Wii-U thoughts so far

[RCBH928]

@Ziggy

I think the only thing that makes a console a success or a failure is sales alone. In the end it is a business and fun factor is not calculated into the formula. I did not see it, but the TV show FireFly has been praised many times over by fans yet it was discontinued after 1 season. Why? It is not profitable, or profit made out of it is not worthwhile. On the opposite end, Jersey Shore lasted 6 seasons even though everyone is bashing that series (compare to 5 season for Breaking Bad).

I believe everyone has his own analysis, but we can all agree that the 7m units numbers is shared with gloomy consoles of the past and even Nintendo is upset with that number. Then again, these numbers are just what we have up until now and its too early to judge...

Any one knows how much the GameCube sold after 1.5 years of release?

[pepharytheworm]

Profit > Sales

They can go hand and hand sometimes but just sales numbers alone means nothing. You have to look at your profit and loss report to get the full picture.
If I sell you a million dollar bills for a million dollar bills, who cares that I sold a million dollar bills. That one guy who sold a one dollar bill for two dollar bills is more of a success.

[Cronozilla]

The Wii U isn't that far behind the GameCube in the same time period. It's less than 2M units behind. And in terms of months, the GameCube was at these unit numbers less than a quarter sooner.

Compared to other systems, it's still outpacing the PS3 during the similar time period for hardware units sold.

The numbers that I think are interesting are weekly software sales. At least according to VGchartz, you'll see some legs on the recent Mario Kart 8 boost in sales when it comes to other Wii U titles. New Super Mario Bros. U and New Super Luigi U are both selling more units this week than Infamous Second Son. I imagine they're including the bundled sales as well, where the games are sold together. And if you use that number, it's outpacing Titan Fall on a weekly basis (no PC sales shown, but on 360 and XB1 combined)

And, Super Mario 3D World this last week sold almost as many units as Infamous Second Son.

So, it's interesting to see the numbers change after Mario Kart 8. It obviously had a big impact on the Wii U sales, and it would seem so did Nintendo's E3 showing.

We'll see when it drops off ... won't really know much more concrete until then.

[RCBH928]

If NGC was close to the Wii U numbers, then all those who guessed that the Wii U will have a similar situation to the NGC are probably correct. Although I believe if this is the case, Wii U will see more than 20m units sold simply because of the larger market today than it was in 2006.

Quick estimate to show this is :
20m(Xbox)+20m(NGC)+150m(ps2) = 190m consoles

80m(360)+80m(ps3)+100m(wii)= 260 and still growing

I also feel like the Wii U games have more in common with NGC than Wii games.

Profit > Sales

They can go hand and hand sometimes but just sales numbers alone means nothing. You have to look at your profit and loss report to get the full picture.
If I sell you a million dollar bills for a million dollar bills, who cares that I sold a million dollar bills. That one guy who sold a one dollar bill for two dollar bills is more of a success.

I meant exactly that, but I believe its a rare situation where some one would be making a lot of sales but little profit and then shuts down. Usually companies with good sales record would have more money injected into it by investors on the hopes that their future sales will be profitable or to profit from the already installed base through accessories, software, services,...etc

[ZeroAX]

You know what? Nintendo is at its most creative when it has its back against the wall. So if the Wii U ends up being Gamecube 2, I'm buying one for sure.

[Cronozilla]

We don't really know anything yet.

So, far the Wii U hasn't been acting like the GameCube in the market. The GameCube was pretty consistently selling until about a couple years in, then it would have stretches of virtually no sales.

The Wii U, however, started very slow, but has been selling better as time's gone on. It's just still not doing great, but there are obvious boosts whenever significant software comes out.

And, realistically, you can't make any real projection about what's going to be the outcome several years from now.

The only issue I can foresee is people refusing to buy it because they think it's not going to sell well. That's just a self-fulfilling prophecy.

[ZeroAX]

That's just a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Cause those never happen with Nintendo systems

[ZeroAX]

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2014/0 ... _platforms

yaaay Nintendo you are almost there when it comes to bare bones online shop functionality

[Opa Opa]

For one game... In Europe...

[darsparx]

Of course that doesn't surprise me, but hey at least they're finally giving us the option of doing that and hopefully it will expand to other titles for everyone