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Forums - Nintendo - WiiU will sell better than Gamecube.

Zero999 on 26 June 2013
Arius Dion said:
happydolphin said:
Arius Dion said:

If I were a business man, coming off the success in the home console market with the Wii, I would not in turn then emulate my most failed console ever. I would not confuse or try to fuse handheld and home console markets. I would keep them seperate. So I'd have to disagree with your summation on that. 

Yes, games are what sell consoles..But the question then become what games? Gamecube+ games will not. As they did not in the past.

We will just have to agree to disagree on this one Happy. 

@Bold is where you are deeply mistaken. The U takes almost no cues from the cube, but largely emulates the 3DS in terms of software.

In terms of hardware, you can't possibly be equating the U to the cube, so I'll just ignore that. Having said that, instead of mimicking the Wii, which sold 90m units, Nintendo opted to mimic the DS (in terms of hardware), which yielded 150m units sold.

Tell me how that's a losing strategy.


LoL @ Pic. But as I've said, having a home console mimmick a handheld has shown to be as disatrous as a handheld trying to mimmick a home console (Vita) lol. If said strategy was so wise Wii U wouldn't be struggling as it is.

there's no "mimicking handhelds is hurting wii u", it simply needs the software.



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happydolphin on 26 June 2013
Osc89 said:

Yeah exactly. The Wii U has managed to undersell the Gamecube every month despite the other next-gen consoles not even being out yet.

And if the third parties don't have the option to skip a platform someone should tell them that. Right now they seem very comfortable with it.

@bold. It doesn't matter. Things rebounded for the 3DS, the can and will for the U.

Regarding 3rd parties, they don't matter on Nintendo consoles until much later, once Nintendo established a base for them.



Egann on 26 June 2013
happydolphin said:
Egann said:

I said middle or low for a reason. The best conclusion I can come to is that the market "ideal" console is usually in the middle of the bell curve, but that marketing and the specifics of the generation can tweak the victor's specific placement. In the Playstation's case, Sony bet three times in a row on optical media technology and won the first two. Blu-Ray turned out to be kind of irrelevant against streaming media.

It's not like cost is the only factor behind power, either. Reputation is key, too. One of the key reasons developers are opting for the 3DS over the Vita is that Vita gamers expect high production values because it's the power system. Even though the 3DS is a rather powerful system, it has the low power reputation, so developers can take short-cuts.

These are fair points. My point stands that price is important, much like it was for all cases except the PS0ne and PS2 (which we both agree are exceptions because they added values like media-playback).

The U has one difference with other low-end devices, in that the padlet creates overhead cost. So even though the system is low-end, the console is still pricy. Another thing to keep in mind.

So for those reasons I believe the U needs to lower its price in order to ensure success. It also helps that the market Nintendo is aiming at generally buys into price-sensitive proposals.

Maybe, but so long as they remain cheapest, even if only by a hair, I don't see them changing anybody's minds. What would dropping to $250 do now besides put Nintendo in the red? Right now a price drop looks way too reactionary to Sony's price, and the lineup is really strong between now and next spring. Those titles alone are on par with the other console's launch libraries.

If the Wii U is loosing early launch advantage come Q1 2014, then's when I'd go for the price drop.



happydolphin on 26 June 2013
Egann said:

Maybe, but so long as they remain cheapest, even if only by a hair, I don't see them changing anybody's minds. What would dropping to $250 do now besides put Nintendo in the red? Right now a price drop looks way too reactionary to Sony's price, and the lineup is really strong between now and next spring. Those titles alone are on par with the other console's launch libraries.

If the Wii U is loosing early launch advantage come Q1 2014, then's when I'd go for the price drop.

Don't get me wrong, I would never suggest Nintendo go in the red for a prolongued period. I'm saying that sales will go up when the price is right. Until then the market won't bite, even if the games are there.

As for looking reactionary, that doesn't matter. The 3DS may have looked reactionary to Vita's price but it didn't make a difference. Ultimately if the price is right perception of reactionary measures doesn't matter.



Egann on 26 June 2013
Cold-Flipper said:
curl-6 said:

People like to judge at surface value. A lot of people will decide whether to buy it or not depending on whether it looks dark or toon.

Word of mouth & good reviews > Surface value. I have a feeling Zelda U will be more dark though.

Gamerace said:

Originally (last spring) I projected WiiU with 30m lifetime sales (and everyone said I was crazy and way too low). Now, that guess is looking way over-optimistic. While I'm sure sales will pick up over the current tripid level, but great games will simply come too late and WiiU started at too high a price point (for what it's offering) for it to ever become in demand. Add an overall shrinking market and greater competition in the field and even hitting 20m seems highly optimistic to me now.


> 20 Million? I don't believe that is possible. Nintendo is bigger now than during the GC and Wii U still has a lot more potential. 

Yeah, take sales right now and drawing a straight line for ten years and you wind up with 20 million units. 



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Zero999 on 26 June 2013
Gamerace said:
DFC Intelligence had some ridiculous projections back at the start of the last gen so I don't give their estimates any credance.

Originally (last spring) I projected WiiU with 30m lifetime sales (and everyone said I was crazy and way too low). Now, that guess is looking way over-optimistic. While I'm sure sales will pick up over the current tripid level, but great games will simply come too late and WiiU started at too high a price point (for what it's offering) for it to ever become in demand. Add an overall shrinking market and greater competition in the field and even hitting 20m seems highly optimistic to me now.

I think Nintendo realizes it's made some fundimentally bad mistakes with WiiU. I think they've known it pre-launch but were too committed to change course. However, the question remains how long do they stay with WiiU? My guess is if sales don't turn around - dramatically - by Mario Kart 8 dropping, WiiU will have the shortest lifespan of any Nintendo console. Fact is the market is changing radically and if Nintendo is to ever have another hit home console or home/portable console it needs to be released sooner rather than later. So if WiiU/3DS continue to underperform I project a new Nintendo system in 2016 to compete more directly with PS4/XB1 and to also more significantly differeniate from them than WiiU does from PS3/360.

Consequently WiiU's lifetime sales will be cut even shorter. Probably <15m.

bolded: no, everyone was right.

b2: so wii u is expensive but other consoles releasing one year later for $100 and $200 more than wii u at launch aren't? ok. your probable response: they offer much more. my logical response: I wouldn't say those consoles are even offering more than ps360 right now.

b3: omg, so 3ds is underperforming? THE MARKET LEADER FOR BOTH HANDHELDS AND HOME CONSOLES IS UNDERPERFORMING? REALLY?

your point of view isn't pessimistic, pessimism would mean you THINK that will happen. but the truth is you WANT the listed things to happen, no arguments, just your will.



zorg1000 on 26 June 2013
Heavenly_King said:
But the gamecube got lots of multiplatforms; meanwhile the WiiU is barely getting a couple at best.


Multiplats are nice but there not gonna be the reason to own Wii U or any Nintendo console for that matter, what it needs are exclusives, including 3rd party exclusives



When the herd loses its way, the shepard must kill the bull that leads them astray.

Osc89 on 26 June 2013
happydolphin said:
Osc89 said:

Yeah exactly. The Wii U has managed to undersell the Gamecube every month despite the other next-gen consoles not even being out yet.

And if the third parties don't have the option to skip a platform someone should tell them that. Right now they seem very comfortable with it.

@bold. It doesn't matter. Things rebounded for the 3DS, the can and will for the U.

Regarding 3rd parties, they don't matter on Nintendo consoles until much later, once Nintendo established a base for them.


They can yes, but you can't really say they will right now. There isn't enough to go on, and the only information we have goes against the Wii U.



PSN: Osc89

NNID: Oscar89

happydolphin on 26 June 2013
Osc89 said:

They can yes, but you can't really say they will right now. There isn't enough to go on, and the only information we have goes against the Wii U.

Like it did against the 3DS, and look at it now. In other words, if the U is following the 3DS' footsteps (and quite closely I might add), there is no reason to panic.



zorg1000 on 26 June 2013
Osc89 said:
Zero999 said:
Osc89 said:
zorg1000 said:

But look at the number of high quality 1st/3rd party exclusives each console had at this point.

Wii U-NSMBU, Nintendo Land, ZombiU, Lego City

Gamecube-Luigi's Mansion, Wave Race, Smash Bros, Rogue Squadron, Super Monkey Ball, Resident Evil, Pikmin, Mario Sunshine(might be wrong on this one)

Also GC was $200 compared to XB/PS2 at $300, Wii U is $300-350 compared to PS360 at $200-300.

Once Wii U big exclusives come out and its no longer the most expensive, it will sell much better than it currently is.


But if these games didn't make the Gamecube a great seller why will they make the Wii U better than Gamecube? Obviously more games means it will sell better, but why assume it will sell better than Gamecube?

Also out of all the games they both had by this point, NSMBU is from the best selling series by far. The only thing bigger Nintendo has is Mario Kart, and Gamecube didn't get that for a while.

because the situation of both systems and the market for each period has changed, unless you think nothing changed  in the past 12 years.

and hey, what did ps2 get that ps3 didn't? nothing, then why did ps3 only sold half of what ps2 did so far?

let's see some differences: ps2 had a head start and big selling point as a dvd player ang gaming console that was cheaper than dvd players, leading to an almost monopoly in that gen gardware sales. now wii u is the one with a head start even if it wasn't used to the fullest. nintendo franchises have grown in popularity and it's audience has grown in number. third parties don't have the option to simply "skip" a platform anymore since they can no longer profit in one platform, like they did on ps2. heck, even two platforms make them struggle to profit now.

got the message?


Yeah exactly. The Wii U has managed to undersell the Gamecube every month despite the other next-gen consoles not even being out yet.

And if the third parties don't have the option to skip a platform someone should tell them that. Right now they seem very comfortable with it.

I gave u legit reasons why Wii U is currently selling less than GC last night and instead of coming up with any counter, u go and ask other the people the same thing? Do u have any reason to believe lifetime sales will be less than GC other than, because it currently is?



When the herd loses its way, the shepard must kill the bull that leads them astray.