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

[FAST6191]

Why would I want to import Wii U games? The ones that I want are out in the same region as I (Europe), with the exception of different covers, what I was referring to was games in general from Japan.

Granted the Wii U (and 3ds) having no games does trouble the argument, looking at a contemporary console like the PS360 there was plenty that took a while to end up in Europe, or failed to make it out of Japan.

 

[Foxi4]

Why would I want to import Wii U games? The ones that I want are out in the same region as I (Europe), with the exception of different covers, what I was referring to was games in general from Japan.

J-Stars Victory Vs. only costs 8,780 Yen which is $85 on Amazon and CDJapan's for $74 without the addition of shipping that hikes up the total price even more.

Since when Monster Hunter Frontier G is available in the west on the Wii U? It's 42.56 Euro on Play-Asia, that's an acceptable price.

As for J-Stars Victory Vs., it's $64.99 on Amazon, I don't know where you're getting your prices from. 54-odd pounds on Amazon.co.uk, seeing that you're from the UK.

 

[WiiCube_2013]

Since when Monster Hunter Frontier G is available in the west on the Wii U? It's 42.56 Euro on Play-Asia, that's an acceptable price.

As for J-Stars Victory Vs., it's $64.99 on Amazon, I don't know where you're getting your prices from. 54-odd pounds on Amazon.co.uk, seeing that you're from the UK.

Hence "I want" and Monster Hunter Frontier G isn't one of them.

Regarding JSVV I was going by Amazon.jp price and even for £54 that's still overpriced because the game's a mindless button masher reskinned from Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2 with some improvements.

Namco Bandai knew not to release a demo or else it'd be bad for the game's feedback, despite that on Amazon.jp already has a 3/5 and this isn't exactly good anyway.

 

[Foxi4]

Hence "I want" and Monster Hunter Frontier G isn't one of them.

Regarding JSVV I was going by Amazon.jp price and even for £54 that's still overpriced because the game's a mindless button masher reskinned from Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2 with some improvements.

Namco Bandai knew not to release a demo or else it'd be bad for the game's feedback, despite that on Amazon.jp already has a 3/5 and this isn't exactly good anyway.

Can't please you, can I? Your average western release ranges between $40 and $60, this Japanese import costs $64.99, so you're paying whole $5 to have it imported - that's not overpricing, that's to be expected due to shipping. You're wrong in your assumption, plain and simple.

 

[Sheimi]

Hence "I want" and Monster Hunter Frontier G isn't one of them.

Regarding JSVV I was going by Amazon.jp price and even for £54 that's still overpriced because the game's a mindless button masher reskinned from Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2 with some improvements.

Namco Bandai knew not to release a demo or else it'd be bad for the game's feedback, despite that on Amazon.jp already has a 3/5 and this isn't exactly good anyway.

Try looking on nippon-yasan.com for the game you are looking for. Sometimes they have good prices.

 

[emigre]

If you're buying from Japan they're overpriced.

I've imported about ten gaems, none of which from Japan.

If you're ordering from Japan, than you should be aware gaems in Japan cost a few more doubloons than in the West.

 

[blaisedinsd]

There's a very simple lesson to be learned here - if you know damn well that your hardware is lagging behind the world of technology in general and you plan on selling it, you'd better have a really strong launch line-up ready for it to snatch a hefty install base from Day 1, especially if you have a year before the competition releases their hardware on the market. The Wii U had the best of possible opportunities to take the market by stride - the PS3 and the 360 were grossly outdated and the Wii U offered the desired upgrade at the time. If it had the right content at launch, was well-marketed and sold at an affordable price it would've topped the charts, even despite the anticipation of the PS4 and the XBO.

They learned that lesson with the 3DS didn't they? Vita came out a year later and crushed it......

 

[Foxi4]

They learned that lesson with the 3DS didn't they? Vita came out a year later and crushed it......

Nintendo had numerous chances to learn the importance of a launch line-up, I direct you to an EoF thread specifically about the issue. Nintendo has been consitently dropping the ball as far as launches are concerned since the Gamecube and each and every time they had only one thing to say - "Please understand". It's not even funny, they're consitently making the same mistake over and over again - some systems get lucky and improve over time, some don't.

 

[FAST6191]

[bad launches] some systems get lucky and improve over time, some don't.

How many systems have gone on to recover from a less than stellar launch lineup I wonder. The 3ds is maybe going to if you like first party and Nintendo captives, the DS library seemed to be mainly a lack of what would be called RPGs for the first while so I am not inclined to count that. Everything else seems to have ended up becoming consoles featured in the sorts of threads you and I get to say "but look at its contemporaries" in. The PS3 might make an appearance but it would be a very qualified one, if nothing else Sony quite notable seemed to court a few devs and clean their act up.
Going further back you might also face the "was out in Japan for a year" issue; 83, 85 and 86 for the NES in Japan, NA and Europe, 88, 89, 90 for the megadrive in the same, 90, 91 and 92 for the SNES and even the PS1 and PS2 had about 9 months in some cases.

If nothing else I reckon there is a distinct correlation between bad launch/early run lineups and ultimate success.

 

[osirisjem]

Nintendo had numerous chances to learn the importance of a launch line-up. Nintendo has been consitently dropping the ball as far as launches are concerned since the Gamecube and each and every time they had only one thing to say - "Please understand". It's not even funny, they're consitently making the same mistake over and over again - some systems get lucky and improve over time, some don't.

It really is sad.
But a good launch line up was not going to make the Wii U a success.
A poor launch lineup helped to seal the fate of the Wii U earlier - definitely.

The day the Wii U was announced, Ninty's stock dropped 10%.
Why ?
Because people knew from Day 1 a tablet controller was not what people wanted.

The Wii U is a failed concept.
It is a stupid idea - it should have been easy to predict the failure.

 

[FAST6191]

Stock markets are not necessarily the best method of doing anything like this, it can (and theoretically should) be related but it is not always the case, see also why Amazon has a good stock price despite not exactly being a profit making company.

Was the Wii U destined for failure.... well it was certainly not destined for greatness unless the Wii magic hit twice (not too many would have predicted that). However if Nintendo had wanted something to coast on for a bit, well first they would have got it out two years earlier but if the PS360 is still to be a thing then there was an in -- though I am likely to respond "boo hoo" devs have complained about the PS360 not being so powerful in the modern world (and 512 ram on DX9 vintage graphics hardware and processors not that much better could make that case), several noted Wii games have been made because of the lack of pressure to perform graphically (see also projected costs for PSBone games, the whole Capcom being too broke for it being a nice example there) and the Wii U could have been like a PS360 but that little bit better (and with that one hopes to get the definitive version). I am not a fan of the model, and indeed the execution of it might not have been great if that was the plan, but there was a niche that could have potentially been exploited.

 

[Foxi4]

I was excited for the Wii U, for one. I think the Gamepad was a great idea, but it's executed poorly because the games don't take advantage of it as much as they should and it's coupled with an outdated console. If it sold at the price point of the PS4 and offered a similar amount of horsepower, I'd be fully on-board. Unfortunately, it does not - power-wise it competes with the PS3/360, and it's more expensive than those two, so it's on the losing position from the get-go.

 

[VMM]

I was excited for the Wii U, for one. I think the Gamepad was a great idea, but it's executed poorly because the games don't take advantage of it as much as they should and it's coupled with an outdated console. If it sold at the price point of the PS4 and offered a similar amount of horsepower, I'd be fully on-board. Unfortunately, it does not - power-wise it competes with the PS3/360, and it's more expensive than those two, so it's on the losing position from the get-go.

WiiU gamepad is just like DS touchscreen, it could be used to almost revolutionize gameplay,
but actually feel games make good use of it.

 

[osirisjem]

Console wars: a 2 horse race. Nintendo Lost ?

[source]

Bye Bye Home Consoles.
Hello "Quality of Life" "things".

 

[T Link7]

Console wars: a 2 horse race. Nintendo Lost ?

View attachment 7811

[source]

Bye Bye Home Consoles.
Hello "Quality of Life" "things".

Lol, no. Nintendo will keep making games and consoles (because people will keep buying annual Marios), but they want to be able to rely on more than just videogames. That's why they're licencing a lot more stuff now and are going to be releasing this mysterious Quality of Life thing. Whether or not this attempt will be successful is another story.
Also, Nintendo stopped competing in the console ''wars'' when they released the Wii. I doubt many people who buy/bought a PS3/PS4/XB360/XBone have ever considered ''Hmm, maybe I should buy a Wii/Wii U instead''. It's a completely different crowd of people compared to people who buy (just) Nintendo consoles.

 

[osirisjem]

Also, Nintendo stopped competing in the console ''wars'' when they released the Wii.

Interesting.
I think you are on to something.

However,
According to Iwata .. the Wii U was supposed to woo hard core gamers. When it was released ... that was the plan.
Just more proof Nintendo has their head up their ass.

As time rolls on ... it looks more and more like the Wii U is Nintendo's last home console.

I'm sure they'll make a successor to the 3DS. But even that device isnt a slam dunk success.

At the end of the day, Nintendo has great gaming franchises. And they should leverage that by making Mario for the PS4, and XBONE.

 

[T Link7]

Interesting.
I think you are on to something.

However,
According to Iwata .. the Wii U was supposed to woo hard core gamers. When it was released ... that was the plan.
Just more proof Nintendo has their head up their ass.

As time rolls on ... it looks more and more like the Wii U is Nintendo's last home console.

I'm sure they'll make a successor to the 3DS. But even that device isnt a slam dunk success.

At the end of the day, Nintendo has great gaming franchises. And they should leverage that by making Mario for the PS4, and XBONE.

I think Nintendo will give another home console a go after the Wii U, but if that console too fails, they perhaps might just stick to handhelds, as the 3DS isn't doing too bad right now. Who knows how popular dedicated handheld videogamedevices will be in the future though.
I also seem to recall Iwata saying, that if Nintendo goes down, their franchises go with them. In other words, they won't be making games for other consoles any time soon. I think one of the reasons given was that because they have both hardware and software people in the same company, they can complement each other. For example, Nintendo Land wouldn't have been possible on the PS4/XBone. But so far I haven't seen a huge amount of Nintendo software really using the Wii U's unique capabilities...

 

[osirisjem]

I think Nintendo will give another home console a go after the Wii U, but if that console too fails, they perhaps might just stick to handhelds,

Ideally they would.

I also seem to recall Iwata saying, that if Nintendo goes down, their franchises go with them. In other words, they won't be making games for other consoles any time soon.

Shareholders would fire him, and they'd make Mario for PS4/5.
I would say "never" as well. But of course that isn't the case.

Nintendo could be very profitable as a software only company.
Let Sony and M$ battle with the money losing hardware work and you just make the software to make the "easy money".

 

[blaisedinsd]

Lol, no. Nintendo will keep making games and consoles (because people will keep buying annual Marios), but they want to be able to rely on more than just videogames. That's why they're licencing a lot more stuff now and are going to be releasing this mysterious Quality of Life thing. Whether or not this attempt will be successful is another story.
Also, Nintendo stopped competing in the console ''wars'' when they released the Wii. I doubt many people who buy/bought a PS3/PS4/XB360/XBone have ever considered ''Hmm, maybe I should buy a Wii/Wii U instead''. It's a completely different crowd of people compared to people who buy (just) Nintendo consoles.

Granted those consoles were not out when I bought my Wii U I absolutely have a Wii U currently instead of a Xbone or PS4. I definitely also bought a Wii instead of a PS3 (which was way too expensive) or a 360. I didn't get a 360 and PS3 until the Wii was pretty much dead after I finished skyward sword. I didn't have a gamecube or N64 and had a PS1 and PS2, so I was usually a one console kind of person and I enjoyed the Wii. I enjoyed the Wii more than I enjoyed my PS2.

I have enough income where the price was not a problem (although I did wait for a sale). I have kids and the other consoles I always have to worry about the content while the Wii U has great games that I don't have to worry about. I don't have the time to be playing so many games that the drought between big releases on the console matter to me, I always have something to play on my Wii U when I have the time and have more games than I can play.

I have been playing 360 and PS3 (and GBA and 3DS and PS2 and PS1 and PSP) in which I have a huge backlog of games to play but Wii U takes up most of my time. PS4 and Xbone are not even appealing to me at this point.....maybe in a few years more likely for me but I can't imagine shelving my PS3 or 360 right now and I got all of my consoles out and playable and not in storage.

I know Wii U is not doing well but for me and my family it has been great and the gamepad is actually an awesome feature. Whatever Nintendo was going for with the Wii U they hit me as a target audience even if they missed the mark on the mass market.

 

[T Link7]

Shareholders would fire him, and they'd make Mario for PS4/5.
I would say "never" as well. But of course that isn't the case.

Yeah, if times ever get so desperate that they have to consider going software only, they might very well do just that. But at that point in time, Nintendo probably won't be under Iwata's leadership. I'm pretty sure that as long as Iwata remains president of the company, they'll stick to their guns and won't make stuff for other platforms.

Granted those consoles were not out when I bought my Wii U I absolutely have a Wii U currently instead of a Xbone or PS4. I definitely also bought a Wii instead of a PS3 (which was way too expensive) or a 360. I didn't get a 360 and PS3 until the Wii was pretty much dead after I finished skyward sword. I didn't have a gamecube or N64 and had a PS1 and PS2, so I was usually a one console kind of person and I enjoyed the Wii. I enjoyed the Wii more than I enjoyed my PS2.

May I ask if you always intended on buying other platforms after you purchased your Wii/Wii U?