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Mazzy on 13 May 2016
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Aquamarine said:
ExtremeBrawler said:

Oh, so it should reach or come near 10% average by March 2017, quite the progress! And, soon, the world! M.Bison: Of course!

Seriously, though, didn't think Nintendo was still this low on average, given there were reports of several games having pretty good digital shares (Smash 3DS, Fire Emblem, Bravely Default, first examples in my mind), but it surely depend on the game, those were probably major positive outlets. But I suppose the real factor is that (my theory, probably I'm wrong) Nintendo's will to not drop prices digitally as often and as quickly as Sony and MS do on their titles affects digital shares in the long time: people just prefer buying games at retail, especially considering how prices at retail drop quicker than on the eShop.

Yes, Nintendo's stubbornly-high digital prices are a culprit. The lack of dedicated Wii U storage space is another culprit.

Also, remember that Nintendo has a robust back-catalog of evergreen titles that continue to sell to children and families like Pokemon, Super Smash Bros. and Mario Kart 8...these kids buy almost exclusively physical.

Not to mention, the non-Nintendo retail titles that release for Nintendo platforms are almost exclusively for children these days as well (like Skylanders, LEGO games from Warner Bros., etc.)...which are again bought physically.

...But as core-leaning titles like Fire Emblem gain larger prominence within Nintendo's overall lineup, the digital average will rise precipitously.

Do we have any demographic data on the Wii U suggesting that it has any higher demographic of children compared to current gen or last gen consoles? The only data I know of is an eShop chart from Unite 2014, and it showed only 6% were under 18 (another interesting tidbit is a whopping 93% male), however the methodology for gathering the ages isn't the best as it's only for eShop, and parents would be likely to set up an account for their children. Regardless, it does really seem like this "Nintendo appeals to children" is based more on the products Nintendo pushes (bright, colorful games, soft edges, anthropomorphic characters, simplified online, amiibo dolls, few mature games, etc) rather than their actual demographic which appears to be inconsistent with what they're pushing (and I think they should really ditch the kiddy, family friendly image, but that's for another time)

 

It really seems to be the ever diminishing Nintendo faithful that grew up with Nintendo that buys it and their games every gen, not so much for children. I guess anither alternative is that these Nintendo faithful buy their children Wii U because they grew up with Nintendo and want their children to experience it as well.

 

Games like Minecraft and LEGO and Skylanders and other children games seem to do well on last gen especially (as adults give their children their old consoles as they buy the new console), but does the data suggest that they skew towards Wii U in any significant way?