Slow Wii U sales?

[Tupin]

Monolith Soft Xenoblade style game, 3D Super Mario Bros U, Mario Kart U, SMT x Fire Emblem, Yarn Yoshi, and Windwaker HD remake announced. Other games just reconfirmed, Bayonetta 2, Wonderful 101, and Super Smash Bros U.

Xenoblade 2 interests me as does Super Smash Bros U. Everything else not so much. This whole announcement sounds like desperation to me, though. Four Mario titles and another highi profile developer payoff title?
It's "desperation" if Nintendo does it, because as everyone knows, Nintendo is like Sega in 2001 and is circling the drain.

I've wanted a WW HD remake for years, it's by far my favorite Zelda game.

[Leo_A]

While I was hoping for a Zelda HD Trilogy with upgraded ports of Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, and Skyward Sword, I can see why this is a standalone product. It's going far beyond what we've become accustomed to with HD upgrades in recent years.

I just hope those other two Zelda releases, the two Galaxy games, and Metroid Prime Trilogy see similar updates in the coming years.

[WCP]

I think all these announcements were just what the doctor ordered for Nintendo. They needed to change the momentem for their system. At least we know that they have their No.1 team working on a new 3D Mario. (same team that made Galaxy and 3D Land). The reveal for this game will be absolutely critical for Nintendo going forward. This upcoming e3 show, will be a bloodbath like none other. They have to have a Mario game that is truly a leap forward. I remember seeing Super Mario 64 at e3 in 1996, and that was a total game changer. I don' expect this new Mario to be that amazing, but it's going to have to resonate more than Sunshine or Galaxy did. As good as the Galaxy games were, they didn't really hit with the general public as much as Super Mario 64 did.


A new Mario Kart of course is an absolute must have for any Nintendo system. The Zelda remake looks cool. I really like the look of the Yoshi game as well.


The big question of course.... when are any of these games actually coming out ? Are any of these games coming prior to October 2013 ?

[kupomogli]

Xenoblade 2 looks like one monster and one area. So it's probably just in pre alpha stage. They probably wanted to show people what it looked like in action to maybe get them into buying the system earlier by knowing it's going to come out.

I'm getting a Wii U. I've already said that plenty of times, but not until the console has the games on it first. If Xenoblade 2 or Super Smash Bros U comes out in 2014 then I'll probably get it then, but not going to get it now and then wait a year or so to actually play these games.

Super Mario 3D Land was average at best. It was the best game on the 3DS during its first year. Not including ports, remakes, or Resident Evil Revelations. I have "Revelaitons," but only played the demo so won't really make an opinion on the full game. But Super Mario 3D Land being the best game on the 3DS for the first year is like saying Pong is the best game on a Pong handheld. I guarantee if it wasn't a Mario game it wouldn't have got close to the ratings it received.

[orangest]

In the last 2 weeks, I've picked up Epic Mickey 2 and Just Dance 4 as Target salvages at Goodwills for $14.99 each.

[kupomogli]

With the Earthbound announcement in Japan, Nintendo should announced Earthbound 4 for Japan and US. They'll sell a lot of Wii U's with another Earthbound and Xenoblade 2.

[Tupin]

Itoi's already said he has no plans for a MOTHER 4. He barely made MOTHER 3.

[cd\tony2]

the system looks like a failure. I'm still happy playing Skyward Sword and Wii Slapshot, and I have barely played Bond or Super Mario Bros

[WCP]

not going to get it now and then wait a year or so to actually play these games.




I tend to agree with this sentiment. Why buy the thing now ? Sure Pikmin 3 and The Wonderful 101 aren't too far away, but I still think there's no rush. I actually have the ability to get one of these puppies off Craigslist for as cheap as 200 straight up. 200 straight up is pretty freaking low price, but I just kinda think I might be squandering money, if I buy it before it really has any "significant" games. They actually rent Wii U games at this Blockbuster that I sometimes go to. I could just get a one month pass and try a ton of games. I'm tempted, but I'm going to wait till Pikmin 3 or 101 are available before making a move.








Super Mario 3D Land was average at best. It was the best game on the 3DS during its first year. Not including ports, remakes, or Resident Evil Revelations. I have "Revelaitons," but only played the demo so won't really make an opinion on the full game. But Super Mario 3D Land being the best game on the 3DS for the first year is like saying Pong is the best game on a Pong handheld. I guarantee if it wasn't a Mario game it wouldn't have got close to the ratings it received.

Wow...

I'm not sure what I can say... All I know is that I'm really enjoying Super Mario Land right now. Do you have a 3DS XL ? I think maybe the 3DS XL makes 3D Land even better. Something about that big screen on the XL. I think it has that old Nintendo magic that I don't see too often.

[kupomogli]

Do you have a 3DS XL ?

I would have got one for $159 when Best Buy and Target were doing sales on them, but I really don't like how it's dual color and no Cosmo Black. Hopefully they release Cosmo Black XL in the US. I'll wait awhile longer and if another good sale comes along and still no Cosmo Black I'll just get it then.

[Rob2600]

http://kotaku.com/5982769/wii-u-gets-a-390-zombiu-package

Starting February 17, 2013, in North America, you'll be able to find the $390 ZombiU Deluxe Set, which comes complete with a black deluxe Wii U (32 GB) and GamePad, a digital copy of Nintendo Land, a ZombiU disc, and a Wii U Pro controller.

This is the deluxe version of the Wii U, so you'll get your 32 GB harddrive and everything else that's included in the standard $350 deluxe package. The big differences: Nintendo Land is digital, and ZombiU is on a disc.

[kupomogli]

Pretty crappy bundle considering you're not getting much of a discount. Going by Amazon you can get a regular Wii U and everything in the bundle for the same price, except Nintendo Land would be physical. Since Nintendo Land is digital they should just keep the bundle at $350 to try and entice new customers, not rip them off.

[The Adventurer]

You get a Pro Controller too (a $50 value) so I think it's a pretty good deal IMO.

[Rob2600]

Pretty crappy bundle considering you're not getting much of a discount. Going by Amazon prices you can get a standard Wii U is $300, Nintendo Land for $40, and Zombie U for $50.

Except it's not the $300 basic Wii U, it's the $350 deluxe version.

[kupomogli]

I didn't notice that in the post. Skimmed through. That's pretty good then.

*edit*


Except it's not the $300 basic Wii U, it's the $350 deluxe version.

I knew this, but there's not much of a difference between the regular version and the deluxe version.

[WCP]

Personally, I think buying a Wii U from retail, before a "significant" price drop would be a huge mistake. Nintendo is going to have to dramatically lower the price on this thing at some point, or it will simply die on the vine. I think the January NPD numbers on it is going to be pretty pathetic, and February is going to be even worse (at least in January you had some kids with Xmas gift cards and Xmas money that might have bought a Wii U).

The sales of the Wii U are going to fall off a cliff, if they haven't already. Seriously, what incentive is there to buy a Wii U ? There aren't any new games for it, and it doesn't seem like anything major is coming any time soon. Sure, the Wonderful 101 and Pikmin 3 look pretty good, but those games might not arrive till the Summer. Rayman got a huge delay, so that isn't a reason either. I'd try to hold out as long as possible, because I think we could be looking at a full $100 price drop on both skus in the very near future. It's only going to take Nintendo seeing the NPD numbers in January and February for them to push the panic button.


If you really are dead set on buying a Wii U, then look to the used market. There are going to be tons of disgruntled Wii U owners that will be looking to dump their system. Think of all the people that bought one in November, and they've already played thru Mario and Zombie U and Nintendoland. These owners are going to be bored to tears, and some of them will decide to just dump the system and move on. GameStop, to the best of my knowledge, is only paying $150 in store credit for a Deluxe Wii U right now, and that is including the $50 bonus they are offering for trading in certain hardware. If you took your Wii U to GameStop and wanted cash instead of store credit, it would only be like $100 or maybe even less.

This of course is going to affect the second hand market (Craigslist / Ebay). The prices on Ebay are holding up pretty well, but on Craigslist it's a different story. I see a ton of Wii U's advertised on Craigslist right now, but the people selling aren't dealing with the reality of the situation. It reminds me of the Vita situation from last year. Tons of people decided to sell their Vita's on Craigslist, and they thought that they were going to take maybe a 10 percent or 15 percent hit on their investment, and then they learned the hard way that the only way they are going to find a buyer for their Vita, is if they are willing to take a significant loss. I think the same exact thing is going to happen with the Wii U on Craigslist.

For example, I wouldn't pay more than $220 for a used Wii U Deluxe system. While to the owner of the Wii U, the $220 would seem like an insult, (considering they probably paid around $378 after tax for their deluxe system ) the truth is, that there really is no demand whatsoever for the system right now. All the demand that did exist, was pre-Xmas demand. Now that Xmas is in the rearview mirror, there just isn't much of any incentive at all for anybody to pay good money for a Wii U. If they go to GameStop, to check on trading it in, they are going to find out just how far the value on one of these things has dipped.

Also, while used Wii U's on Ebay are selling for much higher prices, the owners aren't actually getting much more than $220 once you factor in the shipping cost, and all the Ebay and PayPal fees, etc, etc.

[WCP]

Not to beat a dead horse, but supposedly Nintendo sold only 55K Wii U's in the month of January.


I thought it would be pretty bad, but I had no clue it would be that bad. January is a month when kids can still return Xmas presents, and they are flushed with gift cards, and things like that. I actually expected January to not look so horrible. Unfortunately, I think it's all downhill from here till e3. I don't think the Lego game is going to move units like some people think. For Nintendo's sake, and the health of the video game industry in general, we better hope the Lego game moves units....

February's numbers could be an all-time low for such a high profile console.

[GhostDog]

Fire Reggie. It's all his fault. I hate that guy.

[IHatedSega]

6313

Nintendo leads, others follow.


You guys, the damn thing hs only been out for 4 months, its not dead yet. It was 2 years before Final Fantasy 7 came out for the PS1. There can be the super hot game still come out for the Wii U. So dont worry. And actually, I hope they do release their RPG's here instead of just keeping them in Japan.

I think why gaming was so great in the late 80's and 90's was because the internet wasnt full of message boards.

[The 1 2 P]

Fire Reggie. It's all his fault. I hate that guy.

What does Reggie have to do with the limited amount of people who have been purchasing the Wii U?

[Rob2600]

You guys, the damn thing hs only been out for 4 months

Actually, the Wii U came out less than three months ago. 3.3 million sold in less than three months...is that weak or strong?

[GhostDog]

What does Reggie have to do with the limited amount of people who have been purchasing the Wii U?

He just needs to be fired. No questions asked. He's just an overpaid nobody that got his popularity during the time when the Wii was called the Revolution. Until he leaves I refuse to buy a Nintendo system.

[IHatedSega]

Actually, the Wii U came out less than three months ago. 3.3 million sold in less than three months...is that weak or strong?

Id say its really good. We need to stop comparing it to the Wii though since they didnt have the soccer mom buzz going for this. I hate the name, and think they really shouldnt have named it that. Again, NINTENDO should be the bigger brand name, not Wii. Like DS and 3DS, I dont know why theyre only adding on figure to their console names.

They didnt have any buzz going for it really. They should have made sure Bayonette 2 would have been ready for launch date. That would have been a great title to tell older gamers it was a console for them.

[Tupin]

Honestly, it's NCL that needs a shakeup. Iwata has made some weird decisions and put too much trust in Miyamoto, even letting him influence hardware design.

The thing is that those three are very enigmatic, and associated with Wii money. Doubtful they'll strip vexing that soon.

[swlovinist]

The Wii U is not dead yet, but Nintendo needs to do a 180 change with how the system is coming across(or lack of) The 3DS did not come out of the gate well either. The price was lowered, some good games came out, and now the system is doing a whole lot better. The Wii U is no different. The additional pressure for the big N is that MS and Sony are going to launch some fierce competition this year. Nintendo better consider a significant price drop and a list a AAA titles for this upcoming year if they want to compete. At Nintendo's current price though, I would probably just fork out some more $$$ and purchase a real next gen system. In discussion with all my gaming friends, they are all waiting for the same thing....price drop and games. They do want to buy one though. For everyone else that is my friend, they still dont know what the hell the Wii U is. Nintendo has done a very bad job marketing this thing.

[kedawa]

If the Wii U ends up being the only console that plays physical discs without activation and a persistent internet connection, it may actually carve out a nice chunk of the market for itself.

[RCM]

360 and ps3 are still selling ok, so I wonder if this is the new normal for next-gen consoles outside of the holiday period or just a wii u problem. I'm guessing it's a wii u issue, but time will ultimately tell.

[kupomogli]

While the system isn't selling well, one thing that's really killing the system's potential future sales is the fanbase. Just take a look at the sales numbers for Wii U games.

http://www.vgchartz.com/gamedb/?name=&publisher=&platform=WiiU&genre=&minSales=0&results=200

It's been out for about three months, and the 11th top selling game, Disney Epic Mickey 2 sold 90,000. Just about all the games below that are ports, sure, but most of the people who own a Wii U, I'm betting don't have a PS3 or 360. There are those that do, but I'm thinking the majority probably don't. If those people don't show third party support it's just telling developers that their games aren't going to sell well on the system. I'm sure this is the reason Ubisoft went multiconsole with Rayman Legends and EA didn't announce Wii U versions of their future sports titles. There have been a lot of sales for Wii U games so there's no excuse. Nintendo Land doesn't count because most of the sales there are because it's a pack in for the deluxe model, but if you go by sales and see how much New Super Mario Bros U sold compared to everything else, even compared to Zombie U which is third place and sold 330,000, most Nintendo fans are telling third party developers that they don't want anything other than first party Nintendo games.

People are complaining about not receiving future releases or Ubisoft pulling a dick move by pushing back the release date to make it a simultaneous release, but there's a clear reason why if you look at what games are selling and what games aren't.

*edit*

Edited time frame Wii U has been out.

[Rob2600]

It's been out for three and a half months

Actually, the Wii U came out less than three months ago. November 18th, 2012 to today, February 15th, 2013.

[Greg2600]

Almost seems like the Wii U has been reduced to the Gamecube fanbase.

[WCP]

My biggest hope is that Nintendo doesn't go into ultra panic mode and end up rushing Mario Kart out before it's ready. Same thing with the 3D Mario game.


You'd think that if you were launching a new console, you'd have at least 5 games of your own, ready to go. Nintendo's only had two games ready for launch, and it seems they aren't going to have another game till maybe April ? It's just bad planning by Nintendo.

If Xbox and Playstation allow no used games at all, Nintendo could use that as their saving grace, but they'll need some serious games. They need Retro to make something that will really show off the power of the machine. Hopefully we see that at e3.

[Graham Mitchell]

While the system isn't selling well, one thing that's really killing the system's potential future sales is the fanbase. Just take a look at the sales numbers for Wii U games.

http://www.vgchartz.com/gamedb/?name=&publisher=&platform=WiiU&genre=&minSales=0&results=200

It's been out for about three months, and the 11th top selling game, Disney Epic Mickey 2 sold 90,000. Just about all the games below that are ports, sure, but most of the people who own a Wii U, I'm betting don't have a PS3 or 360. There are those that do, but I'm thinking the majority probably don't. If those people don't show third party support it's just telling developers that their games aren't going to sell well on the system. I'm sure this is the reason Ubisoft went multiconsole with Rayman Legends and EA didn't announce Wii U versions of their future sports titles. There have been a lot of sales for Wii U games so there's no excuse. Nintendo Land doesn't count because most of the sales there are because it's a pack in for the deluxe model, but if you go by sales and see how much New Super Mario Bros U sold compared to everything else, even compared to Zombie U which is third place and sold 330,000, most Nintendo fans are telling third party developers that they don't want anything other than first party Nintendo games.

People are complaining about not receiving future releases or Ubisoft pulling a dick move by pushing back the release date to make it a simultaneous release, but there's a clear reason why if you look at what games are selling and what games aren't.

*edit*

Edited time frame Wii U has been out.

Actually, everybody that i know that bought one also has a ps3 and a 360. As far as I can tell, the only people who are buying them are the hardcore set, which is why the ports sell poorly--the install base has access to better versions.

Most casual people don't even know there's a new Nintendo console on the market right now. (Or they do know and just don't care).

Personally, I also think its a horrible time right now to put out a new console, and it will continue to be so for the next several years. Most of the businesses around here that took a hit when the economy tanked still haven't recovered, and the unemployment rate is still pretty high. I'm starting to get worried about the next generation of consoles. Not because of iOS, like everyone says, but just because the last gen consoles were sooo expensive to get functioning as intended (my ps3, a greatest hits copy if assassins creed, one extra controller, and an hdmi cable cost $700!!) and I don't think people will want to go through that 4 years after they just plunked in nearly $1000. I know I don't.

[danawhitaker]

What's interesting though is that if you compare total unit sales over the same period of time to the Wii U and the PS3, they aren't that far off. The Wii U is supposed to be around 3 million, from what I read, and Sony was at 3.6 million by the end of March 2007 and Microsoft was at 3.2 in March of 2006. Sony had estimated being at around 6 million the first year and ended up being off the mark. The original Wii did considerably better, with over 5 million units during that same time period.

[Bojay1997]

What's interesting though is that if you compare total unit sales over the same period of time to the Wii U and the PS3, they aren't that far off. The Wii U is supposed to be around 3 million, from what I read, and Sony was at 3.6 million by the end of March 2007 and Microsoft was at 3.2 in March of 2006. Sony had estimated being at around 6 million the first year and ended up being off the mark. The original Wii did considerably better, with over 5 million units during that same time period.

In fairness though, the PS3 was super expensive at launch. I know I paid $600 plus tax at Target. The "cheaper" option was the $500 one which was also a lot of money in even better economic times.

[danawhitaker]

In fairness though, the PS3 was super expensive at launch. I know I paid $600 plus tax at Target. The "cheaper" option was the $500 one which was also a lot of money in even better economic times.

Yup. That's definitely a fair point. And the 360 was slightly more expensive at $400 for the good model, if I recall correctly. The other thing I noticed then was that a lot of retailers tried to bundle them into packages with games and accessories that you didn't necessarily want or need. I waited until almost a year after the 360 launched before I got one. To be quite honest, I probably would have waited a while on the Wii U as well but I had a spawn begging for one for Christmas and it was hard to say no to her this year.

[Press_Start]

What's interesting though is that if you compare total unit sales over the same period of time to the Wii U and the PS3, they aren't that far off. The Wii U is supposed to be around 3 million, from what I read, and Sony was at 3.6 million by the end of March 2007 and Microsoft was at 3.2 in March of 2006. Sony had estimated being at around 6 million the first year and ended up being off the mark. The original Wii did considerably better, with over 5 million units during that same time period.

Let's be real, the Wii U launch has two things uniquely separating itself from PS360: a cheaper $300-350 starting price point and a post-recession economy. Under similar circumstances, a newly released $400 broken down Xbox or $600 Blu-Ray Player wouldn't even reach half their sales numbers in the same time frame with MSony struggling far more in cutting costs than Nintendo.

[BydoEmpire]

but most of the people who own a Wii U, I'm betting don't have a PS3 or 360I only know a handful of people that bought a Wii-U, but every one of them is an "early adopter" with both a 360 and PS3. That's the market the first year-ish - early adopters and "hardcore" or "traditional" gamers that want the new system. It was the same for the Wii, PS3... most consoles.


If the Wii U ends up being the only console that plays physical discs without activation and a persistent internet connection, it may actually carve out a nice chunk of the market for itself.I don't have much interest in the Wii-U, but the more I hear about the next Xbox & Playstation, the more I'm interested in the Wii-U. Needs games, though.

[kedawa]

Not because of iOS, like everyone says, but just because the last gen consoles were sooo expensive to get functioning as intended (my ps3, a greatest hits copy if assassins creed, one extra controller, and an hdmi cable cost $700!!) and I don't think people will want to go through that 4 years after they just plunked in nearly $1000. I know I don't.

4 years?
Try 7.

[BetaWolf47]

Actually, everybody that i know that bought one also has a ps3 and a 360. As far as I can tell, the only people who are buying them are the hardcore set, which is why the ports sell poorly--the install base has access to better versions.
Geeze, third parties still can't make better ports for better hardware? No wonder so many PC ports suck.

[Bojay1997]

Geeze, third parties still can't make better ports for better hardware? No wonder so many PC ports suck.

Supposedly Need for Speed WiiU is going to use the PC textures and other features for the WiiU version making it the "definitive" console version according to Criterion. Unfortunately, I don't know how much people will care considering it's a game that's already months old and if you're a hardcore racing gamer, you probably already have the game either on another console or the PC.

[WCP]

Supposedly Need for Speed WiiU is going to use the PC textures and other features for the WiiU version making it the "definitive" console version according to Criterion. Unfortunately, I don't know how much people will care considering it's a game that's already months old and if you're a hardcore racing gamer, you probably already have the game either on another console or the PC.


It will be interesting to see if it's all marketing hyperbole, or if Criterion is really serious on this. The reviews of that game are going to be interesting. If I had a Wii U, I'd defintiely want to rent it and try it out. Especially if it supported off screen play (which I assume it would).

[Gunstar Hero]

It would not surprise me if the Wii U is having slow sales. I myself as a Nintendo fan and a gamer ready to branch away from my 360 have not really seen any appeal in it. No "wow holy shit I want that!" kind of games, a weird ass controller that is like an iPad (I hate that I'm into old school gaming), and with a price that with my shitty allowance I can't afford, I'll stick to my NES. I mean retro gaming is getting a lot more attention recently, so I would have thought Nintendo would have gone back to their roots of regular controllers and kick ass games and franchises, but nope that would be too easy. Plus not a single person I know bought a Wii U or is even interested in one, and I'm a teenager who knows a lot of gamers. Nintendo needs to pull their shit together fast if they don't want to be pushed out of the market by IOS gaming.

[kupomogli]

It will be interesting to see if it's all marketing hyperbole, or if Criterion is really serious on this. The reviews of that game are going to be interesting. If I had a Wii U, I'd defintiely want to rent it and try it out. Especially if it supported off screen play (which I assume it would).

It does.

[kupomogli]

It's now safe to say the Wii U has poor sales. When the Vita sells more, you know your sales are low.

Thanks to the long overdue price drop in Japan, the Vita has sold just over 82,000 the week ending in March 2nd, in comparison to the Wii U's 27,000.

[The 1 2 P]

I'm more interested in US sales. We should be finding out pretty soon how the Wii U sold in February.

[Tanooki]

One thing I'd love to know is how much into the supposedly super low sales in January were due to the blowback from all the slime trying to prey on people during the holdays with heavily marked up WiiU systems that didn't sell? Early that month would be the end of your return ticket time for a 'gift purchase' so a lot of stuff could have gone back to the stores for a credit so that could have gummed up the works as much as those people who didn't have them just selling them for notably cheaper on craigslist and ebay to get rid of the systems and those wouldn't pop up on the sales radar either. I'm not saying the WiiU sold great in January but I believe there were other forces at work and it wasn't as bad as it appears.

[kupomogli]

Even if they might have sold more in January, it's not like it hurt their overall sales. If resellers didn't buy the consoles in the first place, later off dumping the consoles off for cheaper than you can get them in store, then Nintendo wouldn't have made that sale, only the sale from the purchase who later purchased it at retail. $300-$350 may have been too expensive for alot of those people as well so without getting the deal they got on Craigslist, they may have never purchased them to begin with, so the sales may overall have been worse even if January and February sold a little bit better. It's not like there's really any incentive to buy the console full price when literally nothing has been coming out, so the resellers did Nintendo a favor by buying them thinking they'll sell like the Wii.

[WCP]

I honestly can't really see the Wii U sales increasing very much until Nintendo brings one of their heavy hitters. I don't think Pikmin 3 or Wonderful 101 is going to do it. I'm sure both of those games are going to be fantastic games, but I just don't think they have enough appeal to get somebody to spend $400 to get the whole package. Especially when people already know about PS4 and will soon know about Xbox Infinity.


They need a really huge 1st party game. When is Mario Kart coming out ? When is the 3D Mario coming out ? When is the Yoshi game (with the epic yarn artstyle), and the wind waker remake coming (November ? ). Nintendo needs a big first party game, and they need it NOW. I mean, each month that goes by without having one of those big games is going to really hurt them. I don't think the Lego City game is going to get people to put a $400 charge on their credit card.

[SOL BADGUY]

I was just talking to a friend about me playing a 3DS for the first time today. The screen hurt my eyes within seconds and so the lady lowered the setting but didnt turn it completely off so after a minute I had to turn the 3D completely off. The 3DS seems to have some good RPG's on it, but maybe the 3DS should die. Then Nintendo will put Pokemon on the Wii U and then the kids who want to play Pokemon that have made the handhelds sell big numbers will buy it.

But maybe what could happen if Nintendo ever gives up making home consoles, theyll stick to making handheld consoles. Theyre the only ones to do super well over the years. The 3DS lack of great sales is because of that stupid screen. The next handheld they release will do good if it doesnt have a screen that causes your eyes to bleed after playing for an hour.

[danawhitaker]

I was just talking to a friend about me playing a 3DS for the first time today. The screen hurt my eyes within seconds and so the lady lowered the setting but didnt turn it completely off so after a minute I had to turn the 3D completely off. The 3DS seems to have some good RPG's on it, but maybe the 3DS should die. Then Nintendo will put Pokemon on the Wii U and then the kids who want to play Pokemon that have made the handhelds sell big numbers will buy it.

But maybe what could happen if Nintendo ever gives up making home consoles, theyll stick to making handheld consoles. Theyre the only ones to do super well over the years. The 3DS lack of great sales is because of that stupid screen. The next handheld they release will do good if it doesnt have a screen that causes your eyes to bleed after playing for an hour.

I've found most games absolutely playable with the 3D mode turned off. I concur with you - it makes me ill to have it on, even for a few minutes. Alternately, though, I know people who don't seem to have issues with the 3D mode settings. I assume it's some defect with me. I also cannot play Perfect Dark on the N64 without starting to feel sick. But aside from that, it's a fun handheld, and I don't think the 3D stuff needs to be removed from the next iteration. I suspect that's not the cause of any sales issues that it had initially.

[The 1 2 P]

I also cannot play Perfect Dark on the N64 without starting to feel sick.

This is most likely due to motion sickness. We have a thread for that here (http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?135802-Motion-sickness-remedies-for-gaming&highlight=motion+sickness) though it's a few years old. From my experience fps games with dark colors and muddy textures are a sure way to get motion sickness, espeically when you run in them.

[The 1 2 P]

You aren't going to make much money off selling it.

[The 1 2 P]

So according to this (http://venturebeat.com/2013/03/14/february-npd-dead-space-3-takes-top-spot-crysis-3-cant-outpace-call-of-duty/) the Wii U sold around 80,000 units during February. Thats an improvement over last month but um....they still have some work to do.

[kupomogli]

That's only in the US. It was around 130,000 worldwide.

[Griking]

I honestly can't really see the Wii U sales increasing very much until Nintendo brings one of their heavy hitters. I don't think Pikmin 3 or Wonderful 101 is going to do it. I'm sure both of those games are going to be fantastic games, but I just don't think they have enough appeal to get somebody to spend $400 to get the whole package. Especially when people already know about PS4 and will soon know about Xbox Infinity.


They need a really huge 1st party game. When is Mario Kart coming out ? When is the 3D Mario coming out ? When is the Yoshi game (with the epic yarn artstyle), and the wind waker remake coming (November ? ). Nintendo needs a big first party game, and they need it NOW. I mean, each month that goes by without having one of those big games is going to really hurt them. I don't think the Lego City game is going to get people to put a $400 charge on their credit card.


They need more than one. I don't know that many gamers willing to shell out $400 for a console in order to play one game which they'd still have to buy separately btw.

[The 1 2 P]

That's only in the US. It was around 130,000 worldwide.

If thats true then it's even worst than I thought. 130,000 worldwide sales is less than half of what the 360 sold for February in the US alone. Like I said, they still have lots of work to do. How much longer before Nintendo's big games start to hit? I know they'll have stuff in the pipeline for the holidays but I think they need to start pushing out stuff before October to increase interest in the system before the other systems launch.

[VG_Maniac]

How much longer before Nintendo's big games start to hit? I know they'll have stuff in the pipeline for the holidays but I think they need to start pushing out stuff before October to increase interest in the system before the other systems launch.

I can't imagine them having any more than just ONE big title ready for the holidays. Most of the new stuff they show at E3 this year will be more than a year away from release. The new 3D Mario will most likely come out in mid to late 2014, and we probably won't see the new Zelda or Smash Bros. games until 2015.

[WCP]

I can't imagine them having any more than just ONE big title ready for the holidays. Most of the new stuff they show at E3 this year will be more than a year away from release. The new 3D Mario will most likely come out in mid to late 2014, and we probably won't see the new Zelda or Smash Bros. games until 2015.



If this is true, then Nintendo will get what they deserve (failure). Seriously.... If you're going to release a new console, then you better have planned a couple of years ahead of time, and you have to have a bunch of studios banging away getting games ready for the launch window. All we got was NSMB U and Nintendoland, and we are still waiting on Pikmin 3. Are you going to tell me that they only had 3 of their development teams working on key games for their new system ? Only two of those 3 teams even have a game out right now. We are still waiting for the Pikmin game. We heard about a Mario Kart, that will supposedly be shown at e3. We've heard about a new 3D Mario, to be shown at e3. We know the Windwaker remake is coming, and the Yoshi game. Unfortunately, I think the earliest any of those games will be out, is probably like September.

I mean, Pikmin will make it out before September, but I'm not sure any of the other ones will. This is just extremely poor planning on Nintendo's part. How could they come out with a brand new system, and not have enough quality software to feed it, during the first couple of months. Only 2 games ?

If the Wii U ends up being a big failure for Nintendo, it will be a well earned failure. Hopefully they can learn from their mistakes, and come back hungrier on the next go-round

[VG_Maniac]

Here's a new IGN article on the slow Wii U sales:

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/03/15/2013-wii-u-sales-look-dismal

"Nintendo's console sold just 57,000 units in January, managing to up that number to 64,000 in February. This is worse than any recorded week for the current-generation consoles (Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3). The Xbox was top of the hardware chart with 302,000."

[Leo_A]

Wish they'd do some quick HD collections to get some of their big franchises out.

I'd love to be able to buy Metroid Prime Trilogy HD, a collection of the two Super Mario Galaxy releases and Super Mario Sunshine, and a Zelda collection with Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, and Skyward Sword. Judging by Dolphin, these games would make excellent candidates for HD rereleases.

Without such things, we could be in for a very long wait for some of these franchises to make appearances on the Wii U. Major console Zelda entries seem to take a good 4-5 years and Skyward Sword is only a year old for one example.

Stumbled across this post of mine as I was searching for discussion on HD remasterings after recently playing through Wind Waker HD and the PS3's Team Ico Collection. All I can say is that Nintendo missed a huge opportunity here to economically fill some glaring gaps in the Wii U's lineup.

Wind Waker HD is so well done, I can only imagine what a full line of remasterings could've done. Instead, we're looking at not even getting a single Metroid title outside of some digital offerings that are unchanged on the Wii U. Imagine the Wind Waker HD treatment being applied to MPT and the two Super Mario Galaxys.

I bet it they could've even been outsourced to great effect. We've seen many of the best remasterings be outsourced rather than done in-house, allowing them to concentrate on new releases instead of reworking past glories.

Removing the constraints of standard definition could've made some of these modern classics feel brand new...

[Tanooki]

Had they done a players choice line of HD remasters I think there would have been a fair chance I'd have kept the system. I ditched the Wii and I'd feel fine having double dipped on some boosted up old GC games too. Even if I wasn't annoyed with the lack of others making games, at least the stream of quality every couple months or quarter would have been there with remasters to not get bored.

[Niku-Sama]

Ds player

[PizzaKat]

I'm wondering if Mario Maker will boost the sales or if any of the games this fall will. I'm looking forward to Mario Maker down the road. Starfox, Mario Tennis and Xenoblade. Much more than PS4 which I don't even know will come out this fall/winter, I gotta check that out.

[Leo_A]

Super Mario Maker will undoubtedly boost sales compared to what it would've done without it.

But as we've seen time and time again with big AAA additions like Super Mario 3D World, Mario Kart 8, and Super Smash Brothers 4, it's only going to provide a modest boost. For instance, in early January of 2014, Nintendo announced that Super Mario 3D World from the previous November had sold over 1 million units. An extremely optimistic figure for the number of systems it was primarily responsible for selling during the Wii U's 1 year anniversary during the Christmas 2013 shopping season is half a million units.

This was supposed to be the system's savior after a difficult time of it after its modestly successful launch the year before. Yet it had the lowest debut of a 3D Mario platformer in Japan, selling barely half of its initial shipment and just boosting console sales from 16,000 units the week before to 21,000 units. In the US, it debuted outside the top 10 on the NPD sales chart, managing a modest 215,000 copies during its first 8 days on the market. And even by May, it had only managed to surpass the 2 million mark. And by June of this year, it was still at a disappointing 4.30 million units sold.

Super Mario Maker, just like Super Mario 3D World, will undoubtedly help move Wii U consoles. But just like all the past saviors, it's not going to change much. It will hopefully manage to help Nintendo sell several hundred thousand consoles that otherwise wouldn't of been sold had Nintendo not had this title available for the upcoming Christmas season. But from a practical viewpoint, nothing will have changed for the Wii U's position.

It won't be the Wii U's belated sales counterpart to Wii Sports, which could manage some significant changes to the platform's market position. It's just going to be responsible for a fairly small uptick in sales. I firmly believe that the Wii U's that Super Mario Maker will sell, will be able to be counted in the thousands rather than the millions.

[bb_hood]

I am tempted to buy a wii-u just for mario maker.

[Tanooki]

I just don't see Mario Maker selling systems, but it'll be a must buy for current owners. Not everyone wants to or has the time to design stages. Mind you I don't know a whole lot, does it have a full game on it too like LittleBigPlanet does? That would help a lot. The sad reality is most who want a WiiU and would keep it already have one. They also know the NX is going to put it out of its misery late next year or early going into 2017 so spending might end up being light other than for something rare and huge like that Zelda release.

I thikn if you want to see slow sales stop on WiiU, you'd need just a few big things. Drop the price by 1/2. Start reprinting games. Stock said games on any store shelf that will take them to be visually there. Remove head from ass, start running big regular ad spots touting the system exists and has all these great games.

Until they realize the price point, minimizing physical shipments, and not advertising for crap on major OFFLINE media (ie: TV, etc) nothing is going to help. If people don't know what you are and that you exist, plus have a price advantage so good it's stupid not to jump in, and with a wide selection of light blue boxes on the shelves with many games in them...they won't buy a damn thing. Hell if they did that I'd serious consider second thoughts into stupidly sinking into another again around that $125-150 mark, but they'd also have to have the games to back it up. Most people aren't going to want to pay above MSRP for used quality stuff like Pikmin 3 among others scalpers love to nail people on.

[otaku]

tanooki is right they could be making good sales if they would advertise more in general and especially on price point and family/general audience friendliness. Look how well the wii did! No reason for wii u not to as well. I still want one and found I can get one from nintendo for $200 which is very reasonable if they could manage that at a brand new price with a game or perhaps lower I bet they'd sell very well.

[Tanooki]

They could manage it, but they won't do it. I know when the system came out what is it now 3 years ago, the tablet controller cost them over $100 in parts alone, assembly extra and they I think just barely broke even at the original $300 asking price for the basic and $350 for the deluxe model. Prices on parts, even specialized stuff goes down over time, they just refuse to accept reality and lower it because of their extreme losses over crappy sales. Sometimes you need to take the bullet and slash the cost to move more hardware to make up the short term loss of doing that. Move more systems, in turn move more games, and being a license seller to game makers you get bank off every single game published on the system.

[Leo_A]

Pricing and advertising is all but inconsequential at this point. Barring something extreme like a huge price cut to $100, the only differences would be minor. Wii U's reputation is well established and it's well known that it's in its twilight. Nothing game changing is an easy move at this point.

For a significantly different result, they'd need a time machine and the benefit of hindsight.

[Gamevet]

The delay of the next Legend of Zelda game on the Wii U suggests to me that Nintendo plans on releasing the title on the Wii U and NX at the same time. It'll be much like the release of Twilight Princess on the GC and Wii.

I don't think that Nintendo has learned anything from the mistakes that they have made with the Wii U. Unless they have unique 3rd party titles with solid support from Nintendo, the NX will suffer a similar fate as the Wii U.

[Tanooki]

It's possible. But it also may do far better. You have to realize it's not really a console this time around if that rumor mill about the scalable hardware is correct. The NX launches as a handheld, and the game media, also will work on a consolized version of that shortly after when it arrives (and also if not bs that you can buy an optical drive for it to run WiiU stuff too.) If the stories are right or at least mostly right, you have a handheld system with physical (cards I guess like 3DS) and download as a choice on games. Good solid hardware that can perform better than the last gen stuff, probably closer but not up to snuff with what's out there now -- making it more on par like with the Shield console perhaps. Cheap games, normal games due to the DENA deal/co-op going on. They've not suffered anything like their consoles have for game developer support. If that still holds true then those handheld games would hit the NX console too so it could fare better, especially if any of those nice Android games can be easily ported over from a box like that Shield.

Too early to say until they man up and spill the beans, but if the stories are fairly right, they have a fighting chance unlike if they did another stupid underpowered console with another dumb unique idea that'll piss off game developers and standard non-Nintendo only suck-up gamers alike into ignoring it.

[Gamevet]

It's possible. But it also may do far better. You have to realize it's not really a console this time around if that rumor mill about the scalable hardware is correct. The NX launches as a handheld, and the game media, also will work on a consolized version of that shortly after when it arrives (and also if not bs that you can buy an optical drive for it to run WiiU stuff too.) If the stories are right or at least mostly right, you have a handheld system with physical (cards I guess like 3DS) and download as a choice on games. Good solid hardware that can perform better than the last gen stuff, probably closer but not up to snuff with what's out there now -- making it more on par like with the Shield console perhaps. Cheap games, normal games due to the DENA deal/co-op going on. They've not suffered anything like their consoles have for game developer support. If that still holds true then those handheld games would hit the NX console too so it could fare better, especially if any of those nice Android games can be easily ported over from a box like that Shield.

Too early to say until they man up and spill the beans, but if the stories are fairly right, they have a fighting chance unlike if they did another stupid underpowered console with another dumb unique idea that'll piss off game developers and standard non-Nintendo only suck-up gamers alike into ignoring it.

It's really hard to tell what it will be. I'm getting the impression that it will be a handheld device that will have a docking station to enable it to play the same games on a display within your home.

[Tanooki]

Yeah I'm wondering that myself. I've posted probably a couple years of speculation on this fact now and refining it as they do say concrete stuff in passing, about other projects or things, or their business evolution.

I see the way for them to survive is how they said that they want a 'scalable' platform. They've merged both their handheld and console divisions for hardware. They're also merging game design, latest being EAD and the other into 1 a week ago. They got in bed with DENA which gives them finally strong net support and backbone to use, but also they've been poking around a lot with Android/iOS stuff too and from that so far we have Pokemon Shuffle on both formats. They talked up having one piece of media to use. This also fits with the either or concept of having the NX be 2 systems but the console having beefier but same parts (like how a PC can have a mediocre or a bitchin video card where both games play just one looks a bit nicer) or they'll go the NEO GEO-X way and with a docking station for the handheld that has various USB ports, a controller, or the use of Wii/WiiU controllers/tablets since the rumor is there of an optional wiiU reading optical drive for the home version.

If they did get something like that out there using 1 game for 2 pieces of hardware and games always work on both, just prettier at home (if it's not a docking station solution) that can easily tap into the games of Android for instance, they could really rack up some serious backing on the eShop and physically too. I think going after the so called micro-console market would be more manageable for them to succeed than trying to go to the nose with sony and ms going forward as it's a lost cause not just really with gamers but third parties specifically.

[Niku-Sama]

Mario maker is selling systems.

at work since I ran out of the bundle people have been buying NSMB U and Mario Kart 8 bundles with Mario Maker

[Leo_A]

While 3DS related, this news has been a common complaint about the Wii U and its failure to take advantage of its small but very decent back catalog of releases that many Wii U owners essentially missed out on.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-09-28-3ds-games-announced-for-budget-priced-nintendo-selects-range

Want to bet that Nintendo of America doesn't follow?