| RolStoppable said: That explanation doesn't work either. If you take historical sales of Nintendo home consoles into account, then all countries of Europe are pretty much the same. There was never a really big Nintendo presence anywhere, with totals of less than 10m consoles sold across the entire contintent. Your point about Kinect is also doubtful, because I don't think there are enough software sales to back it up. And the Wii U doesn't even have tablet games. I don't have any real explanation either, but instead of population breakdowns, marketing, Nintendo's hardware and software direction and the like which should all be virtually identical in every country, perhaps it has to do with availability of Nintendo's new systems. How do retailers stock them, how do they present them, that kind of stuff. If they mix Wii and Wii U, and DS and 3DS in a pile, then there might be less distinction and awareness for consumers than in other parts of the world. If shops put out store ads that don't make a distinction either, then that would emphasize that problem. As a non-UK resident I can't say how the situation is, but I'd look at that over things that are virtually equal across the whole of Europe. |
Nintendo have had historical problems with Europe, as you say. It was SEGA territory with the Mega Drive before it was Sony territory. If anything that would support what I said though about the people who bought into the Wii not really being Nintendo fans. The Wii sold more in Europe than every other Nintendo homeconsole combined because they went for the expanded market with the likes of Wii Sports and Wii Fit.
With the Wii U they reverted back to the norm. A more traditional console with a strange controller that has no unique, system selling feature or game to utilize the controller.
Kinect was more about the buzz around a new product which brought them in. The expanded market jumped on it like crazy here. Id argue that it single handedly pushed the 360 for around 2 Years (Up 20% YoY in 2010 and a further 4% in 2011 without a hard pricecut), primarily thanks to the bundles offered. Without it, I think sales would have tanked long before now. Then again, the story of Kinect is another one of wasted potential. I mean tablet games, as in games being played on a tablet. Not your traditional Angry Birds, Candy Crush and so on. Being able to play your games on your tablet controller instead of the TV was a pretty big deal for Nintendo wasnt it?
Regarding the in store stuff, it would depend where you shop. Ive seen Game stores with shelves/stands dedicated to Wii U and Ive seen smaller stores, like Grainger Games, with Wii U games lumped in with Wii games (and DS games too). For example - http://www.frenchgateshopping.co.uk/uploads/gfx/710.JPG - That image is from 2011 but you can see in a part of the store there with a large section that was devoted to DS. Right now, that area is devoted to 3DS (or atleast it was last Month). Game stores are generally like this, with clear stands and sections for each platform.
