Bad news for Nintendo... (2 Viewers)

[Kevin Collins]

Nintendo had their earnings report are in and the Wii U console does not seem to be gaining adoption. For the last quarter Nintendo reported that only 160K units have been sold and a total of 3.6M since the launch of the console back in November 2012.

Why? Probably because of a lack of software support, the price point and complaints about a slow user interface.

Has anyone purchased a Wii U? I still have the original Wii, but it nobody in the house uses it.

 

[Adam_S]

I still occasionally play the wii, almost always to play games from the consoles I grew up with. It's a bloody shame Nintendo decided to abandon the virtual console a few years ago, instead of releasing several games a month, they now release one or two games a year. The main reason I bought it was for the VC, I have several wii games, but they get less attention than the classics. No real interest in buying a wii u with it's silly ipad controller.

 

[Greg_S_H]

The 3DS was practically declared DOA, and it's doing we'll now. Nintendo admits they had a steeper learning curve with HD graphics, which has caused launch games like Pikmin 3 to be very late. They have a great slate of games coming up. They may mainly cater to Nintendo fans in the console world, and may be in the same position they were in in the GameCube days, but they should see better things coming up when software is available.

The VC is slower than I'd like, but they regularly release 3DS VC games (the upcoming Sega 3D Classics should be awesome), and Wii U VC support is not bad.

I'm not the mainstream gamer. Probably won't own a Xbox One or PS4. Give me the Pikmins and Mario Karts and I'm fine.

 

[Edwin-S]

It doesn't surprise me. What did they think was going to happen when the main demographic they were caterimg to were people that didn't care about the hardware they were buying. The "gamers" they were catering to were willing to spend money on a system that was graphically and aurally obsolete before it even left the CAD screen. They expected people, who didn't care about graphics to suddenly care about them enough to upgrade to the WiiU because the graphics are HD?! Most Wii's probably ended up collecting dust six months after they were purchased. I would hazard a guess that most upgraders to the WiiU are gamers that also have an XBOX360, a PS3 or both.

 

[Afiger]

I still have my Wii, but we rarely ever use it. I mean, it's pretty fun at parties, but I can't get into it alone. I wish they would have come out with more games too, sometimes playing tennis or golf just gets a bit old.

 

[WillG]

I would hazard a guess that most upgraders to the WiiU are gamers that also have an XBOX360, a PS3 or both.

That would be me. Also I got a new receiver early this year. So I was gutting my entertainment console and said if I'm getting a WiiU, I'm getting it now.I have gotten some use out of it. Mostly SMB and am playing it a little bit more now with the Luigi add on. I'm sure WiiU can be fun even though it will be inferior to the next gen. But, they need to get their shit together with software and innovative use of the touch pad.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

They expected people, who didn't care about graphics to suddenly care about them enough to upgrade to the WiiU because the graphics are HD?!

To be fair, HD TV sets are far more mainstream now than they were in 2006 when the Wii came out.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

I got a Wii U right around launch. I'm happy with the hardware but there are no games. Further, because its so new, its hard to find good deals on games. I can easily find a dozen great PS3/360 games for under $100 total, but can't get more than maybe 2-3 Wii U games for the same price, regardless of quality.

That said, yeah its been a tough year for Nintendo. I'm wondering if the issue of messaging (telling people its a new console versus just an add-on for the Wii) has been addressed or reversed and people still don't care or if they haven't really done anything about it. The big problem, as I see it, is that they have this brand new HD system and they're making games that could feasibly (graphically) run on a Wii and still play fine. They haven't made any first-party games (which is what everyone buys Nintendo consoles for) that are really HD looking. It's hard to convey "buy this new 2-D Mario game!" as an exciting prospect to gamers.

Nintendo said they expect to sell 9 million WIi Us by the end of the year. I hope they do. It's a lot like the PS Vita: amazing hardware with some amazing software and a back catalog of amazing previous-gen games, but little prospect for the future and too high of a price.

 

[CaseyL]

I also have a WiiU. For software, I only have ZombiU, which was really quite fun. I'll probably pick up Pickmin3 for it too. I believe that we'll see Nintendo turn the thing around and pick up the pieces, or we'll have another Virtual Boy in the line where they just cut losses and move on. There's a plan in the works, for sure.

One thing to note though, despite the WiiU not doing well, Nintendo still posted a profitable report, thanks largely to the 3DS, which started out life much like the WiiU, kind of an un-accepted product.

 

[Edwin-S]

I don't know. From what I remember there was a lot more anticipation for the 3DS when it came out than the WiiU has ever had. 3DS stumbled, as far as I know, due to the lack of decent software at the launch. I was also left with the impression that a lot of the software for it is or was just shovelware.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

There was a lot of anticipation for the 3DS, but it was overpriced and sold pretty terribly for about 8 months. Now, its selling as good or better than the original DS at this point in its life.

The Wii U is a bit overpriced, but Nintendo turns a profit on every piece of hardware they sell. They could sell 10 Wii Us and they'd be making a profit. Sony and MS have always sold hardware at a loss (large or small, I'm not sure) that was made up in software licensing fees.I see Nintendo being able to turn the Wii U around to be more successful than the GameCube but not anywhere near the Wii. The Wii was a phenomenon and its very hard to do that again, especially since the end of the Wii's life was kind of terrible. They may need to make a new Wii U package (bigger internal storage, better games included, new colors, etc.) and cut the price while pushing a handful of amazing games but its going to be a while before they can do that. The biggest hurdle for them this generation was HD game development, which took more resources than they originally planned for. That's why Pikmin 3 was a launch game and just came out today. I think the Wii U, once it hits its stride, could be fine. I just hope no more third parties are abandoning ship.

And as I've mentioned before, its interesting that a lot of next-gen features on PS3/One are already used on the Wii U, albeit in modified forms. You can control your TV and browse listings, you can interact with people on general or game-specific message boards, you can share images and information from games, etc. These are HUGE REVOLUTIONARY SOCIAL FEATURES on the new stuff but has been around for almost a year on Wii U.

 

[mattCR]

I have a WiiU, and several games to go with it. I admit, the original Wii was (and is) one of my favorite consoles, not because of the incredible graphics, but because a few of the games on it made it worth the console. For me, things like Super Paper Mario etc. were such a blast and I couldn't find them elsewhere.

Nintendo this round has been missing that one huge title. SuperMario Land WiiU is fun, but it's not that home run hitter; WiiSports was also a home-run hitter right out of the gate.

Having just picked up Pikman3 today, I have to say it's one of the most impressive games I've played.. on any platform. And I eagerly look forward to the Wonderful 101

 

[Edwin-S]

To me, buying a Nintendo system is always predicated on being a Mario Bros fan. So many people always bring up Mario when it comes to their system. I never could get into Mario games. The characters had no appeal to me. I preferred playing Sonic the Hedgehog when it came to platformers, so Sega Genesis was my choice over whatever Nintendo was selling. I would have bought the Saturn but Sega really screwed the pooch on that system.With Nintendo, it was always Mario, Mario, Mario. In between Marios, it was Zelda, Zelda, Zelda. That fixation, plus the fact that Nintendo always seems to mainly target the preteen demo with their systems is why I never bought any of their stuff. So far, the WiiU seems to be Nintendos version of the Sega Satirn.

 

[CaseyL]

The Wii really was my favorite system last gen. I had an XBX 360, but couldn't find a justification to even turn it on after I finished playing Tales of Vesparia, so I traded it for a PS3, which has a lot of great games, but the Wii had some of my favs: Xenoblade, Fire Emblem, Metroid Prime: Corruption, plus a ton of other first party IP's that were just stellar. I buy Nintendo products usually for their first party games, because the ones I like, I consider to be the best on the market. And I'm happy with my gaming experience. I expect that I'll get the same from the WiiU in time.

That said, I do think Nintendo needs to kick out a few really amazing games that require the purchase of the system, because at the moment, it's not happening. Pikmin3 is pretty awesome, but not that one winning title. Hopefully they do it soon, otherwise it may fade into obscurity.

By the side: I also thought the Saturn was great. Yeah it didn't last long, but Lunar, Arc the Lad, Shining Force...Worth owning it for. I was bummed when it went away.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

Edwin - I disagree that Nintendo aims at the pre-teen set. Their games aren't going for the teen-to-manchild demographic of stuff like Call of Duty and Halo, but they have a broad appeal with gamers and non-gamers of any age. Just because something isn't violent and full of cursing doesn't mean it's meant for kids any more than something full of profanity and nudity is necessarily "mature." Personally, I'd rather play a creative Mario game over anything gritty and aimed at adults.

Nintendo banks heavily on Mario, but they are some of the best games ever made. Literally. GameRankings.com's top 10 games of all time by rating are, in order: Super Mario Galaxy, Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Super Mario Galaxy 2, GTA4, SoulCalibur, Super Mario 64, Uncharted 2, The Orange Box, Metroid Prime, and Tekken 3. That's 3 Mario games, 1 Zelda game, and 1 Metroid game. No first-party Microsoft games and only 2 PlayStation brand-exclusive games. (I should note that GTA4 is ranked 4th for PS3 version and 6th for 360 version and the Orange Box is the 360 version). So my point is that Nintendo makes high quality games and continually does so.

That said, it's extremely disappointing that the best game of the last generation (from one standpoint) was Super Mario Galaxy and their new console launched with a game that looked/played more like one of their best-selling games, New Super Mario Bros. Wii. I want to see their brand-new take on a classic franchise. The Mario 64/Galaxy, the Zelda: Ocarina of Time, the Metroid Prime. Pikmin 3 is good and all but its basically the perfect version of Pikmin 1 and 2 instead of the NEW version. Their are big rumors about the new Zelda and I'm sure they're working on tons of great stuff that nobody has seen, but it's a bit disappointing.

There's no reason 3rd parties aren't also doing amazing things, but hopefully Wonderful 101 can be an example of that. Unfortunately, I don't think that game will have mass appeal.