Wii-U thoughts so far

[MrPopo]

The Vita might be able to pull better numbers if it gets a killer app in Japan like the PSP had. If you look at the sales figures for the PSP by region you see that a disproportionate number of sales came from Japan.

[emwearz]

Outside of an exclusive remake of FF7, I don't see Sony putting anything 'killer' enough to save it. Again a shame as I love my Vita and it feels like such a waste of potential.

[dsheinem]

The Vita might be able to pull better numbers if it gets a killer app in Japan like the PSP had. If you look at the sales figures for the PSP by region you see that a disproportionate number of sales came from Japan.

Oh I agree, I just don't know that it's worth banking on that. I also think the PSP was sold for longer than the DS after each successor came out, so Sony's ultimate share of that gen's market also reflects a longer "tail" if I am not mistaken.

[Lazer]

So the Wii U is dead last of all Nintendo consoles, including handhelds. Moving up from there, it's Gamecube, N64, SNES, NES. Except for the anomaly of the Wii, Nintendo non-handhelds have been steadily declining in global sales since the beginning.

Based on that list, the Wii U slow sales makes sense.

Also: daammmnnnn PS2 with 158 million units That puts the 6.4 million in perspective.

[RCBH928]

I'm sure this has been discussed here in detail, but if not: can someone give me some perspective on Wii U sales? Specifically, why is it considered "failing" by some? My guess is that it is selling at a slower rate than previous Nintendo consoles, and selling at a slower rate than the PS4 and Xbone (I don't know if this is true or not). I want to see some actual number comparisons. Hasn't it sold close to 7 million units? That seems like a big number to me... but I lack perspective.

The 7m is scary because in comparison the Gamecube reached 20m or so and everyone was upset and felt this is too low for Nintendo to be competing with Sony. The Dreamcast has been on the market for 2 years and sold about 10m. Wii U has been out for 1.5 years and sold 7m. Also, Saturn considered a flop and upsetting system(both sales wise) that Sega pulled the plug on it and released Dreamcast, sold 10m units. Now you know why the 7m number is scary

Assuming it is "failing", what are the chances that it will become a "success"?

I can't comment on this, but other forum members have discussed this before saying some consoles had a very slow launch but then picked up very quickly and IIRC PS3, PS2 and 3DS were given as examples.

[Ziggy]

Ugh... you guys! I keep biting my tongue, but...

I think I've tried to argue this before but know one cares, or something, but the number of consoles sold is almost meaningless to us. Unless you wanna directly compare how many of one console sold compared to another (PS4 to Wii U to Xbone) to discuss the competition between them, it's pointless.

The Sega Saturn and Dreamcast were failures not because of the number of consoles sold. It's all the shit that added up that caused low console sales. It's not the simple fact of low sales that made the systems failures, there's more details that add up to a bigger picture.

The Saturn was a horribly designed console. Apparently 3D was an after thought and tacked in after the console was already being designed. I mean, they had to add a second CPU. That horrible hardware design made the console hard to program for. And expensive. Those are not good combinations. Also, Sega made some bad choices started even before the Saturn launch. Mostly, the 32X. So some faith in the company was gone. All these things, and I'm sure other things, lead to low support. Low sales. And yeah, Sega decided to pull the plug pretty early on it. They didn't even put out a proper Sonic game for the Saturn...

The Dreamcast, well, if you don't know then Google it. Easily pirated games, no DVD support, out shined by the PS2. Third party support dropped to pretty much nothing once the PS2 came around. I think it hit Sega unexpectedly because apparently they some how ended up with a warehouse full of unsold Dreamcast consoles.

Low Wii U sales doesn't mean shit. Is the console being sold at a loss, or a profit? And what about first party support. Look at that, the U has more first party games in it's short life than most consoles. Yes, the Dreamcast had a ton of first party games, but they don't compare. Making a Mario game is like printing money for Nintendo. Same with Zelda. Don't overlook this point. Nintendo isn't just profiting on each console sold, they're profiting on first party game sales. And let's face, unfortunately the U has not so great third party support. So you're really buying a U for first party Nintendo games. I mean, look at dsh. He bought a U for Mario Kart. Shit, he even bought the game twice.

Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that you can't call something a failure simply by the quantities sold. There's many other things that determine it. Having many, many unsold Dreamcasts in a warehouse, I'd call that a failure. The Wii U, well, let's just wait and see.

PS: I typed this early in the morning and I'm not gonna proof read it cause I gotta get going to work. Please, please, forgive me if there's any grammatical errors or typos.

[BogusMeatFactory]

Ugh... you guys! I keep biting my tongue, but...

I think I've tried to argue this before but know one cares, or something, but the number of consoles sold is almost meaningless to us. Unless you wanna directly compare how many of one console sold compared to another (PS4 to Wii U to Xbone) to discuss the competition between them, it's pointless.

The Sega Saturn and Dreamcast were failures not because of the number of consoles sold. It's all the shit that added up that caused low console sales. It's not the simple fact of low sales that made the systems failures, there's more details that add up to a bigger picture.

The Saturn was a horribly designed console. Apparently 3D was an after thought and tacked in after the console was already being designed. I mean, they had to add a second CPU. That horrible hardware design made the console hard to program for. And expensive. Those are not good combinations. Also, Sega made some bad choices started even before the Saturn launch. Mostly, the 32X. So some faith in the company was gone. All these things, and I'm sure other things, lead to low support. Low sales. And yeah, Sega decided to pull the plug pretty early on it. They didn't even put out a proper Sonic game for the Saturn...

The Dreamcast, well, if you don't know then Google it. Easily pirated games, no DVD support, out shined by the PS2. Third party support dropped to pretty much nothing once the PS2 came around. I think it hit Sega unexpectedly because apparently they some how ended up with a warehouse full of unsold Dreamcast consoles.

Low Wii U sales doesn't mean shit. Is the console being sold at a loss, or a profit? And what about first party support. Look at that, the U has more first party games in it's short life than most consoles. Yes, the Dreamcast had a ton of first party games, but they don't compare. Making a Mario game is like printing money for Nintendo. Same with Zelda. Don't overlook this point. Nintendo isn't just profiting on each console sold, they're profiting on first party game sales. And let's face, unfortunately the U has not so great third party support. So you're really buying a U for first party Nintendo games. I mean, look at dsh. He bought a U for Mario Kart. Shit, he even bought the game twice.

Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that you can't call something a failure simply by the quantities sold. There's many other things that determine it. Having many, many unsold Dreamcasts in a warehouse, I'd call that a failure. The Wii U, well, let's just wait and see.

PS: I typed this early in the morning and I'm not gonna proof read it cause I gotta get going to work. Please, please, forgive me if there's any grammatical errors or typos.

Thank you for bringing this up. A lot of times people get caught up in the bare sales numbers without looking at the bigger picture. Being at Best Buy to try and play Smash Bros. showed to me that the system isn't a complete failure. Sure you can make the claim that it isn't the most successful system, but when you come off the high of the Wii, how can you? when I went to Best Buy last year to play the E3 games like Mario Kart 8, Wind Waker HD and Super Mario 3D World, there were a handful of people. This year, for Smash Bros. was a riot of people. Getting there a half hour early to find out that you have a 3 hour wait is insane. There were far over a hundred people waiting in my store alone, a large majority of them non-Wii U owners (according to the hand raising and the cheers). This says something, people still love Nintendo.

People still want Nintendo products and Nintendo hardware, they are just very picky about why they get it.

[Exhuminator]

Q10: The business has produced losses for 3 fiscal years in a row. I want to ask about management responsibility, but is there any outlook for this term 3 months in?

A11: Efforts are being made in the expansion of 3DS titles, the utilization of the Wii U GamePad, the sales of strong titles, the amendment of income and expenditure balance, and cost reduction.

http://www.dualshockers.com/2014/06/26/ ... l-meeting/

Investors are starting to get antsy, but Iwata got reelected as president again all the same, as did all the usual directors.

[Lazer]

The Sega Saturn and Dreamcast were failures not because of the number of consoles sold. It's all the shit that added up that caused low console sales. It's not the simple fact of low sales that made the systems failures, there's more details that add up to a bigger picture.

The Saturn and Dreamcast were failures because they caused Sega to drop out of the console business. Bad decisions before and during their manufacture and launch contributed to their failure, obviously, but in hindsight they must be defined as failures because they were the ships that Sega went down with.

Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that you can't call something a failure simply by the quantities sold. There's many other things that determine it. Having many, many unsold Dreamcasts in a warehouse, I'd call that a failure. The Wii U, well, let's just wait and see.

I agree. If Nintendo is making money on every sold Wii U (but I don't think so, with the price drop/cost of gamepad), and if you don't compare the sales figures with other consoles, then it is doing just fine. The strength of first party games keeps them going. But still, it is generally considered a failing, or worrying system. It would be nice if there were some large spikes in sales accompanying game releases, but I think most people buying the games are already Wii U owners, like me - diehard fans who have owned it since the beginning.

PS: I typed this early in the morning and I'm not gonna proof read it cause I gotta get going to work. Please, please, forgive me if there's any grammatical errors or typos.

I didn't see any errors, and I appreciate you being so considerate

[Ziggy]

It would be nice if there were some large spikes in sales accompanying game releases, but I think most people buying the games are already Wii U owners, like me - diehard fans who have owned it since the beginning.

I don't know about that. Some pages back in this thread, when MK8 launched, I remember talk of a spike in console sales. There was speculation of the same happening when the new Smash Bros comes out... then Zelda. Look at Dsh. He said multiple times throughout this thread (IIRC) that he wouldn't buy a U until it showed more promise or more games were out for it or something like that. Then he posted that he broke down and bought a U when MK8 was released.