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Forums - Nintendo - WiiU: Where replicating the portable success went wrong

Wazowski on 23 July 2014

Even if Wii U doesnt do great i think Nintendo is in the right direction this generation, may be next gen for Nintendo will do much better simply because this Gen after an year in Limbo Nintendo is doing things right, showning the potential of the Company and it's games, and may be with the right politics and right advertising next time will be a hit!

 

Edit: I never was a Nintendo fan (never had a console or portable) but lately Nintendo really got my attention!



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QuintonMcLeod on 23 July 2014
Devil_Survivor said:
QuintonMcLeod said:
1) Price

The Price is fine. I dunno why people keep comparing the Wii U to the DS when the DS was clearly a portable system. Look at the flip side. The Wii U was sold at $350 _with_ a game and free networking options. People bought PS4s at $400 _without_ a game and no free networking options. Price isn't the issue here. Value _is_. This brings us to our next category:

2) Games

This was the real problem. The Wii U had a dry spell through the better part of 2013. If there aren't any games to sell the system, the system begins to die. The Wii U had very strong momentum right out of the gate. However, Nintendo underestimated the time it would take to develop HD content. They were caught unprepared and that was entirely Nintendo's fault. They should've done a bit more research into HD development than they did. Their inability to plan ahead for the Wii U spelled doom for the system. Right now, their games are releasing and it's certainly helping the Wii U rise from the ashes. However, if Mario Kart 8 came out in 2013 - if Pikmin, Wonderful 101, Super Mario 3D World and etc. came out month after month after month in 2013, the Wii U would've been able to keep its momentum and not be in the slump it's in now.

Conclusion:

Games sell a system. The success of the Wii made Nintendo complacent and lazy. They figured they could just release another "Wii" and continue to ride on its previous success. They figured they could do everything within the last minute and worry about the technicalities later. They were wrong! They are just now realizing that consumers are a lot more informed today than they were many years ago. They can no longer make a product and _force_ consumers to take what they give them. They must now give in to what consumers want or face obsoletion.


I agree with you, however you say the Wii U is in slump now when its clearly not. Its selling much better than before, not great, but getting to a better place.


Maybe I should've worded it differently. Up until before Mario Kart 8 was released, the Wii U was in a slump. It was being outsold by the Xbone and the PS4 week after week. Now, it's doing much better. With the release of Hyrule Warriors, Bayonetta 2, Smash Bros and more, the Wii U will make a huge resurgence. 



IkePoR on 23 July 2014

Past sighted eyes can see Nintendo dropped the ball so hard it went through the Earth and out the other side. Damn shame.

Present sighted eyes can see them scrambling to fix these issues, which is great.

Future sighted: while the Wii U is essentially a failure, here's to hoping Nintendo learns from it. There is a lot to be learned - not just from Wii U but this entire generation - that I hope no one repeats again.

Except Sony with the PS4. That's the closest to perfect we've got.



"You should be banned. Youre clearly flaming the president and even his brother who you know nothing about. Dont be such a partisan hack"

jonathanalis on 23 July 2014

the diference between wii U and DS is that you cant look (or at least is not pratical as DS) at the two screens at the same time.

confusion happens. (where i supose to look? TV? gamepad?)
thats why gamepad didnt work as DS (im not talking about sales, is about usability)



oniyide on 23 July 2014

the thing isnt portable...at all. You cant even leave the house with the gamepad



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Zekkyou on 23 July 2014
drake_tolu said:

Sure that PS2 have outsold DS?

DS is underestimated by VGChartz by 1 million in USA (NPD confirmed 53m in USA)...

And coud underestimated even the Europa/Rest of world sales...

The PS2 is almost definitely ahead in totals, but it's a small lead. VGC likely also have both overtracked overall.

According to Nintendo's own sales numbers, the DS hit just under 154m as of March 31st 2014. We can consider that its final LT sales, seeing as it's been discontinued (they appear to have already stopped shipments to American and Japan at that point).

Sony had the PS2's LT sales at 155m as of 2 years earlier (31st March 2012) and discontinued it a short while after. No idea how many it pushed out between then and the discontinue, but ultimately it doesn't matter in regards to who "won". The DS LT sales are below that 2012 figure regardless.



drake_tolu on 23 July 2014
Zekkyou said:
drake_tolu said:

The PS2 is almost definitely ahead in totals, but it's a small lead. VGC likely also have both overtracked overall.

According to Nintendo's own sales numbers, the DS hit just under 154m as of March 31st 2014. We can consider that its final LT sales, seeing as it's been discontinued (they appear to have already stopped shipments to American and Japan at that point).

Sony had the PS2's LT sales at 155m as of 2 years earlier (31st March 2012) and discontinued it a short while after. No idea how many it pushed out between then and the discontinue, but ultimately it doesn't matter in regards to who "won". The DS LT sales are below that 2012 figure regardless.

http://gamesurf.tiscali.it/news/nintendo-ds-e-la-console-piu-venduta-di-sempre_c45985.html

According with this site, DS have outsold PS2 on the holiday 2012... "153.68m PS2, 153.69m Nintendo DS"

Now, the DS have sold even in 2013, and i don't think that PS2 in 2013 have sold more of DS... and also, sure that "155m" is sold and not shipment?



Zekkyou on 23 July 2014
drake_tolu said:
Zekkyou said:
drake_tolu said:

The PS2 is almost definitely ahead in totals, but it's a small lead. VGC likely also have both overtracked overall.

According to Nintendo's own sales numbers, the DS hit just under 154m as of March 31st 2014. We can consider that its final LT sales, seeing as it's been discontinued (they appear to have already stopped shipments to American and Japan at that point).

Sony had the PS2's LT sales at 155m as of 2 years earlier (31st March 2012) and discontinued it a short while after. No idea how many it pushed out between then and the discontinue, but ultimately it doesn't matter in regards to who "won". The DS LT sales are below that 2012 figure regardless.

http://gamesurf.tiscali.it/news/nintendo-ds-e-la-console-piu-venduta-di-sempre_c45985.html

According with this site, DS have outsold PS2 on the holiday 2012... "153.68m PS2, 153.69m Nintendo DS"

Now, the DS have sold even in 2013, and i don't think that PS2 in 2013 have sold more of DS... and also, sure that "155m" is sold and not shipment?

Both numbers are shipped (didn't mean to confuse you with 'sold' sorry). Both those numbers in the article seem wrong too. Nintendo claim 153.67m shipped as of Dec 31st 2012, while that article claims 153.69m sold as of a few weeks prior to the 31st (it was posted on the 17th of Dec).

Nintendo only shipped another 320k units from Dec 31st 2012 to March 31st 2014, bringing the total to 153.99m. They'd only shipped 20k in the most recent Q ending March 31st.

In the end all that matter is the PS2 has shipped around 1m+ more than the DS. I'd personally call it a draw between them, but technically the PS2 did "win".



QuintonMcLeod on 24 July 2014
padib said:
QuintonMcLeod said:
1) Price

The Price is fine. I dunno why people keep comparing the Wii U to the DS when the DS was clearly a portable system. Look at the flip side. The Wii U was sold at $350 _with_ a game and free networking options. People bought PS4s at $400 _without_ a game and no free networking options. Price isn't the issue here. Value _is_. This brings us to our next category:

2) Games

This was the real problem. The Wii U had a dry spell through the better part of 2013. If there aren't any games to sell the system, the system begins to die. The Wii U had very strong momentum right out of the gate. However, Nintendo underestimated the time it would take to develop HD content. They were caught unprepared and that was entirely Nintendo's fault. They should've done a bit more research into HD development than they did. Their inability to plan ahead for the Wii U spelled doom for the system. Right now, their games are releasing and it's certainly helping the Wii U rise from the ashes. However, if Mario Kart 8 came out in 2013 - if Pikmin, Wonderful 101, Super Mario 3D World and etc. came out month after month after month in 2013, the Wii U would've been able to keep its momentum and not be in the slump it's in now.

Conclusion:

Games sell a system. The success of the Wii made Nintendo complacent and lazy. They figured they could just release another "Wii" and continue to ride on its previous success. They figured they could do everything within the last minute and worry about the technicalities later. They were wrong! They are just now realizing that consumers are a lot more informed today than they were many years ago. They can no longer make a product and _force_ consumers to take what they give them. They must now give in to what consumers want or face obsoletion.

I'm glad we agree on games.

Sadly for price we will have to disagree. To ensure success, the price Sony can charge on its system is very different from the price Nintendo can charge. The reason is that the two systems cater to very different audiences (historically speaking): Nintendo's clients are not ready to buy at high price while Sony clients are. Support my hypothesis were the 3DS, DS, Wii and Wii U case studies.


Oh? Then why did the Wii U sell 3 million consoles in 2012 when it was priced at $350? Why did people prefer to buy the more expensive Deluxe SKU than the less expensive Basic SKU? Why does the Wii U have a higher attachment rate than the PS4 even though the PS4 has outsold the WIi U? 

Price has little to do with it. If consumers see the value of a product then they will pay the price of that product. It's as simple as that. You're speaking from a historical point of view while I'm speaking from the present and historical point of view. 



bananaking21 on 24 July 2014

what went wrong? Price, Games, The full package. so fucking everything?