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[FourMyle]

*looks at fire emblem sales*
I am ashamed to be an american. most of my fellow americans are nothing but unappreciative dudebro wankers who don't know a quality game even if I could shove one up so far up their own arse... I do not care whether it's retail launch was botched, the eshop is there for a reason, use it.

No wonder NoA don't import from japan much. :/
bless the souls who did buy the game.

tl;dr hey america your taste in gaming is bad and you should feel bad! oh and FUUU!

*goes back to play FE: Awakening*

This post is fucking gold. It's like a 12 year old version of the gomen nasai my name is ken-sama meme.

 

[Pie and Beans]

Well on paper it may have looked good to them.

"Assassin's Creed, Call of Duty, New Super Mario Bros. Wii U, FIFA, Madden."

If you just look at it in a vacuum, you could come to a conclusion that your line-up is fine.

"Do we have Tomb Raider? Crysis? Bioshock? GTAV? No? Well at least we have Aliens and Rayman! Phew!"

 

[liger05]

Well previous Nintendo droughts lasted till September. But this one is ending in March. So... progress?

They obviously expected to have a stronger launch that would allow them to coast till spring.

So they expected to get the likes of MGR, Crysis 3, Tomb Raider, Dead Space 3, Bioshock etc?

 

[lenovox1]

Wii U still struggling. Where are those pricecuts Nintendo?

A price cut would not improve the value of the Wii U.

“No one” would want the Wii U if it was $50. If Sony could have better Januarys and Februarys with a $600 device, Nintendo has got to come up with a more holistic solution.

 

[Gamer @ Heart]

unlike the 3DS, nintendo doesn't have a huge profit margin on the WiiU. I think pachter's estimate was about $10 per console, give or take.

even if they drop it $100, it would still be about as expensive as a PS3 and more expensive than a 360- both of which are running equivalent games.

a price drop wouldn't make much of a dent, even if nintendo was willing to take a bath on it.

They have already said its bring sold at a loss. A price cut would make the books look worse.

 

[jwhit28]

What is the point in dropping the price if Nintendo has no releases right now to take advantage of it? Same thing with the Vita. When you get the sales boost of a price drop, you probably want a nice new release to go with it.

 

[liger05]

A price curr would not improve the value of the Wii U. “No one” would want the Wii U if it was $50. If Sony could have better Januarys and Februarys with a $600 device, Nintendo has got to come up with a more holistic solution.

Retailers over here have dropped £50 off the price and it wont change much. People still need games to play!!

 

[prwxv3]

What is the point in dropping the price if Nintendo has no releases right now to take advantage of it? Same thing with the Vita. When you get the sales boost of a price drop, you probably want a nice new release to go with it.

well for vita they can at least lower the absurd prices for memory cards.

 

[Aquamarine]

They have already said its bring sold at a loss. A price cut would make the books look worse.

A price cut would very negatively impact their bottom line. And considering that Nintendo is at a delicate point in their history with shareholders demanding profits......Nintendo can't afford to have another huge loss to swallow up the costs from a major Wii U discount.

 

[Osiris]

Well on paper it may have looked good to them.

"Assassin's Creed, Call of Duty, New Super Mario Bros. Wii U, FIFA, Madden."

If you just look at it in a vacuum, you could come to a conclusion that your line-up is fine.

That's pretty much my belief, Nintendo now live in an insular bubble where they took far too seriously their claim that they were not competing with Microsoft and Sony, everything points to a lack of awareness of the industry around them, from their marketing to their hardware choices to their release schedules.

They risk more than just a bad generation with this mindset, they risk utter irrelevance outside their shrinking core fanbase.

Sonys arrogance going from the PS2 to the PS3 cost them badly.

I think Nintendo is on track for the same problem.

 

[EmCeeGramr]

Well previous Nintendo droughts lasted till September. But this one is ending in March. So... progress?

They obviously expected to have a stronger launch that would allow them to coast till spring.

Still, the cause must be something fascinating. Did Iwata and NCL think that on-par versions of BLOPS2, ACIII, and Madden were enough to attract hardcore sales? Did NOA convince them that old ports of Batman and Mass Effect were good? Why was Rayman the only demo in stores? Were there other games from Japanese or Western devs that were pledged for winter and spring that were quietly canned or pushed back?

It's somewhere on Nintendo's investor relations site: a quote from a Q&A where Iwata outright says that they're going to push back some first-party games that would ordinarily be part of a launch lineup because third party software will handle the post-launch period, and because they don't want the software schedule to be frontloaded. If only there was an indication of what gave him that impression.

 

[donny2112]

Why are people asking Nintendo to take $150 loss per console ?

Because they need to, along with getting some consistent and good releases out, to have a shot at turning around the system before it gets steamrolled by PS4/Durango/life.

 

[Apophis2036]

The wii u is pulling historically low numbers worldwide. If MS take US & UK and Sony Take Mainland Eu and Japan, they can do numbers more in line with typical console sales. Weren't original Wii U projections 5.5 million before Nintendo lowered them? I'll go for that number, seems like a safe bet.

5.5 million each, ok cool.

I personally don't believe that Killzone 4, another driving game with no history and maybe Infamous 3 (which sells like shit) is going to get over 5 million people to drop $400 on a new Playstation, esp when their PS3 has Fifa'14, Madden'14, WWE'14, Just Dance 5, AC IV, GTA V, Watch Dogs, BF4, MW4 and Destiny all out between Sept'13 and April'14.

Don't know enough about the 720 to comment but it will be much the same situation.

We shall see .

 

[Mpl90]

A bit random. but Awakening's first month should'nt be' that far off from DS Zelda's ones, right?

 

[UberTag]

I hope someone will share something about EOIV ( that had just one weel of sales counted, though )

Don't count on much more than your standard low volume Atlus print run.
I purchased a copy digitally and am loving the game.

 

[rdrr gnr]

Secret summer releases to save the Wii-U

I think the Wii U needs killer games more than price drops at this point.

What exactly is that software? Seems like Nintendo did not prime their internal infrastructure during the Wii decline. I'm not sure I understand why Nintendo isn't just rolling in AAA 1st party software ready to go from launch.

It would be smarter to either create a better bundle or drop the price when they have big games coming out.

Prob better to do a price drop and release with a major game then just randomly reduce the price. Doing bundles like the ZombU one more often would help too.

Sure. I'm sure it would help.

Shareholders murdering the management, huge net losses, Nintendo products gain the image of something you should avoid at launch to wait for a price drop months later.

the arguments is that nintendo has said themselves that the console is selling currently at-loss and no one knows if nintendo is willing to take that big of a loss on it. i don't think there are any other arguments against it. bring on the price drop. i think a $249 Wii U could be as big as the Wii.

that it will make nintendo lose money?

Seriously though the controller will make any serious cost reductions on the thing impossible pretty much ever. It will be like an anchor around it's neck. Not that the system would have succeeded without it either, of course.

Nintendo has the bank to absorb a rather large hit. It seems like they are relegating themselves to mediocrity as soon as the big two launch. ps3salesgraph.jpg I understand that the link between the sales of hardware and its respective software is strong for Nintendo in particular -- but there seems to be an inherent lack of appeal with the Wii U. Joe Casual doesn't seem to give a shit. I'd say price matters more in the short-term. I mean, what exactly is the Wii U competing with? Consumer apathy?

 

[CadetMahoney]

Vita. . . How long can it piddle along at 35K a month before retailers stop bothering to carry it?

It's got some good games coming out for it according to this thread.

"Xbox 360 - 302K - 41% of current-gen console sales"

Is this a way of saying Wii U isn't next-gen?

I can see next-gen consoles released ppl arguing about where Wii U numbers should go. "It should go in the 'next-gen' numbers!"

 

[donny2112]

How many consoles do you expect PS4 and 720 to sell each from launch to April 1st 2014 ?

Poor PS4/Durango sales would not suddenly make Wii U's current sales "good." At least in my opinion, anyways.

 

[Pachterballs]

re:VITA Taking the crown then.

Sony needs to drop the price on the VITA

at this point in time, its safe to safe most gamers know about the japanese VITA pricedrop, so it will affect people's purchasing decisions. Its suprising they didn't do it.

5.5 million each, ok cool.

I personally don't believe that Killzone 4, another driving game with no history and maybe Infamous 3 (which sells like shit) is going to get over 5 million people to drop $400 on a new Playstation, esp when their PS3 has Fifa'14, Madden'14, WWE'14, Just Dance 5, AC IV, GTA V, Watch Dogs, BF4, MW4 and Destiny all out between Sept and April'14.

We shall see .

graphics matter.

 

[metalslimer]

Its hard to overstate just how bad Wii U sales are and they are losing money on it and will have to lose more to make it relevant. Its a complete disaster.

 

[Mihael Mello Keehl]

What is the point in dropping the price if Nintendo has no releases right now to take advantage of it? Same thing with the Vita. When you get the sales boost of a price drop, you probably want a nice new release to go with it.

Exactly, there is no point. People laugh when I say Nintendo is purposely suffering right now but its the truth they cant do shit until the time is right.

 

[Derrick01]

Is this a way of saying Wii U isn't next-gen?

I can see next-gen consoles released ppl arguing about where Wii U numbers should go. "It should go in the 'next-gen' numbers!"

No they probably mean that it's current gen but it just hasn't sold enough yet to make any dent at all in their 41%.

 

[Nirolak]

Still, the cause must be something fascinating. Did Iwata and NCL think that on-par versions of BLOPS2, ACIII, and Madden were enough to attract hardcore sales? Did NOA convince them that old ports of Batman and Mass Effect were good? Why was Rayman the only demo in stores? Were there other games from Japanese or Western devs that were pledged for winter and spring that were quietly canned or pushed back?

It's somewhere on Nintendo's investor relations site: a quote from a Q&A where Iwata outright says that they're going to push back some first-party games that would ordinarily be part of a launch lineup because third party software will handle the post-launch period, and because they don't want the software schedule to be frontloaded. If only there was an indication of what gave him that impression.

Well in terms of software volume at launch, the Wii U is up there near the top.

It's just, you know, selection that's the problem.

 

[ViewtifulJC]

Still, the cause must be something fascinating. Did Iwata and NCL think that on-par versions of BLOPS2, ACIII, and Madden were enough to attract hardcore sales? Did NOA convince them that old ports of Batman and Mass Effect were good? Why was Rayman the only demo in stores? Were there other games from Japanese or Western devs that were pledged for winter and spring that were quietly canned or pushed back?

It's somewhere on Nintendo's investor relations site: a quote from a Q&A where Iwata outright says that they're going to push back some games that would ordinarily be part of a launch lineup because third party software will handle the post-launch period, and because they don't want the software schedule to be frontloaded. If only there was an indication of what gave him that impression.

It's bizarre to me, because do you remember any big Wii games they released in 2012? Take away Skyward Sword and Kirby, what about 2011? There was this huge drought of Nintendo software(which is basically the Wii's lifeblood at that point) for about 2 years. Logically you think, "Wow, they must be hard at work on keeping a steady stream of Wii-U games right out the gate!"

And now, here we are in February, four months out, and I think the highest profile title they had that month was a Fist of the North Star port?

 

[coldfoot]

So are PS3 sales closer to 250K or 300K?

 

[Mileena]

Well on paper it may have looked good to them.

"Assassin's Creed, Call of Duty, New Super Mario Bros. Wii U, FIFA, Madden."

If you just look at it in a vacuum, you could come to a conclusion that your line-up is fine.

I guess it's decent if you don't own a PS3, 360 or PC, I can't imagine there's many people like that though. If you do, it's really just ZombiU and NSMBU.

 

[Green Biker Dude]

nintendo ecosystem, the new playstation family

 

[Pie and Beans]

It's bizarre to me, because do you remember any big Wii games they released in 2012? Take away Skyward Sword and Kirby, what about 2011? There was this huge drought of Nintendo software(which is basically the Wii's lifeblood at that point) for about 2 years. Logically you think, "Wow, they must be hard at work on keeping a steady stream of Wii-U games right out the gate!"

And now, here we are in February, four months out, and I think the highest profile title they had that month was a Fist of the North Star port?

3DS. When everything goes console quality 3D, your company needs to pretty much double in size. Nintendo certainly didn't do that.

Sakurai took ages on Kid Icarus for instance. That pushed Smash back. And so on.

 

[KidDork]

We can't buy a game that we can't find.

I'm wondering if the lack of Fire Emblem was a US thing. Here in Canada, I had no trouble finding a copy. I found several copies of Fire Emblem in both Future Shop and Best Buy stores. The only place here in town that didn't carry it was Wal-Mart.

 

[test_account]

Taking the crown then.

Both Vita and WiiU take the crown, king and queen, both have crowns

 

[prwxv3]

That's pretty much my belief, Nintendo now live in an insular bubble where they took far too seriously their claim that they were not competing with Microsoft and Sony, everything points to a lack of awareness of the industry around them, from their marketing to their hardware choices to their release schedules.

They risk more than just a bad generation with this mindset, they risk utter irrelevance outside their shrinking core fanbase.

Sonys arrogance going from the PS2 to the PS3 cost them badly.

I think Nintendo is on track for the same problem.

miraculously sony still got most of the third party games and eventually got once 360 exclusive franchises. Nintendo do not have that luxury and should not expect that to happen.

 

[michaeltraps]

2D Mario is pretty damned close to a killer app. They sell like crazy.

They've sold well on systems that already had pretty solid sales numbers. The 2D Mario's are more marketable to casuals and they're why those games always sell gangbusters.

I still think it was a mistake on Nintendo's part to launch with a 2D Mario as their "killer app," and I doubt anyone can really disagree. They would have been better off launching with a 3D Mario or (heaven forbid) Zelda. Those are the franchises that get the hardcores in and can also appeal to the more casual Nintendo fan.

Honestly, the only way I ever see Nintendo completely dominating a launch is by having Smash Bros as a launch title, though that would be blowing one giant load really early.

 

[Aquamarine]

A bit random. but Awakening's first month should'nt be' that far off from DS Zelda's ones, right?

Ehh... Phantom Hourglass 225K in the September NPD (5 days of tracking). It sold 262.8K in the October NPD (28 days of tracking). Spirit Tracks was released during the holiday season, so it sold <600K in its first month.

Meanwhile, Fire Emblem Awakening only sold 183K in like 27 days of tracking.

 

[Huevos de Oro]

So they're fucked? What's in the horizon software-wise for the Wii U?

 

[Acquiescence]

MGR not the hit so many were eager to proclaim it was. If you can't make a commercial success out of a game from the Metal Gear IP then sheesh.

Sly 4 appearing in the top 10 was definitely not expected. Maybe it just has one of those small but very dedicated fanbases. It was a budget release too; that undoubtedly helped. And I do recall reading a list some while back of the top 10 most frequently obtained platinum trophies, in which the first Sly game from the HD Collection appeared. It was surrounded by some very popular games, with Assassin's Creed II taking the top spot and Resident Evil 5 slotting in there somewhere.

 

[Mpl90]

graphics matter.

Playstation 3's launch and Vita's Vita.
Graphics isn't the only thing, and for many isn't even one of the top prioritari, it's strange to see still people ignoring this.

 

[Sephzilla]

I wanna know what Revengeance's numbers were

MGR not the hit so many were eager to proclaim it was. If you can't make a commercial success out of a game from the Metal Gear IP then sheesh.

Sly 4 appearing in the top 10 was definitely not expected. Maybe it just has one of those small but very dedicated fanbases. It was a budget release too; that undoubtedly helped. And I do recall reading a list some while back of the top 10 most frequently obtained platinum trophies, in which the first Sly game from the HD Collection appeared. It was surrounded by some very popular games, with Assassin's Creed II taking the top spot and Resident Evil 5 slotting in there somewhere.

MGR is a hack-and-slash game, those games are pretty niche and their numbers generally reflect that. The fact that MGR placed Top 5 in a pretty packed month is damn impressive.

 

[GuardianE]

MGR not the hit so many were eager to proclaim it was. If you can't make a commercial success out of a game from the Metal Gear IP then sheesh.

Just wait for the numbers.

Regardless, it sold very well overseas, so there's no denying that.

 

[michaelius]

I guess it's decent if you don't own a PS3, 360 or PC, I can't imagine there's many people like that though. If you do, it's really just ZombiU and NSMBU.

It would be decent if Wii U versions were significantly better looking than ps3/x360

 

[Aquamarine]

So they're fucked? What's in the horizon software-wise for the Wii U?

In terms of games that have concrete release dates...

 

[Apophis2036]

Because they need to, along with getting some consistent and good releases out, to have a shot at turning around the system before it gets steamrolled by PS4/Durango/life.

No they don't 'need to' at all, they know why the system isn't selling so far, shitty ad campaign, slightly too expensive and no exclusive killer apps.

They can cut the price by $50, totally redo the ad campaign and the big games are coming - I think the release schedule will look something like this for the rest of the year -

Game & Wario - April.
Wii Fit U - May.
Pikmin 3 - June.
W-101 - July.
Bayonetta 2 - September.
Wind Waker HD - October.
Mario Kart U - November.
EAD Mario - December.

When you add in Nintendo Land, NSMB U, ZombiU, Lego City and Monster Hunter that really is a fantastic line up of exclusive content for the first year of a console.

That will leave them with Retro Studios game, Smash Bros, Yoshi, the next Zelda and X for 2014 along with whatever they show off for the first time at E3 (Miyamoto's new IP).

 

[Darkmakaimura]

Hell yes, Dead Space 3 at #1. Well deserved!

Hopefully this means more Dead Space in the future.

 

[Darryl]

It's bizarre to me, because do you remember any big Wii games they released in 2012? Take away Skyward Sword and Kirby, what about 2011? There was this huge drought of Nintendo software(which is basically the Wii's lifeblood at that point) for about 2 years. Logically you think, "Wow, they must be hard at work on keeping a steady stream of Wii-U games right out the gate!"

And now, here we are in February, four months out, and I think the highest profile title they had that month was a Fist of the North Star port?

they do have tons of titles in development, though. they just had a huge nintendo direct which listed off tons of titles set for release this year. it's just the launch period that's really bad. they overestimated third-party titles and now they're caught off-guard. it happened with the 3DS as well.

 

[shinra-bansho]

Its hard to overstate just how bad Wii U sales are and they are losing money on it and will have to lose more to make it relevant. Its a complete disaster.

jvm's graph from his January NPD article still pretty much sums it up.

February average is ~16K; still lower than the PS3 or 360 ever got to; and those low points were due to ridiculous price and supply constraint respectively iirc. After it's first major revision/price cut, the PS3 has never apparently sold less than 30K a week - and that first major cut still had it at $499.

It clearly isn't just price and isn't just software. I think it's worth contemplating that perhaps the product is simply inherently misguided.

 

[BomberMouse]

Good for Sly, even I bought it (digitally so it doesn't even counts)

 

[Nirolak]

Playstation 3's launch and Vita's Vita.
Graphics isn't the only thing, and for many isn't even one of the top prioritari, it's strange to see still people ignoring this.

The PlayStation 3 didn't really offer anything that the 360 couldn't do at a much lower price point.

The Vita is kind of like buying a shittier version of a home console for Western audiences, since there aren't many people playing it on the go.

 

[Pie and Beans]

MGR not the hit so many were eager to proclaim it was. If you can't make a commercial success out of a game from the Metal Gear IP then sheesh.

Um, it made the Top 5, duder? And has sold well in both Europe and Japan. Think thats a success for a game that had like a 12-18 month dev-time and resurrection from dev-hell.

 

[metalslimer]

Nintendo hasnt even set a date fro wii fit u or game and wario. At this point Pikmin 3 could end up in August

 

[EmCeeGramr]

It's bizarre to me, because do you remember any big Wii games they released in 2012? Take away Skyward Sword and Kirby, what about 2011? There was this huge drought of Nintendo software(which is basically the Wii's lifeblood at that point) for about 2 years. Logically you think, "Wow, they must be hard at work on keeping a steady stream of Wii-U games right out the gate!"

And now, here we are in February, four months out, and I think the highest profile title they had that month was a Fist of the North Star port?

It must be that they really didn't have that much of a grip on HD development yet, especially when they had to ramp up for 3DS development relatively recently as well.

That's part of the reason why it's annoying to hear people fantasize about Nintendo dropping out and becoming third-party and suddenly we'll have 4K Mario and 1080p Zelda and it'll all be great. Nintendo's having trouble developing for the stuff they designed for themselves with well-established levels of power and two years of preparation.

 

[Lexxism]

That's a pretty good FE numbers. Did Nintendo say anything how many 3ds were sold on 455k?