By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Nintendo - Iwata (not laughing): ' We failed with the Wii'

trestres on 29 October 2009
Avinash_Tyagi said:
trestres said:
woopah said:

“We failed with the Wii. We were unable to continually release strong software, and let the nice mood cool. We were unable to show a new game to become ‘the next thing.’ In the game market, once you’ve lost the momentum, it takes time to recover. With the price drop, sales returned to a certain level, but they just did not reach the level of last year around this time. We decided that it would be difficult to sell enough to recover from the poor performance of the first half of the year. In order to reach it (20 million target), we’ll have to move quite a large quantity, but it’s a figure we released after having felt the momentum returning [based off the price drop].”

 

I really want to know what happened at nintendo. i always get the impression that they had a lot of games get cancelled or delayed which is why their 2009 line up is so thin.

 

im sure trestres will enjoy this

I don't enjoy Nintendo being down, but they deserve it. I do enjoy however, having been right for the past 2 years despite many blind defenders calling me a hater, a doomsayer and whatnot. This goes dedicated to all the people who criticized me for being a realist.

Actually you were only right for one year, lol, this year is the year they failed to keep momentum.

I've been saying it since E3 2008, so it's more than 1 year. Glad I had a head start, that means I'm even more right.



Proud poster of the 10000th reply at the Official Smash Bros Update Thread.

tag - "I wouldn't trust gamespot, even if it was a live comparison."

Bets with Conegamer:

Pandora's Tower will have an opening week of less than 37k in Japan. (Won!)
Pandora's Tower will sell less than 100k lifetime in Japan.
Stakes: 1 week of avatar control for each one.

Fullfilled Prophecies

Around the Network
theprof00 on 29 October 2009

It was apparent when the highlights of the year would be wii music and animal crossing. I forget what the other game was, eithe MKwii or SSBB, that also released that year, but by e3 it was almost definite, but there was a strong possibilty even before that when the only big franchise game of the year was SSBB or MKWii, whichever one it was.



Avinash_Tyagi on 29 October 2009
trestres said:
Avinash_Tyagi said:
trestres said:
woopah said:

“We failed with the Wii. We were unable to continually release strong software, and let the nice mood cool. We were unable to show a new game to become ‘the next thing.’ In the game market, once you’ve lost the momentum, it takes time to recover. With the price drop, sales returned to a certain level, but they just did not reach the level of last year around this time. We decided that it would be difficult to sell enough to recover from the poor performance of the first half of the year. In order to reach it (20 million target), we’ll have to move quite a large quantity, but it’s a figure we released after having felt the momentum returning [based off the price drop].”

 

I really want to know what happened at nintendo. i always get the impression that they had a lot of games get cancelled or delayed which is why their 2009 line up is so thin.

 

im sure trestres will enjoy this

I don't enjoy Nintendo being down, but they deserve it. I do enjoy however, having been right for the past 2 years despite many blind defenders calling me a hater, a doomsayer and whatnot. This goes dedicated to all the people who criticized me for being a realist.

Actually you were only right for one year, lol, this year is the year they failed to keep momentum.

I've been saying it since E3 2008, so it's more than 1 year. Glad I had a head start, that means I'm even more right.


I know, but you were wrong when you first said it, lol, as they still had the software to keep momentum then.

 

Predictions:Sales of Wii Fit will surpass the combined sales of the Grand Theft Auto franchiseLifetime sales of Wii will surpass the combined sales of the entire Playstation family of consoles by 12/31/2015 Wii hardware sales will surpass the total hardware sales of the PS2 by 12/31/2010 Wii will have 50% marketshare or more by the end of 2008 (I was wrong!!  It was a little over 48% only)Wii will surpass 45 Million in lifetime sales by the end of 2008 (I was wrong!!  Nintendo Financials showed it fell slightly short of 45 million shipped by end of 2008)Wii will surpass 80 Million in lifetime sales by the end of 2009 (I was wrong!! Wii didn't even get to 70 Million)

noname2200 on 29 October 2009
theprof00 said:
It was apparent when the highlights of the year would be wii music and animal crossing. I forget what the other game was, eithe MKwii or SSBB, that also released that year, but by e3 it was almost definite, but there was a strong possibilty even before that when the only big franchise game of the year was SSBB or MKWii, whichever one it was.

It was both, plus Wii Fit.



Avinash_Tyagi on 29 October 2009
theprof00 said:
It was apparent when the highlights of the year would be wii music and animal crossing. I forget what the other game was, eithe MKwii or SSBB, that also released that year, but by e3 it was almost definite, but there was a strong possibilty even before that when the only big franchise game of the year was SSBB or MKWii, whichever one it was.

Actually both SSBB and MK Wii launched last year, early in the year, it wasn't until the fall lineups weakness became apparent that the momentum began to be lost, and even then, it was the issue of not having anything to recover the slack this year that caused the problem

 

Predictions:Sales of Wii Fit will surpass the combined sales of the Grand Theft Auto franchiseLifetime sales of Wii will surpass the combined sales of the entire Playstation family of consoles by 12/31/2015 Wii hardware sales will surpass the total hardware sales of the PS2 by 12/31/2010 Wii will have 50% marketshare or more by the end of 2008 (I was wrong!!  It was a little over 48% only)Wii will surpass 45 Million in lifetime sales by the end of 2008 (I was wrong!!  Nintendo Financials showed it fell slightly short of 45 million shipped by end of 2008)Wii will surpass 80 Million in lifetime sales by the end of 2009 (I was wrong!! Wii didn't even get to 70 Million)

Around the Network
trestres on 29 October 2009
theprof00 said:
It was apparent when the highlights of the year would be wii music and animal crossing. I forget what the other game was, eithe MKwii or SSBB, that also released that year, but by e3 it was almost definite, but there was a strong possibilty even before that when the only big franchise game of the year was SSBB or MKWii, whichever one it was.

Apparently it wasn't that obvious too many, since anyone who dared to say that back then was instantly labeled as a troll and a Nintendo hater. I knew it was bound too happen, I even called 2009 to have less games than 2008 had back then in 2008 and was also called out for that. It ended up being true and that's the biggest problem Nintendo had. They focused too much on the DS and ignored the Wii by supplying mostly ports and sequels.

I already think it's too late to revert the situation. They won't ever go back to the level of sales they enjoyed in 2008, since the Wii image has been damaged among the people who buy the most games, the core gamers. Probably by next gen success won't be so high up in their heads that it would blind them like it did this time. They thought that with a couple of "big" (yet unproven) games they would have another whole year of record breaking sales in their pockets. Guess that releasing only 4 new games this year wasn't the smartest move to make, even less when 3rd party support was and will continue to be second rate.

I think they have already given up on the Wii this gen in terms of giving it stellar support. The next wave of games might as well be the last one before they move on to their next cnsole, by around late 2011. DSi is already not getting any future support save for Golden Sun 3, so the DS's successor might arrive by the end of next year.



Proud poster of the 10000th reply at the Official Smash Bros Update Thread.

tag - "I wouldn't trust gamespot, even if it was a live comparison."

Bets with Conegamer:

Pandora's Tower will have an opening week of less than 37k in Japan. (Won!)
Pandora's Tower will sell less than 100k lifetime in Japan.
Stakes: 1 week of avatar control for each one.

Fullfilled Prophecies

theprof00 on 29 October 2009
Avinash_Tyagi said:
theprof00 said:
It was apparent when the highlights of the year would be wii music and animal crossing. I forget what the other game was, eithe MKwii or SSBB, that also released that year, but by e3 it was almost definite, but there was a strong possibilty even before that when the only big franchise game of the year was SSBB or MKWii, whichever one it was.

Actually both SSBB and MK Wii launched last year, early in the year, it wasn't until the fall lineups weakness became apparent that the momentum began to be lost, and even then, it was the issue of not having anything to recover the slack this year that caused the problem

Hmm that helps me remember more clearly.

It was when I got SSBB that it all went downhill for me. Call me crazy, but I could see a trend developing. SSBB got super moves, which instantly killed the game for me. MKWii did away with character moves, which killed that for me as well.

At that point I knew that Nintendo was starting to market the games I liked towards other demographics. That's just my personal feeling, you can think I'm wrong, but that's when I saw it.



trestres on 29 October 2009
Avinash_Tyagi said:
trestres said:
Avinash_Tyagi said:
trestres said:
woopah said:

“We failed with the Wii. We were unable to continually release strong software, and let the nice mood cool. We were unable to show a new game to become ‘the next thing.’ In the game market, once you’ve lost the momentum, it takes time to recover. With the price drop, sales returned to a certain level, but they just did not reach the level of last year around this time. We decided that it would be difficult to sell enough to recover from the poor performance of the first half of the year. In order to reach it (20 million target), we’ll have to move quite a large quantity, but it’s a figure we released after having felt the momentum returning [based off the price drop].”

 

I really want to know what happened at nintendo. i always get the impression that they had a lot of games get cancelled or delayed which is why their 2009 line up is so thin.

 

im sure trestres will enjoy this

I don't enjoy Nintendo being down, but they deserve it. I do enjoy however, having been right for the past 2 years despite many blind defenders calling me a hater, a doomsayer and whatnot. This goes dedicated to all the people who criticized me for being a realist.

Actually you were only right for one year, lol, this year is the year they failed to keep momentum.

I've been saying it since E3 2008, so it's more than 1 year. Glad I had a head start, that means I'm even more right.

I know, but you were wrong when you first said it, lol, as they still had the software to keep momentum then.

I was wrong because I anticipated everyone about it? They never had the software, otherwise this wouldn't have happened. History has proven me right, so it's time to move on to the next great debate, because I was right and you were wrong on this one.



Proud poster of the 10000th reply at the Official Smash Bros Update Thread.

tag - "I wouldn't trust gamespot, even if it was a live comparison."

Bets with Conegamer:

Pandora's Tower will have an opening week of less than 37k in Japan. (Won!)
Pandora's Tower will sell less than 100k lifetime in Japan.
Stakes: 1 week of avatar control for each one.

Fullfilled Prophecies

Arius Dion on 29 October 2009

Honestly, I don't think this has anything to do with third parties in the least. Third parties are like those fish that latch on to the Sharks to scrap food off of what ever the Shark eats. Or the birds that pick the food off the teeth of Alligators and Crocodiles..Ok I've been watchin animal planet lately..But what I mean is that Iwata is talking about momentum and Nintendo's job as a first party is to drive the momentum with compelling software. Building momentum is not the third parties job. They can certainly maintain momentum but building it isn't their shtick.

That's one of the dangers MS and Sony face in that if third parties ever up and left for greener pastures they'd be fucked.

Nintendo operates on the old values of building the userbase and making a userbase so vast that any game can flourish.

They expected Wii Music/AC to drive momentum much like MK and Wii Fit and Brawl did back in 08, this didn't happen, obviously. Hence the price cut took place.

Malstrom, love him or loathe him has been saying this for quite some time now. The guy knows his business. Nintendo was always going to have a bumpier ride with the Wii than with the DS. But if I may throw my own expectations out there, I think the recent move by the other companies towards motion controls actually plays more into Nintendo's favor than their own. This will, I believe, expose third party arrogance more than ever before...But I digress.

It is also surprising and encouraging to hear this sort of talk come from the President of the most successful console this generation. Admitting there is a problem is the first step towards rectifying it. This should lead to good things.



Bet between Slimbeast and Arius Dion about Wii sales 2009:


If the Wii sells less than 20 million in 2009 (as defined by VGC sales between week ending 3d Jan 2009 to week ending 4th Jan 2010) Slimebeast wins and get to control Arius Dion's sig for 1 month.

If the Wii sells more than 20 million in 2009 (as defined above) Arius Dion wins and gets to control Slimebeast's sig for 1 month.

Ail on 29 October 2009
Avinash_Tyagi said:
theprof00 said:
Avinash_Tyagi said:
trestres said:
woopah said:

“We failed with the Wii. We were unable to continually release strong software, and let the nice mood cool. We were unable to show a new game to become ‘the next thing.’ In the game market, once you’ve lost the momentum, it takes time to recover. With the price drop, sales returned to a certain level, but they just did not reach the level of last year around this time. We decided that it would be difficult to sell enough to recover from the poor performance of the first half of the year. In order to reach it (20 million target), we’ll have to move quite a large quantity, but it’s a figure we released after having felt the momentum returning [based off the price drop].”

 

I really want to know what happened at nintendo. i always get the impression that they had a lot of games get cancelled or delayed which is why their 2009 line up is so thin.

 

im sure trestres will enjoy this

I don't enjoy Nintendo being down, but they deserve it. I do enjoy however, having been right for the past 2 years despite many blind defenders calling me a hater, a doomsayer and whatnot. This goes dedicated to all the people who criticized me for being a realist.

Actually you were only right for one year, lol, this year is the year they failed to keep momentum.

It's been apparent since 1 year in that this would happen.

Only since Wii music and Animal crossing has this happened in fact, without those failures and with some momentum maintaining expanded audience software, it wouldn't have happened, so like I said, one year.

blaming it solely on the relative failure of those titles does not take into account every factor.

Another factor is that this year the Wii entered it's second year where it was able to satisfy the demand.

As long as not enough Wii were found in stores this created a dynamic pushing some people that probably woudn't have bought one otherwise to purchased it.

However sometime this year the majority of customers have realized finding a Wii is no longer an issue ( the last shortage was last Chrismas) and the dynamics that were pushing some to buy it have changed....

It's not specific to the Wii, most of the  time there is a product which is unable to satisfy the demand, it drives the sales for that product...

 

I mean  noone else noticed that Wii sales started to slowdown in Q2 2009, the first quarter when you could finally find piles of Wii in every retailer ??



PS3-Xbox360 gap : 1.5 millions and going up in PS3 favor !

PS3-Wii gap : 20 millions and going down !