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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - What's the deal with the Wii U in Europe?

snowdog on 21 December 2012
Mnementh said:
snowdog said:
Train wreck said:

I dont buy the economic crisis excuse

DS and Wii had record sales during the height of the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009 (nintendo had record profits)...next excuse.

No mate. 2008 was the start of this current financial crisis. We weren't officially in recession until 2009 if I remember correctly but a great deal of companies were experiencing problems in 2008. I was unfortunately made redundant in the Summer of 2008 so I should know when this mess started.

You could blame the poorer sales in Europe on the fact that we always get shafted with regards to retail prices over here. We always have to pay over-the-odds for clothing, DVDs, CDs, video games, TVs and consoles.

Yes, we europeans pay more for consoles and pay more and get games later if at all. But that all didn't hurt the Wii as bad as the WiiU.

And you can't compare sales of the Wii U to the sales of the Wii either. The Wii was a sales phenomenon, we're not going to see sales like that for a console for a VERY long time, if at all.

As someone has already said, the Wii was a great deal cheaper than the PS3 and 360 when it launched, with the Wii U sales you can only fairly compare them to the 360 at launch because the launch retail prices are pretty close.



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Nem on 21 December 2012
Kenology said:
Austerity!


Pretty much this.

 

Also, nintendo systems always start out slow in europe for some reason.



Mnementh on 21 December 2012

snowdog said:

And you can't compare sales of the Wii U to the sales of the Wii either. The Wii was a sales phenomenon, we're not going to see sales like that for a console for a VERY long time, if at all.

As someone has already said, the Wii was a great deal cheaper than the PS3 and 360 when it launched, with the Wii U sales you can only fairly compare them to the 360 at launch because the launch retail prices are pretty close.

We can compare the WiiU with the Wii, as the WiiU does around the same numbers as the Wii in the US and nearly as good in Japan. Look at these charts. Only in europe it is lagging behind. And you can't explain that to me with a bad FIFA while the Wii had no FIFA at all at launch.



3DS-FC: 4511-1768-7903 (Mii-Name: Mnementh), Nintendo-Network-ID: Mnementh, Switch: SW-7706-3819-9381 (Mnementh)

my greatest games: 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023

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Chrizum on 21 December 2012
Mnementh said:
outlawauron said:
Mnementh said:
IIIIITHE1IIIII said:
2 New Super Mario Bros. Wii Wii 2009 Platform Nintendo NA: 13.04 EU: 6.36 JP: 4.60 Rest: 2.21 All: 26.21

 

There we have (some of) it. They are not very interested in New Super Mario Bros. U and already have PS3/360/PC for third party titles, so they will wait for more exclusive system sellers.


I don't buy that. WiiU has FIFA, that should do something in Europe.

Why would FIFA fans buy the Wii U version over the PS3 and 360 version (i.e. where all their friends are)?

Right, but the same applies to the other 3rd-party-multiplats and other regions. Given the popularity of football (for americans: soccer) in europe, it may explain a little difference, but the WiiU is doing much worse in Europe than elsewhere. And it has a FIFA. The Wii got no FIFA at all and did better than the WiiU. In europe, as the WiiU does the same at the moment in the US and nearly as much in Japan. So I'm totally missing the explanation, why it is special for europe, that the WiiU bombs.

@bolded: what are you on about? Of course Wii had FIFA, every system since the dawn of time has FIFA.



bananaking21 on 21 December 2012
IIIIITHE1IIIII said:
bananaking21 said:
IIIIITHE1IIIII said:
2 New Super Mario Bros. Wii Wii 2009 Platform Nintendo NA: 13.04 EU: 6.36 JP: 4.60 Rest: 2.21 All: 26.21

 

There we have (some of) it. They are not very interested in New Super Mario Bros. U and already have PS3/360/PC for third party titles, so they will wait for more exclusive system sellers.


yeah it just sold 6.36 million. they clearly are not interested in the game. you do notice it sold in EU more than japan right? and WiiU numbers in japan are higher than in EU. its not because of SMB

 

Europe:

24
New Super Mario Bros. U (WiiU)
Nintendo, Platform
50,687 141,194 2

NA:

24
New Super Mario Bros. U (WiiU)
Nintendo, Platform
78,511 406,959 3

 

I rest my case.

when a console is doing bad in a region its software is expected to perform bad as well. this is the result of wiiU performing badly in europe not the reason



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Mnementh on 21 December 2012
Chrizum said:
Mnementh said:

Right, but the same applies to the other 3rd-party-multiplats and other regions. Given the popularity of football (for americans: soccer) in europe, it may explain a little difference, but the WiiU is doing much worse in Europe than elsewhere. And it has a FIFA. The Wii got no FIFA at all and did better than the WiiU. In europe, as the WiiU does the same at the moment in the US and nearly as much in Japan. So I'm totally missing the explanation, why it is special for europe, that the WiiU bombs.

@bolded: what are you on about? Of course Wii had FIFA, every system since the dawn of time has FIFA.

The Wii had one late in 2007, but not at launch. At least according to VGChartz-gamedatabase. I don't care for FIFA (although I'm a european and moreso a german), that's why I don't remember myself.



3DS-FC: 4511-1768-7903 (Mii-Name: Mnementh), Nintendo-Network-ID: Mnementh, Switch: SW-7706-3819-9381 (Mnementh)

my greatest games: 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023

10 years greatest game event!

bets: [peak year] [+], [1], [2], [3], [4]

Chrizum on 21 December 2012
Mnementh said:
Chrizum said:
Mnementh said:
 

Right, but the same applies to the other 3rd-party-multiplats and other regions. Given the popularity of football (for americans: soccer) in europe, it may explain a little difference, but the WiiU is doing much worse in Europe than elsewhere. And it has a FIFA. The Wii got no FIFA at all and did better than the WiiU. In europe, as the WiiU does the same at the moment in the US and nearly as much in Japan. So I'm totally missing the explanation, why it is special for europe, that the WiiU bombs.

@bolded: what are you on about? Of course Wii had FIFA, every system since the dawn of time has FIFA.

The Wii had one late in 2007, but not at launch. At least according to VGChartz-gamedatabase. I don't care for FIFA (although I'm a european and moreso a german), that's why I don't remember myself.

The Wii did have one at the EU launch. Also, you said Wii got no FIFA "at all", which really isn't true at all. FIFA has no relevance to the succes of a console whatsoever, except when tjat console actually doesn't have FIFA for it (because it really is popular here in EU).



Mnementh on 21 December 2012
Chrizum said:
Mnementh said:
Chrizum said:
Mnementh said:
 

Right, but the same applies to the other 3rd-party-multiplats and other regions. Given the popularity of football (for americans: soccer) in europe, it may explain a little difference, but the WiiU is doing much worse in Europe than elsewhere. And it has a FIFA. The Wii got no FIFA at all and did better than the WiiU. In europe, as the WiiU does the same at the moment in the US and nearly as much in Japan. So I'm totally missing the explanation, why it is special for europe, that the WiiU bombs.

@bolded: what are you on about? Of course Wii had FIFA, every system since the dawn of time has FIFA.

The Wii had one late in 2007, but not at launch. At least according to VGChartz-gamedatabase. I don't care for FIFA (although I'm a european and moreso a german), that's why I don't remember myself.

The Wii did have one at the EU launch. Also, you said Wii got no FIFA "at all", which really isn't true at all. FIFA has no relevance to the succes of a console whatsoever, except when tjat console actually doesn't have FIFA for it (because it really is popular here in EU).

So FIFA 07 was released on Wii? Because Wii released worldwide in some weeks (like WiiU) and was available here at 2006. The VGChartz-database at least has FFA 07 for many platforms, but not Wii:

http://www.vgchartz.com/gamedb/?name=fifa+07



3DS-FC: 4511-1768-7903 (Mii-Name: Mnementh), Nintendo-Network-ID: Mnementh, Switch: SW-7706-3819-9381 (Mnementh)

my greatest games: 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023

10 years greatest game event!

bets: [peak year] [+], [1], [2], [3], [4]

sethnintendo on 21 December 2012
Kenology said:
Train wreck said:

I dont buy the economic crisis excuse

DS and Wii had record sales during the height of the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009 (nintendo had record profits)...next excuse.

But that was a Wall Street/World financial market crisis.  Today we have severe economic cutbacks and austerity.  No revisionist history here, the financial crisis affected the fat cats, not ordinary people directly until the housing bubble burst (in the US).  We're just now feeling the socialized losses today via austerity.

 

I don't think people can justify buying a brand new console during these times in the EU.  PS4 and 720 will be facing a very similar situation.

Disaster 2: Everyone is Broke



Chrizum on 21 December 2012
Mnementh said:
Chrizum said:
Mnementh said:
Chrizum said:
Mnementh said:
 

Right, but the same applies to the other 3rd-party-multiplats and other regions. Given the popularity of football (for americans: soccer) in europe, it may explain a little difference, but the WiiU is doing much worse in Europe than elsewhere. And it has a FIFA. The Wii got no FIFA at all and did better than the WiiU. In europe, as the WiiU does the same at the moment in the US and nearly as much in Japan. So I'm totally missing the explanation, why it is special for europe, that the WiiU bombs.

@bolded: what are you on about? Of course Wii had FIFA, every system since the dawn of time has FIFA.

The Wii had one late in 2007, but not at launch. At least according to VGChartz-gamedatabase. I don't care for FIFA (although I'm a european and moreso a german), that's why I don't remember myself.

The Wii did have one at the EU launch. Also, you said Wii got no FIFA "at all", which really isn't true at all. FIFA has no relevance to the succes of a console whatsoever, except when tjat console actually doesn't have FIFA for it (because it really is popular here in EU).

So FIFA 07 was released on Wii? Because Wii released worldwide in some weeks (like WiiU) and was available here at 2006. The VGChartz-database at least has FFA 07 for many platforms, but not Wii:

http://www.vgchartz.com/gamedb/?name=fifa+07

I could've sworn Wii had FIFA 07 but you're right, it didn't. However, since FIFA is a multiplatform title and has never been that big on Nintendo consoles I seriously doubt having a FIFA game at launch is that important for the Wii U.

What I think is that the EU market is much more heterogeneous and diverse than the JP or USA market. So in order for a console to succeed, it needs a variety of big hitters, not just Mario or FIFA or Halo (for example). I think the Wii U is struggling a bit because it doesn't stand out yet amongst the other consoles. In USA, there are a LOT more Nintendo fans and they will gobble up Mario. Having NSMB at launch was a really good strategy for Nintendo, but less effective in EU.