Why do people keep blaming weak European sales on the economy?
TOTAL YEARLY HARDWARE SALES
| Year | USA | Europe | |
| 2009 | 30,770,891 | 27,083,650 | 88.0% |
| 2010 | 29,394,692 | 23,704,214 | 80.6% |
| 2011 | 26,034,842 | 23,033,785 | 88.5% |
| 2012 | 19,915,946 | 17,296,580 |
86.9% |
Even with the recessions, European spending has been decreasing just as much as USA. Europe's spending on consoles has been pretty consistent with the USA. So why is the Wii U doing poorly in Europe rather than in USA? The answer involves problems with the Wii U rather than Europe's economy.
And this isn't a problem with Nintendo's brand power in Europe either. 3 out of the five best selling consoles in European are Nintendo consoles, lol
| Pos | Platform | North America | Europe | Japan | Rest of World | Global |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | PlayStation 2 (PS2) | 53.65 | 53.28 | 23.18 | 23.57 | 153.68 |
| 2 | Nintendo DS (DS) - Nintendo | 56.86 | 51.97 | 33.01 | 12.43 | 154.27 |
| 3 | Game Boy (GB) - Nintendo | 43.18 | 40.05 | 32.47 | 2.99 | 118.69 |
| 4 | PlayStation (PS) | 38.94 | 36.91 | 19.36 | 9.04 | 104.25 |
| 5 | Wii (Wii) - Nintendo | 44.36 | 32.54 | 12.68 | 9.21 | 98.79 |
As you can see. Nintendo is huge in Europe. The Nintendo DS will probably become the best selling console ever in Europe as it eventually passes the PS2, and the DS is only one gen old! And the Wii was huge in Europe as well; it's 3rd best selling home console in the region, only behind the PS2 and PSone. And it's barely behind the PSone. Clearly Europe loves Nintendo. So why is the Wii U doing so poorly compared to other Nintendo consoles? The answer involves problems with the Wii U rather than Nintendo's perception.
