• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

NPD Sales Results for March 2014 [Up4: FFX/X-2 HD]

We shall see but I personally think MK8's drawing power is far, far greater than people are expecting just because a few of the big selling Wii games didn't spark large WiiU hardware sales in 2013.

After Wii Sports, MK Wii was probably the most played Wii game. People remember the good times they had with it with friends, family, online and will want more of them esp as it's such a massive graphical improvement over it's predecessor which will help it garner attention unlike NSMB U, DKC Tropical Freeze and Wii Fit / Wii Party U.

The bundle is a massive factor aswell, if there isn't a $299 MK8 bundle I don't think it would sell nearly as well as 300K over two months.
Do we know what Nintendo is planning to do with regard to advertising? They tried to play up Mario 3D World as for families and it ended up falling flat (I think it would have done much better advertised as a new Mario platformer and showing the creative side of the game), so I wonder if they'll do the same thing with MK8. It certainly makes more sense to do it with MK8, but they seem stuck in a rut with TV ads.

I think they should aim for movie theater ads, stuff on ABC and CBS sitcoms, pay Big Bang Theory for an episode where they play it, and also do a bundle. They should also simultaneously be playing up Smash Bros. for later this year.

I think one really dumb thing they did last year was not also advertise Smash Bros. and Mario Kart 8 as "coming soon" games when advertising Mario. People would have been more willing to take the plunge on a high quality game if they knew other favorites were coming, too.
 

Portugeezer

Member
I think conceivably, maybe MK8 could push that many consoles in November. But May/June? Super fucking unlikely.

Mario Kart is one of those games people talk about. I think it will help a lot with a price drop and advertising, but I wonder if all this money spent on price cuts and advertising would be worth it for Nintendo or if they will just ride out the Wii U until 2016, cut their losses, and then do s cross-gen release of Zelda U on Wii U and Nintendo's next console (like Twilight Princess).
 
SM3DW helped push over 700k between November/December. You're not saying that if it was Kart instead of SM3DW in November, they wouldn't have accomplished that, are you?

Mario Kart is likely a bigger franchise. 300k between May/June isn't ludicrous. If somebody held a gun to my head, I'm not sure I'd quite feel comfortable predicting that, but "super fucking unlikely" is a bit of an exaggeration in my opinion.

As of now I'm not gonna predict this either, but I wouldn't even be completely shocked if Wii U beats xbone in one or both of May/June.

That's what's fun about this stuff, you can rarely be 100% sure!

I think Mario came out last year at a time where it was heavily advertised, the Wii U just took a price cut, and they had outlined five months of fairly significant releases leading up to it. I don't think the same is true of MK8 and I'm not sure how people view the Wii U as a whole right now or will this winter.
 
SM3DW helped push over 700k between November/December. You're not saying that if it was Kart instead of SM3DW in November, they wouldn't have accomplished that, are you?

Mario Kart is likely a bigger franchise. 300k between May/June isn't ludicrous. If somebody held a gun to my head, I'm not sure I'd quite feel comfortable predicting that, but "super fucking unlikely" is a bit of an exaggeration in my opinion.

As of now I'm not gonna predict this either, but I wouldn't even be completely shocked if Wii U beats xbone in one or both of May/June.

That's what's fun about this stuff, you can rarely be 100% sure!

Christmas shopping season was the reason it sold 700k and i think you could swap in mario kart for 3dworld and the difference wouldbe negligible

300k between may and june is completely ludicrous
 

prag16

Banned
Speaking of Mario Kart, looks like Mario Kart Wii sold 1.12mm in the US in April 2008 on an installed base of 11mm or so.

Assuming a similar attach rate for MK8, we're looking at a little under 250k as an opening. How would we feel about that? Good? Bad? Indifferent?

Personally I think it has to beat that to be "good" since a higher percentage of the Wii's base were "non-gamers" than Wii U. 300k+ would be solid. But considering SM3DW only did 215k in a "holiday" launch month, that could be a very tall order (though it did significantly better in December with 350k+).
 

Tigress

Member
I still don't understand why some people can't accept the fact that there are some people like us who love their Vita, its design and games.

The part for me is that I scoffed at the Vita when I first saw it. Unfortunately, I think I was right in my assessment of why it wouldn't do well against mobile phones (cause while it plays far superior games, unfortunately it is still competing with them). I know smarpthones aren't as good but for many people it's good enough and that is all it has to be to sell (really things that sell well are things that are cheap and good enough for what people want them to be. The superior device doesn't sell if people have to spend too much more to get it... look at how usually the superior hardware in consoles hardly ever does as well cause it's also the expensive choice). Even if Vita is superior gaming you have to justify why they should pay extra when they already have a device that is good enough and they already own it. I now wish I wasn't (and honestly, I think the price is the more damning thing than the size to tell the truth).

I thought it was too expensive and too big for something that was supposed to be a handheld. I've gotten over that but it is kinda big for taking around many places, my phone is much more mobile honestly and easier to take out on a whim if I need to randomly kill time. I have to plan on taking the Vita. Really what sold me on the Vita was getting excited about PS4 and wanting an excuse to buy the Vita (other than just remote play). Even then I really had to try to find an excuse after researching it (at that point it had gotten its rep for no games). So really PS4 is what sold me on the Vita (that was back when PS4 was announced).

What I didn't realize was how superior it is to playing games (that it is actually worth paying that extra for to play on it). Hell, I find I am playing on it a lot at home where I have my consoles. It's fun even for when you don't need to play on the go (and this year really does seem the year of Vita). And it is a great substitution for traveling when it's really not so handy to take a console with you.

But, I think when you are talking mass market appeal, the two hurdles i mentioned make it not so appealing to people when many people are happy enough with their smartphones/tablets. Even the 3DS looks a lot more portable. Especially since you can close it and it fits in a pocket well and you don't have to worry about a case to protect the screen. And it is cheaper. And, well, Nintendo has a huge rep with mobile gaming and well established system seller IPs like Pokemon, which I admit, if I could get a 3DS cheap enough and I had a good amount of spending money, which working retail I don't, I'd find worth it for Pokemon alone. I would have even been tempted by the 99 dollar 2DS deal mentioned recently if I wasn't in a situation where I really have to prioritize if it is really worth the money. But, I have my gameboy and even original pokemon is still fun :).
 

prag16

Banned
I dunno that the weird sense of victimization helps anyone understand, honestly.

And the same can be and has been said about Wii U. With both systems, the sense of victimization expressed by fans doesn't help, but neither does the attitudes from those on the other side often expressed. Neither system is objectively a "garbage system" as many would think. But hey, it's the internet! Gots to argue!
 

GamerJM

Banned
Do we know what Nintendo is planning to do with regard to advertising? They tried to play up Mario 3D World as for families and it ended up falling flat (I think it would have done much better advertised as a new Mario platformer and showing the creative side of the game), so I wonder if they'll do the same thing with MK8. It certainly makes more sense to do it with MK8, but they seem stuck in a rut with TV ads.

I think they should aim for movie theater ads, stuff on ABC and CBS sitcoms, pay Big Bang Theory for an episode where they play it, and also do a bundle. They should also simultaneously be playing up Smash Bros. for later this year.

I think one really dumb thing they did last year was not also advertise Smash Bros. and Mario Kart 8 as "coming soon" games when advertising Mario. People would have been more willing to take the plunge on a high quality game if they knew other favorites were coming, too.

I swear I've seen movie theater ads for the console before.
 
Do we know what Nintendo is planning to do with regard to advertising? They tried to play up Mario 3D World as for families and it ended up falling flat (I think it would have done much better advertised as a new Mario platformer and showing the creative side of the game), so I wonder if they'll do the same thing with MK8. It certainly makes more sense to do it with MK8, but they seem stuck in a rut with TV ads.

I think they should aim for movie theater ads, stuff on ABC and CBS sitcoms, pay Big Bang Theory for an episode where they play it, and also do a bundle. They should also simultaneously be playing up Smash Bros. for later this year.

I think one really dumb thing they did last year was not also advertise Smash Bros. and Mario Kart 8 as "coming soon" games when advertising Mario. People would have been more willing to take the plunge on a high quality game if they knew other favorites were coming, too.

3D World was as big of a success as any WiiU game could have possibly been with the public perception attached to the console and it's steep price tag, esp when you take into account the fact that the game launched around the same time as PS4 and XBone. It shifted a lot of hardware in both Japan and North America (in the region of a million consoles were sold at and in the weeks after it's release).

After only six weeks It had sold almost 2 million units on an install base of around 4.5 million consoles. The game is a huge success relative to the dead hardware it's on.

I agree with you though in that MK8 should be advertised to an older age group aswell as to "Mom" during the day and young kids at dinner time during cartoons (their 3D World strategy).

There are a lot of older gamers who have fond memories of MK from the SNES/N64/Gamecube/Wii days.
 

Sacrimoni

Banned
The praise for the vita baffles me

It's an expensive handheld with a n-gage shaped form factor and proprietary memory

It's library consists mostly (and i'm being generous here) of a small number of steam games that have been available on multiple platforms for years
 

prag16

Banned
The praise for the vita baffles me

It's an expensive handheld with a n-gage shaped form factor and proprietary memory

It's library consists mostly (and i'm being generous here) of a small number of steam games that have been available on multiple platforms for years

I agree with this, personally. However I also can understand that it does have redeeming qualities that many people like. Being in the minority that really likes the Wii U kind of helped me understand the Vita fans, lol.

I agree with you though in that MK8 should be advertised to an older age group aswell as to "Mom" during the day and young kids at dinner time during cartoons (their 3D World strategy).

There are a lot of older gamers who have fond memories of MK from the SNES/N64/Gamecube/Wii days.

Yeah, Nintendo's SM3DW advertising strategy pretty much baffled me. Hopefully they smarten up a bit with Kart. While they probably won't, at least that won't affect my enjoyment of the game.
 
The praise for the vita baffles me

It's an expensive handheld with a n-gage shaped form factor and proprietary memory

It's library consists mostly (and i'm being generous here) of a small number of steam games that have been available on multiple platforms for years

I think it's a fine system for what it's intending to be (a portable aggregate for Steam and an Otaku Box), but I personally haven't played anything for it since Persona 4 Golden. I just don't think it's for me and my feelings on that are only notable since it's the first system I've ever said that about.

Then again, I've purchased every system at launch since 2010 so maybe I need to be more personally discerning.

Edit: Except the XBox One and that might be a tax return thing.
 

jetjevons

Bish loves my games!
then do s cross-gen release of Zelda U on Wii U and Nintendo's next console (like Twilight Princess).

As a Wii U owner I really hope that Zelda U exploits the full potential of the Wii U Gamepad (outside off-screen play, more convenient inventory management and asymmetrical local multiplayer).

Having said that I also hope that the Gamepad is an option with their next system, not a pack-in.

I guess what I'm saying is that my ideal scenario couldn't work with what you're proposing.
 

Sacrimoni

Banned
I agree with this, personally. However I also can understand that it does have redeeming qualities that many people like. Being in the minority that really likes the Wii U kind of helped me understand the Vita fans, lol.

I seriously dont think you do

We have vita evangelists (and again i do not use this term lightly) claiming that the vita is the best handheld ever in this thread

It's big games for this year (as far as i can tell) are a late port of an old borderlands game and a couple of monster hunter clones

Best handheld ever!
 
3D World was as big of a success as any WiiU game could have possibly been with the public perception attached to the console and it's steep price tag, esp when you take into account the fact that the game launched around the same time as PS4 and XBone. It shifted a lot of hardware in both Japan and North America (in the region of a million consoles were sold at and in the weeks after it's release).

After only six weeks It had sold almost 2 million units on an install base of around 4.5 million consoles. The game is a huge success relative to the dead hardware it's on.

I agree with you though in that MK8 should be advertised to an older age group aswell as to "Mom" during the day and young kids at dinner time during cartoons (their 3D World strategy).

There are a lot of older gamers who have fond memories of MK from the SNES/N64/Gamecube/Wii days.

It was only a success when you consider what a pit the Wii U was in, but it was clear that they were trying to position it as as the leverage the Wii U needed to move the rock blocking the cave to its tomb and complete its resurrection. It didn't do it and the Wii U stayed interred after its crucifixion, never to fulfill the self-designed martyr prophecy Nintendo themselves set up.

Iwata always talks about the one game that can change everything and they were hoisting it on Mario's shoulders, then whiffed it when it came to getting it in people's hands. You know why? Because one game is only one game. That Mario advertising budget should have gone to showing all the other games that were leading up to it. They should have said "Buy a Wii U for these games, like Mario, and you'll have Donkey Kong coming soon, Mario Kart soon after that, and Smash Bros. next year." They didn't do that because they believed Mario would quake the earth and move the rock aside.
 

A_Gorilla

Banned
I seriously dont think you do

We have vita evangelists (and again i do not use this term lightly) claiming that the vita is the best handheld ever in this thread

It's big games for this year (as far as i can tell) are a late port of an old borderlands game and a couple of monster hunter clones

Best handheld ever right here

Seriously? People have been banned here for infantile name-calling like that.
 

prag16

Banned
I seriously dont think you do

We have vita evangelists (and again i do not use this term lightly) claiming that the vita is the best handheld ever in this thread

It's big games for this year (as far as i can tell) are a late port of an old borderlands game and a couple of monster hunter clones

Best handheld ever!

Well, okay, I don't understand the small percentage of the BIGGEST fans, but I'm not on the same page of the small percentage of Wii U zealots either (even though I really like the system). Guess what I'm getting at is that neither is "objectively garbage" (an agenda some like to push) and nobody should tell people what they should/shouldn't like with no real reason other than they themselves liking/disliking the system(s).
 
I seriously dont think you do

We have vita evangelists (and again i do not use this term lightly) claiming that the vita is the best handheld ever in this thread

It's big games for this year (as far as i can tell) are a late port of an old borderlands game and a couple of monster hunter clones

Best handheld ever!

Stop liking what I don't like?
 
The praise for the vita baffles me

It's an expensive handheld with a n-gage shaped form factor and proprietary memory

It's library consists mostly (and i'm being generous here) of a small number of steam games that have been available on multiple platforms for years
Can you play those steam games on the go? And I don't mean on a laptop.
 

Y2Kev

TLG Fan Caretaker Est. 2009
The praise for the vita baffles me

It's an expensive handheld with a n-gage shaped form factor and proprietary memory

It's library consists mostly (and i'm being generous here) of a small number of steam games that have been available on multiple platforms for years

I think this is a pretty poor and dismissive argument of the PShita, which I think has enough legitimate problems that we don't need to make up new ones to trash it.

It's library does not "mostly" consist of Steam games. That's silly and stupid.
 

Sacrimoni

Banned
Seriously? People have been banned here for infantile name-calling like that.

I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt as English may not be your first language

Evangelist is not a swear word, it refers to someone who preaches about something often with the intent of swaying you to their way of thinking

It's library does not "mostly" consist of Steam games. That's silly and stupid.

Games like fez, limbo, hotline miami, rayman, spelunky and machinarium have been on steam for a while now (at least they were on last time i checked)
 
For the record, my original question was not asking why people like it, but why there's so much emotional involvement invested in it.

I think it's similar to what has happened to lots of marginalized systems over the years. The people who are into it have to express that sentiment 10 fold to make up for the people who aren't.
 

A_Gorilla

Banned
For the record, my original question was not asking why people like it, but why there's so much emotional involvement invested in it.

Because you're spending a lot of money on the systems + games + online services (if applicable). The same reason I see a ton of apologists for brands on Car forums...
 

Averon

Member
I love my Vita. I think it's the best handheld I owned. But I also know its a niche device and it will never have mass appeal. Why some get so hung up over Vita owners actually liking what they bought I'll never understand.
 

A_Gorilla

Banned
I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt as English may not be your first language

Evangelist is not a swear word, it refers to someone who preaches about something often with the intent of swaying you to their way of thinking

Someone (a junior like yourself) was banned here for using the term "Sony Jihadist"

With that said, it was nice knowing you.
 
I think the months to E3 could tell us Xbox is fine or not, starting with April. January was a bummer for Xbox and a few levels short of being 'fine'. February and march, even though they couldn't beat PS4, could be classified as fine.

NPD numbers not related to any big games, price cuts, holiday deals etc. are the numbers that are the most telling.

Very true.

People on here were saying back at Xmas time that NPD results past March and in the lead up to summer would be most telling with regards to the fortunes of each console.

That's not to say that March's result is not a blow to the Xbone.
 

Prelude.

Member
The praise for the vita baffles me

It's an expensive handheld with a n-gage shaped form factor and proprietary memory

It's library consists mostly (and i'm being generous here) of a small number of steam games that have been available on multiple platforms for years
I seriously dont think you do

We have vita evangelists (and again i do not use this term lightly) claiming that the vita is the best handheld ever in this thread

It's big games for this year (as far as i can tell) are a late port of an old borderlands game and a couple of monster hunter clones

Best handheld ever!
You should probably inform yourself a little better before making these posts.
Ignoring the moronic "monster hunter clones" comment, which obviously includes Freedom Wars (not a monster hunter clone, jfyi), the Vita is probably having the best 2014 of all platforms as far as announced games go, a lot of exclusives too. But I'm sure they don't count because you don't like them and obviously you can't play them on your 3DS.

Btw, you seems pretty obsessed by the Vita judging by your post history, did it run over your dog or something?

Edit: Oh, I forgot about the n-gage thing. Truly the best of gamefaqs quality posting.
 

Rolf NB

Member
When you're dealing with the little amount of RAM the Vita has (doesn't it have only 512 mb?), having things load separately in memory like that seems to be the way to go. Not sure why the XB1 had go to that route however.
640MB. 512MB main pool + 128MB extra for the GPU.
 

Tigress

Member
The praise for the vita baffles me

It's an expensive handheld with a n-gage shaped form factor and proprietary memory

It's library consists mostly (and i'm being generous here) of a small number of steam games that have been available on multiple platforms for years

The only thing bad about the shape of the n-gage was how you used it as a phone and since the vita is neither a phone nor do you have to side talk on it, I really don't understand that criticism.

Oh, and most of my games aren't steam games. Plus I don't have a PSP and I enjoy those games on it as well (it's a much better PSP imho. Especially since I can remap controls to the second stick. I would honestly not be able to play Monster Hunter Unite on a PSP, I tried it with the PSP controls and it frustrated me how I would like the game except the controls were pissing me off when it came to camera view and fighting. Remapping the camera view instantly fixed all the control problems for me).

And for even the ones that are, I don't have a PC (I got a Mac) and I would prefer playing those games on my handheld anyways (I find I don't in general like playing on my Mac as much as I do my console or handheld).

I agree with this, personally. However I also can understand that it does have redeeming qualities that many people like. Being in the minority that really likes the Wii U kind of helped me understand the Vita fans, lol.

And as an obvious Vita fan but not big on Nintendo systems, it works the other way too (as a Vita fan I can understand loving a system that others don't find useful but has traits you really love).

We have vita evangelists (and again i do not use this term lightly) claiming that the vita is the best handheld ever in this thread

And for me it is. And I'm excited about Borderlands as well as Dragon Fin Soup, Freedom Wars, and I think some others I have heard about.

Even if you don't like the games, I'd say it was the handheld that had the best potential (but never reached it). Don't underestimate how nice it is to have dual thumbsticks (back in the PSX days I immediately upgraded when they introduced the new controller and never wanted to go back to the old one).

Stop liking what I don't like?

*laugh* I think the best reply to above yet (I just can't reply without being wordy).
 
3D World was as big of a success as any WiiU game could have possibly been with the public perception attached to the console and it's steep price tag, esp when you take into account the fact that the game launched around the same time as PS4 and XBone. It shifted a lot of hardware in both Japan and North America (in the region of a million consoles were sold at and in the weeks after it's release).

After only six weeks It had sold almost 2 million units on an install base of around 4.5 million consoles. The game is a huge success relative to the dead hardware it's on.

I agree with you though in that MK8 should be advertised to an older age group aswell as to "Mom" during the day and young kids at dinner time during cartoons (their 3D World strategy).

There are a lot of older gamers who have fond memories of MK from the SNES/N64/Gamecube/Wii days.

nice attempt to manipulate the numbers, 1) Wii U shipments as of the end of 2013 were 5.86 million and 2) sell-through for Super Mario 3D World is in fact nowhere near the 1.94 million shipment figure
 
The praise for the vita baffles me

It's an expensive handheld with a n-gage shaped form factor and proprietary memory

It's library consists mostly (and i'm being generous here) of a small number of steam games that have been available on multiple platforms for years

Know what else had an n-gage form factor? The GBA. The latter was actually closer to the n-gage than the Vita.

As for the library, last I checked, those "steam" games (whatever steam games mean) were fairly popular.

Edit: Well, looks like the banhammer fell...
 

Curufinwe

Member
I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt as English may not be your first language

Evangelist is not a swear word, it refers to someone who preaches about something often with the intent of swaying you to their way of thinking



Games like fez, limbo, hotline miami, rayman, spelunky and machinarium have been on steam for a while now (at least they were on last time i checked)

Well being able to play Hotline Miami on the go with touch controls got me to play it when I never would have bothered on PC, and these are Vita games I liked that are not on Steam.

Gravity Rush
Muramasa
P4G
Uncharted GA
VLR
Wipeout 2048

I just wish there were more JRPGs as P4G is easily the best game on the system.
 

Tigress

Member
Know what else had an n-gage form factor? The GBA. The latter was actually closer to the n-gage than the Vita.

As for the library, last I checked, those "steam" games (whatever steam games mean) were fairly popular.

Not only that, I actually prefer that shape for a handheld (Screen in between the controls, also game gear does that as well). It makes it feel more natural like a full controller on a console imho.
 
T

thepotatoman

Unconfirmed Member
We shall see but I personally think MK8's drawing power is far, far greater than people are expecting just because a few of the big selling Wii games didn't spark large WiiU hardware sales in 2013.

After Wii Sports, MK Wii was probably the most played Wii game. People remember the good times they had with it with friends, family, online and will want more of them esp as it's such a massive graphical improvement over it's predecessor which will help it garner attention unlike NSMB U, DKC Tropical Freeze and Wii Fit / Wii Party U.

The bundle is a massive factor aswell, if there isn't a $299 MK8 bundle I don't think it would sell nearly as well as 300K over two months.

I think Mario Kart actually applies more to the "big selling Wii game not selling on Wii U" trend than the average wii game. Where DKCR suffered from the motion controls and lack of buttons which was fixed on Wii U, the motion controlled wheel was a huge selling point for Mario Kart on the original Wii, and they can't get away with advertising the motion control aspect a second time.
 
It was only a success when you consider what a pit the Wii U was in, but it was clear that they were trying to position it as as the leverage the Wii U needed to move the rock blocking the cave to its tomb and complete its resurrection. It didn't do it and the Wii U stayed interred after its crucifixion, never to fulfill the self-designed martyr prophecy Nintendo themselves set up.

Of course but I think it's very important to remember that at times in 2013, WiiU was selling just 12k per month in Japan, 50k per month in North America and who knows what in the EU. To go from that to selling over a million consoles in the space of just over a month is testament to how much drawing power Mario still has, even on a product that is way beyond a failure at this point.

Iwata always talks about the one game that can change everything and they were hoisting it on Mario's shoulders, then whiffed it when it came to getting it in people's hands. You know why? Because one game is only one game. That Mario advertising budget should have gone to showing all the other games that were leading up to it. They should have said "Buy a Wii U for these games, like Mario, and you'll have Donkey Kong coming soon, Mario Kart soon after that, and Smash Bros. next year." They didn't do that because they believed Mario would quake the earth and move the rock aside.

I think this has more to do with Nintendo's recent fear of showing off software too early. People wanted to see Zelda U at E3 2012 and it won't be out until late 2015.

Even if they had of advertised MK8 and Smash along with 3D World, MK8 would still have been over six months away and Smash over a year away at best. That's too far off in terms of TV commercials imo.
 

Principate

Saint Titanfall
Someone (a junior like yourself) was banned here for using the term "Sony Jihadist"

With that said, it was nice knowing you.

Eh that's Mr Fantastic levels of stretching. I don't believe there's any scenario where using the word Jihadist to describe something is appropriate. Evangelise doesn't have any inherently bad connotations, it's simply a word describing a persuasive action.
 

Valkyria

Member
That's what happens when people needs to ventilate their bitterness for Ps4 results spreading FUD with Vita. That guy went big, but there have been many subtle approaches in the last 100 pages.
 
nice attempt to manipulate the numbers, 1) Wii U shipments as of the end of 2013 were 5.86 million and 2) sell-through for Super Mario 3D World is in fact nowhere near the 1.94 million shipment figure
What is the sell-through for 3DW btw? I don't think I ever heard numbers outside of its launch month.
 

AniHawk

Member
I hope Wii U can make a recovery. I think Mario Kart 8 will help a lot more :)
there really isn't a comeback story in the cards. even if sales picked up due to proven franchises, they would slump pretty quickly thanks to the lack of third party support. that said, this year should be the best one for wii u. it will start declining pretty fast in 2015.
 

Albo

Member
Of course but I think it's very important to remember that at times in 2013, WiiU was selling just 12k per month in Japan, 50k per month in North America and who knows what in the EU. To go from that to selling over a million consoles in the space of just over a month is testament to how much drawing power Mario still has, even on a product that is way beyond a failure at this point.

Sure mario spiked sales temporarily but it took only a few weeks post holiday for the Wii U to once again stabilise at sub 10k weekly in Japan and the small increase from March 2013 NPD- March 2014 (3% I believe) is underwhelming going from awful to a little less awful. It shows no signs of providing significant long term momentum along with the rest of the available software.
 
What is the sell-through for 3DW btw? I don't think I ever heard numbers outside of its launch month.

A4W3MEz.png
A4W3MEz.png
A4W3MEz.png
 

Log4Girlz

Member
3D World was as big of a success as any WiiU game could have possibly been with the public perception attached to the console and it's steep price tag, esp when you take into account the fact that the game launched around the same time as PS4 and XBone. It shifted a lot of hardware in both Japan and North America (in the region of a million consoles were sold at and in the weeks after it's release).

After only six weeks It had sold almost 2 million units on an install base of around 4.5 million consoles. The game is a huge success relative to the dead hardware it's on.

I agree with you though in that MK8 should be advertised to an older age group aswell as to "Mom" during the day and young kids at dinner time during cartoons (their 3D World strategy).

There are a lot of older gamers who have fond memories of MK from the SNES/N64/Gamecube/Wii days.

That's nothing to be impressed with. A major game like Mario should be pushing Wii U numbers and increase the market.
 
That's nothing to be impressed with. A major game like Mario should be pushing Wii U numbers and increase the market.
Well Nintendo has (hopefully) figured out that Mario was selling tens of millions of copies last gen because people already owned the console(s) not because Mario games sell consoles on their own.

They better be working on something new like Wii Sports and Nintendogs were to grab people's attention before trying to launch new hardware again.

I guess they thought Nintendo Land was that kind of game but boy were they wrong.
 
Top Bottom