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Forums - Nintendo - Gamasutra: At 57K sold, Wii U's January performance is historically abysmal

Metallicube on 15 February 2013
KungKras said:
I could feel this happening back when Nintendo announced it on E3.

A tablet console was wrong on so many levels.


Agreed, the giant tablet controller is just off putting. Hell even to me as a gamer for 20 + years, I felt overwhelmed when my friend showed me Nintendo Land. I can't imagine what the average more "casual" consumer thinks. It completely goes against the simplistic philosophy of the remote control with pointer controls. THIS is the biggest reason Wii U is failing right now, with the lack of games being the #2 reason.

Nintendo just needs to pull an original Xbox and bite the bullet with the Wii U for 4 years or so, then start fresh in 2015 with a brand new console that returns to the NES/Wii philosophy of simple pick-up-and-play games that appeals to a wide range of people.



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Max King of the Wild on 15 February 2013
happydolphin said:
Ckmlb1 said:
People talking about things being this bad because of lack of games should look at the first few months of the PS3: barely any exclusives and much higher price and still sold much better than the Wii U is selling now.

This isn't some top-of-the-line, cutting edge gaming system that doubles as a blu-ray player. It's a Nintendo system. It needs games to sell.



Even games didn't sell the gamecube. I would be caustious in expecting things to turn around when getting this bad of sales. The Wii U may be the worst selling Nintendo system.



RazorDragon on 15 February 2013

Vita and Wonderswan did worse.



happydolphin on 15 February 2013
Max King of the Wild said:

Even games didn't sell the gamecube. I would be caustious in expecting things to turn around when getting this bad of sales. The Wii U may be the worst selling Nintendo system.

That doesn't consider the self-sustenance of the 3DS on 1st party games (largely), and doesn't take into account the tremendous strides Nintendo has taken as a gaming powerhouse since then. They don't stop pumping out mass-selling game after game and can populate 2 systems all by themselves.

The 3DS is currently fully garnished, while the U still needs a bit of cooking time in the oven, when the games come, they will be rich in variety. Their consumers will pay for them and buy them.



Metallicube on 15 February 2013
Max King of the Wild said:
happydolphin said:
Ckmlb1 said:
People talking about things being this bad because of lack of games should look at the first few months of the PS3: barely any exclusives and much higher price and still sold much better than the Wii U is selling now.

This isn't some top-of-the-line, cutting edge gaming system that doubles as a blu-ray player. It's a Nintendo system. It needs games to sell.



Even games didn't sell the gamecube. I would be caustious in expecting things to turn around when getting this bad of sales. The Wii U may be the worst selling Nintendo system.

The only difference is in the Gamecube era, Nintendo's games were very obscure and appealed to a niche of gamers. They also had a very profound kiddie image with the Barney the Dinosaur's purple lunchbox and games like Mario Sunshine, and a bizzare controller to boot. Now they have some franchises with far more mass market appeal like 2D Mario, Wii Fit, Wii Sports, Mario Kart (Double Dash was just too wonky to have mass appeal). Plus they also have some major hits in Japan like Dragon Quest and Monster Hunter.

Absolutely no way Wii U sells worse than Gamecube. Could sell worse than N64 though.



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superchunk on 15 February 2013
Soundwave said:

I actually don't think the "features" of the console are fine. Most people have a PS3/360, why get a Wii U? What does it really offer that's so different?

People want a real upgrade from this generation, not another PS3-360 range console.

Games will help of course, but I think this will be like the GameCube ... Mario/Mario Kart/Zelda can only do so much. Nintendo maybe should (gasp!) try making a new core franchise to sell hardware to a new audience rather than relying on the same 4-5 franchises over and over and over and over again.


Are you talking about features or pretty graphics?

Wii U has every feature of any other console plus the added benefits of the gamepad where applicable.

Has - equal or better than any competitor
free online
quality web browser - easily best on console
social networking - system unique plus normal web variants
modern digital store
simple ID structure - will be shareable across devices soon
large storage options - far more and cheaper choices
VOIP - far more choices
HD
online TV services - can be viewing while loading up next one
background downloading - doesn't pause when in game/online
core and simplified controls

Exclusive
off tv play
tv / cable / DVR control
video service integrated social network
default background downloading - keeps DLing while in game or online too

Missing
optical out audio - most won't care
media disc playback - most won't care
default capability to connect to pc media - can be handled via web and setting pc as server
voice controls - nearly all won't care

 

It has the features. Just not the software. After all, why do so many people own a X360 and a PS3? software.



KungKras on 15 February 2013
Metallicube said:
KungKras said:
I could feel this happening back when Nintendo announced it on E3.

A tablet console was wrong on so many levels.


Agreed, the giant tablet controller is just off putting. Hell even to me as a gamer for 20 + years, I felt overwhelmed when my friend showed me Nintendo Land. I can't imagine what the average more "casual" consumer thinks. It completely goes against the simplistic philosophy of the remote control with pointer controls. THIS is the biggest reason Wii U is failing right now, with the lack of games being the #2 reason.

Nintendo just needs to pull an original Xbox and bite the bullet with the Wii U for 4 years or so, then start fresh in 2015 with a brand new console that returns to the NES/Wii philosophy of simple pick-up-and-play games that appeals to a wide range of people.

I think they could turn around the Wii U during this generation if they need to. By somehow un-bundling the U-pad, lowering price, and releasing the correct games.

 

I mean, seriously? Where is the Wii Sports sequel? They seriously thought Nintendo Land would have the same appeal?



I LOVE ICELAND!

Max King of the Wild on 15 February 2013
pezus said:
Refreshingly detailed article, with charts that are not often seen. WiiU will start falling more and more behind PS360 as the months go by.

Let's not forget that this is only in USA. The situation is even worse in Europe...



Yup, it's panic time for Nintendo. People seem to believe a price drop will turn the tides for Nintendo. Though I think it will help somewhat I don't think it will have near the effect it had with the Ps3 being that the Wii U isn't all too expensive. The longer Nintendo aallows sales to drag on the harder it will be to turn it around. They need to do something fast. I hope the Wii U gets past it's struggles.

Funny thing though is I think Nintendo will lose the most ground this generation but the people who wouldn't shut up about the ps3 will be silent this time around



Somini on 15 February 2013
RazorDragon said:
Vita and Wonderswan did worse.


Do you ever have anything useful to say? You go into every Wii U thread and bash the Vita in a one sentence comment. That is called spamming my friend!

OT; the best thing Nintendo can do now to pull the system out of this slump is to drop the price and make a deal or two with game developers to bring games to the system. Microsoft did this early in the 360's life and that helped them tremendously.



RazorDragon on 15 February 2013
Somini said:
RazorDragon said:
Vita and Wonderswan did worse.


Do you ever have anything useful to say? You go into every Wii U thread and bash the Vita in a one sentence comment. That is called spamming my friend!

OT; the best thing Nintendo can do now to pull the system out of this slump is to drop the price and make a deal or two with game developers to bring games to the system. Microsoft did this early in the 360's life and that helped them tremendously.


Well, i do. 3DO also did worse than Wii U. Don't know about the Atari Jaguar, though.