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Forums - Sales Discussion - Wii U fails to reach 10 mil by E3

curl-6 on 09 June 2015
MikeRox said:
curl-6 said:

Dreamcast had 28 months from launch to discontinuation, Wii U's been out for less than 31 months. It'll be a long time until it's had "twice as long".

If by "obsolete" you mean more powerful consoles releasing, then Dreamcast actually had more time on the market before being rendered obsolete.

It released in most territories between September and October 1999. Was officially announced as being discontinued in February 2001. Its most successful region was the US where it had 17 months.

Though I've since found out the atomiswave was pretty much a Dreamcast so it actually had over 10 years if you count the arcade market (where apparently all the unsold DC hardware pretty much went).

It had 28 months before discontinuation in Japan though. (Which took place in March, according to every source I've seen)



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Soundwave on 09 June 2015

It's a tough market out there, what can you say.

I'm enjoying my Wii U, I guess in the end if the people who have purchased the system more or less enjoy it, then that's really all that can be done at this point.

Yes there are some droughts, and that's to be expected when you have like no third party support, but at least the Nintendo 1st/2nd party releases have all been pretty much good.

I honestly don't have the time to play that many games anymore anyway, I'm not a teenager anymore.



Miyamotoo on 09 June 2015

To be at 10m at E3 or near 10m doesn't matter, that doesn't change anything.



dhanson on 09 June 2015

A little late for me to contribute, but I am very curious to see VGChartz update global weekly sales numbers so we have an accurate total to date (instead of only reflecting through April 4th - and we are in June now..!!!).   Not sure what happened to whoever updates the site with the latest sales data, but I hope we see some updates soon.



JGarret on 09 June 2015

It´s amazing (in a bad way) that after over 2.5 years, only now the system is in the 10 million sold territory.With the Wii, they had a clear goal, good marketing, it was a well thought out product regardless of the opinion of some core gamers.

The Wii U, on the other hand, always felt like a 'WTF product' every step of the way, ever since it was first unveiled at E3 2011.



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MikeRox on 09 June 2015
curl-6 said:
MikeRox said:

It released in most territories between September and October 1999. Was officially announced as being discontinued in February 2001. Its most successful region was the US where it had 17 months.

Though I've since found out the atomiswave was pretty much a Dreamcast so it actually had over 10 years if you count the arcade market (where apparently all the unsold DC hardware pretty much went).

It had 28 months before discontinuation in Japan though. (Which took place in March, according to every source I've seen)


March was when the production run ended. They announced it was ending (and all the Dreamcast is dead stories were published) in February. 17 months after the US launch and 16 months after the European launch. Where the majority of Dreamcast hardware sales were. Just as they are for Wii U. So it's a pretty fair comparison.

Even if we just added all the months of availability in all territories together you get pretty much half. Or is Japan a big important world defining market when it aids Nintendo but discounted otherwise?



RIP Dad 25/11/51 - 13/12/13. You will be missed but never forgotten.

curl-6 on 09 June 2015
MikeRox said:
curl-6 said:

It had 28 months before discontinuation in Japan though. (Which took place in March, according to every source I've seen)

March was when the production run ended. They announced it was ending (and all the Dreamcast is dead stories were published) in February. 17 months after the US launch and 16 months after the European launch. Where the majority of Dreamcast hardware sales were. Just as they are for Wii U. So it's a pretty fair comparison.

Even if we just added all the months of availability in all territories together you get pretty much half. Or is Japan a big important world defining market when it aids Nintendo but discounted otherwise?

Giving Dreamcast a free 12 months extra in a major territory isn't a fair comparison, unless you remove the sales it acquired in that time from the equation.



MikeRox on 10 June 2015
curl-6 said:
MikeRox said:

March was when the production run ended. They announced it was ending (and all the Dreamcast is dead stories were published) in February. 17 months after the US launch and 16 months after the European launch. Where the majority of Dreamcast hardware sales were. Just as they are for Wii U. So it's a pretty fair comparison.

Even if we just added all the months of availability in all territories together you get pretty much half. Or is Japan a big important world defining market when it aids Nintendo but discounted otherwise?

Giving Dreamcast a free 12 months extra in a major territory isn't a fair comparison, unless you remove the sales it acquired in that time from the equation.


Go ahead and do that, it doesn't really change anything - According to VGC which has Dreamcast at 8.2m units to the general figure of 10.6m.

Wii U  - USA - 4.5m
Europe - 2.27m

Dreamcast - USA - 3.9m 
Europe - 1.91m

Even if you add that 12 months for Japan, the pace is about the same. I don't think there is any way it is possible for you to attempt to spin this in a positive light.



RIP Dad 25/11/51 - 13/12/13. You will be missed but never forgotten.

curl-6 on 10 June 2015
MikeRox said:
curl-6 said:

Giving Dreamcast a free 12 months extra in a major territory isn't a fair comparison, unless you remove the sales it acquired in that time from the equation.

Go ahead and do that, it doesn't really change anything - According to VGC which has Dreamcast at 8.2m units to the general figure of 10.6m.

Wii U  - USA - 4.5m
Europe - 2.27m

Dreamcast - USA - 3.9m 
Europe - 1.91m

Even if you add that 12 months for Japan, the pace is about the same. I don't think there is any way it is possible for you to attempt to spin this in a positive light.

According to this graph, sourced from Famitsu, ( http://i.imgur.com/fXy4i.png ) DC sold 1.1m in it's first year in Japan. Take that away from it's total sales (which top out at 10.6m, though I'm informed that this figure is heavily overtracked it was actually around 9.3m) and you get a maximum (likely excessive) figure of 9.5m, which Wii U passed back in March. 

The actual figures probably put Dreamcast's post-first-year sales at around 8.2m, which Wii U passed some time ago.



bunchanumbers on 10 June 2015

The funny thing is that it could reach 10m before E3 and Nintendo wouldn't say a word about it at E3. We won't hear about it until their financials are announced.