Did the Wii U launch fall flat on its face?

[TVC 15]

Guys, MrSega is actually a decent guy and nice to talk to. Sure you might not agree with many of his posts, but at least he isn't a asshole hater grave-humper like Eddiespruce was for example. Jeez, give the guy a break. (and now yall are probably going to start hating me for defending him. whatever.)

The problem isn't that he's obnoxious its just that he doesn't know how to self-sensor, and rants on about stuff nobody has any interest in spamming the board in the process. He grossly manipulates facts, and dumps absolute fabrications and lies on this site wasting precious kilobytes, once corrected he refuses to assess these odd misinterpretations he spouts like a spambot. He also has terrible reading comprehension and will find any tiny tangental reference in articles and information he reads and distort it to be used as some evidence or 'sign' for his almost millenarian cultish prophecies of the second coming of Sega.

Hes an absolute Cult.

[JCU]

We've all seen what happened with the "flop" known as the 3DS and how Nintendo turned slow sales around. The Wii U seems to be in a better position though. People are buying it and it has a relatively decent launch library. Unfortunately nothing currently available is a must play. Zombie U looks interesting but the reviews are all over the place and Arkham City doesn't bring anything to the table to make me buy it again. Nintendoland has been thoroughly fun and worth playing over and over. You are given a taste of the best of the best in terms of name recognition. I wouldn't have believed it until I played it but the game is worth a purchase.

Once the system did a 180 by working out many of the launch bugs it has worked wonderfully.

[TheSonicRetard]

We've all seen what happened with the "flop" known as the 3DS and how Nintendo turned slow sales around.

3DS sales are abysmal even right now in the US. They turned their sales around in Japan, not world-wide.

As for WiiU sales - no, people aren't buying them. It just sold 400k in the biggest sales month of the year, 200k less than launch. And it's about to take a nose dive. It sold poorer than the PS3 sold during its first two months.

Similarly, and more importantly - game sales (which matter much, much more than console sales in the grand scheme of things) are far, far behind what the Wii and Gamecube enjoyed. WiiU software sales throughout 2 months are 43% lower than Wii software sales, and 50% lower than gamecube software sales. Taken at face value, that's terrible enough, but it also ignores the market expansion of the last 10 years. If you're selling less software in today's gaming market than the gamecube did 10 years ago, that is abysmal.

[evilevoix]

Why did the ps3 sell so poor? I figure after the PS2 it would have been a smash?

[sheath]

$600 and no visible improvement over the $300 Xbox 360 while the Wii was a bigger fad than the PS2 ever was.

[TheSonicRetard]

$600 and no visible improvement over the $300 Xbox 360 while the Wii was a bigger fad than the PS2 ever was.

pretty much

[sheath]

I forgot to mention that consumers were still using SDTVs or Composite cables on their newly purchased HDTVs.

[MrSega]

3DS sales are abysmal even right now in the US. They turned their sales around in Japan, not world-wide.

As for WiiU sales - no, people aren't buying them. It just sold 400k in the biggest sales month of the year, 200k less than launch. And it's about to take a nose dive. It sold poorer than the PS3 sold during its first two months.



Similarly, and more importantly - game sales (which matter much, much more than console sales in the grand scheme of things) are far, far behind what the Wii and Gamecube enjoyed. WiiU software sales throughout 2 months are 43% lower than Wii software sales, and 50% lower than gamecube software sales. Taken at face value, that's terrible enough, but it also ignores the market expansion of the last 10 years. If you're selling less software in today's gaming market than the gamecube did 10 years ago, that is abysmal.

You've basically hit the nail on the head on Wii U's overall lackluster and dismal start. The Wii U is doing poorly & Nintendo has no idea what direction it wants to go while facing the impending danger of newer more powerful systems.

Like I said before, Wii U suffers from the "5200 Snydrome" of releasing a new SKU which looks & sounds no different from its predessor, has an unoriginal library, and using a lame gimmick that tries & FAILS to recapture the same novelty while putting actual little effort in its tech.

As for the 3DS, Anyone with half a brain knows why its sales overseas are so.mediocre. The mobile market,duh. Sales in Japan are solid because there's still a handheld market out there.

Nintendo better adapt or else they end in the same position as SEGA 15 years ago & where Sony is headed. Your core market fails, you stop making game hardware.

[TrekkiesUnite118]

The Wii U is not doing poorly. It's doing fine. It's selling on par with the norm for new consoles. Here's a hint for you, the previous generation console usually outsells the next gen consoles for the first year or so. The PS2 outsold the PS3 and 360 for their first year or so on the Market if I remember correctly. The PS1 outsold the Dreamcast initially, the Genesis and SNES outsold the PS1 and Saturn when they launched, the NES outsold the Genesis when it launched as well. It's normal. The Wii was abnormal. Don't compare the Wii U to the Wii, compare to to the other consoles that are normal.

As for the 3DS only having good sales in Japan, here's a break down of it's sales by region as of Sepetember 2012:

Date------------Japan---America------Other----Total
2011-03-31------1.06------1.32-------1.23-----3.61
2011-06-30------1.27------1.43-------1.63-----4.32
2011-09-30------2.13------2.13-------2.42-----6.68
2011-12-31------4.66------5.47-------4.91-----15.03
2012-03-31------5.85------5.99-------5.30-----17.13
2012-06-30------6.76------6.41-------5.82-----19.00
2012-09-30------7.94------7.38-------6.88-----22.19

As you can see, it's actually selling evenly between America and Japan. The thing isn't selling bad at all. Yes there was a dip in the US in the summer of 2012, but I won't be surprised if it rebounded for the holidays. Not to mention the recent announcement of Pokemon X and Y will probably make the sales start to go up. By October of 2013 expect the 3DS to be printing money for Nintendo. Sure mobile stuff may be great for the casuals, but you won't be able to get the new Pokemon game on your iPhone, and that will make a difference as always.

[TheSonicRetard]

The Wii U is not doing poorly. It's doing fine. It's selling on par with the norm for new consoles. Here's a hint for you, the previous generation console usually outsells the next gen consoles for the first year or so. The PS2 outsold the PS3 and 360 for their first year or so on the Market if I remember correctly. The PS1 outsold the Dreamcast initially, the Genesis and SNES outsold the PS1 and Saturn when they launched, the NES outsold the Genesis when it launched as well. It's normal. The Wii was abnormal. Don't compare the Wii U to the Wii, compare to to the other consoles that are normal.

...no, it's selling poorly. The WiiU in 2012, was outsold by the playstation 3 in 2006. I'm not even comparing the Xbox 360 or PS3 2012 sales to the Wii U, I'm comparing it to the competition in a relative timeframe.

As for the 3DS only having good sales in Japan, here's a break down of it's sales by region as of Sepetember 2012:

Date------------Japan---America------Other----Total
2011-03-31------1.06------1.32-------1.23-----3.61
2011-06-30------1.27------1.43-------1.63-----4.32
2011-09-30------2.13------2.13-------2.42-----6.68
2011-12-31------4.66------5.47-------4.91-----15.03
2012-03-31------5.85------5.99-------5.30-----17.13
2012-06-30------6.76------6.41-------5.82-----19.00
2012-09-30------7.94------7.38-------6.88-----22.19

As you can see, it's actually selling evenly between America and Japan. The thing isn't selling bad at all. Yes there was a dip in the US in the summer of 2012, but I won't be surprised if it rebounded for the holidays. Not to mention the recent announcement of Pokemon X and Y will probably make the sales start to go up. By October of 2013 expect the 3DS to be printing money for Nintendo. Sure mobile stuff may be great for the casuals, but you won't be able to get the new Pokemon game on your iPhone, and that will make a difference as always.

Selling even with japan is the same thing as selling poorly in America. Japan is a tiny niche, their hardware sales are neigh insignificant. America is a ten times larger market. If it's selling evenly, it's selling poorly.

EDIT: You also seem to be unaware that holiday sales numbers are out. Protip: It didn't rebound.

[gamevet]

Japan is the biggest market for handheld gaming consoles. Even the PSP is still selling well there.

http://www.magicboxnow.com/1301/game130111a.shtml


3DSLL 156,184 156,184
3DS 123,075 123,075
Wii U 67,083 67,083
PS3 64,352 64,352
PSP 54,873 54,873
PS Vita 33,309 33,309
Wii 5,632 5,632
XB360 1,893 1,893
PS2 207 207

[TheSonicRetard]

Japan is the biggest market for handheld gaming consoles. Even the PSP is still selling well there.

http://www.magicboxnow.com/1301/game130111a.shtml


3DSLL 156,184 156,184
3DS 123,075 123,075
Wii U 67,083 67,083
PS3 64,352 64,352
PSP 54,873 54,873
PS Vita 33,309 33,309
Wii 5,632 5,632
XB360 1,893 1,893
PS2 207 207

And? What you're posting is proof that the handheld market is receding globally, not that japanese sales are actually impressive.

[gamevet]

And? What you're posting is proof that the handheld market is receding globally, not that japanese sales are actually impressive.

Those sales numbers are for one week, from December 26th to January 6th. Japan is the best market for handheld gaming, so if the 3DS is selling as well in North America, it's not necessarily a bad thing, considering that the home consoles sell better here.

[TrekkiesUnite118]

Xbox 360's First Quarter Sales (From November launch to end of December of 2005): 1.5 Million Worldwide.

Playstation 3 First Quarter Sales (From November launch to end of December 2006): 1.68 Million Worldwide.

Wii U's first Quarter Sales (From November Launch to end of December 2012): At least 1.5 Million (Only includes Japan and US, no Europe).

How is that number bad? Yes it may be less than the PS3 (but we don't know for certain, we don't have Europe and according to VG chartz it's surpased 2 million in sales on January 3rd), but it's right on par with the 360. Those consoles weren't deemed failures, so how is the Wii U doing poorly? It's not a 2nd coming of the Wii, but it's still selling well. Poor sales would be that of the Vita.

And the 3DS did bounce back over the holidays vs the Summer, while not as dramatically as some would like, it did bounce back. In the summer it was lucky if it was selling over 150k a month. During the summer Quarter (July-September) it sold 550k in the US. In holiday quarter (October-December) it sold at least 2 million in the US according to NPD, and it's possible it sold as much as 2.4 Million in that amount of time. I'd say that's a pretty significant bounce back.

[TheSonicRetard]

Xbox 360's First Quarter Sales (From November launch to end of December of 2005): 1.5 Million Worldwide.

Playstation 3 First Quarter Sales (From November launch to end of December 2006): 1.68 Million Worldwide.

Wii U's first Quarter Sales (From November Launch to end of December 2012): At least 1.5 Million (Only includes Japan and US, no Europe).

How is that number bad? Yes it may be less than the PS3 (but we don't know for certain, we don't have Europe and according to VG chartz it's surpased 2 million in sales on January 3rd), but it's right on par with the 360. Those consoles weren't deemed failures, so how is the Wii U doing poorly? It's not a 2nd coming of the Wii, but it's still selling well. Poor sales would be that of the Vita.

A) The Xbox 360 was supply constrained for months. They sold out for several consecutive months, with demand remaining high. Microsoft couldn't sell more, because they couldn't make enough to sell.

B) The Playstation 3 launch WAS a failure. It was considered a massive failure. They were not supply constrained.

C) The Wii U, similarly, is not supply constrained either. Units are sitting on shelves, unsold. You can buy a WiiU on ebay for approximately $75 less than MSRP. That is abysmal for a console 2 months outside of launch.

And the 3DS did bounce back over the holidays vs the Summer, while not as dramatically as some would like, it did bounce back. In the summer it was lucky if it was selling over 150k a month. During the summer Quarter (July-September) it sold 550k in the US. In holiday quarter (October-December) it sold at least 2 million in the US according to NPD, and it's possible it sold as much as 2.4 Million in that amount of time. I'd say that's a pretty significant bounce back.

For a handheld on its 2nd christmas? No, that's not a bounce back. That's still abysmal.

EDIT: And again, you are ignoring attach rate. The WiiU's attach rate is sitting below 2, which, considering the most popular model comes with a game, is awful. The Xbox 360, by comparison, launched with an attach rate of 4.

third party sales on the WiiU are awful. They've sold less than 10,000 copies of Mass Effect 3, for example. And that's not a unique case - all 3rd party titles outside of ZombiU are selling similar numbers.