foxtail said:
Sales are pretty poor and Nintendo need to make changes fix the situation. But if you ignore games, then I think it's mostly price and to a lesser extent consumer awareness that are the problem. 70% of Wii U's sold are the Deluxe models priced at $350. That entry price is still too high for the average Nintendo customer. Even the original Wii has been outselling the Wii U in the USA until recently because the Wii is way cheaper and has some old games people still want to play. Nintendo also needs to do a better job at differentiating the two consoles and give Wii owners a reason to upgrade, but that $350 price is a major stumbling block. They need to have a better marketing campaign that shows what the Wii U is and what you can do with it. They need add better value for the Deluxe model with more bundles or a price drop. I don't think it's likely that Nintendo will do anything with price or marketing till after they show their new games at E3. |
At which point (after E3) the NextBox & PS4 will also be pushing hard with marketing. It seems, to me atleast, that Nintendo has completely botched the only advantage they had with the Wii U, the one year head start. Mario, Zelda, Metroid etc (ie Nintendo's pimp hand) have not been properly utilized to showcase the new platform. It will be an up hill battle to convince people that a handfull of Nintendo 1st party games deserve your time & money when they see the advances the competion is making with their hardware.
Also the perseption that the Wii U is dieing on the starting blocks won't help consumer confidence any this summer & beyond.
