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[DSXBoy]

Not even a price drop will get me to buy a Wii U.

I Bought the Wii U after a price drop from £299 to £199. In The last 6 months I have used the Wii Console often but the Wii U very rarely. I have now sold WII U at a big loss, I have abandoned a sinking ship.!!!

Wii U is a Mistake and Nintendo need to kill it ASAP: The negatives are;

1. The Gamepad controller is confusing & unsuitable to instant gaming.
2. No built in hard drive
3. Console styling is anonymous (Wii console looks far better)
4. No Games
5. Nintendo lost Momentum by abandoning Wii Console at least 2 years before Wii U Launch
6. Nintendo also abandoned what made Wii Successful - instant gaming appeal with Wii Sports/Wii Remote

Nintendo need to go back to their original Wii Concept and launch a Wii 2 HD console /Wii Remote & with Wii Sports HD online. There is still a big market for Wii in the West, If Nintendo focused on what non Nintendo fans want.

 

[AniHawk]

I Bought the Wii U after a price drop from £299 to £199. In The last 6 months I have used the Wii Console often but the Wii U very rarely. I have now sold WII U at a big loss, I have abandoned a sinking ship.!!!

Wii U is a Mistake and Nintendo need to kill it ASAP: The negatives are;

1. The Gamepad controller is confusing & unsuitable to instant gaming.
2. No built in hard drive
3. Console styling is anonymous (Wii console looks far better)
4. No Games
5. Nintendo lost Momentum by abandoning Wii Console at least 2 years before Wii U Launch
6. Nintendo also abandoned what made Wii Successful - instant gaming appeal with Wii Sports/Wii Remote

Nintendo need to go back to their original Wii Concept and launch a Wii 2 HD console /Wii Remote & with Wii Sports HD online. There is still a big market for Wii in the West, If Nintendo focused on what non Nintendo fans want.

nintendo lacked a strong presence in the console market for about 2 years. what do you think would happen to them if they killed a system that was barely a year old, only to regroup for another console about 2 years from now? think of the money they'd have to spend on r&d, with the 3ds propping it up, with games currently in development being postponed for years.

i agree that nintendo lost sight of what made the wii popular, and the gamepad seems like it was a sort of panicked compromise between making something appealing to the mainstream and allowing them to make similar games company-wide (instead of having touch-centric and motion-centric games depending on the system). right now, they've made their bed, and they'll have to lie in it. probably the earliest they can bring out a successor is 2016.

 

[AzaK]

Numbers dont lie. If these are the numbers Wii U are putting out when PS4/Xbone aren't yet.. What happens this fall when they are finally released?

By then there will be DK, Zelda and and Mario so it might stay flat.

 

[shinra-bansho]

By then there will be DK, Zelda and and Mario so it might stay flat.

I'm surprised how much sales weight people are putting on Wind Waker HD, which is one of the lesser selling titles in the Zelda franchise iirc. Did Ocarina of Time 3D provide a substantial boon to the 3DS during its early troubles?

While with Donkey Kong, the arguments that people put forward with regard to the inability of New Super Mario Bros U, to attract a wider audience than the most ardent of Nintendo's fanbase, often involve some sort of consumer fatigue towards the aesthetics and proximity of releases.

So with regard to Donkey Kong, wouldn't the same apply with regard to both aesthetics and release proximity (with Donkey Kong Country Returns 3DS). Furthermore, it's not like the major Nintendo title on the platform already isn't aimed at audiences for colorful platformers. Even with Mario 3D World, the same could apply with aesthetics if not release proximity to Mario 3D Land.

 

[AniHawk]

By then there will be DK, Zelda and and Mario so it might stay flat.

everything competes against everything for sales monies. yeah, that's true. on the other hand, the market nintendo's shooting for is wildly different from the one microsoft and sony are shooting for. well, microsoft really seems to want to make kinect the wii remote of this generation, so they do have a lot more accessible games than sony (they have knack). both companies are mainly going for the male 18-34 m-rated guy gamer. they're also trying to coax that demographic into becoming totally locked on through games where there's a huge online world. there are tons of games announced to do this, and they're all behind paywalls. nintendo isn't doing this. i'm sure they would like the added revenue stream, but they are aiming for kids and families almost exclusively. i think platinum's games, x, and smt x fe are the only ones to buck the trend right now.

the m-rated games that traditionally appear with online multiplayer will not be found on the wii u after this year. third parties aren't going to find that success. nintendo is not fostering that environment. however, nintendo is building a userbase for kid-friendly and local multiplayer games. next year you still might see skylanders, sonic (whatever that third game is... i'm guessing another racing title), lego, scribblenauts, and disney's games. it's already happening. lego city undercover is the second-best selling wii u game in the us, epic mickey 2 and sonic all-star racing performed better on the wii u than the ps360 versions, scribblenauts is one of the best-selling games on the machine as well. nintendo helped foster that environment with mario and nintendo land. it will continue when they release other games this audience likes, and the audience will grow the more games they like are made available at a price they can afford. like the 3ds, the wii u runs antithetical to nintendo's philosophy of affordable hardware families can afford. i think the games can build a good audience that's being almost completely ignored, but the price will need to be right too.

 

[AniHawk]

I'm surprised how much sales weight people are putting on Wind Waker HD, which is one of the lesser selling titles in the Zelda franchise iirc. Did Ocarina of Time 3D provide a substantial boon to the 3DS during its early troubles?

hard to say what is a lone contributing factor to sales, but in may 2011, 3ds sales were 97k in a four week month. in june 2011 (when oot3d came out), it did 143k. weekly sales rose by about 4k, and it held steady through july. oot3d sold about 280k on userbase of about 823k.

in march 2003, the wind waker sold 826k on a userbase of about 3.83m. sales were flat from february to the slower 5-week march, while all other hardware aside from the gba, which had the sp model released that month, dropped. the game sunk the next month down to 158k, but had legs throughout the gamecube's life- eventually reaching 2.5m in the us.

While with Donkey Kong, the arguments that people put forward with regard to the inability of New Super Mario Bros U, to attract a wider audience than the most ardent of Nintendo's fanbase, often involve some sort of consumer fatigue towards the aesthetics and proximity of releases.

given the sales of new super mario bros. u, i think it's pretty much the only thing driving wii u sales. the attach ratio is huge, but nsmbu was never going to move millions of consoles on its own.

 

[Square2015]

Why does this make it look like NFL Quarterback Club and WCW vs NWO saved the N64? :lol
What happened that second holiday season?

They were the no. 2 sellers, they sold big that's why they're included.

Why did n64 spike so much that x'mas? that deserves a lot of discussion and analysis bc it was likely NoA's biggest christmas of the 90s (the n64's best performance and probably better than SNES).
Diddy kong racing was hyped like crazy, remember the promo videos NoA sent us?
Someone on here just mentioned it could be due to the heavy shortages after launch, leading to a double whammy rebound the following christmas. n64 also maintained its popularity throughout the year, something the GC struggled too.
And the overall market exploded that fall (partly thanks to FFVII and Sony pushing their console so goddamn hard that fall to get ahead of n64 (but that's another topic) as we stopped playing our PC games and came back to rejoin the new generation.

 

[darkistheway]

everything competes against everything for sales monies. yeah, that's true. on the other hand, the market nintendo's shooting for is wildly different from the one microsoft and sony are shooting for. well, microsoft really seems to want to make kinect the wii remote of this generation, so they do have a lot more accessible games than sony (they have knack). both companies are mainly going for the male 18-34 m-rated guy gamer. they're also trying to coax that demographic into becoming totally locked on through games where there's a huge online world. there are tons of games announced to do this, and they're all behind paywalls. nintendo isn't doing this. i'm sure they would like the added revenue stream, but they are aiming for kids and families almost exclusively. i think platinum's games, x, and smt x fe are the only ones to buck the trend right now.

the m-rated games that traditionally appear with online multiplayer will not be found on the wii u after this year. third parties aren't going to find that success. nintendo is not fostering that environment. however, nintendo is building a userbase for kid-friendly and local multiplayer games. next year you still might see skylanders, sonic (whatever that third game is... i'm guessing another racing title), lego, scribblenauts, and disney's games. it's already happening. lego city undercover is the second-best selling wii u game in the us, epic mickey 2 and sonic all-star racing performed better on the wii u than the ps360 versions, scribblenauts is one of the best-selling games on the machine as well. nintendo helped foster that environment with mario and nintendo land. it will continue when they release other games this audience likes, and the audience will grow the more games they like are made available at a price they can afford. like the 3ds, the wii u runs antithetical to nintendo's philosophy of affordable hardware families can afford. i think the games can build a good audience that's being almost completely ignored, but the price will need to be right too.

Nice post. I think that given the upcoming software line-up and the necessary price drop (whether by actual price drop or by increasing the value of the bundle (Sony's tactic)) there is no real reason why Nintendo can't have a great third quarter. It is not going to 'save' the Wii U but if they can keep increasing the install base of their intended audience, it provides incentive for Ubisoft and Activision to stick around.

Nintendo provides them a good match for the Just Dance and Skylander type franchises. I suspect that if those titles manage to get decent attach rates to the Wii U then they will both continue to support the console with other titles like COD and AC. They may just be able to squeak through this generation and try again in 2016.

It would certainly be very interesting if the Wii U sold well during the Christmas months and then died away again only to come back again the next Christmas. But that is what toy companies are used to

 

[michaelius]

Nice post. I think that given the upcoming software line-up and the necessary price drop (whether by actual price drop or by increasing the value of the bundle (Sony's tactic)) there is no real reason why Nintendo can't have a great third quarter. It is not going to 'save' the Wii U but if they can keep increasing the install base of their intended audience, it provides incentive for Ubisoft and Activision to stick around.

Nintendo provides them a good match for the Just Dance and Skylander type franchises. I suspect that if those titles manage to get decent attach rates to the Wii U then they will both continue to support the console with other titles like COD and AC. They may just be able to squeak through this generation and try again in 2016.

It would certainly be very interesting if the Wii U sold well during the Christmas months and then died away again only to come back again the next Christmas. But that is what toy companies are used to

Considering Wii U will have to compete for kiddy market against 3DS+Pokemon combo, as well as Kinect duo of x360 and XO and on the gamer front they are squished beetween cheaper current gens and higher end of super hyped next gens i don't see any Christmas super boost to sales happening.

 

[televator]

Shipped and not sold... and the US is lower than Japanese sales... Holly Satan! It's selling less than GC. This is actually worse than I imagined.

Holy shit. Forgive me for kinda being off-topic but i never knew Dreamcast officially dropped to $49

And here's the kicker: It had a $50 rebate!

 

[marc^o^]

Shipped and not sold...

It sold more than it shipped. How can this be? Nintendo overshipped last quarter.

 

[DJwest]

Shipped and not sold... and the US is lower than Japanese sales... Holly Satan! It's selling less than GC. This is actually worse than I imagined.

And here's the kicker: It had a $50 rebate!

Yeah, I knew the console was not doing well but this is horrible.

 

[AniHawk]

Yeah, I knew the console was not doing well but this is horrible.

that was 12 months after their announcement to go third-party. it was just clearing stock.

 

[darkistheway]

Considering Wii U will have to compete for kiddy market against 3DS+Pokemon combo, as well as Kinect duo of x360 and XO and on the gamer front they are squished beetween cheaper current gens and higher end of super hyped next gens i don't see any Christmas super boost to sales happening.

Kinect? What Kinect games are coming this Christmas that have the brand strength of Nintendo IPs?

The 'gamer front' is exactly the audience I am not talking about. No one in their right mind thinks that the Wii U is going to magically start selling hotcakes to people who are excited about Assasin's Creed 4 and Call of Duty:Ghosts or people who have preordered Xbox One.

However, Nintendo does have appeal with families and young children and they have a decent number of titles coming in the fall that will move consoles. I didn't say anything about a superboost but I don't think it is crazy to think that the Wii U could move a couple million consoles between now and December 31. Especially if they drop the price and launch an actual marketing campaign.

 

[Log4Girlz]

I wonder if they'll learn the right lessons from this.

If I were them, I would scramble everyone onto Mario Kart to get that going by this holiday.

 

[royalan]

I wonder if they'll learn the right lessons from this.

If I were them, I would scramble everyone onto Mario Kart to get that going by this holiday.

...that wouldn't be learning the right lessons from this.

 

[@____@]

I wonder if they'll learn the right lessons from this.

If I were them, I would scramble everyone onto Mario Kart to get that going by this holiday.

What lesson? They haven't released their big hitters like Mario Kart and Mario 3D World. When those arrive you're going to see some fireworks.

 

[Tuck]

I wonder if they'll learn the right lessons from this.

If I were them, I would scramble everyone onto Mario Kart to get that going by this holiday.

They learned nothing from the 3DS launch. Why would they learn anything from this?

 

[kurbaan]

What lesson? They haven't released their big hitters like Mario Kart and Mario 3D World. When those arrive you're going to see some fireworks.

They will make a bump but I'm starting to think they will not bring the WII U back. The general public doesn't even know or care about the WII U forget about paying 300-350 for it to play Mario.

 

[shinra-bansho]

hard to say what is a lone contributing factor to sales, but in may 2011, 3ds sales were 97k in a four week month. in june 2011 (when oot3d came out), it did 143k. weekly sales rose by about 4k, and it held steady through july. oot3d sold about 280k on userbase of about 823k.

in march 2003, the wind waker sold 826k on a userbase of about 3.83m. sales were flat from february to the slower 5-week march, while all other hardware aside from the gba, which had the sp model released that month, dropped. the game sunk the next month down to 158k, but had legs throughout the gamecube's life- eventually reaching 2.5m in the us.

given the sales of new super mario bros. u, i think it's pretty much the only thing driving wii u sales. the attach ratio is huge, but nsmbu was never going to move millions of consoles on its own.

I think there's typically a small boost in the May -> June transition in addition to the 5 week month? But that's a larger than normal boost, so presumably it had some small effect. With Wind Waker original - do you mean flat on a weekly rate basis or flat overall - it would probably still indicate some effect as just from memory a lot of the time despite the 5 week March, February is a better month.

Regarding NSMBU, in retrospect, that's the common line. The game was clearly something people bought on the Wii, not something people bought the Wii for - something I personally thought prior to the system's release. But that then begs the query: why does one expect Donkey Kong, for example, to be able to attract many more users.

I understand the idea that more titles will create a more worthwhile value proposition, but at the same time, to an extent, I think the people who would buy the system for Donkey Kong are already buying the system for NSMBU.

As for your other comment, in terms of being a family console - I wholly agree that's where they need to go. They won't be competing for the same market as the PS4 and XB1 this holiday (although the latter two will definitely suck away the mindshare oxygen).

But it's not really smooth sailing there either. The 360 with Kinect has taken a large chunk of the Just Dance audience, it is a viable HD alternative for family shoppers as the Wii continues to wane (36% of fitness software in 2012, 20% of Just Dance 4 sales). While Sony is trying to create more appeal in the budget/family market with things like Wonderbook presumably. Both are available much cheaper, and will likely hit lower mass market prices some time this year.

 

[AniHawk]

I think there's typically a small boost in the May -> June transition in addition to the 5 week month? But that's a larger than normal boost, so presumably it had some small effect. With Wind Waker original - do you mean flat on a weekly rate basis or flat overall - it would probably still indicate some effect as just from memory a lot of the time despite the 5 week March, February is a better month.

tww was flat month-to-month. and yeah, while march is a longer month, sales are better in february. i don't see any other contributing factor to keeping the gamecube's sales from declining from february to march, when that was the case for the ps2 and xbox. i forgot that the gba sp launch also coincided with pokemon ruby/sapphire. i forgot it took the gba about two years before it received a pokemon.

Regarding NSMBU, in retrospect, that's the common line. The game was clearly something people bought on the Wii, not something people bought the Wii for - something I personally thought prior to the system's release. But that then begs the query: why does one expect Donkey Kong, for example, to be able to attract many more users.

I understand the idea that more titles will create a more worthwhile value proposition, but at the same time, to an extent, I think the people who would buy the system for Donkey Kong are already buying the system for NSMBU.

i don't think donkey kong is that game that brings a whole lot more than the existing nsmbu fanbase, and i'm surprised nintendo's positioning it as their big november game instead of another, but different, multiplayer mario.

But it's not really smooth sailing there either. The 360 with Kinect has taken a large chunk of the Just Dance audience, it is a viable HD alternative for family shoppers as the Wii continues to wane (36% of fitness software in 2012, 20% of Just Dance 4 sales). While Sony is trying to create more appeal in the budget/family market with things like Wonderbook presumably. Both are available much cheaper, and will likely hit lower mass market prices some time this year.

the weird thing with the ps3 is that it could totally hit that market nintendo's aiming for. they have all sorts of platformer collections, with puppeteer and r&c into the nexus coming out at budget prices, but they just have never been able to seal the deal. i don't know if it's confused marketing, or a design philosophy that finds itself at odds with that audience, but they've never been able to successfully snatch that fanbase.

at this point, both the 360 and ps3 could have used a price drop for years and i wonder if they'll just try to milk one more holiday where they can profit off whatever fanbase is in the market for a $250-$300 ps3/360 to help offset their new consoles, and then drop the price in february or march. the second revisions of both consoles should have been the time to do it, but they just kept adding more shit people didn't really care about instead.

 

[shinra-bansho]

the weird thing with the ps3 is that it could totally hit that market nintendo's aiming for. they have all sorts of platformer collections, with puppeteer and r&c into the nexus coming out at budget prices, but they just have never been able to seal the deal. i don't know if it's confused marketing, or a design philosophy that finds itself at odds with that audience, but they've never been able to successfully snatch that fanbase.

at this point, both the 360 and ps3 could have used a price drop for years and i wonder if they'll just try to milk one more holiday where they can profit off whatever fanbase is in the market for a $250-$300 ps3/360 to help offset their new consoles, and then drop the price in february or march. the second revisions of both consoles should have been the time to do it, but they just kept adding more shit people didn't really care about instead.

I think it is just fundamentally positioned in such a way that it isn't as appealing to family markets. While ostensibly the PS3 is designed "for everyone" it's still very much a system that has appeal largely with males aged 15-35 in its core philosophy. Things like Wonder Book and Move and SingStar and EyeToy have always been secondary concerns.

It's probably the box the father of the house buys for himself, that the family still uses as a general entertainment centre. Or the mother of the house buys for her teenaged children. It's not really the device that a parent buys to engage the family together I imagine.

This is largely in reference to SCEA though, I think SCEE does a better job in general of positioning the products towards children and families; Invizimals for instance is surprisingly successful in the EU market iirc. And SingStar etc. have probably generally done a lot better in PAL territories.

 

[Bulzeeb]

Have you seen this image? Definitely reinforces your point.

well I agree with most but WW is a bit of a strech and there there are no similarities betwen Luigi's Mansion and NSLU besides playing as Luigi

 

[Log4Girlz]

If Nintendo has a $5 billion dollar warchest, then they'll need to spend on western development studios. Build them from the ground up, and have them work on unique IP's. Leave Donkey Kong to another team. Take the approach Disney did when they created Touchstone and Buena Vista.