Seece said:
That's a fair enough prediction, I wouldn't be surprised to see it reach those numbers and if I had to bet I would say it'll pass GC in the long run, but not 100% certified quite yet. |
i have no way to prove this, just my opinion, but i think being an early cheap Blu-Ray player helped PS3 in its first year and i dont remember what its first year line up was like but i dont think it was as weak as Wii U, could be wrong about that tho.
I think the blue ocean crowd will come back but in significantly smaller numbers. Wii Fit sold 20 million on Wii, i think it can do 5 million or more on Wii U. Wii Party sold 8 million on Wii, i think it can do 3 million on Wii U. Wii Sports sold 80 million and Sports Resort sold 30 million, i think the inevitable Wii U version can do 8 million. The casual market has definitely migrated to Smartphones/Tablets in strong numbers but i have a hard time believing they have no interest in consoles anymore. Once the games are out that appeal to them a decent percentage will return, PS4 doesnt have the type of games coming and One is too expensive right now so if they do come back i would have to assume it will be the Wii U as there main target.
One thing about the Gamecube that alot of people seem to ignore is alot of its most popular series went thru extreme changes and not alot of people responded very well. Mario Sunshine had a strong spin off vibe to it and didnt feel like a proper successor to Mario 64 or any of the 2D Marios. Donkey Kong never had a traditional installment, instead getting rythem games that required expensive bongo controllers. Kirby only had a racing game. Star Fox started fighting dinosaurs and by the time a traditional game came out it was too late. Zelda was considered too cartoony. Mario Kart and Smash Bros are the only big series that felt like sequels and Metroid is the only one that benefitted from changing.
One more thing to consider is the console itself was too kiddy looking compared to PS2/Xbox that looked similar to a DVD player and PC respectively. It wasnt a multimedia device back when that was a big deal, now there are so many devices that have multimedia functions and Wii U has some as well. Also it gave up a year and a half lead to the juggernaut PS2 and i dont see any console replicating that success anytime soon.
For a second lets assume Gamecube had Mario Galaxy, NSMB, DKC Returns, Twilight Princess, Return to Dreamland, Metroid Prime, Animal Crossing, Mario Kart, Smash Bros and didnt look like a toy and had moderate multimedia functions and didnt give up such a huge lead then i strongly believe it would have sold much better, definitely better than Xbox and probably better than N64.
Wii U is $300 with a game and free online, PS4 is over $500 with a game and a year of online, One is over $600 with a game and a year of online. Within the next year Wii U will have NSMBU, Nintendo Land, Lego City, Wario, Wii Party, Wii Fit, Wind Waker, 3D World, DKC, Sonic, M&S Olympics, Mario Kart, Smash Bros, Yoshi, Pikmin, W101, Luigi U, SMTxFE, X, and possibly Zelda and Wii Sports. That will get Nintendo fans, kids, families and remaining casuals on board plus its backwards compatible with Wii games and accesories, has social features like Miiverse and multimedia functions like TVii, Netflix and Hulu. Based off that i see Wii U selling very healthy for the next 3 or so years and being a strong competitor to PS4/One which will be too expensive and not enough incentive for many to upgrade from PS360.
Once the price comes down and 3rd parties shift completely to next gen then i think PS4/One will start to dominate the market which is around the same time Wii U will start falling in sales. It will be similar as this gen where the Nintendo console goes strong for 3 years(not as high numbers tho) but Playstation and Xbox will have much better and sell for well for 6+ years. Wii U will probably peak in 2014 or 2015(i think it will hit $199 this year) then have 1-2 more years of decent sales and PS4/One will bulid momentum for the first 2 years then peak in 2016 when they hit $300 and have tons of next gen exclusives then have another 3-4 years of strong sales.
Lifetime sales
Wii U 40-50m
One 60-70m
PS4 80-100m
When the herd loses its way, the shepard must kill the bull that leads them astray.







