1. I said show me the balance sheets. How do you know if they're profitable or not?

2. I said how will they suddenly be attractive? You think better graphics will make people buy installments to franchises that are currently not selling well? If PS4720 have an install base of 5m and PS360 have an install base of 140m which platforms do you think CoD 2013 and 2014 will launch for? And which one will people buy? I'm telling you now: they'll buy the PS360 CoD far more. Unspecified "More that will able to be done" doesn't overcome $500 hurdles.

3. They bought CoD, the experience, which happens to be on 360 and PS3. CoD the brand is not the same as CoD the experience. Casuals don't just buy what's put in front of them with CoD written on it. Vita is proof enough that people don't buy a console for quality hardware, media features or the OS.

4. If uniqueness makes people want something why did Virtual Boy not sell? What about all the Dreamcast exclusive games? No, people buy the experiences they want, and right now consoles don't offer enough of them and there's no roadmap to fix this other than more sequels to poorly selling games and more expensive hardware and software.

5. You think name confusion is why Wii U is not selling? Why not the obvious explanation - no games that people want. Secondly, if no one buys game consoles because of casual image, how did Wii and DS become so successful?

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Basic thesis

1. There is no ground being lost to mobile
2. People ONLY buy consoles to get to experiences
3. Sometimes games no longer provide that experience and die. Other games can then pick it up.

Yamcha(3DS) > Cell (PS3, lol) > Goku (360) > Frieza (WiiU) > a Saibaman (Wii) > Kuririn (PSP) > a fricken farmer boy (DS) > Vi-ge-ta

Interesting point. But I disagree in 2 aspects.

First, Wii U is in bad shape. There's enough stock at retailers, not supply constrained, so 40k a week is beyond what I call "bad shape". One of the worst enemies for Vita was the bad press because its awuful sales. Same with 3DS. And Wii U will have the same. Once this quarter earnings at the end of the month happen and bad sales go public and cuts their forecast the first wave of bad press articles will come. The second wave will come at the end of the fiscal year when they announce that Wii U not even matched the previously cut forecast.

Second, Wii U is not in a position to wait for Q3-Q4 to start to sell better. They need to improve the userbase numbers in order to make the holiday lineup to sell at least decently, just like happened with 3DS. If they don't manage to solve this problem, big games will come and nothing will change.

Speaking of which, whens the quarterly report for Q3 Nintendo?

You are correct.

Lowest 360 week: 61,215 March 11 2006
Lowest PS3 week: 49,869 February 24 2007 (before EU launch)
58,643 June 23 2007 (after EU launch)


Basically last weeks WiiU numbers were already lower than these.
This week is also the worst Wii week btw.

Everything doing good, especially the Vita and the WiiU.

DmC did on PS3 slightly better than DMC4 in its FW, while the 360 version dropped by almost 50%. Not sure what's the reason for this. Any thoughts?

I'm guessing the 31st.  Sony's are due Feb 7th and Nintendo usually releases a week or two before Sony.

lol @ wiiU...u gotta release some awesome new ip's meng.

Companies like Zynga show how profitable the casual social/tablet/phone market can be, they whizzed past EA in profits and revenue in about four years. CSR Racing on iTunes is making the developer about 12.000.000$ every month,  GREE company had over 500.000.000$ in profits in 2012, DeNA reported over 700.000.000$ profits for 2012, there are many examples such as this.

The part about market apathy, I can agree with, the diverging market is confusing to both consumer and developer and people are fond of grabbing the cheapest deals (but that's nothing new).

Kinect sold 20 million but is completely irrelevant in gaming today, much like Wii-mote, its practical application is all but worthless and it never took off at all where it could have actually made an inudstry impact; the PC. The casual crowd isn't important for a core console, that's in the very nature of the console itself. If you don't cater to casuals then casuals won't matter, that's pretty much a given.

The Wii U is aimed at both the casual and core market, which will likely be it's great undoing, this is the core of the problem that Nintendo faces. The core market is largely satisfied on the older HD consoles and the lack of good 3rd party support is really hurting Nintendo and, meanwhile, the casuals have fled to social/tablet/phone gaming and will likely stay there (its not merely coincidence that the Wii's great fall and the massive rise of phones and tablets and social games happened at the same time).

Casual oriented consoles will not succeed in the current market atmosphere, the tablets and phones will eat them alive. Next on the menu are handheld consoles dedicated to gaming, these devices will meet their end at the hands of this very same market segment within a relatively short period of time.

If MS and Sony actively pursue casual gamers with their next consoles, or, even worse, go for both casual and core gamers, they will fall really hard on their ass and lose a lot of momentum from this generation, something neither can afford if; A: Sony want to stay in business with their gaming section and, B: MS want to conquer the living room as an entertainment arena.

Why are you happy that the WiiU is selling so bad?