Polygon Says Mario Kart 8 “Will Likely Be The Worst-Selling Game In Franchise History”

Common sense since not many units of the Wii U have been sold compared to other Nintendo systems.. yet. Just wait until the game comes out Porygon.

I agree

Isn’t the point of releasing this game to sell more consoles…? This is a really stupid article that polygon has obviously put up for hits on the day where everyone is talking abou5 and praising Mario kart

Probably, which is really sad as it looks to be one of the best! Though, Mario Kart is the type of game that keeps selling years after release, ass more people buy the console. Also, they have not taken in account new console sales by the game.

Polygon please understand.

A tricky and bad intentionally post from Polygon. Sure there are less consoles out there. But the game should be great. It may boost the sales of the Wii U. I have 1 Wii U in the house. We are buying the Mario Cart 8 bundle to support and because is a great package

Polygon needs some medical attention because the damage control aids is strong in them

This chart is incredible. It may be oversimplified but we can draw some conclusions from it:

The MK64 and MKDD are great in my opinion, much better than the Wii version, and yet each sold less than 10 million units. Less than a third of Mario Kart Wii sales, around 35 millions. But what all these 35 millions of copies represent?
I have the impression that these numbers wouldn’t have been so great if it wasn’t for a solid basis constructed in the N64 and NGC era. I can say for myself that after these two games I was in great expectation for the release of Mario Kart Wii, but after it I am not enthralled by the Mario Kart 8 launch.

But more important, now talking about hardware, is that albeit the game cube sold no more than 22 M units, I have never seen anyone complaining about it. On the contrary, who had it by the time knew (and know yet) that it was a great system with an incredible library of games. So my question is: did it really sell little? Perhaps those 22 M buyers is all that Nintendo should focus on.
What is ruining industry today, and unfortunately Nintendo is going on the same path, is this general thinking that one must sell to as many people as possible, and that growth is the rule. With the DS and Wii, Nintendo experienced an explosion, investors were happy, but it would be better for everyone if they considered that as a singular happening, and from now on kept their expectations a little bit lower but still doing what they know how to do.
Perhaps the WiiU will sell no more than 20 M units, and then we will see a confirmation: not that Nintendo is doomed, not that it is going to go third party, just a confirmation that this is the range of people interested in and capable of recognizing what Nintendo does. Focus on us, and everyone will be happier.

This is the kind of news article written that is been giving the system trouble even before it launch. Its almost like you could say the Wii U failing since 2011 or at least most of these news articles would have you think.

The problem with the chart and some of you already pointed these out too, is that all those other sales are for LIFETIME rates, (or the 3DS which has been out a bit longer) and has the expectation that Wii U won’t sell anymore units. This won’t be the case no matter what you might think, considering its highest sales month was Dec. 2013 where it sold about 1.5 million world wide, which was a year after is supposedly failed.

The other main problem is they have it at 20% and the attach rate games per system is much higher with the Wii U than it was for some of the past Nintendo systems.

The other thing they seem to be forgetting is that Mario Kart has a good reputation and will drive system sales (how much I don’t know outside the estimates made by Nintendo are reasonable for system sales if not a little low). They have some really good deals this time around too, i.e. buy Mario Kart get a game free or the pack in for the game. And this game is reviewing very well as where something like Mario Kart Double Dash didn’t review well despite it being a good game.

Most the people who have bought the system are likely to buy this game cause they are either families or diehard Nintendo fans. I expect it will hit that 1.2 million within the first month or two. It seems like the game allot are waiting for.

well that’s not logic!!!!what’s about mario kart will be release and will generate more sell cause people will have a reason to buy a wii u. I brought a game boy advance cause of final fantasy tactics advancewhen the game was released. I did the same for the wii U I brought the game knowing Mario kart will be a reality. I could have wait but I got it for a bargain.

They gave it a 9/10, right?

“The site says that there’s only 6.17 million Wii U consoles in consumers homes, and that’s fewer than the number of copies that all but one previous Mario Kart game sold.”

So they are assuming that either people will only buy it at launch
or that the install base won’t increase over time?
Those seem like pretty idiotic assumptions.