Did the Wii U launch fall flat on its face?

[j_factor]

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.

That's after 6-7 years of population growth and market growth. To sell the same is not good. "Poor" is a strong word, this isn't another 3DO or anything. But it's definitely disappointing.

Fun fact: Starting with the Playstation, every console launch was the "most successful ever" at the time, with two exceptions: Gamecube and Wii U.

[TheSonicRetard]

That's after 6-7 years of population growth and market growth. To sell the same is not good. "Poor" is a strong word, this isn't another 3DO or anything. But it's definitely disappointing.

Fun fact: Starting with the Playstation, every console launch was the "most successful ever" at the time, with two exceptions: Gamecube and Wii U.

This too. The Wii was all about expanding the market place, and they succeeded. The market has expanded considerably. If your milestone is that it's barely selling worse than a console from 7 years ago, then you're admitting weak sales.

[bultje112]

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

ps3 is has now sold equal to 360, but it's launch was a problem because of the price and x360 being so much cheaper.

[bultje112]

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.

no and the nes may have outsold the genesis at launch, but not the snes. also the ps2 launch sold way more than ps1. also megadrive launch outsold master system and n64 launch at least in usa was more succesful than snes

[NostalgicMachine]

^Those Wii U stats are actually more impressive than I would have originally believed.

[gamevet]

no and the nes may have outsold the genesis at launch, but not the snes. also the ps2 launch sold way more than ps1. also megadrive launch outsold master system and n64 launch at least in usa was more succesful than snes

He's talking about how well the Playstation was selling, when the Dreamcast launched. The PS was still topping the charts in weekly sales of hardware and software.

[VGTM]

Jokes on you, I'm reading this thread on my Wii U browser.!
Seriouly, though, it's not that bad.

[TrekkiesUnite118]

This too. The Wii was all about expanding the market place, and they succeeded. The market has expanded considerably. If your milestone is that it's barely selling worse than a console from 7 years ago, then you're admitting weak sales.

The Playstation and Playstation 2's first quarterly sales were roughly the same give or take a couple 100k. I guess everything is selling poorly considering there's been well over a decade of growth.

As I said, the Wii was abnormal in this sense. Don't expect to see that again for some time. You won't see the Xbox 720 or Playstation 4 selling better if they launch around the same time next year. Especially if the economy is still shitty come next holiday season. The PS3 did have supply issues as well, or have you forgotten the drama and jokes concerning that? The Wii U had one as well, though not on par with the original Wii. The Wii U supply issue is that the Deluxe SKU is in far higher demand than the standard one. So there are ones sitting on store shelves, but they are not the one people want. You literally screw yourself financially when you buy the basic set. It's like if when the 360 launched all the deluxe models sold and all people had left were the Core/Arcade models. Or when the PS3 launched and you could get 20GB models but the 60GB one that people wanted was harder to find.

Hardware sales wise the Wii U is selling fine, and it's making more in revenue than the Wii did. Hence why Nintendo's stock has gone up. What's not selling well is Third Party software. And is anyone honestly surprised? While it's not bad software, it's already available on other platforms with little to no differences to warrant buying them again or getting a Wii U for them. The Third Party software that's not selling isn't Nintendo's fault, it's the fault of the Third Party developers for not analyzing their customer's properly. For example, people aren't going to run out and buy a Wii U for Black Ops 2, nor are they going to get it just for the Wii U. Not when their friends are all playing it on PC, 360, and PS3. Some may get it as a novelty, but they are going to get one of the other versions as well because that's where their friends are playing it.

The Wii U exclusive games are selling well though last I checked.

[VGTM]

I assure you it's selling much better than the PS Vita

[TheSonicRetard]

The Playstation and Playstation 2's first quarterly sales were roughly the same give or take a couple 100k. I guess everything is selling poorly considering there's been well over a decade of growth.

As I said, the Wii was abnormal in this sense. Don't expect to see that again for some time. You won't see the Xbox 720 or Playstation 4 selling better if they launch around the same time next year. Especially if the economy is still shitty come next holiday season. The PS3 did have supply issues as well, or have you forgotten the drama and jokes concerning that? The Wii U had one as well, though not on par with the original Wii. The Wii U supply issue is that the Deluxe SKU is in far higher demand than the standard one. So there are ones sitting on store shelves, but they are not the one people want. You literally screw yourself financially when you buy the basic set. It's like if when the 360 launched all the deluxe models sold and all people at left were the Core/Arcade models. Or when the PS3 launched when you could get 20GB models but the 60GB one that people wanted was harder to find.

Hardware sales wise the Wii U is selling fine, and it's making more in revenue than the Wii did. Hence why Nintendo's stock has gone up. What's not selling well is Third Party software. And is anyone honestly surprised? While it's not bad software, it's already available on other platforms with little to no differences to warrant buying them again or getting a Wii U for them. The Third Party software that's not selling isn't Nintendo's fault, it's the fault of the Third Party developers for not analyzing their customer's properly. For example, people aren't going to run out and buy a Wii U for Black Ops 2, nor are they going to get it just for the Wii U. Not when their friends are all playing it on PC, 360, and PS3. Some may get it as a novelty, but they are going to get one of the other versions as well because that's where their friends are playing it.

The Wii U exclusive games are selling well though last I checked.

The playstation 2 was supply constrained. It was sold out for months. The WiiU is not supply constrained. The Xbox 360 and Playstation 2 couldn't sell more because they couldn't make enough. This isn't the case with the WiiU. How are you so bad at this?

And WiiU exclusive games aren't selling that great either. None of them have charted beyond NSMBU and ZombiU.

EDIT: And no, the PS3 didn't have supply issues. You could find them on shelves very easily.

EDIT AGAIN: And no, deluxe models are no sold out. You can get them for well below MSRP on ebay. I can walk into my gamestop right now and buy one.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nintendo-Wii...item43b622790e

one sold for $250 below MSRP.

[bultje112]

that is indeed very bad. when ps2 was released you could find them selling on ebay for well over 1400 guilders, which is like 900$ or something

[TrekkiesUnite118]

I get the supply constraint issue, and I'm telling you there is one for the Wii U just not in the normal sense. The Supply constraint is that people wan't the Deluxe SKU, and they won't buy the Basic SKU when that's all they can find. When you buy the Deluxe one you get Nintendo Land and 32GB of Memory. When you buy the Basic for $50 less you only get the Wii U with 8 GB of memory. If you buy the Basic one you end up paying more than what you would have paid for the Deluxe Set if you just get one game with it, that's not even considering if you want to get additional memory. So people are not buying it for that reason. It's a waste of money to buy the Basic set. In stores I've been in the Basic set is available but the Deluxe Set is in short supply or sold out. This has been reported on numerous sites, why is it so hard for you to grasp?

The Wii U sold at least 1.5 Million in it's first Quarter. It more than likely sold close 2 million worldwide when we include other regions like Europe. And that number is being reported by sites. That's better than both the 360 and the PS3 launches. That's not a bad number at all.

And what exclusive Wii U game isn't selling well? If you mean Nintendo Land, that's probably because the majority of people buying Wii Us got it with their deluxe set. The only other ones I see not selling are what I would deem shovelware. NSMBU and ZombiU are the only two exclusives on the system worth owning. That's why they are selling. The other games are all either ports from other consoles, shovelware, or come included with the bundle most people are buying. Wii Launch software sold because it was unique and not available on the competition's system. The Wii U launch software is the exact opposite and as a result, it's not selling. Is anyone honestly surprised by that?

EDIT:

Yes, NOW you can find deluxe models, but during launch and the holidays it was hard to find them.

As for the PS3 not having supply issues, I'll just quote this:

The PlayStation 3 was launched in United States on 17 November 2006. Presales on eBay reached a high of just over US$17500 on November 17. During its first week of release in the United States, PlayStation 3 systems were being sold on eBay upwards of $2000. The following day, no units were posted on eBay, none of them sold. It was originally announced that there would be 400,000 units available, however less than a week before launch reports emerged that Sony did not meet its shipping quota in time, resulting in about 40% of systems not appearing at launch. It is not known exactly how many systems were available on launch day.

As of 16 January 2007, nearly two months since the US launch, at least 1,000,000 systems have been shipped to the US, and a further 1,000,000 have been shipped to Japan, plus more elsewhere in Asia.

And this:

[TheSonicRetard]

I get the supply constraint issue, and I'm telling you there is one for the Wii U just not in the normal sense. The Supply constraint is that people wan't the Deluxe SKU, and they won't buy the Basic SKU when that's all they can find. When you buy the Deluxe one you get Nintendo Land and 32GB of Memory. When you buy the Basic for $50 less you only get the Wii U with 8 GB of memory. If you buy the Basic one you end up paying more than what you would have paid for the Deluxe Set if you just get one game with it, that's not even considering if you want to get additional memory. So people are not buying it for that reason. It's a waste of money to buy the Basic set. In stores I've been in the Basic set is available but the Deluxe Set is in short supply or sold out. This has been reported on numerous sites, why is it so hard for you to grasp?

It's so hard to grasp because it's not true. The Deluxe Model sold out its initial shipment. Then, a week later, when the second shipment arrived, they sat on store shelves and have been rotting there ever since. They've been selling below MSRP since December 28th. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/350680200851

And that's not a single Wii U, it was a massively advertised sale from an online retailer. And it still took days to sell out only 125 consoles.

The Wii U sold at least 1.5 Million in it's first Quarter. It more than likely sold close 2 million worldwide when we include other regions like Europe. And that number is being reported by sites. That's better than both the 360 and the PS3 launches. That's not a bad number at all.

it's not likely that it sold 2 million world wide, because it didn't. NDP sales figures have already told us that.

And what exclusive Wii U game isn't selling well? If you mean Nintendo Land, that's probably because the majority of people buying Wii Us got it with their deluxe set. The only other ones I see not selling are what I would deem shovelware. NSMBU and ZombiU are the only two exclusives on the system worth owning. That's why they are selling. The other games are all either ports from other consoles, shovelware, or come included with the bundle most people are buying. Wii Launch software sold because it was unique and not available on the competition's system. The Wii U launch software is the exact opposite and as a result, it's not selling. Is anyone honestly surprised by that?

So your point, boiled down, is that, ignoring "shovel ware" and "non-third party exclusives," ZombiU is selling well. Ok then.

EDIT:

Yes, NOW you can find deluxe models, but during launch and the holidays it was hard to find them.

I walked into my walmart on December 17th and bought a WiiU deluxe model without any sort of wait. And there were several more on shelves. And that's not a unique case.

As for the PS3 not having supply issues, I'll just quote this:



And this:

The first initial batch, yes. More shipments came a week later, and they didn't sell out. Have you forgotten this:

[TheSonicRetard]

Wii U deluxe model sold on december 16th on ebay for below MSRP:



http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=504316

but they were just so danged hard to find during the holiday season!

[TheSonicRetard]

16 Wii U deluxe models sitting on a store shelf on christmas eve at best buy



http://www.hardcoregamer.com/2012/12...christmas-eve/

If december 16th, 17th, and 24th aren't the "holidays" then what are?

I mean, I guess the Wii U was hard to find on November 17th. that's the holidays, right?