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Forums - Sales Discussion - WII U VS. GAMECUBE - CUMULATIVE SALES

Miyamotoo said:
Ganoncrotch said:

Actually slightly upsetting to see it go from Month 2 to Month 11 without a single injection of life and the fact that the system is now the same price here as the PS4 makes it look like Nintendo don't even care about the platform enough to bring it over to the bargain bin and hope it gets a few sales from inside there.

I understand that Nintendo has a ton of cash in the bank off the back of the success of the Wii and DS brands, but still they have to do more than just let a console sit on a shelf for 10 months in arguably the most important time in its life hoping that it would shift numbers.... dear lord to think that the X1 and PS4 weren't even out then and there was nothing done to try to hammer out a lead.

 

As for the GC tho, such a beast console, for me it has to be either that or the X360 as favourite console of all times, just so many amazing games, perfect controller (the wavebird), everything from the 3 Different start up sounds to the near haunting OS music, such a good little system. The games which made good use of its hardware are still a joy to play in 2016.

Nintendo made too many mistakes with Wii U that couldnt be easily corrected, terrible and confusing marketing and bad name, bad launch titles and 1st year games, software drouth, not appeling gamepad, high price...all that lead to terrible sales after launch, that lead to 3rd party completely abandoning platform, so Wii U basically was dead when X1/PS4 arrive on market and it that time it was almost imposible to revive it without burning tons of cash but even then it couldnt be success.

Literally 2 days ago I had to correct someone in conversation that the Wii-U was not a Nintendo handheld which failed....

But I think the issues it had could have been at least addressed in the first 11 months of the consoles life or even still some haven't, while a price cut wouldn't make it a PS4 beater, it would at least be a step in the right direction to reflect a console of its power and potential lifespan when you compare it to the X1 and PS4, buying a Wii-U now is imo one of the worst investments in gaming if you are in any way careful with your spending and want to get the most gaming from your money for the next couple of years.



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There is a very important distinction, and that is visible if you compare the price tag of both systems aswell.

The GC was dirty cheap, selling for only 100€ in its last year. The Wii U is still very pricy in comparison. If Nintendo went all out with it and slashed the price significantly sales would improve.

Sales aren't everything though. Margin is. And i believe the reason Nintendo haven't slashed the price is because they don't want to infer in losses.

It is also true the GC saw better 3rd party support.

Mummelmann said:
And yet; there's no logic in releasing the NX as soon as possible.

Because it's a given the next system will perform better? I'm not sure if that is sarcasm or not, but it didn't seem to do it for SEGA. Why would it work for Nintendo. Releasing another mid-gen system is going to end up in failure once again... unless it has a gimick that appeals to the casual market.



Ganoncrotch said:
Miyamotoo said:

Nintendo made too many mistakes with Wii U that couldnt be easily corrected, terrible and confusing marketing and bad name, bad launch titles and 1st year games, software drouth, not appeling gamepad, high price...all that lead to terrible sales after launch, that lead to 3rd party completely abandoning platform, so Wii U basically was dead when X1/PS4 arrive on market and it that time it was almost imposible to revive it without burning tons of cash but even then it couldnt be success.

Literally 2 days ago I had to correct someone in conversation that the Wii-U was not a Nintendo handheld which failed....

But I think the issues it had could have been at least addressed in the first 11 months of the consoles life or even still some haven't, while a price cut wouldn't make it a PS4 beater, it would at least be a step in the right direction to reflect a console of its power and potential lifespan when you compare it to the X1 and PS4, buying a Wii-U now is imo one of the worst investments in gaming if you are in any way careful with your spending and want to get the most gaming from your money for the next couple of years.

Said true is that some people still dont know that Wii U exist at all or what Wii U exactly is.

 

Nem said:


Mummelmann said:
And yet; there's no logic in releasing the NX as soon as possible.

Because it's a given the next system will perform better? I'm not sure if that is sarcasm or not, but it didn't seem to do it for SEGA. Why would it work for Nintendo. Releasing another mid-gen system is going to end up in failure once again... unless it has a gimick that appeals to the casual market.

I am pretty sure Nintendo will not release new console after Wii U if they didnt prepare new console properly, because they know they need to have much sucede console after Wii U (realistically that won't be any problem). Saying that, NIntendo can prepare NX and launch it at end of this year without problem, I think that will be case.



Miyamotoo said:
Nate4Drake said:
I think GC was a far better console, VS its competitors; beautiful piece of hardware, and some of the most advanced games in terms of gameplay, graphics, tech. At that time you could be proud to have a GameCube, but now I woudn't say the same with WiiU. Gamecube was a jewel, to bad people couldn't see that : Star Fox Assault, F-Zero GX, Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, Pikmin, Pikmin 2, Tales of Symphonia, Animal Crossing, Soul Calibur II, Metroid Prime, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, Resident Evil 4, Luigi's Mansion, Super Mario Sunshine, Mario Kart Double Dash, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, Super Smash Bros. Melee, and many other great games for that time; what Nintendo did after ? Wii ? The motion controller for Casual...WiiU ? repeating the same games over and over again. Nintendo Wake up !

You saying like Wii and Wii U didnt had great games after GC, but isnt true at all, Pikmin 3, W101, Mario 3D World, DKCTF, Mario Kart 8, Hurley Warriors, Bayonetta 2, Smash Bros 4, Yoshi Wolly World, Splatoon, Mario Maker, Xenoblade X, Star Fox Zero, Pokken Tournament, Zelda U...are all great Wii U games.

I didn't say WiiU does not have good games; I think GC was better, compared to its competitors, offering amazing graphics, superior to PS2, and more impressive games compared to its generation.  I've got the impression that Nintendo can do more, a lot more; I see them a bit 'seated', mostly rheashing the same games over and over again; and why their Home Console Hardware, after GC, have to be inferior to its competitors ? The difference is too much, they should consider some more powerful tech into their box; just my opinion and taste.   I loved N64 and GC, I was proud of them, but after Wii, I was disappointed.  Hopefully this NX will make me happy again.



”Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.”

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Nate4Drake said:
Miyamotoo said:

You saying like Wii and Wii U didnt had great games after GC, but isnt true at all, Pikmin 3, W101, Mario 3D World, DKCTF, Mario Kart 8, Hurley Warriors, Bayonetta 2, Smash Bros 4, Yoshi Wolly World, Splatoon, Mario Maker, Xenoblade X, Star Fox Zero, Pokken Tournament, Zelda U...are all great Wii U games.

I didn't say WiiU does not have good games; I think GC was better, compared to its competitors, offering amazing graphics, superior to PS2, and more impressive games compared to its generation.  I've got the impression that Nintendo can do more, a lot more; I see them a bit 'seated', mostly rheashing the same games over and over again; and why their Home Console Hardware, after GC, have to be inferior to its competitors ? The difference is too much, they should consider some more powerful tech into their box; just my opinion and taste.   I loved N64 and GC, I was proud of them, but after Wii, I was disappointed.  Hopefully this NX will make me happy again.

I didnt love too much Wii, but I love Wii U, it has far more core Nintendo games that instead tons of casual games on Wii. I think NIntendo done great job with Wii U games, especially because it's console with terrible sales.



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Nogamez said:
Meh price cut wii u and sales would pick up. Try and recoup lost hardware sales on increased softare sales.

For that to happen the pricecut should have happened, at least, before Splatoon/Mario Maker. At this point, everyone is waiting for the NX, or has chosen another current gen system to game.



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ZhugeEX said:

Few things to keep in mind.

Gamecube launched after the successful PS2 and had competition from the newly launched Xbox as well.
Wii U launched before both PS4 and XB1 were on the market, but off the back of a successful Wii. Wii U lost a lot of third party support early on before PS4/XB1 even.
Gamecube lost a lot of third party support after a couple or years or so.
Gamecube launched at $199 and was $99 after just 23 months (Hence the boost in sales then)
Wii U launched at $299, and outside of a couple of promotional offers, has never been less than that.

 

Here is a look at Nintendo Home Console Hardware & Software Sales from NES to Wii U.

 

Actually, the Wii U launched at $349. It got a $50 price cut in 2013. 



SJReiter said:
ZhugeEX said:

Few things to keep in mind.

Gamecube launched after the successful PS2 and had competition from the newly launched Xbox as well.
Wii U launched before both PS4 and XB1 were on the market, but off the back of a successful Wii. Wii U lost a lot of third party support early on before PS4/XB1 even.
Gamecube lost a lot of third party support after a couple or years or so.
Gamecube launched at $199 and was $99 after just 23 months (Hence the boost in sales then)
Wii U launched at $299, and outside of a couple of promotional offers, has never been less than that.

 

Here is a look at Nintendo Home Console Hardware & Software Sales from NES to Wii U.

 

Actually, the Wii U launched at $349. It got a $50 price cut in 2013. 

Basic was $299 but reality is that Premium package had much more value for only $50 more.



tak13 said:
Ka-pi96 said:

It's just stock issues, no? I don't think they're actually ending it yet.

 

There is a new rumour, which claims that nintendo is restricting wii u supply, to avoid unsold inventory... Some people have the tendency to take rumors as facts. Personally, I was always thinking that they don't replenish the shelves with wii u units sufficiently on purpose, but because they want to move the demand to pokken tournament wii u bundle which arrives on the 18th of March, anywise stock problems are expected... Sales in Japan exceeded in a great extend Nintendo's expectations, due to splatoon and super mario maker, which caused a relatively outstanding holiday perfomance, similar to 2013 which was wii u best year, with killer deals/offers, and outdid 2014 by approximately double numbers, with pricey splatoon and super mario maker bundles. So manufactured wii u stock was nearly depleted, something that Nintendo wasn't anticipating... Probably, Nintendo was considering that what they sold in a year, it would be sold between two years. p.s I have put paragraphs but my post appears like a wall of text, WTF!

There's also a rumour flying around that Nintendo stopped ordering the custom chips for the Wii-U after the 2014 holiday season. I would not be surprised if the lack of inventory is because Nintendo quit manufacturing Wii-U consoles completely at the same time as they had too many in stock unsold. Like the Microsoft Surface RT (the product that cost Steve Ballmer his job) they've probably got millions stashed in warehouses, virtually unsellable due to competition from the others in the market. Like the RT, nobody will buy a system with less software than the alternatives and costs the same or more (in many UK shops you can find the Xbox One selling for less now), even if the brand name on it is appealing (Microsoft still holds higher brand value in small business than Apple or Google).

I think what is most telling about the situation though is the graph comparing software sales to hardware. The red line for GameCube is higher above the blue line for hardware, while the inverse is true for Wii-U. This suggests less software is been bought by users of Wii-U, which in itself suggests that many of the systems sold are not in active use after a few months of ownership. They could either have been sold, traded in, or left in a cupboard to gather dust. 



Flash Sentry's #1 Fan (unofficially).

*Looks at sig, feels satisfied*. I thought the Wii U had time to rectify its situation in the 1st year. Once the PS4 and X1 were announced I knew things would get pretty bad, but I didn't expect it to be this bad. First it was the so called lazy ports, then no ports at all thanks to the hardware gap and poor sales. Nintendos droughts didn't do the system any favors either. About 2 years in I was convinced it would never sell more than 18 million unit.

Its interesting because I went through the 5 stages of grief with the Wii U. Looking back at my old threads and what I post now is always amusing.

2013 - Denial - Project CARS For Wii U Features Particle Shadows, Multi-Threaded Shadowing

2013 - Denial - Wii U Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag Screenshots Look Very Pretty Indeed

2013 - Anger/Bargaining - What is your favorite 3rd party Wii U game? Based on Gameplay, Technical/implementation details (if any) , the effect it has had on you or your friends and any lessons for devs and/or Nintendo if any.

2014 - bargaining- Wii U version of Project Cars out in 2015

2014+ depression and acceptance



I predict that the Wii U will sell a total of 18 million units in its lifetime. 

The NX will be a 900p machine