii – 435,000

Feb 2007
PS2 – 295,000
Xbox 360 – 228,000
PS3 – 127,000
Wii – 335,000

Mar 2007
PS2 – 280,000
Xbox 360 – 199,000
PS3 – 130,000
Wii – 259,000

Apr 2007
PS2 – 194,000
Xbox 360 – 174,000
PS3 – 82,000
Wii – 360,000
 
Highlights how horrible the PS3 launch was. Its hilarious to see how far it came.

Everyone was expecting the PS line to go from PS2 to Saturn in one console generation.

The Xbox 360/PS2 had serious supply problems until the second motherboard or model. Wii also but not nearly as bad.
 

VanWinkle

Member
Didn't the other consoles have major shortages at retail? Wii U was on shelves everywhere.

That being said, the whole "doomed" thing is stupid.
 
It doesn't really matter if the WiiU can potentially go on to sell billions or not if third party publishers have decided it won't and stop supporting it.

It becomes a self fulfilling prophesy.
 

Interfectum

Member
Funny how there is no mention of 360 supply constraints or the fact that the Wii was sold out in stores for like a year.

Some of you seem to be trying way to hard to convince yourselves the Wii U is doing fine. It's not and that realization is going to be harder to swallow the longer you put it off.
 

quest

Not Banned from OT
Can't really use those comparisions. The WII was very supply contrained for a long time. The Wii could of done 2-3 million its first holiday season if they had supply. Do we forget those 500 dollar bundles selling out the first holiday season. I did not see a Wii on the shelf of a store until I think may following its launch. The PS3 was twice the cost of the Wii and well it only took sony 4 years to turn things around. The xbox it was not till word of mouth about live and achievements caught on with people did it really start to go. The Wii U does not have those kind of features that might catch on to save it. As I said before the Wii U is in no mans land. Not powerfull enough and have features to attract the core gamers or madden/cod crowd. Why pay more for those games with a much worse online system than the PS3/360. The casuals did not fall in love with the tablet controller. So the casual gamers on not on board. It is in a similar spot the gamecube was in. The core gamers either went for the huge PS2 third party support or xbox with its online live system. The casuals thought the system was to "kiddy" because it looked like a toy their 3 year old would have. In both cases it leaves nintendo with the hardcore nintendo fans who love their first party titles.
 
I think it won't hit 200k in January. The problem is not the current overall sales, but how December sales suggest that word of mouth just isn't happening or is bad.

i think it'll struggle doing 150k in january.

Eh... I don't think it will be that much of a disaster, 160-170 is my prediction
 
Im not sure you're taking supply into account. The 360 was incredibly hard to find when it came out, in fact even going into March I had a hard time getting one. Not sure about the PS3. The WiU on the other hand has been readily available.
 

Kosma

Banned
360 ps3 and wii were really supply constrained too. Especially wii.

Unless we compare the qualitative differences between launches this isn't very helpful.

Or the prices the systems launched at compared to the competition.

Ps3 outsold wiiu in december 2006 at 599 dollars. Thats how strong brands can be.
 

Nibel

Member
So you're saying Nintendo is not doomed?

iDS4MN4zWW1Ty.gif
 

HeySeuss

Member
I was thinking about making this topic too but I was too lazy to pull the numbers. People shouldn't compare it to the Wii because that was something that will never be repeated in terms of right place right time. Comparing it to PS360 sales is more realistic and when you do its tracking on par with those consoles.
 

netBuff

Member
If Nintendo thinks they are doomed they will drop the price and make people ambassadors

So keep this thread on the hush hush

Price has been dropping for some time now at multiple European retailers.

And let's not forget what the OP is hinging his argument on are solely US NPD numbers.
 
Also can i just say that there is a difference between underperforming and doomed? Most people who would argue there is underperformance happening is not saying Wii U is dead.
 

Acosta

Member
Wii U is not doomed, the sales are not good, neither are terrible. There is a good chance they will be pretty terrible at some point of this year given the catalogue.

That's as far as the story goes.
 

syko de4d

Member
Nintendos goal are 5,5mio until the end of march. Right now it looks more like 4mio. So it looks not really good right now.
 
I always think that the idea of adding "doomed" to the discussion poisons the well. One doesn't need to conclude that the Wii U is doomed to conclude that the launch is below expectations and thus not doing well. And the numbers don't tell the complete story. But let's look at the numbers.

Traditionally -- barring supply shortages, the conventional wisdom is that December will be 1.5 - 2x November. So how did the Wii U do?

November (when there was some suggestion of limited supply do to launch frenzy): 425,000.
December (with stock readily available): 460,000.

So, a 1.08 increase. Now, let's compare to other consoles not supply constrained. How did the PS3 do in its December? 490,000. And the PS3 isn't regarded as a good launch.

So, is it doomed? Maybe not, this is just the launch after all. But I can't fathom how you can argue that the situation looks good as it stands.
 

flippedb

Banned
Obviously the Wii U is not doomed yet, but it's also foolish to ignore all (valid) concerns. We'll probably know more after the upcoming months, but even then it's hard to predict the future. We've been often wrong in the past, we'll be wrong in the future.

I don't know if those are really valid concerns, new consoles seem to be struggling lately, although I don't know if 3DS and Vita would be valid examples. What is a reality is that the market is shrinking thanks to a bad global economy, so sales won't be as good as in 2005/2006.
 

Zero148

Member
Of course WiiU is doomed, you know there are only bad games on the system (exception of course GAF love Rayman, but Murphy turns it so shit) and also it is a fact, that there are no games in development outside of Bayonetta 2 for after the summer. Espect the console to be discontinued a year from now...

You know, it is on shelfs, it should sell at least 2 million in december.


in all seriousness, the WiiU sales worldwide are far from great, but imo the system should be somewhere between 2 and 3 million sold. Nintedo should miss their forecast about 20%, but it is also no total bomb like some on neogaf are saying. It is simply a normal console launch, not good but not bad. And Nintendo made terrible marketing for the console.
 

~ZIO~

Neo Member
Folks have been spouting on about Nintendo's doom since the SNES days when it didn't meet their "needs." just look to the Usenet thread for proof of that.

It's been said for so long, now, that I'm sure everyone who is saying as such is saying it to be funny and ironic. Because who is going to be serious after saying such for twenty some odd years, now?
 

quest

Not Banned from OT
I was thinking about making this topic too but I was too lazy to pull the numbers. People shouldn't compare it to the Wii because that was something that will never be repeated in terms of right place right time. Comparing it to PS360 sales is more realistic and when you do its tracking on par with those consoles.

How about comparing it to the gamecube? Which sold much more in its first holiday season vs the biggest Juggernaut of all time in the PS2.
 

Cronq

Banned
Xbox 360 had shortages...

Because all the machines RROD'd and had to be replaced from current inventory.
 

Tookay

Member
Also can i just say that there is a difference between underperforming and doomed? Most people who would argue there is underperformance happening is not saying Wii U is dead.

No, you can't say that!

In the ridiculous land of strawmen that the OP lives in, people who acknowledge the high probability that the Wii U will miss Nintendo's own financial forecasts are essentially saying it's doomed. That's the only way to interpret it.

OP, this doesn't have to be a binary awesome/failure scale here. There are degrees.
 
I'd agree with the point that the Wii U launch is very similar to that of the PS3's in terms of how much it sold compared to peoples expectations, but I'm not sure exactly how that's supposed to be a good thing...
 
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