Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has commented on the dire results that the company posted during its earnings call earlier today. Iwata remained bullish with reporters and said that he still believes the struggling Wii U console has a chance this holiday season with Wii Party U, Wii Fit U, and Super Mario 3D World. Iwata says that if things don’t turn around this Christmas then Nintendo executives would review the situation to decide what to do about the failing console.
President Satoru Iwata said that the success of Nintendo’s newest console and the future direction of the firm were riding on the performance of a slate of new games during the upcoming holiday sales season. Once those results were in, Nintendo executives would review them to decide “what the company needs to do, over the long-term, about its platform,” Mr. Iwata said.
In the past, Mr. Iwata has said doing so could mean death for the company, which relies on the lure of its games to convince players to buy its hardware. On Wednesday, Mr. Iwata’s stance appeared to have softened, although he still maintained that the company’s fortunes could turn around with upcoming releases of key titles such as “Super Mario 3D World,” “Wii Party U,” and “Wii Fit U.”
“One game has the power to change everything,” Mr. Iwata said, smiling often during the meeting with reporters, which lasted almost an hour beyond the initially scheduled 30 minutes. “Are we satisfied with these sales results? No. Is it impossible to recover from this? No.” Mr. Iwata, who has said he is committed to the operating-profit target, put on a brave face, telling reporters that that target was still achievable
Thanks, Kevin M
It’s really easy to write it off as a huge failure, but i can see the tides shifting.
I’m calling it right now, all you assholes think it’s a failure but i am willing to bet that the Wii U will sell 60-80 million units, just watch.
Woah. Isn’t it still selling better than ps360 in their first year? I think so!!
It’s almost 2 million behind PS3, actually.
With the difference that PS3 had two holidays and WiiU had only one at this point.
I’m sorry but this doesn’t make the least bit of sense.
the remaining “key” games nintenddo has for this year are wii party, wii fit u, and super mario 3d world. have in mind that wii party won’t do much, wii fit u has long past its popularity and uniqueness, i don’t see how people will buy a new console and 59.99 priced fitness game. now, super mario 3d world is sure to make some impact, but, new super mario bros u was a sequel to a wii game that sold over 20 million copies (new super mario bros wii) and it did not do anything significant for wii u on the long term. new super mario bros u failed to boost wii u into popularity, what makes you think mario 3d world will make a dramatic difference?. have in mind wii u games are also now 59.99 in u.s dollars, and people don’t feel like spending that much money on video games anymore. with first party games alone, nintendo will just barely be able to keep wii u floating. nintendo is so far offering experiences similar to the ones on wii and past consoles, no game now and in the future looks like it will show what is so amazing about the wii u controller. the wii u is quite frankly a mess, it supports only one wii u pad in a landscape that loves multiplayer in their games. i’ts not strong enough once again to earn it major third party support, it has the now ridiculed wii name in it, it’s offering games like wonderful 101 at 59.99. no one wants to buy party games and mobile looking games like wonderful 101 at 59.99. nintendo cannot afford to wait and wait, since the industry is shifting incredibly fast.
tl;dr
Seriously though, it’s odd that this seems to be such an unsolvable puzzle to both BigN and the above poster. New Mario Wii sold splendidly… to an already killer install base. New Mario U didn’t… perhaps because it isn’t a console mover.
I just got a Wii U this month. Why? Wind Waker. The Wii launched w/ a brand new Zelda, The game cube launched w/ a new Smash Bros. Not since the the Super Nintendo in 1991 has Nintendo lead their charge w/ a 2D Mario for a home console, and here we are, well over 20 years later, and Big N expects New Mario U to move systems, when we’re hoping for an earth moving game like Mario 64 was or even Wii Sports was when we first saw it 7 years ago.
Big N just needs exclusives that appeal to the unwashed masses at launch (ahem, not games that are worse ports from other systems.). The Wii U still has no Smash Bros., no 3D Mario, no New Zelda, no MarioKart, and no original graphic powerhouse exclusive (ie., what we graphics whores call killer apps). Just like the PS3 when it launched, it doesn’t matter how powerful a gun the system is, it’s useless without good ammo.
I don’t think simply having those games will be enough, they need to do something different with them. A lot of their most popular franchises are starting to get kind of rehashy, and I think people are getting bored. Wii U so far has done very little to prove that it can create new experiences different from Wii and 3DS despite the fact that it has a new gaming peripheral that has some potentially interesting uses, and I don’t see the Wii U doing much until that changes.
please be patient please understand thank u
so iwata did actually meet the investors at the briefing, pachter was wrong then, iwata got balls (yes i like to lick them)
While the numbers do royally suck, t is a big improvement from the 160k from Q1. What was released on Q2?
Those numbers were from April to the end of September, things have started to pick up a little towards the end of September so those numbers were never going to look good.
Just Pikmin 3, The Wonderful 101, and Wind Waker HD.
Iwata is really considering Wii Party U big?
If u have friends and family to play with, actually it is a big title (had a lot of fun with my cousins and sisters last night)
Those party and fit games are TRASH. Don’t expect those to be system sellers. SSB, however, is gonna be the best system seller.
-15 kg in 6 months just by playing Wii Fit, so… I guess I can’t agree with U and party games are great for friends/family
3DS version KILLS any chance that SSB had of selling the Wii U. That and the shitty roster.
Whilst I won’t bother commenting on the ‘shitty roster’, I doubt that – just because of the 3DS version – the Wii U version won’t sell; just take MH3U (2.28m for 3DS/0.42m for Wii U) and Lego City Undercover (0.59m for 3DS/0.50m for Wii U) as examples; they’re hugely disproportionate to the console adoption.
Super smash bros will sell but it doesnt mean it will help the Wii U even if it sells over a million units. it was stupid for Dumbtendo to want to put it on the 3DS and I admit I’m buying it for 3DS so i can try it.
It’s his fault the Wii U is performing terribly.
Yes, he needs to rethink. they need more games.
What needs to be reevaluated is Iwata’s employment. The Wii U is going to do fine this holiday season. Why, because Nintendo products historically have done well every holiday no matter what is going on good or bad. So that should not even be in the criteria nor should he be able to hide behind that and say, “See, the Wii U sold well during the holidays. Things are turning around.”
At this point there isn’t much you can do with the “hardware.” That’s their bed and they have to lie in it. Just listen to the gamer and give them what they WANT instead of what YOU want to give then and take that into account when it is time to plan for the next console.
“Please understand” Iwata-san. A major overhaul is needed regardless on how the Wii U does this holiday season starting with your resignation. I know that isn’t going to happen because Nintendo is a family-owned business that has passed down from father-in-law to son-in-law, but it is what NEEDS to happen. Followed by the resignation of Fils-Aime and the retirement of Miyamoto. Bring in a CEO that actually understands what the modern gamer wants so that he doesn’t have to constantly ask us to “please understand” and apologize. Hire a COO and President of NOA who actually has a clue on how to deal with western developers, distributors, and marketing. Promote a young hungry programmer to the lead programmer that has a diverse palette of ideas that span multiple genres and not just one or two.
Sign a deal with a major network (preferably ABC because they are owned by Disney) to broadcast Nintendo Directs every couple of months. Allow Nintendo mascots to be featured in various places of pop culture i.e. movies, TV shows, music, etc (which also would be an advantage of signing some type of partnership with Disney.)
Or, maybe look into selling out to Apple. Let them rebuild your online infrastructure and place Nintendo games on Apple portable devices. Use their financial assets to build your next console as powerful as you want it to be. Convince them to buy Capcom or buy it yourself along with Sega and Atlus. Buy up smaller independent companies to make them all 2nd-Party studios making Nintendo totally self-sufficient never needing another dime from a 3rd-party again.
There are things that can be done before this ship starts to sink.
so, in short terms “stop being Nintendo”
No, I would say stop being the Nintendo of the past 4 years and start being the Nintendo again that was under Yamauchi’s reign. Nintendo doesn’t have to stop any of the good things there are doing. They just need to stop doing the stupid things that they have admitted to themselves.
I am SO glad you aren’t in charge of anything.
Those are some really, really horrible ideas.
You are entitled to your opinion.
I agree, that sounds terrible… and it was probably the opinion of someone with no experience running a company.
Nintendo posted a profit.. and they aren’t laying people off. That alone says they are doing better than most developers.
All they need to do is reach out. The need to hire more to help get games out quicker.
And if they can’t get third party support, they should employ them more. They already collaborated with Platinum, Atlus, Namco Bandai, Capcom, and other developers.
I mean, if third parties don’t want to port to Wii U, just hire them to make an exclusive witb Nintendo.
And if it does well, they may be more inclined to port to the WiivUbplatform.
The Wii U is not a failure… it’s just off to the slowest of starts. They are making the right decisions already… just moving in 1st gear.
If Nintendo was interested in hiring 3rd parties to make exclusives, why isn’t Shadow of the Eternals on the Wii U?
The reason why 3rd parties aren’t porting games to the Wii U is because they do not have the time, money, or resources to develop games from the ground up on Wii U hardware and PS4/XBOne hardware. That is why Sony and Microsoft made their consoles dummy-proof with off-the-shelf parts and with a x86 CPU arcitechture.
The Wii U CPU and GPGPU is completely customized and very unique. It is designed to give off the same performance as the PS4 and XBOne without needing all that raw horsepower. But it is a configuration that 3rd parties are not familar with.
Ever notice how when the Wii U does get a 3rd party multiplat it is one of the smaller divisions within the company that develops it where as the PS4 and XBOX One versions are developed by the top tier of the company? It’s probably because that way the smaller tier can focus solely one studying the unique Wii U architechture and can optimize games properly so that you see better looking games (for example Criterion Games with NFS:MW.)
Also, developers that supported the Wii like Ubisoft and Activision are already somewhat familiar because the configuration is nearly identical to the Wii and GameCube. So it’s no surprise that their games by and large look very good on the Wii U.
No matter what happens sales wise 3rd party is not going to increase. The 3DS is a beast right now and 3rd party support has not increased much at all. I feel it’s foolish to suggest that all of a sudden companies are going to flock to the Wii U if the sales pick up. That was just a popular excuse used by either lazy, incompetent, or understaffed companies that did not what to divulge the real reason why they aren’t bringing games to the Wii U.
It would make more sense to compare the Wii U to the 3DS by saying, “The Wii U may not need 3rd party support anyway and the 3DS is an example.”
Nintendo does need to reach out and based on recent comments they may be willing to do so because I believe it was Miyamoto said that Nintendo is interested in outsourcing remakes of classic games to other companies while they work on new titles. As I said somewhere else in this thread, that is the smartest thing I’ve heard Nintendo say in awhile.
*crickets*
Shadow of the Eternals isn’t on any platform, the kick starter got canceled
Is it really that bad that people have to resort to semantics.
So SOTE was cancelled. Really? Ya don’t say?
Well knock me over with a feather. Granted I’ve been coming to this board for several months and read the SEVERAL posts about people lobbying for Nintendo to fund SOTE so it would not be cancelled, but of course I missed that somehow along with the countless other articles talking about it.
You are not that stupid to make a statement like that so I will assume you are being facetious because you can’t find anything intelligent to rebut my comments with. Do yourself a favor. Next time just do say anything at all.
Largely what you said is blame on 3d parties, not Nintendo.
3rd parties did not design the Wii U hardware. Nintendo did that. They could have chosen to go off the shelf like Sony and Microsoft and had similar architecture so that 3rd parties can make one build of a game and easily port it back and forth.
I don’t necessarily have a problem with Nintendo designing the Wii U the way that they did because I believe it is an ingenious design, but I don’t think they thought through all the possible consequences of that decision and they are basically seeing the chickens coming home to roost.
This is not about opinions. This is about self-admitted mistakes by Nintendo. I love people think companies have a bottomless pit of cash and an assembly line of qualified talent to make games from scratch on hardware configurations they’ve never dealt with before.
This damage controlling is starting to get almost as bad as the damage controlling the other day from Sony drones after ReviewTechUSA’s video about Sony and Microsoft.
You can go on continuing to make excuses for Nintendo if you wish. That is your prerogative. I will continue to give them props for the good things that they do and call them out on the stupid things they do.
However in saying that, it cannot be overly different, I mean sure the CPUs are different, but they’re using GPGPU set ups. So effectively this means that the Jaguar CPU actually isn’t as powerful as everything thinks it is. They’re only more expensive as they are using dual quad-core CPUs, but they’re inefficient and will use a significantly larger amount of power (despite being on a APU, much like an MCM) and the clock speeds look higher.
It’s better to design a CPU that executes code faster, and to optimise it. A stage 4 pipeline is quicker than a state 17 or what Jaguar does.
Well most 3rd party developers nowadays did not work on the Wii or GameCube so they would not be familiar with the PowerPC750 CPU that Nintendo uses. It’s not that they can’t, it’s just not in their comfort zone or what they are used to working with on the 360 and PS3. That’s why you see some ports on the Wii U look horrible because they are dumping the workload on the CPU rather than the GPU. And also that is why you see some ports look better than the PS3 and 360 version from other developer whom are used to working with Nintendo hardware.
The sad part about all this is that we aren’t going to really see 3rd parties exploit the power the Wii U has. We’ll only get to see that from Nintendo and a few 2nd-Party studios. I don’t trust Ubisoft as far as I can throw them, and Activision are cut-and-paste junkies. You would think that Konami would be smart and put some type of game on the Wii U even though MGS5 isn’t coming to the Wii U (God only knows why.)
Put a Mystical Ninja game on the Wii U or maybe do a 3D remake of the Mystical Ninja 64 for the 3DS. Do SOMETHING.
Completely agree with you on that xpander.
As I say, people are blind to it all. Understand the hardware and its set up before slamming it.
Hahahaha are you serious? If so, FUCK YOU.
I love you too.
100% agree.
Apple?
Seriously?
“We’re out of new ideas and our stocks have peaked so here’s another iPad and iPod and an iPhone with slightly better graphics and hardware” Apple? Race to the bottom with cheaply made short-term non-profitable iOS games Apple?
Apple’s market cap is 471 billion and Nintendo’s is 14 billion………….nuff said.
All Nintendo needs is Apple’s money, online infrastructure, and install base. They can handle the rest and Apple wouldn’t bother anything else either.
“Bring in a CEO that actually understands what the modern gamer wants so that he doesn’t have to constantly ask us to “please understand” and apologize. Hire a COO and President of NOA who actually has a clue on how to deal with western developers, distributors, and marketing. Promote a young hungry programmer to the lead programmer that has a diverse palette of ideas that span multiple genres and not just one or two.”
These are pretty much the only ideas I agree with.
NO! What The Fuck, Iwata, Major Overhaul IS necessary, The Wii U home Menu needs an overhaul and much much more money spent on Advertising and AAA Game Development for the.
What’s wrong with the home menu?
They need to make link art academy to all communities, give you the ability to choose which communities which display and show on screen notifications for friends messages among many other gripes I have with the overall operating system including how they haven’t unified the Wii U chat, with Miiverse and the friends list and being able to quickly join your friends in online games
Iwata isnt part of the family tough……
Yes, you are right. Good. There’s even more hope that he can be shown the door.
Did I just sleep for a year? How did I miss Q1 and 2 of 2014?
Lol that’s exactly wt I was saying
Of course they can make good Wii U sales, just release games !
My God Nintendo, you have the best and most beloved video games franchises, use them !
We’re shit tired of Mario, we want Zelda, Metroid, F-Zero, Star Fox, Kirby, Baten Kaitos,… We are all dying to see them on Wii U.
Time to wake up and answer your gamers with something else than remakes made in 6 months.
Time for Iwata to go. Ever since he is in charge Nintendo has become the baby game console. Back when Mr. Yamauchi was in charge Nintendo was a much more diversified company that made all sorts of games that appealed to different type of gamers who aren’t interested in all the baby Mario and whatnot games. They had Rare, Silicon Knights, Left Field, the excellent relationship with Factor 5 (Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Conker, Eternal Darkness, Excitebike 64. the Star Wars games). 1080° and Wave Race. Different types of games for the ones of us who aren’t interested in the baby Mario games. But the bright ones in charge sold Rare and all the rest of their 2nd party studios. (only the fanboys who think Nintendo can do no wrong would say selling Rare wasn’t a mistake). They only have Retro now and of all things they put them to work on a baby game! Yes another baby game, the one studio who could have done something different working on another baby game! Ever since Iwata is in charge Nintendo is out of touch, all they do now are baby games and remakes of old games.
Rare is a dead company. they have monolith soft which makes WAAAY better games than any of those devs you mentioned COMBINED.
Rare was on top of it’s game when it was sold to Microsoft. It was them who killed Rare. At least they were smart enough to outsource Killer Instinct to Double-Helix. Hopefully they will do that with other classic Rare franchises.
Well, Factor 5 went under so that can’t really be helped. Left Field bought out their Nintendo stake to become a 3rd-party. However they really haven’t done much since then. I have no idea why Nintendo didn’t/hasn’t helped out Silicon Knights.
Theoretically Nintendo could own all of those studios right now but chose not to. I’m not saying that their decision not to is right or wrong, but one would think that they would at least have bought out one of those companies.
A baby game? Please. Donkey Kong Country is one of those games that has classic challenge that seperates the veterens from the babies.
Sucks that Nintendo is in this tight spot. But quite honestly, the Wii U deserves to fail. I own a Wii U and have only bought Monster Hunter. Everything else on the system just doesn’t appeal to me at all for one reason or another. And the fact that they’re relying on the hope of Mario and wii fit saving the console just sounds terrible.
I hope they do recover from this but terrible, terrible marketing coupled with mediocre games and a high price point for aged technology, just makes me feel they won’t. The company has been saying they’d recover since the Wii U launched and it still hasn’t so hopefully Mario will turn it around. But I fear he won’t.
The technology is not “aged”. The custom-built PowerPC750 is built like a Power7 CPU which is far newer than the x86 CPUs used in the PS4 and XBOX One. The GPGPU is in the 6000 series of ATI cards which is not old in terms of a gaming GPU. The heat-sink in the Wii U is state-of-the-art and allows for the Wii U to run very cool.
The problem with the Wii U isn’t power. It has plenty.
Indeed. Espresso is a CPU designed for gaming. It can output up to 3 Out of Order instructions per core, so that’s 9 tasks it can do in a stage 4 pipeline – now that’s incredibly efficient. People are blind to the fact that PowerPC is far more powerful than x86, as you need way more cores to make a game work. PowerPC 7xx is just as powerful as x86 if not better. Nintendo didn’t need all the extra power as they designed the Wii U and it’s architecture very well and cleverly.
^Another person who knows what they are talking about.
^ Only because I have thoroughly read Wii U’s hardware and the architecture. It’s a very clever configuration they went with. Developers just need to throw what they can at Wii U and see what it can perform. If it can run CryEngine 3, it can run anything. As well all know it, CryEngine is a very technical and demanding engine.
Sorry, I guess I’m an average person that doesn’t look into specs of a console and just compares how the games look and play. It’s great that the wii u has some power under it’s hood but from the games I’ve seen so far, it just looks like a 360 or PS3 with an extra screen.
That’s because the devs that made those games didn’t really optimize them.
Shin’ren states that they made nano assault with NO OPTIZATION AT ALL. They made the game and ran it on the hardware and to their surprise it ran in 1080p without optization. That is very powerful friend.
Next year when the ps4 and xbone games are releasing and people seeing that the wii u is holding it up with them, they will see that the wii u is not weak but misunderstand.
They’ll be fine. They’ve relayed on portable sales in the past. Heck, Wii U could still sell decent. I think Super Mario 3D World will be a game changer.
operating-profit target, put on a brave face, telling reporters that that target was still achievable”’
Still not revised their forecast? lol
Even if Wii U sold well this holiday season, how would it do in Jan, Feb, Mar, April. The idea is not just to increase sells but to maintain momentum in sales.
^This guy gets it.
Iwata has been somewhat of a docile pushover lately. Where’s the fire? Nintendo needs someone more aggressive who will do anything it takes to achieve success, like Hiroshi Yamauchi. Someone observant who knows what its customers want, and delivers those things. I really like Iwata, but he’s made too many mistakes. He always says he’s learned from them and that he won’t make them again, but look at the Wii U now… The mistakes made during the early life of the 3DS have been made again. So much for learning… Iwata, step your game up. I want you to stick around. You’re like family to a lot of Nintendo fans. But, c’mon man, you need a reality check.
He’s had more reality checks than he can count. The sad part is when he finally “gets it” it’ll be too late.
The only thing that will change my mind about him is that in addition to Wii U games we already know are coming in 2014 such as…..
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
Mario Kart 8
Super Smash Bros. U
Bayonetta 2
Project X
Shin Megami Tenshi X Fire Emblem
Yoshi’s Yarn
Fast Racing NEO
and first gameplay footage of Zelda HD
……..that Nintendo announces a new Starfox (which is possible,) Retro announces a second title they have been working on, and Nintendo unveils a brand-new mature-themed IP. It can be any genre other than platform or party. I don’t even care. Just something brand new. If they can do that. I’ll be more than satisfied. That’s not asking for a lot. Those are very fair requests and not too ambitious. Just announce plans to make the game. Even if actual development is a long-ways off. I mean Smash Bros was announced in 2011 and didn’t even start development until after E3 2012. It didn’t matter to me. All I care is that it is coming. You know?
I’d love for all the things you mentioned to happen. I especially like the idea you mentioned in an earlier comment about Nintendo setting up Nintendo Direct’s to be broadcasted on television networks. Having the Directs online-only really narrows down the amount of people the information will reach. They need to pull in customers, not wait for for customers to come to them. There’s no denying that the Wii U has an awesome library of games on the horizon, so hopefully that helps. Let’s hope they improve the online and create new, interesting games. Enough with remakes. Maybe once sales improve, 3rd-party companies will regain confidence with the system, and stop putting out crappy and gimped ports.
I like the idea they have of outsourcing remakes to other companies while they focus on new titles. That is probably the most promising thing I’ve heard out of Nintendo in awhile. Not only would that allow for a fresh perspective of classic games, but free Nintendo up to muse about going in directions outside of their comfort zone which are platforms and party games.
And yes, as it stands right now the only people that even know about Nintendo Directs are people who already have and are committed to the Wii U or against it. People on the fence or people who don’t know at all aren’t going to take it upon themselves to search for it.
Hmm…I hadn’t thought of that. If they do outsource their games to be re-made by other companies, they can give gamers the remakes they want (Majora’s Mask) while still focusing most of their attention on the development of completely new titles. They could also let 3rd-parties take a crack at one of their franchises. Wasn’t it Sega who developed F-Zero GX for the GameCube? That was an awesome game. The point is, they need to fire an army of bright flares into the sky and attract talented developers to help out with games. It worked wonderfully with the Metroid Prime series. All we can do now is support Nintendo as much as possibly by buying games and products. The rest is up to them..
possible*
Why are you allowing adverts for illegal R4 cards on this page, they won’t help improve Nintendo’s fortunes will they!
He keeps talking like he isn’t the one responsible for how well (or not well) the Wii U is doing, like it’s some magical force out of his control that’s controlling the Wii U’s fortune.
GOOD THING HE ALWAYS UNDERSTAND
I think a major overhaul of company policy needs to take place. I think Nintendo is not connected enough with their consumers and really need to appeal to all the different cultures that they market to. I feel like they don’t know how to sell or appeal to the gamers in the age range of 15-35 and really garner more to a crowd younger than 15 and around middle age adults that want to play party games with their family. Nintendo needs to think about the dedicated fanbase and try to win back the loyalty of many gamers it lost. The Wii U is not a bad system, it was just marketed EXTREMELY bad.
Yep! :-(( Wii U RIP 2014!
But I want to know what will happen to us who bought the Wii U?
Who will give us back the money for the failed console?
I believe in iwata
Wow, you guys, Isn’t PS4 and XboxOne gonna have the same fate as Wii U? Because their Launch day is looking pretty pale if you ask me. I wouldn’t speak so soon considering Nintendo still have lots of money thanks to 3ds sales. Like I have said a million times in the past, I feel this generation just don’t wanna enter to another one too soon. Nobody wants to get away from their PS3/Xbox 360 (who doesn’t fucking want?)/Wii too soon. Give all this consoles some time to rise.
They need to market the hell out of the Wii U, properly, nobody knows about it.
Patience is a virtue. That’s all I’m saying. Hugs!
So they were actually being serious about Wii U being their next gen console…
Are they honestly expecting PPL to pick up a Wii U just for Wii Party U &Wii Fit U this holiday? If Nintendo’s future relies on those games then RIP.
Maybe SM3DW will get PPL enthusiastic to buy a Wii U, but I doubt it alone will be enough to save it.
Don’t care about Wii Fit U or Wii Party U. The only reason I would ever buy a Wii U when Smash Bros 4 finally comes out. All other games at the present are crap!
the of the huge selling points of the Wii was the price. it was so much cheaper than the other consoles. The price cut wasn’t enough it should have been $249 or even $199. you can get a 12gb PS3 for $199. the Wii U is basically a beefed up PS3 but it isn’t exactly next gen. people aren’t going to be paying next gen prices for last gen tech especially when they can get similar products for LESS.
Nintendo just priced itself out. I own a Wii U but I know it’s just a fanboy console and probably will be until the price is lower. no games will change that.
What do people really care about? Do you care if Nintendo makes money and Sony doesn’t? Did you buy the Wii U so you could play games or because you want Nintendo to make money? So many people are so obsessed with how well these companies are doing financially when in my opinion they should only be worried about their gaming experiences. The Wii U in it’s first year has provided plenty of value to its buyers.
You have NSMBU, NSLU, ZombiU, Pikmin 3, The Wonderful 101, Rayman Legends, LegoCity Undercover, Lego Marvel Super Heroes, COD Ghosts and BO2, Super Mario 3D World, Wii Fit U, Wii Party U, Wii Sports Club U, Batman Arkam City and Origins, MH3U, Sonic Lost World, Deus Ex HR, AC Black Flag, WindWaker HD, Splinter Cell Blacklist, RE Revelations, Just Dance, Disney Infinity, etc. etc.
Seriously guys, compare that with the PS360. What has come out for those systems that makes their last year better? I’m not saying there is anything wrong with those consoles, just pointing out that this fallacy that the Wii U has no games or isn’t getting 3rd party games is just so bogus and played out. There are more games than you’d have time for.
The Wii will be one year old on 11/18/13. Up through September, and before the WWHD bundles came out, the Wii U has sold 3.91 million consoles. They did this despite competing with huge install bases in the PS360 and the Wii and during a massive recession.
The PS3 sold 10.53 million consoles from 11/7/06 to 12/31/07. But it sold close to 5 million that xmas so its 12 month sales (through 11/7/07) was around 6 million and change. So basically, let’s compare the Wii U sales when it hits its 12 month period to that 6 million number. As you can probably tell, it will be short most likely. But not by that much. And the PS3 was a blu ray player and people could kill two birds with one stone by getting one.
Don’t even get me started on Xbox first year sales. It was around 6 million consoles but we all know that figure was aided by RROD.
So all this talk of how bad the Wii U is doing is ridiculous. It’s doing fine considering all the errors Nintendo has made with its name, lack of games, delayed Rayman Legends, the recession, competition, lack of advertisement. It’ll be fine. And if it isn’t, and it continues to struggle for the next couple of years and Nintendo has to come up with a new and different console? Well, it’s not like you aren’t getting your money’s worth. Besides the list of names I provided above, in the next year or two you will be getting Bayonetta 2, SSBU, Mario Kart 8, “X’, most likely a new IP, a Mario Galaxy, a Metroid, a Zelda game, Kirby, Star Fox and a plethora of other 1st party games plus all the 3rd parties that could make their way there.
well said my brother. Kudos to you. You have made alot of valuable points
Actually Nintendo is doing fine.
They are still functioning as a massive company, they gave work to thousands of new people with the profit of Wii and DS, and they haven’t fired anyone at all and they are still not making that much loss. They even managed to make slight profit in previous two quarters. Nintendo can always shrink up, fire people and just go on with gamecube way, and will still make profit in the end. Just need the games games games as soon as possible, and not only these kiddie mario games or some family party games..
“One game has the power to change everything”. Yes, but “Super Mario 3D World,” “Wii Party U,” and “Wii Fit U” are not going to change anything. It’s been almost a year since the Wii U came out and I still don’t have a good reason to buy the console.
Last weekend a friend of mine bought his Wii U. We went to his place and after all the system updates (we played Xbox 360 in the meanwhile), we took a look the eShop. We realized that the game catalog is very narrow. Even worse: the multiplatform games, like Batman: Origins, are more expensive than the versions you find on PS3/XBox 360 (at least here in Mexico). Pretty sad.
People simply don’t care about the Wii U. Even though I love Nintendo, I’m not interested in this console. There’s no reason to have one (at least to this point).
They will never admit the the concept of the console wasn’t strong enough. Seriously, which game offers the best experience with the gamepad? Not even first party games have proven that it’s a great way to play games.
If they can’t find a way to sell systems on this holiday season, they will be in big trouble. Yes, many good games are on the way, but it may be too late when they finally arrive…
They’re going to need an overhaul. A big one. Even if it means scrapping the console and starting from scratch.
I don’t think Nintendo’s current strategy is really doing them well when third parties are ignoring them and they’re putting out tons of uninspired rehashes. They definitely need to do something. Not really sure if the Wii U is salvageable at this point, but I think Iwata should probably go and they should replace him with someone who understands the fanbase better, as well as hire developers that can create fresh, interesting ideas for games.
well from my point of view here in UK the problem is multiple. People think games like Mario or Zelda will be a game changer I may surprise some of you but those are not game changer. A game changer would be something like Skylander: Sypro’s adventure or Pokemon. Let face it kids are the one who needs to be influenced not gamer from 15+ (well it help). But yet the software release need to be a constant flow. I.e Mario 3d in December, Mario kart in January, Smash bros in march. Also the Wii U needs a Pokemon game (bundle) which can be cross play with the 3 DS. if they can come with a game which can cross play with Pokemon X and Y that will be a winner.
Nintendo have a really poor presence in the stall (actual not presence at all) , the PS4 and Xbox one have more presence then Nintendo (fact) and they have not been released yet. I think Nintendo has an issue here. Send more rep outside London!!!!!
the Tv ads are really poor, I think I just saw link wind walker (the game which was supposed to sell billion unit) and it just not good enough.
Finally Nintendo needs to lower the price to £200 and not count on many 3rd party. I mean £100 or less for a PS4 seems to be better value for money (I do think it bloody expensive) and people will be willing to save and wait longer cause the average game will be £10 cheaper than a Wii U game.
The problem for Nintendo is they are still giving lot of focus and effort on the 3DS and 2DS.
Sadly, a Pokemon game for the Wii U isn’t happening unless they get another developer like Genius Sonority to make it. Game Freak is stupidly stubborn about not having Pokemon on a home console because they believe the portability is an essential part of the gameplay. :/
Here’s the source for that BTW:
http://mynintendonews.com/2013/10/12/game-freak-says-dont-expect-a-pokemon-rpg-on-wii-u-or-smartphones/
I can see what they mean about Pokemon games being perfectly suited for portable play. But, really, they’ll never know if it can succeed on a console unless they TRY. Fans have been demanding this for a long time now. The thought of an MMORPG Pokemon game is just awesome. Fans would eat it up. But, NO, GameFreak and Nintendo want to keep being close-minded when they should be doing all they can to save the Wii U’s ass. A proper Pokemon game for Wii U could help to achieve that.
I don’t, I think the reasoning is stupid. The portability and face to face interaction doesn’t really add much to the game, you can get the same experience by playing at home and interacting with people over the internet. In fact, it might sell better in the west because the latter is more appealing to western gamers. It really is close minded of them to make this decision, it’s as if they’re saying they don’t care about anyone outside of Japan.
It’s over, Nintendo can’t recover this holiday season. MS is supposed to spend about a billion dollars on it’s ad campaign and I’m sure Sony will be spending close to the same. Even if Nintendo advertised this holiday (haha funny I know), it would be like an ant trying to fight a river current. Sony and MS are going to flood the market with ads.
Q2 2014? Didn’t realize we were in 2014 already. Anyways, it is understandable that Iwata is disappointed with sales so far but the Wii U really is a great video game console. They will start seeing much better sells from here on out because of Wind Waker, Mario 3D World, Wii Fit U, Donkey Kong, Smash Brothers, Bayonetta, Mario Kart, Monolith’s X game and of course the all new Zelda. Problem is that the only people who know about the Wii U is the industry itself. Advertisements for the system are much needed at this point. In all honesty, I don’t think the PS4 or XBOX1 will fare much better at the prices the systems are releasing at. The fact that Sony and MS will continue supporting current gen systems for a few more years doesn’t help either.
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Any random person from the street can lead the company better than Iwata is doing right now..
I’m in shock! I grew up admiring Nintendo and how all the other big companies copy and follow them (with great success from doing so) so how did this happen to the once leading video game company?
Nintendo’s team is the dream team, we all know that by now but I feel they lost their edge, remember games from 64 and gamecube were addictive it just consumes you into that world to explore! I used to play nintendo only and all day long, Now games are like just to waste time …
Btw I think the Gamepad has huge potentials to be a killer way to play if they update it’s hardware capabilities or maybe allow the use of the 3ds as a controller strong enough as an ipad just a thought
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