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Gamerace on 30 August 2013
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Zero999 said:
Gamerace said:
Zero999 said:
Gamerace said:

Reality check:

Virtual boy sales from July - Dec 95 = 350,000 (Jp/NA only) or 70,000/mth 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_Boy

WiiU sales from Jan - June '13 = 550,000 (all markets) or 92,000/mth

http://ca.ign.com/articles/2013/07/31/exactly-how-bad-is-the-nintendo-situation

You take Europe and the rest of the world out of that equation and it's selling Virtual Boy numbers.  In fact, for the last four month worse than Virtual Boy dispite being available in far more regions.

I said many times that current sales are irrelevant for predictions. if wii u still sells badly after the big games come, then you would have a point. untill then it's a pointless "argument".

My original point was that WiiU might have a short life, allowing Nintendo to launch another (more powerful, innovative and mass appealing) system still early in this gen, which, if it has Wii-like sales, could win the gen over PS4 which will only appeal to gamers and largely split that market with XB1.

The virtual boy reference is proof Nintendo IS willing to kill poor selling hardware and at the moment WiiU is selling worse than virtual boy.

Obviously Nintendo is still committed to WiiU and will be until at least E3 2014 (which is the earliest they could/would possible announce a successor but I'm on record as predicting a new system won't come before 2016 but then, I also predicted 30m sales for WiiU which look dubious at best now).  

If the holiday onslaught of games and later Mario Kart 8/Smash Bros lift and maintain WiiU sales at a healthy level then Nintendo will keep it around. If they merely spike sales and then they flatline again in January (with sales bumps for Kart/Smash) you better believe they'll be looking to move to replace WiiU ASAP.

bolded: that won't happen, the last time something like that happened we received the dreamcast. it is a mistake to kill a console instead of investing in it. by your logic they should have dropped the 3ds too, right?

So Nintendo didn't can the Virtual Boy?   Facts state otherwise.  3DS was never the sales fiasco WiiU currently is.

bolded2: not quite, the virtual boy was in a far too different situation and wii u is not selling worse than it. and the reason for wii u selling badly was always games.

Lack of games is indeed a big issue, but so is general lack of consumer interest. Same issue Virtual Boy had.  That's why sales dropped off a cliff in January despite a lot of games having just come out the months prior.  Nintendo has utterly failed to show why anyone wants to use the gamepad, so people don't.  It's hindering sales, along with WiiU'a price and lack of games.  Nintendo has now addressed two of those issues.  Question remains how much will it ultimately help.

the rest: there's barely any reason for IF's, quality software sells hardware.

Yeah, worked great for Gamecube.