You must also remember that even if the price was lower, N64 games at launch were quite expensive. I had the Playstation and had a shit ton of games and I remember my friend slowly creating a collection because games were $60, $70 and even $80. It adds up.

Inflation too. Today those games would be $100+. I paid $79.99 for Star Wars Shadows of the Empire IIRC (don't ask) back during the N64 launch.

True. It wasn't easy to amass a library back then on the Nintendo platform, but when the prices dropped and EB had the competitive pricing it was much better for all of us.

The Saturn was the craziest console launch ever. I remember walking into a Blockbuster Video and it was just .... there. Out of nowhere, they decided to launch the console like 4 months early as a surprise, lol.

Looks like the main problem is price and 1st party lineup.

In all seriousness, the main problem seems to have been the higher price of the Wii U, even accounting for inflation, and the lack of first party games.

Compared to the N64: The Wii U has an okay Mario platformer, which is almost as good as a revolutionary 3D one, but lacked the variety of exclusives like Killer Instinct, Cruisn, and Wave Race at launch. Afterwards, the N64 didn't actually sell that well (probably off of SM64's success mostly) until a price cut to $150 and Mario Kart saved the day. And then, by the time the Wii U got Pikmin 3, the N64 had Goldeneye and Star Fox 64. So that's something like four killer apps for the N64 in the time the Wii U has had one at most.

Compared to the GameCube: This is the most damning comparison to make, but when you look at what the GameCube had, it was impressive in its early days. By August, you had already known major hits like Smash Bros and Super Mario Sunshine, but also new hits like Luigi's Mansion and Pikmin. Not to mention better 3rd party support like Star Wars, Sonic, and Resident Evil. I'm sorry, but the closest thing the Wii U had to a hit in America between launch and Pikmin 3 was Lego City... which has sold only about 230,000 in the USA thus far. And once again, the GameCube had a major price cut pretty early on, which gave it that extra boost towards the end.

Compared to the Wii: This seems almost unfair, but notice how Nintendo had a game every month or two for the Wii in 2007? The exception, March, was a low point for the system. Also note that, thanks to similar specs to the GameCube, devs were easily able to shift gears. Note how soon Mario Party 8 came out, the fact that Super Paper Mario was once meant for the GameCube, and how Metroid Prime 3 used existing assets.

So, what can Nintendo do at this point? Well, by cutting the price by $50 and varying the bundles a bit, they're off to a decent start. Wind Waker HD ought to sell well (see Ocarina 3D on the 3DS), and even if it doesn't reach a million in the US alone, it will move some units. Wii Party U might flop, but it could also end up being this gen's Wii Play, albeit a few months late. That's better than the Wii, GC, or N64 had in October, although the Wii and GC had better Septembers.

Looking into November, Nintendo has a 3D Mario. This is big, especially since it is that newfangled 2D/3D mix that people loved on the 3DS. It could end up being just as big a hit as Galaxy, especially with multiplayer thrown in. This is roughly equivalent to the Wii's Galaxy and the N64's Diddy Kong Racing, and is actually better than the GameCube's equivalent (Metroid Prime).

December is even better for Nintendo. DKCR:TF combined with Wii Fit U ought to, in combination with already released and the above mentioned games, finally make the Wii U a system with a broad library for its target audience. The fact that they're (like SM3DW) recycling resourcesfrom other games is no problem if the Wii was any indicator.



tl;dr Nintendo actually may have made the Wii U TOO powerful, since it created delays for some of their games. Some of the most notable Wii U hits of 2013 are going to use recycled resources, but the Wii proved that this is acceptable. The Wii U has been a failure so far, but redemption is still achievable.

In other words, don't count it out until its third Xmas. ;-p

I think Super Mario 3D World is going to be received a lot like Super Mario Sunshine -- it'll sell the same 5-6 million, but it won't quite be the Mario game that fans really wanted (something more in the vein of Mario 64/Galaxy). People are pretty harsh on Mario Sunshine though, relative to the size of the GCN userbase it sold pretty well and has a Metacritic score of 92.

Also I think Nintendo's habit of making equivalent portable and console versions of the same franchises (ie: NSMBU + NSMB2) released in 2 years or less between titles is a mistake on their part. It creates brand saturation and worse creates the impression of "I already have this on my 3DS, I don't need to buy a Wii U for that" even if its a "new" game.

Mario saturation in general I think is going to become a bit of an ugly problem for Nintendo in the next couple of years if they don't start trusting/pushing other IPs to sell systems.

Metroid Prime was also a pretty huge critical darling for the Gamecube in 2002, a lot of the major gaming press gave it Game of the Year honors and a sky high reviews, so it added a nice amount of prestige to the GCN, even if it wasn't the Halo-equivalent Nintendo was hoping for. Animal Crossing, Star Fox Adventures, and Resident Evil 0 weren't too shabby either.

Wow. It's amazing how completely clusterf---ed the WiiU's launch is compared to others, especially Wii's as far as software support.

Wii greatly benefited from a lot of games pulled off the failing Gamecube's release schedule (LoZ:TP, DK:BB, FE:RD, Mario Strikers Charged, Super Paper Mario) but still there were a lot of dedicated Wii games ready for the first year.

WiiU in comparison.... WTF Nintendo?

It doesn't make sense to me, unless with market research Nintendo knew in advance WiiU would be a dud and knew the middling titles normally released in the summer wouldn't be nearly strong enough to save it so they pulled all that development resources for the (then) struggling 3DS so at least they'd have one strong leg to stand on. It's a bit of a conspiracy theory granted but looking at the lanches for all their other home consoles and then WiiU - it's a shockingly stark comparison. And I don't believe they underestimated HD development that badly. Now that 3DS is stable they've had time to prime major titles for WiiU and if they don't bring it to at least N64 levels, expect all further game development to be pulled for WiiU's replacement just like GC's was for Wii.

Now I'm worried about the WiiU. N64 opened with only Super Mario 64 and PilotWings 64, but I guess quality is what counts and SM64 is a pretty damn good Mario game, my favorite Mario Platformer.

So Basically, if they can't sell in October, they are dead.   If they can, they are ok.

Wow, wii u is flat-lining right now compared to the others.