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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Wii U sales trend may be just as expected if we look at Nintendo's home console sales.

 

Did you expect Wii U's current sales trend?

Yes 127 45.85%
 
No 95 34.30%
 
Yo Mama 49 17.69%
 
Total:271

While making a thread earlier, I stumbled across a trend that I hadn't paid much attention to before. So I put all the Nintendo home console sales data into a graph and here's what we have:

It seems that Nintendo's home console sales have been on a steady decline ever since the NES up to GC. The Wii came along and massively broke that trend.

But if we were to take the Wii sales figure out of the above chart and considered it an anomaly, the current Wii U sales number tracking behind GC for the same period of time they've been out on the market (Wii U=6.25, GC=9.55) would actually fit the above trend quite nicely. This was noted by Seece in his recent thread where it was argued that Wii U may not end up catching up to GC in lifetime sales (http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=182183), which again would fit the above trend if Wii is not included.

Now I understand that there are a lot of parameters that affect a video game console sales such as competition from other consoles, and the Wii U could end up outselling the GC, but the decline in Nintendo's home console sales from NES to GC is apparent. One could argue that the Wii tapped into a different audience altogether (the casuals) and hence it broke the trend, an audience that does not seem to be returning thus far. It seems though that the Wii U is now back to following the trend the past Nintendo consoles have followed and hence its sales may have been something we should have expected.

Is there any particular reason for this decline in Nintendo's console sales? How does the Wii fit into all this? Also, what does this mean about Nintendo's future? Yours thoughts?



 

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N64 and GCN was failure only because Nintendo was stupid enough to use cartridge/mini-dvds. Maybe in some alternative reality N64 sold over 50mil units.

And for the poll: I voted yes, because the real trend is how dumb Nintendo is with their home console



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The Wii was a response to the decline in home console sales - which worked out very well for them. "The Wii was a fluke" Narrative is complete bullshit - it was a deliberate, intentional and genius move to capture an untapped market. They were banking on a similar strategy again, but the execution was terribly flawed.

The next console could flop worst then the Wii U - in fact Nintendo could already be irrelevant in the home console market, however, it is impossible to predict the future - as anything can happen. When a company is pushed to the edge they will no doubt fight back - luckily -Nintendo has a few tools at their disposable such as their war chest of cash, popular IPS and more importantly talent.

Nintendo is still one of the, if not - the biggest dedicated gaming company in the world.

I personally wouldn't count them out just yet.



NES: Kings of market no competition target: kids use. toy
SNES: the market grew up but they shared with genesis target: the same kids use: toy, sex appeal
N64: Play station + bad decitions target: adolescents use: sex appeal, bf
GC: Play station 2 + bad decitions + xbox target: kids again?? use: as toy???
wii: PS3, 360, android target: your granny use: dust catcher
wiiu: entretainment, money addicts target: if you know let me know use: prank theme

 

It was not expected

but i agree with ________  terrible execution

starting for the name



Indeed, was expected. I don't know how profitable was GCN (at least software) but assuming wii u will be something similar, Nintendo should focus on handhelds, especially now that 3ds could be their worst-selling portable. Competition in home consoles is way too much for them.



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I already knew about the trend and the fact the Wii was an early burn out fluke for years, but what's really interesting to me when I look at the numbers now...

Although the SNES was only about 82% of the NES, the N64 was only about 65% of the SNES, and the Gamecube was only about 65% of the N64. Those last two being the same just seems like a really strange coincidence at first.

But what's really shocking is the numbers you gave for the Wii U and Gamecube aligned: 6.25 is about 65% of 9.55. At least so far, the Wii U is also only achieving about 65% of what its predecessor did!

If the 65% trend really did continue, that would bring the Wii U's lifetime to about 14 million, which realistically is impossibly low. Still, really interesting trend with the 65% there...



EricFabian said:

N64 and GCN was failure only because Nintendo was stupid enough to use cartridge/mini-dvds. Maybe in some alternative reality N64 sold over 50mil units.

And for the poll: I voted yes, because the real trend is how dumb Nintendo is with their home console


and because they are like 10x more indestructable comapred to PS1 and PS2. So many people did not beed to buy 2nd-5th consoles in that gen to enjoy their games.



 

 

I've stated this in one of my threads already.



 

                          

 

I would be interested in a comparison with Sega and their hardware. And then we maybe can see the future of Nintendo, too... even if I don't like that.



I don't hate Microsoft, I don't hate PC,
I don't prefer Sony, I don't prefer Nintendo.
...Ok, I love Nintendo but this is something about tolerance, ok?

I'm a gamer with one of the greatest hobbies and I want to share this greatness with everyone.

Ninricken said:
I would be interested in a comparison with Sega and their hardware. And then we maybe can see the future of Nintendo, too... even if I don't like that.


Isn't there enough doom on this forum already?