Gaming Nintendo Confirms Wii U Has Flopped, Slashes Sales Forecast By ~70%

[Taleweaver]

because there was fuck all games that's why. they should have released a big title before xmas like mario kart of dkc. no games = no sales

I was more thinking in the line of the releases of xbone and PS4, but it's true. A wind waker re-release and yet another Mario platformer aren't going to draw in people who didn't buy the thing last year. Though truth be told, I think only bayonetta 2 would actually increase wiiu sales outside their current market.

 

[Vanth88]

The only problem with the Wii U is the lack of noticeable AAA games. Last year we had Mario 3D World but that's just one game. While Super Smash Bros will sell copies you have to realize releasing one AAA game every year is a really shitty marketing strategy. You don't hear about how shitty the Wii U is, you hear about how it has no damn games.

I own a Wii U and honestly I really like it and can see a ton of potential. I actually chose the Wii U over the PS4 and Xbox One. There's a couple things they need to improve on(like save management) but the systems fine its just the games man.. the games! there are none!

 

[Arras]

Foxi4 - I only read the first page or two, didn't mean to sound insecure. I just think it's funny that people have been saying that Nintendo is doomed for years and years, all the way back to the NES.

They'll do just fine. They might have a flop product occasionally, like the virtual boy or N64DD, but the Wii U isn't anywhere near that point. Just a few years ago everyone said they couldn't turn the 3DS around, and it's doing wonderfully now.

The problem is the 3DS had no competition save for the nogaems nosales Vita. On the console front there's the Xbone and PS4 (which really have no games either, but they sure as hell have sales).

 

[Bladexdsl]

once mario kart, smash bros and zelda is out you watch the wii-u fly off the shelves. but until than

 

[Arras]

once mario kart, smash bros and zelda is out you watch the wii-u fly off the shelves. but until than

It will. For about a week.

 

[Mariko]

Had Nintendo released a proper Next Gen, capable of competing with the PS4 and the XBox One and didn't market it to an audience which doesn't exist no more, the system would have more games by now and it would be just as desirable as the forementioned two.

Or not. I don't think the market could sustain three (more or less) equal platforms. Nintendo would have suffered massive losses. I really believe they can still recover, and that the Wii U isn't doomed. We have exciting titles on the way, and despite the disappointing sales, Wii U does have a lot to offer. In any case, I don't regret buying one.

 

[Foxi4]

Or not. I don't think the market could sustain three (more or less) equal platforms. Nintendo would have suffered massive losses. I really believe they can still recover, and that the Wii U isn't doomed. We have exciting titles on the way, and despite the disappointing sales, Wii U does have a lot to offer. In any case, I don't regret buying one.

I don't think it's "doomed" either, I just realize that it's going to be another Gamecube or another N64 - a console with very limited appeal and poor overall sales - it shows all the symptoms, it has all the makings of those.

The Wii was a fluke - a large portion of its users were interested solely in the waggling, casual aspect, but they moved on to iOS and Android since now they can have this sort of fun anywhere they want.

Another big portion of the users were, as forementioned, the Wii Balance Board fitness-oriented crowd - don't laugh, it's over 22 million users. Those guys can now "do fitness" on any system, so it's not as much a selling point as it used to.

The rest was the core Nintendo audience - as much as, or as little as half of the total Wii sales, and right now it's those people who Nintendo has to cater to.

 

[Gahars]

once mario kart, smash bros and zelda is out you watch the wii-u fly off the shelves. but until than

Yes, because those titles sure saved the N64 and Gamecube.

Like Arras said, you're definitely going to see a sales boost around the release of these big titles, but it's just going to last. We've already seen this with the other games that were supposes to save the Wii U (Pikmin 3, Windwaker HD, Super Mario 3D something or other, etc.).

 

[Bladexdsl]

The Wii was a fluke - a large portion of its users were interested solely in the waggling, casual aspect, but they moved on to iOS and Android since now they can have this sort of fun anywhere they want.

damn you apple how dare you steal nintendos audience!

 

[GameWinner]

once mario kart, smash bros and zelda is out you watch the wii-u fly off the shelves. but until than

I wonder if both will get the 3D World treatment..

 

[Foxi4]

damn you apple how dare you steal nintendos audience!

The audience wasn't Nintendo's in the first place - not everyone's partial like that.

 

[Bladexdsl]

it's still apples fault why? because i hate them

 

[Deleted User]

I think Nintendo kinda missed the point with WiiU, they focused the whole project around the wiiu's gamepad expecting it to be something revolutionary, when in reality, if anything, it should have been like an optional accessory ( like VMUs on dreamcast ) and they should have focused on games instead ( I was going to mention graphics seeing how everyone seems so obsessed with it lately, but... meh )
it was something that already existed, they just updated it.
the fact that xbox one easily copied the gamepad's funcionality using tablets was pretty intense too

I'm kinda sorry for Nintendo because since the beginning the wiiU was an obvious flop ( people were more interested in the nonspecific action figure than on the console itself ), the launch games were bland/boring and even now it doesn't have any really interesting game except for mario 3d world..
nor has it some really interesting/unique app or anything
the ads were full of fail, Nintendo barely knew who their target public was and when they did, they didn't know how to advertise to them. like those ads that treated kids like babies and those that tried to give an image of "wii u is a family only console"
not to mention the name of the console itself confused the hell out of everyone from the start, was it an addon? was it another console? was it a wii accessory? ( even Wii 2 would have made a lot more sense )
who knows, the launch trailer only showed some people seemingly playing wii with the gamepad and using some apps... and the nonspecific action figure, fans rejoiced.

before some developers forced Nintendo into making the new classic controller they wanted to cram the gamepad use into every game possible, kinda like those pesky DS games that were touch controls only ( but would be so much better playing with buttons ), it would have helped the wiiu though


Iwata is certainly expecting the release of smash bros will change that ( especially since the development team seems to be focusing a lot more on the wiiu version. from what i've seen the 3ds version is using some very low res textures and the 'effects' look very unfinished, not to mention that it barely even has screenshots )
Smash bros WOULD be a console seller, if it wasn't coming out for the 3DS as well. unless each version gets a considerable amount of exclusive characters it won't happen.

Not even other companies are taking Nintendo seriously anymore, and treating it like, let's say, a little brother, instead of a rival
Sony has been especially smug about it
Iwata is CEO for a few years now and he's still pretty clueless about how to run the company, and it shows.


so yeah, if Iwata stock holders don't fire Iwata, things are going to get pretty dark for Nintendo


oh and I think it's important to mention, I'm not particularly fond of any gaming company so I'm saying all this from a neutral point of view

as a side note I just want to say how much I hate that Iwata references himself sooo much in games ( every Balloon Fight reference in games is a indirect reference to him because he worked on that game while he was on HAL )

 

[mightymuffy]

Nintendo Confirms Wii U Has Flopped.... in the West - vgchartz. Seems to have been shifting 50k machines a week for a while over in Japan, making it the best selling console there (granted the PS4 will smash it once that gets released over there). Not TOO shabby...

I'd say, combined with the big releases MK8 & Smash Bros, they're looking at continuing 50k-ish per week in Japan, and roughly the same (maybe a bit less) combined in the West.... maybe 5M sold worldwide in 2014? A distant 3rd place then, and possibly becoming 2nd or 3rd party looming in the console scene after a couple more years supporting the U? ...MK8 looks like it could be the dogs bollocks, and another great Wii U game for me to enjoy, but Nin must be wondering how many more copies of it they'd shift if it were on PS4/3/360/One/ALL of them... and game sales are where the big bucks come from!
And what about Pokemon on Android/iOS? They'd make a fukkin killing!

 

[Guild McCommunist]

It's not a lie or a myth, its just a difference of opinion. Yeah they all have their exclusives but you can also lump Halo and Gears in to FPS, and Forza vs Gran Turismo whatever.

I do think Sony comes in second as far as compelling exclusives, but heck I was a Sony fanboy for PS1 and early PS2 days and all those great exclusves don't mean much to me. I only started God of War recently and I have not heard good things about the PS3 ones. I played some Jak, and maybe some Sly back in the day and am trying to check out some of these others.

But seriously dude, none of that stuff holds a candle to Nintendo Exclusives.

So your point has validity, but as far as what people like me are getting at when they make the point about exclusives your point doesn't change that.

Uncharted 2 is leagues better than most Nintendo stuff.

 

[Arras]

Uncharted 2 is leagues better than most Nintendo stuff.

It's still very much a preference thing. Call it bad taste but I don't really like Uncharted (and yes, I played quite a bit of Uncharted 2). It wasn't bad by any means, but... dunno, it just didn't really seem fun to me. I like Infamous though.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

People just seem to have an aversion to praising Uncharted because it's a shooter and there's some stupid notion that shooters are "bad" and can't be nearly as good as like platformers. Which is really wrong.

I mean it does come down to preference but Uncharted 2 is just a fun, thoroughly well constructed game. Same goes for Uncharted 3.

Then there's The Last of Us too. I'd even reckon inFamous 2 was a fantastic game.

 

[mightymuffy]

It's still very much a preference thing. Call it bad taste but I don't really like Uncharted (and yes, I played quite a bit of Uncharted 2). It wasn't bad by any means, but... dunno, it just didn't really seem fun to me. I like Infamous though.

Guild thinks his opinion is that revered everyone should share it..... Uncharted 2 was absolute shite compared to the hype it was given - probably one of the most dissappointing games I've ever played as a result (and I've tried to do just that at least 4 times... thinking it was just me or something). This coming from me who reckons The Last Of Us was probably the greatest game of the last generation....
Infamous is also dog shite , but hey, personal opinion and all that ehh!

 

[Arras]

Guild thinks his opinion is that revered everyone should share it..... Uncharted 2 was absolute shite compared to the hype it was given - probably one of the most dissappointing games I've ever played as a result (and I've tried to do just that at least 4 times... thinking it was just me or something). This coming from me who reckons The Last Of Us was probably the greatest game of the last generation....
Infamous is also dog shite , but hey, personal opinion and all that ehh!

Meh, I had fun with InFamous 2. Also Uncharted 2 is not bad, I just don't really like it. I haven't played TLOU so I can't say anything about that. I intend to some day but I'll wait until it becomes free on PS+ or I can pick it up for like ten bucks. As for other PS exclusives... Ratchet & Clank is probably my favorite, Jak & Daxter is decent but they don't make those anymore, haven't played Sly Cooper, not a fan of LittleBigPlanet, God of War is decently fun, Wipeout... meh, don't really like Gran Turismo, Valkyria Chronicles is awesome, not a fan of Killzone and I'm probably forgetting a ton. All of them are pretty good though. Then again that wasn't really the point of this thread.

 

[TemplarGR]

Let's just be honest here. Nintendo's greed is to blame for these results.

I am a long-time gamer, started with Nintendo NES in the 80s. There was a time when Nintendo provided value for the gamer. It provided the best games all-around, quite powerful hardware for its price etc.

With the previous generation of consoles, Nintendo was awarded by gamers for ripping them off. It provided us with underpowered consoles (Wii, DS) which sold because of shallow gimmicks.

If we take an honest look at Wii's and DS's library of games, we can find only a small group of games that actually were good. Most were mediocre at best.

Even though the consoles were underpowered and the games were mediocre, their prices were sky-high. Why? Because it's Nintendo. Like an Apple of gaming sort of thing...

Nintendo thought they could do it again this generation. Both the Wii U and the 3DS are previous generation hardware-wise. The Wii U is a slightly upgraded PS3 with a cheap tablet for a controller and the 3DS is a PSP with more ram, dual screens and a 3D gimmick...

Their games are just remakes of previous generations with last generation graphics. And they have the audacity to ask high prices for them...

I predicted it would come to this. I own a 3DS but only own 2 original games and i will never buy another because i find their prices absurd. I can buy Skyrim Legendary edition for 30euros and you ask 40 euros for Mario Kart 7 or Super Mario Land 3D? Seriously Nintendo?

Nintendo will inevitably follow SEGA's way. Their greed will be their demise... You can only overcharge people for Mario,Zelda and Pokemon for so long...