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Forums - Nintendo - W101 is going to be a gargantuan flop

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Nyleveia said:
oniyide said:
Nyleveia said:
Soundwave said:
Nyleveia said:
oniyide said:
Nyleveia said:
Soundwave said:

Shame on Japan honestly and shame on Nintendo for the way they've marketed this.

I never expected this to be a big hit or anything, but sub 6000 copies is ridiculous for a fanbase that's "starved for games" (or so I'm told). 


Dont blame the Japanese, we dont want the bloody console so why would we want its games?

Sales are generally bad because nobody keeps the console here long enough to buy more games, unlike fans over in the us sitting on a game-less console for months on end you go a month here without any games and its the last straw, console is being ditched left and right by adults and kids alike, bad enough so that most of the second hand stores i know of here no longer accept wiiu trade ins for hardware because they cant sell them on with any meaningful profit as nobody bites.


is it really that bad over there?cause if it is explains a lot

You can buy a premium wiiu here for 9000y less than retail, but they sit on store shelves untouched - my local used game stop last week dropped ALL of their basics to 14,000y ($138) and ALL of their premiums to 19,000y ($189), and not a single freaking one has sold as of today when i checked in to rifle through their snes cart collection.

When people here want nintendo games they buy a 3DS, nobody here needs or wants the WiiU anymore,  PS4 is getting some advertising but not much, Xbox One is virtually unheard of.

But the situation is such that I genuinely believe its too far gone for any collection of games to save it.

It doesnt matter what they release, because the best any game is going to sell is sub 1 million because the userbase is smaller than the total number of consoles sold - if we guestimate that one in twenty (conservative) sold the console rather than keep it, then thats already 150,000 - 300,000 less potential buyers, 300,000 - 600,000 if we go for a high estimate of one in ten.

People arent going to want to hear this of course, they prefer the emu approach of pretending everythings peachy.

Really great insights into the Japanese market, thank you for that. Seems like the Wii U situation is really dire there.

Its very telling that in the japanese market, ps3, 3ds and vita games, and the rarer wii games hold their value extremely well - a used vita/3ds game is barely 1000y cheaper than retail shelf price, often sub 500y cheaper.

WiiU titles however can be picked up for up to 60% off retail price - For example i purchased a used copy of Picmin 3, A DAY AFTER IT WAS RELEASED, for 2000y cheaper.

WiiU titles do not hold their price well because nobody is buying them, thus stores wont offer decent amounts because its touch and go if theyll actually be able to sell it again.

Bic camera, yamada, ito yokado, aeon and nojima are all gradually downsizing their wiiu sections too, a few weeks after launch most of these stores had two to three shelves dedicated to the console, now youre lucky to find a single shelf that is wiiu-only from top to bottom.

To put this in to perspective, my local (and very large) Aeon has a paulty 2 rows of one shelf for wiiu, with the rest of the game-boxes on the shelf being for peripherals, cables, protective covers and other cheap nonsense, with the bottom row of said shelf having nothing but boxes of 3ds styluses.

ill 2nd the great insight part. Its good to see some perspective from the other side. We forget how different it is between the US, Europe and Japan. Its a little shocking to me, because i would have thought it anyone had patience and give it a chance, it would be Japan. I think in the US people figured they already invested alot so might as well stick it out.

Crazy thing is the shelf space situation aint that much different here either from what ive seen, some people wont acknowledge it but its the truth. Its not as bad as over there but the WIi has far more shelf space. GameStop, Best Buy have one corner dedicated to Wii U anything.

the 3ds is the wiius problem, thats the thing, almost all the games you see lately have a 3ds version, and that diminishes the need for the console - nobody gives a freaking shit about the tablet here, quite litterally - they have their 3ds and theyre happy to play nintendo games on that, kids dont want wiius here, my neighbours a school teacher and when i talk to him all he ever brings up is how the kids are hooked on portable gaming, they had a school day a few weeks ago where kids could bring in their games consoles to write up a report on their favorite games, as incentive to do well they were given the first half of the day to play on their games, and this was an entire year of the school (300 or more kids), other than the occasional ps3 and wii, everyone brought in a psp, vita or 3ds

not a single kid brought a wiiu with them.

honestly I dont even think thats exclusive to Japan.  Lets take Lego City Stories, 3ds version did better, despite not being as good. Now the argument could be made that it would have done better anyway because ther are way more 3ds' thats true but im telling you the 3ds version got NO ads...at all. I didnt even know a 3ds version existed until it came on the charts and i saw it above the WIi U version, meanwhile the Wii U version got decent advertisment and better reviews. Im curious to see how Sonic will do as I havent even seen the 3ds version but i wouldnt be shocked if people opted for it anyway



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Nyleveia said:
oniyide said:
Nyleveia said:
Soundwave said:
Nyleveia said:
oniyide said:
Nyleveia said:
Soundwave said:

Shame on Japan honestly and shame on Nintendo for the way they've marketed this.

I never expected this to be a big hit or anything, but sub 6000 copies is ridiculous for a fanbase that's "starved for games" (or so I'm told). 


Dont blame the Japanese, we dont want the bloody console so why would we want its games?

Sales are generally bad because nobody keeps the console here long enough to buy more games, unlike fans over in the us sitting on a game-less console for months on end you go a month here without any games and its the last straw, console is being ditched left and right by adults and kids alike, bad enough so that most of the second hand stores i know of here no longer accept wiiu trade ins for hardware because they cant sell them on with any meaningful profit as nobody bites.


is it really that bad over there?cause if it is explains a lot

You can buy a premium wiiu here for 9000y less than retail, but they sit on store shelves untouched - my local used game stop last week dropped ALL of their basics to 14,000y ($138) and ALL of their premiums to 19,000y ($189), and not a single freaking one has sold as of today when i checked in to rifle through their snes cart collection.

When people here want nintendo games they buy a 3DS, nobody here needs or wants the WiiU anymore,  PS4 is getting some advertising but not much, Xbox One is virtually unheard of.

But the situation is such that I genuinely believe its too far gone for any collection of games to save it.

It doesnt matter what they release, because the best any game is going to sell is sub 1 million because the userbase is smaller than the total number of consoles sold - if we guestimate that one in twenty (conservative) sold the console rather than keep it, then thats already 150,000 - 300,000 less potential buyers, 300,000 - 600,000 if we go for a high estimate of one in ten.

People arent going to want to hear this of course, they prefer the emu approach of pretending everythings peachy.

Really great insights into the Japanese market, thank you for that. Seems like the Wii U situation is really dire there.

Its very telling that in the japanese market, ps3, 3ds and vita games, and the rarer wii games hold their value extremely well - a used vita/3ds game is barely 1000y cheaper than retail shelf price, often sub 500y cheaper.

WiiU titles however can be picked up for up to 60% off retail price - For example i purchased a used copy of Picmin 3, A DAY AFTER IT WAS RELEASED, for 2000y cheaper.

WiiU titles do not hold their price well because nobody is buying them, thus stores wont offer decent amounts because its touch and go if theyll actually be able to sell it again.

Bic camera, yamada, ito yokado, aeon and nojima are all gradually downsizing their wiiu sections too, a few weeks after launch most of these stores had two to three shelves dedicated to the console, now youre lucky to find a single shelf that is wiiu-only from top to bottom.

To put this in to perspective, my local (and very large) Aeon has a paulty 2 rows of one shelf for wiiu, with the rest of the game-boxes on the shelf being for peripherals, cables, protective covers and other cheap nonsense, with the bottom row of said shelf having nothing but boxes of 3ds styluses.

ill 2nd the great insight part. Its good to see some perspective from the other side. We forget how different it is between the US, Europe and Japan. Its a little shocking to me, because i would have thought it anyone had patience and give it a chance, it would be Japan. I think in the US people figured they already invested alot so might as well stick it out.

Crazy thing is the shelf space situation aint that much different here either from what ive seen, some people wont acknowledge it but its the truth. Its not as bad as over there but the WIi has far more shelf space. GameStop, Best Buy have one corner dedicated to Wii U anything.

the 3ds is the wiius problem, thats the thing, almost all the games you see lately have a 3ds version, and that diminishes the need for the console - nobody gives a freaking shit about the tablet here, quite litterally - they have their 3ds and theyre happy to play nintendo games on that, kids dont want wiius here, my neighbours a school teacher and when i talk to him all he ever brings up is how the kids are hooked on portable gaming, they had a school day a few weeks ago where kids could bring in their games consoles to write up a report on their favorite games, as incentive to do well they were given the first half of the day to play on their games, and this was an entire year of the school (300 or more kids), other than the occasional ps3 and wii, everyone brought in a psp, vita or 3ds

not a single kid brought a wiiu with them.


The sad part about this is I think the Wii U is designed first and foremost for the Japanese market. Off-TV play to simulate the effect of Japanese consumers using their handheld at home, low electricity conusmption dictating the entire chipset design ... for a country that's in an electricity crunch in the post-earthquake/nuclear meltdown era, etc. etc.

Yet the Japanese don't seem to want to have anything to do with the console. Nintendo should've designed the machine for American tastes first and foremost.



oniyide said:
Nyleveia said:

Its very telling that in the japanese market, ps3, 3ds and vita games, and the rarer wii games hold their value extremely well - a used vita/3ds game is barely 1000y cheaper than retail shelf price, often sub 500y cheaper.

WiiU titles however can be picked up for up to 60% off retail price - For example i purchased a used copy of Picmin 3, A DAY AFTER IT WAS RELEASED, for 2000y cheaper.

WiiU titles do not hold their price well because nobody is buying them, thus stores wont offer decent amounts because its touch and go if theyll actually be able to sell it again.

Bic camera, yamada, ito yokado, aeon and nojima are all gradually downsizing their wiiu sections too, a few weeks after launch most of these stores had two to three shelves dedicated to the console, now youre lucky to find a single shelf that is wiiu-only from top to bottom.

To put this in to perspective, my local (and very large) Aeon has a paulty 2 rows of one shelf for wiiu, with the rest of the game-boxes on the shelf being for peripherals, cables, protective covers and other cheap nonsense, with the bottom row of said shelf having nothing but boxes of 3ds styluses.

ill 2nd the great insight part. Its good to see some perspective from the other side. We forget how different it is between the US, Europe and Japan. Its a little shocking to me, because i would have thought it anyone had patience and give it a chance, it would be Japan. I think in the US people figured they already invested alot so might as well stick it out.

Crazy thing is the shelf space situation aint that much different here either from what ive seen, some people wont acknowledge it but its the truth. Its not as bad as over there but the WIi has far more shelf space. GameStop, Best Buy have one corner dedicated to Wii U anything.

Anecdotal, but i just noticed that my Gamestop has recently downgraded their Wii and upgraded their Wii U space, to at least be equal to what Wii's used to be...



Monster Hunter: pissing me off since 2010.

Soundwave said:

The sad part about this is I think the Wii U is designed first and foremost for the Japanese market. Off-TV play to simulate the effect of Japanese consumers using their handheld at home, low electricity conusmption dictating the entire chipset design ... for a country that's in an electricity crunch in the post-earthquake/nuclear meltdown era, etc. etc.

Yet the Japanese don't seem to want to have anything to do with the console. Nintendo should've designed the machine for American tastes first and foremost.


thats whats crazy youd think that if any region would give them the benefit of the doubt it would be Ninty's own home turf, the fact they not is...something. 

to be fair i dont think they thought they would do this poorly. I kind of applaud the gamers over thier in a way. If they think something sucks, to hell with waiting around. Get rid of it. Better response than sitting on the sidelines wishing and stars and twidiling thumbs

 

This quote tree was ridiculous.  Stahp - Kresnik.



Cut that tree CHOP CHOP!!



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I was checking the Media Create sales, and while I always thought W101 had 'bomba' written all over it, I wasn´t expecting such terrible, small numbers.

I expect Bayonetta 2 to perform worse than its predecessor, and I´m not sure how difficult it´ll be for Platinum to secure contracts with publishers, provided they remain 'independent'...I guess..very difficult, most likely.

I think most of their games are great, but they all lack mainstream appeal, so is the future dark for Platinum?



JGarret said:
I was checking the Media Create sales, and while I always thought W101 had 'bomba' written all over it, I wasn´t expecting such terrible, small numbers.

I expect Bayonetta 2 to perform worse than its predecessor, and I´m not sure how difficult it´ll be for Platinum to secure contracts with publishers, provided they remain 'independent'...I guess..very difficult, most likely.

I think most of their games are great, but they all lack mainstream appeal, so is the future dark for Platinum?

i agree with this, but then why does it seem that publishers arent making money on their games? Sega didnt seem to make any, not sure Ninty will either. Are they expecting too much even though they know they are niche. How the hell the does a game like W101 have a bigger budget than Bayonetta. its only on one system and it doesnt seem like its using an insane engine either. THe only game that seemed to make something was that Metal Gear and that sold cause its Metal Gear



I have a feeling NA will be the one to really eat it up, actually.

I DO see a little chance of a flop there, but I honestly feel pretty confident it's going to sell at least 400k there.



oniyide said:
JGarret said:
I was checking the Media Create sales, and while I always thought W101 had 'bomba' written all over it, I wasn´t expecting such terrible, small numbers.

I expect Bayonetta 2 to perform worse than its predecessor, and I´m not sure how difficult it´ll be for Platinum to secure contracts with publishers, provided they remain 'independent'...I guess..very difficult, most likely.

I think most of their games are great, but they all lack mainstream appeal, so is the future dark for Platinum?

i agree with this, but then why does it seem that publishers arent making money on their games? Sega didnt seem to make any, not sure Ninty will either. Are they expecting too much even though they know they are niche. How the hell the does a game like W101 have a bigger budget than Bayonetta. its only on one system and it doesnt seem like its using an insane engine either. THe only game that seemed to make something was that Metal Gear and that sold cause its Metal Gear

I guess it´s safe to say W101 won´t be recouping its losses...relative to the budget that was spent, I wonder if this game is Platinum´s biggest bomba so far.



oniyide said:

 How the hell the does a game like W101 have a bigger budget than Bayonetta. its only on one system and it doesnt seem like its using an insane engine either. 

It is pretty bizarre.

It doesn't use expensive voice actors or lots of licensed music either. Where on earth did all the money go?