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VGKing on 30 March 2013
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BuckStud said:
VGKing said:
nuckles87 said:
VGKing said:
nuckles87 said:
VGKing said:
The lack of these big-name 3rd party titles is what killed the Wii.(Of course Nintendo had some part in this as well)

Even though Wii U is getting some big games such as AC and Watch Dogs, its still missing some major franchises. The ones it did get didn't sell very well at launch so I think the future of 3rd party support for Wii U won't be much different than that of the Wii.

 

If you call selling 99 million units "killed" anyway. It was a lack of software in general that caused Wii's sales to stall. The Wii didn't need big name third party titles to sell units. After 2010, the Wii's software releases slowed to a trickle, with only two releases of any note in 2011 and almost nothing at all in 2012. No major Nintendo titles, let alone third party. Coincidentally, that's also when Wii's sales went into a downward spiral from which it would never reover.

Just look at 3DS. All it needed was a price cut, Mario 3D Land, and Mario Kart, and the system started selling great. Not saying it WILL happen with Wii U, as it is in a different situation from the 3DS, but it COULD, and it's too early to say whether or not it will.

3DS isn't exactly lighting the charts on fire. It's only selling well in Japan. Everywhere else its selling horribly considering its 2 years old.

 

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The 3DS has been continuing to out pace the DS worldwide last I checked, and has done quite well during the holiday seasons. It's not lighting up the charts like the DS was at it's height, but then again it took the DS more then two years to reach it's height.

This article gives a pretty good idea of the 3DS's success after it's price cut and the launch of it's flagship software titles:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2012/03/06/a-year-later-3ds-sales-make-it-an-unqualified-success/

Worldwde success, mind you. So yeah, the 3DS is selling well. It's not flying off the shelves, but the roughly 31 million units it's expected to have sold by the end of it's second year is by no stretch of the imagination "horrible".

In any case, this is all something of a moot point. As the 3DS has shown, and as the Wii U has shown this past week, software DOES drive hardware sales.

Most the the sales it curently has are due to the huge price cut and the new 3DS XL. Now the momentum of both has worn off, sales have slowed to a crawl and its down YoY when it should be increasing. The 3DS will have a much shorter life than the DS and it will sell much less.

Sales have slowed to a crawl?!? It's beating everything else out there nearly every week.

I do agree that it won't achieve DS sales, as the times have changed, just as I don't think Sony will achieve PS2 sales again either.

PS3 is 7 years old. 3DS is barely beating that every week. BARELY.

As smartphones and tablets continue to get more and more popular, you're going to see less of a need to own a 3DS or a Vita. It's already hard to justify a purchase. What 3DS needs is free to play games to complement the Pokemon and Mario games. Not saying Nintendo themselevs should release free games, but let others do it.