| Shadow1980 said:
First off, the Wii actually had a very normal sales curve for a system, peaking two years after launch and petering out after seven years. It was the 360 and PS3 that had extremely atypical sales curves. Also, I don't buy for one minute that "casuals" were solely or even mainly responsible for the Wii's success. I've been meaning to make a thread about this very subject, but I've had other projects lined up, but given that this "Wii = casual" meme is treated as axiomatic, I think I might move that post to the front of my queue. |
I don't think the curve is normal. It could be at previous gens, but this one was longer and it simply lost steam. This new gen will probably be as long as the previous. And yes, a lot of core guys bought the Wii. But they simply upgraded to PS360 when they got cheaper to jump in the HD gaming + online mode, that happened to a lot of friend that grabed one because of the motion controllers.
Anyway, my point is: why the Wii U can't sell like its predecessor. When we talk about PS3 vs. PS2, I know the answer: launched later, bad price, bad SDK, is pretty simple. Sales improved after the price was cut and the SDk improved/developer got used and third party games improved. Wii sold like crazy, but sales almost stopped, starting in 2011. That year, the smartphones were in their rise and tablets were gaining ground. So, looking at the environment in the market at the date, I see:
- Online gaming gaining ground: players wanted CoD and company
- Killer HD twins games (Gears, GoW, Batman, etc)
- Better HD twins price
- Casuals jumping to mobile
