Aquamarine
Member
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=47734533#post47734533
I explained the mechanics of the 55K number here.
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NPD January 2013 Sales Results [Up7: Wii U 57K (CNET), Vita ~35K, PS3 201K]
- Thread starter Nirolak
- Start date
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=47734533#post47734533
I explained the mechanics of the 55K number here.
SapientWolf
Trucker Sexologist
Sony and MS's core demographic presumably didn't abandon them for Apple devices, so it's really their game to lose at this point. I think at least one of the two will manage to not fall on their face next gen. They will use big name sequels and new IP to draw people over the gap.
perfectchaos007
Member
Will the $389.99 ZombiU SKU save the WiiU?? U?
Portugeezer
Gold Member
No games, shit marketing.
If you want what Wii U offered, you probably got one in Nov/Dec, right now the sales will be bad, and continue to be bad until some good software is released. Biggest thing needed is a price cut though, and that won't happen until some big game is released.
As for the number, we probably won't be getting any hard numbers for Wii U.
11th in overall NPD and 7th place on the individual one.
Yup. We had Super Monkey Ball, Crazy Taxi, and Sonic Adventure 2 Battle by this time in the GC's life. Which surprises me looking back, as I didn't expect for SEGA to support their former rival so fervently.
I love the Wii U....but Nintendo probably should have gone for lower tech. No costly controller, no blu ray drive .
Something like the Ouya would have been a safer bet (maybe with a slot for games sold on SD cards like the 3DS..to keep retail happy).
Nintendo just don't have a cool enough image to sell something for more than $200 in the current climate.
Something like the Ouya would have been a safer bet (maybe with a slot for games sold on SD cards like the 3DS..to keep retail happy).
Nintendo just don't have a cool enough image to sell something for more than $200 in the current climate.
Any retailer that ordered more than 5 of these is nuts.
I definitely see it as a both situation. I know there's a massive backed up demand for better hardware (translated as more ambitious software) among the core, but for most people, the bitter pill that many outside of the core are going to avoid will be that initial pricing short of one of the MS/Sony duo going full Santa Claus on us and putting out a system with a $300 "non-gimped" entry pack. At the same time, Nintendo fucked themselves.
Really though, the major culprit that led to this thought even having credibility was the length of the last generation. (Some) People got bored with consoles, especially with "fast food" things like iOS/Android gaming becoming viable and becoming prominent in a short order. The console makers couldn't adapt to this fast enough and with the hardware they had out, they could only stop gap and plug holes before the dam breached and their audiences left without looking back.
TheGreyHulk
Member
even nintendo's big hitters will not save them from the onslaught of the ps4/xbox coming in the fall. the system is still too expensive to compete. only the hardcore nintendo fans will buy the big hitters because the casuals will look at the wii u as being too expensive and the dudebro crowd isn't looking at the wii u at all, they're looking past it already.
Gahiggidy
My aunt & uncle run a Mom & Pop store, "The Gamecube Hut", and sold 80k WiiU within minutes of opening.
Can't do the math right now, but Wii U has a higher raw $ in sales revenue at ~$325 @55k than GCN at $199 @79k.
MikeE21286
Member
They did go lower tech and no blu ray drive.
bigtroyjon
Member
You mean 5 total right and not 5 per store?
Nintendo was making money on the GC hardware.
maquiladora
Member
It seems that most people that wanted a Wii U have already bought one. They are going to need something different to generate interest than a bundle with a game thats already been out for months.
EmCeeGramr
Member
i'll take credit for this. it's the upper part of the cycle.
Liquid_Bike
Member
Its my understanding that they are not selling the Wii U at a profit though. So it doesn't really mean much if revenue is higher.
metalslimer
Member
And Nintendo is losing money on every Wii U sold. Even still I wouldn't be surprised if GC software sales destroyed Wii U's.
aiming that low would have take them nowhere
He asked "so far in their lives", which I took as three months in, launch aligned. In that case it's basically sports game ports, Monkey Ball, Crazy Taxi, and Rogue Leader vs. sports game ports, AC3 and BLOPS2 ports, other late ports and ZombiU.
GCN has Rogue Leader, gotta give it to him.
brochiller
Member
Yes, but Wii U is selling for a loss currently whereas the GCN was selling at a profit from launch if I remember correctly.
nhlducks35
Member
No, there's a blu-ray drive alright
That's around 2.1mil more revenue for the Wii U than GCN using your numbers, but the WIi U is sold at a loss, the GCN wasn't IIRC.
bobbychalkers
Member
Other than the Scribblenauts ad, I literally haven't seen a Wii U ad since the last Christmas season. I seriously wonder what's going on at Nintendo right now.
Look, the PS4/next Xbox will likely have a software drought right after their launch as well. It's natural for a platform. Plus, we still have most of the big titles for this year coming out for the PS3/360, not launch titles.
They can't advertise a system with no games.
Interesting numbers, to say the least.
Nintendo really needs to revamp their marketing for the Wii U (and 3DS for that matter).
Also, as much as it pains me to say it, stop giving a shit about third parties (at least on WiiU). They just don't care. Release your games under the pretense that these are the only games that are going to be released on the system. If third parties want to jump on board, then great. If not, you're covered. With the 3DS and now the Wii U they seemed to want to keep periods of time open for third parties. Now they just have a big empty schedule until March.
Nintendo really needs to revamp their marketing for the Wii U (and 3DS for that matter).
Also, as much as it pains me to say it, stop giving a shit about third parties (at least on WiiU). They just don't care. Release your games under the pretense that these are the only games that are going to be released on the system. If third parties want to jump on board, then great. If not, you're covered. With the 3DS and now the Wii U they seemed to want to keep periods of time open for third parties. Now they just have a big empty schedule until March.
Version 3.0
Member
Sure, but when both are sold at a slight loss, higher revenue likely equates to higher loss. And from what we've seen, the comparison between game sales and revenue, if we could see it, would look far worse than the hardware comparison.
There are a lot of people who will buy a Nintendo console day 1 for $350 with zero software. There are obviously not very many people who will pass at launch but then change their mind in January on no other evidence.
Is the problem $350? Is the problem software? Is the problem ill-will from their Wiis collecting dust? Is console gaming just dead? We'll find out over the next year or so.
BruceLeeRoy
Banned
Daaaamn. Pretty good shop that is.
Yeah I've got a feeling that the PS4 and 720 will only do worse. This isn't like last generation where we were getting consoles that could play games in HD, had competent online services, had digital storefronts, and were able to use stuff like Netflix and HBO Go.
What's going to make people go out and upgrade when they already have all of those things? Looking at this upcoming generation it doesn't seem like there's going to be many advancements at all. I really doubt people are going to be rushing out to buy these expensive consoles when it seems like the big advancements they have are always online DRM, no backwards compatibility, no used games, probably even more microtransaction bullshit. Who the hell is going to think any of that is going to be worth upgrading for?
I sure as hell am not.
What's going to make people go out and upgrade when they already have all of those things? Looking at this upcoming generation it doesn't seem like there's going to be many advancements at all. I really doubt people are going to be rushing out to buy these expensive consoles when it seems like the big advancements they have are always online DRM, no backwards compatibility, no used games, probably even more microtransaction bullshit. Who the hell is going to think any of that is going to be worth upgrading for?
I sure as hell am not.
ViewtifulJC
Banned
Obviously, this is all part of their plan then!
PopcornMegaphone
Banned
With WiiU bombing I think this is also a confirmation that pure gaming machines aren't enough anymore. Consumers expect more from their consoles these days. That's why I think Sony and MS pursuing entertainment gaming boxes with the PS3 and 360 (and next gen) is actually a smart strategy that benefits core gamers in the long run.
airmangataosenai
Member
Yeah, it is. They just didn't pay the licensing fee to allow BRD movie playback.
How much lower did he want them to go? N64?
Well there we go. Forward this to Nintendo. It can be their PR this month.
metalslimer
Member
People keep saying PS4/720 will have a software drough but this isn't confirmed at all. The reason for Wii U's software drough is the lack of experience with HD. Sony, MS, and 3rd parties will be able to develop games effectively and some of them have been years in the making. A drought isn't certain for either of them at all. Sony could have at least 4-5 1st party games at launch
No it's a confirmation Nintendo released the Wii U with no games.
Fairly sure Nintendo announced sometime that the Wii U was earning them more revenue (not necessarily profit) than the Wii did.
Lambda Pie
Banned
Wii U is the logical sequence to where Nintendo was heading before their "lightning in a bottle" moment with the Wii.
toddhunter
Member
The "Big" titles like your Call of Duty, Ass Creed, Madden, Fifa and the rest are never far away. Within six months any new console will have 99% of the gaming population covered.
They just need to make a "choice" that one or the other is the home for online play for that game
Kai Dracon
Writing a dinosaur space opera symphony
Motion and fitness where just the gateway mechanism. It seems Wii was based on getting people who didn't usually play games to play games - whatever kinds of games those might be.
There were a lot of theories about why lots of people exposed to computers, technology, and games, didn't play games. Were games too intimidating? Had interfaces gotten too complex? Did they take too long to play a session? Did the themes and stylization turn off the mainstream person? Were controllers too complex or uncomfortable for the uninitiated?
The Wii was very inviting and had an obviousness about it. The wiimote was designed to mimic both a TV remote, and a NES controller. Two super familiar items that pop-culture is familiar with and nobody is afraid of. Wii Sports was essentially what later smartphone games and tablet games would be - pick up and play, easy to understand, often with a social aspect, and colorful simple visuals with a clear interface. Very self-explanatory in terms of how to play it.
In a sense, it could also have been a content problem. Mobile games, social games, tablet games, exploded overnight and offered the mainstream plenty of friendly games that were already on a device many people had or desired for multiple uses. (Being cheap didn't hurt, but was maybe just a bonus.) One mistake Nintendo made with Wii IMO is that they stopped releasing a steady stream of those "blue ocean" games. After Wii Sports Resort, things just died off. Wii Party was an anemic, un-exciting final entry in the "Wii activity" series. In this sense, Nintendo's inadequate digital ecosystem may have helped do Wii in. They couldn't compete with the multiplying library of accessible blue ocean games showing up in the new mobile market. They didn't have a good delivery system for them, even if the games had gotten made.
To be fair, the DS also benefited from discovering some of this new market as well, thanks to its games such as Brain Training. It got a big boost. However, the DS still had one leg in the former handheld gaming market, a market that didn't completely erode with the rise of smartphone mobile gaming - at least in Japan. So the successor to the DS is not flopping once it got the software out there.
More general remarks -
IMO, Nintendo may have seen themselves as stuck with how to follow up the Wii. Wading into the red ocean of high dollar enthusiast game consoles and trying to find parity with Sony and MS may have been unappealing due to how much it would cost with so much danger of ending up with Gamecube II and nothing to show for it. On the other hand, following the Wii up involved trying to see if there was a way to appeal to people who might still be attracted to a revitalized Wii concept. There's a pretty obvious reason why Wii U didn't abandon motion control, the wiimote, and even accessories like the balance board. Nintendo brought those things forward with them to the next generation to continue working with them.
So in this sense Nintendo did exactly what was stated at the original unveiling of Wii U: tried to make a platform that was situated halfway between the "blue ocean" customer and the so-called core or "hardcore" game player. In terms of abstract, noble theory, perhaps it is not a bad idea, especially if you truly believe you cannot survive by copying what someone else is doing (like Microsoft, or Sony, or abandoning your own mobile platform and just going iOS).
In practice, as things stand it may have been a failed bet. Or perhaps they can squeak out something as happened with the 3DS.
The one thing that I think is silly though, and seriously projecting, is the common talk that goes "Well good! This horrible failure will break Nintendo of their arrogance!"
I honestly don't think it's arrogance. People project this onto Nintendo because they feel offended that someone makes a gaming product that doesn't measure up to their ideals and desires. Weirdly enough, this disappointment morphs into anger and the assumption that someone is trying to offend them. I rather think Nintendo's behavior is the result of the problem they've had for 15+ years finally coming to a head, as they try to figure out how to survive in some form that doesn't involve abandoning much of what they do.
Ironically enough, if you want to call them arrogant, I think you must go back in time to the dawn of the N64. That is when Nintendo made a huge mistake, very possibly out of some degree of pure arrogance or at least unwise confidence, and the N64 generation is when Nintendo truly got humbled. Maybe a lot of folks don't see this because they, in a personal sense, have beloved childhood memories of stuff like the N64 and the Gamecube. So history is framed to make those the golden years when Nintendo was right with the world. It wasn't. For people like me, already adults coming out of the SNES era, the N64 was seen as very problematic and got pretty bad by the end of its generation.
You know, like the Titanic.
Version 3.0
Member
But it doesn't play Blu-Ray movies; another patented Nintendo WTF decision.
Not only that but with the higher price (even with the savings and incredible deal it offers) I'm sure that it will not drive sales, only hinder them.
Something needs to be done, Nintendo just has to figure out what...
Revenue isn't profit. They are losing money on Wii u hardware.
PowderedToast
Junior Member
straight ether right here ^^^^^