It looks like we are not alone, as popular online gaming publication Polygon has tilted their hats to Nintendo in 2014. While the other console manufacturers may have sold more consoles, it was Nintendo that delivered the finely crafted gaming experiences in 2014. Here’s what the site had to say about 2014 and Nintendo.
If had to throw my stones on one side of the pond, I’d be inclined to agree with some of my colleagues: 2014 was a real armpit of a year.
But we’re not here to dwell on game failures, or studio closures, or toxic culture, or any of the other negatives — no, none of that, not again. Instead, I’d like to earnestly clasp my fingers together, tilt my head and pleasantly inquire, “Have you heard the good news about Nintendo?”
Nintendo, to its credit, was aware of its biggest problem: a lack of compelling titles. “Software sells hardware,” Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime told Polygon at E3 2014. “It is the truism of this industry.”In May, Nintendo released Mario Kart 8 for Wii U. It was noted for pulling in the “strongest review scores in the franchise’s history” and became the console’s fastest-selling game, topping 1.2 million units worldwide following its release. As of October, Wii U sales topped 7 million units; half of those who owned a Wii U were also said to have Mario Kart 8.
When Super Smash Bros. for Wii U launched in November, it dethroned Mario Kart 8 as the console’s fastest-selling game. Smash Bros. on Nintendo 3DS was nothing to shake a finger at, either; the game sold more than 2.8 million copies globally.
What really nails this collection for Nintendo is that these titles — some of the best available this year — are only available on Wii U or 3DS. Compare this to the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, where games are widely shared between the two. It’s an offer neither system can match in terms of exclusive content, ultimately making it easy to shelve one or the other.
Oh? But what happened to your article saying Mario Kart 8 would be the worst-selling game in the series, Polygon?
Just kidding with the nice act: Eat shit, Polygon.
I believe it still is, it’s not in the numbers they preddicted, but still the lowest in the series
This year sucked for Nintendo too, considering this a good year is settling for too little
Don’t you get tire of being wrong Michael Pachter?
No, Mario Kart 8 is not the lowest selling game in the franchise’s history… I don’t know why people keep saying that. It outsold Mario Kart 64, Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Mario Kart Double Dash and Mario Kart DS in it’s first week of sales.
Judging by the continuation of sales it will continue to have over the course of the Wii U’s lifespan. Mario Kart 8 will NOT be the worst selling Mario Kart title to date.
No. Super Circuit is THE lowest selling MK game and looking at the current install base of 8.5-9 million Wii Us and the sales record of 4-5 million MK8 copies, thats about 55% of the install base owning/playing MK8 right now and obviously in the long run, it’ll outsell Super Circuit 3:1. Polygon saying MK8 will be the worst selling game of the series when its barely 7-8 months old and sold about half of the current install base of Wii U by now, only shows how fucking dumb and uninformative their media coverage is. They’re just as bad as IGN and Gamespot’s usual acts of bias.
Wrong. MK8 is still the lowest selling game, selling approximately at most 3.645 million. At the time when Reggie said NEARLY half of Wii U owners owned MK8, the hardware sales for Wii U (7.29 million) was reported. Compared with Super Circuit’s 5.91 million, MK8 still has a ways to go
You really need to get your shit facts checked out. First of all, Wii U is not at 7.20+ million anymore and at this point, MK8 more likely has sold about 50-55% of the current install base and given the fact that the game isn’t even a year old yet and that your Super Circuit math is incorrect because it barely sold 5 million in its lifetime of 80+ million sold GBA systems, you’re the one who’s obviously wrong and in this case, STUPID on jumping the game because you’re thirsty for an excuse to shit on Wii U and its games because you think that just because it doesn’t stupidly sell as much as COD to millions upon millions of morons of today, it’s instantly a “failure” in your mindset which is comparable to Ubisoft’s, the same dumbass 3rd rate party company who canceled a sequel of ZombiU within less than 3 months after it sold about 500,000 in the install base of 2.7-3 million Wii Us after 2012 Christmas which is a good start and also the same dumbass company who thought Rayman Legends sales would bust on Wii U but then retardedly launched it on other platforms DURING THE SAME WEEK AS GTA5 and lost all of their target sales from 360/PS3 while Wii U version sold the most out of all versions in the end anyway.
Try again but next time, do your fucking homework and research right. I’m done debating with idiots who remind me too much of the moronic Fox News.
Dumbass, did I not say that when the MK8 percentages were released, THAT WAS THE SAME TIME WHEN WII U CURRENT SALES WERE ANNOUNCED?
And lol @ getting mad over actual facts and rates
And in the long run, how is it expected to sell 2.265 million in 2-3 years (considering average console lifespan is 4-5 years, and considering the rate of Wii game and console discontinuation after Wii U introduction and Wii game and console sales slow down even months/years before Wii U introduction)
Also considering the fact that MK8 is no longer appearing in UK, US, and Japan charts at all for the past few months
It doesnt even come close to outselling MK64, Double Dash and DS dummy
Amd in fact I’m even wrong about SUPER CIRCUIT. It has sold 5.91 million, compared the approximately 3.645 million of MK8
*Last Year*
You guys do realize Polygon is made up of a collection of different people right? It’s not one person putting out every article. Polygon has Nintendo haters, as well as Nintendo fanboys.
I didn’t like or agree with the Mario Kart 8 article, but I’m smart enough not to blame the entire company for the act of one individual employee.
Polygon is made up of uninformative morons..just like IGN and Gamespot.
“The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, Polygon as an organization.”
it says there right at the end
Yea, but some people refuse to read that far. I can’t believe how many naive people there are out there.
Speaking of “native”: IGN giving OR/AS 7.8 for “having too much water” when they rated the original 9.5 and still acknowledged the game utilizing a lot of surfing (because Hoenn is a fucking ISLAND REGION..”ISLAND”)
I find caves just as irritating…
One word: Repels.
I know, still irritating…
There’s that stupid, retarded phrase from Polygon again: “Toxic Culture”. I don’t think they even know what the fork they’re talking about anymore.
Here’s hoping this year they start doing actual journalism instead of stupid graphs of how doomed Nintendo was with Mario Kart 8; or die along with their “toxic culture” accusations.
Cough *Michael Pachter* Cough
read this yesterday, it’s at least more accurate than their mk8 sales projection lol!
Polygon is crazy. Lol.
Polygon is infected by iTunes disease…
Why itunes?
Because iTunes is shit software owned by a shit corporation that makes shitty software for shitty hardware.
You may dislike iTunes, but your opinion has nothing to do with the quality of iTunes. Every movie, t.v. show, or piece of music I have purchased from iTunes has played flawlessly. See, I don’t judge products based on current trends or gossip, like most people do. I judge them off my own personal experiences. I say iTunes is great. A little expensive, but quality usually is.
That constantly sold millions and have one of the highest satisfaction rate in the business. I didn’t know doing good business is bad too. lol
lol What? They’re just stupid in general. “Fox News” stupid.
Fox News, Apple Armada or Xbots…
All diseases to the empire and myself…
If I had to pick one of them, Apple it is. They’re not that bad or are you saying it’s bad mainly because Steve Jobs is dead…
That Appling God is what made it to the worst milking empire in the history of technology when it comes to phones and pads…
The iphone was a revolution, really pioneering the modern smartphone. The ipad began a revolution of clones (looking at you samsung) and itunes i believe is the biggest entertainment seller. Apple started a lot of things that you use as gadgets nowadays.
Revolution or not, milkin is milking it…
I find Steve Jobs and Hiroshi Yamauchi to be on the same level of revolutionary product lines
It’s funny how you praise Apple because you owned an Apple product
It’s funny how you praise Nintendo because you own a Nintendo product
But because you don’t own a Sony or MS product? You start bashing them. It shows enough about your consumer knowledge based on preview and analysis versus knowledge on physical experience
Ass, I do have PS and, unfortunately, Xbox at home. 360 still has that Paywall BS which is why I call Xbox Live a ripoff and PS3 sorta has a crappy online service. I just got a new PS3 Slim-mer model in blue with 250GB for $200 and the PlayStation store loading times is longer, sluggish and PSN is still getting attacked by hackers showing Sony didn’t learn shit from 2011.
As for Nintendo, I wish it needs a bit more third party but fuck them now. They just need to make more friends who aren’t building or half assing games just for quick profit and I also hope for a universal account system. Apple, they should loosen up a bit with their tight grip on their products but I also don’t blame them seeing that there are hackers everywhere trying to take advantage of just about anyone or anything so they’re right on keeping close quarters on their own products so that their consumers are safe to use. Pricing however, they should work on stopping themselves on overpricing sometimes like that Apple Watch coming; $350 is just too much.
Nintendo needs to follow through this uear and keep the momentum. Lire in the 3rd party devs. Reality is as much as they give us quality 1st party titles, Wii U still won’t survive without outside developers filling the void.
Better hope they announce things fast. after star fox, yoshi, kirby, and zelda (surprisingly a lot) pass, there’s nothing left. Gotta start thinking of 2016. A new f-zero or metroid would really be the smart move.
And remakes to fill the gap if they don’t have many new games by the time people are getting thirsty…
Well, to say all remixes, wind waker hd, oras, and a few others i can’t think of now
They actually still have quite a bit they could pull there to use. You already mentioned Metroid and F-Zero, but they also have Fire Emblem, Animal Crossing, Kid Icarus, and Pokemon that they could make into Wii U Games and they’d sell like hotcakes. Plus the option of new IP’s like Splatoon.
Animal crossing, Metriod, and Pokemon are already in development.
A new Pokemon for Wii U? Or you mean Pokken Fighters?
That one and I’m still eyeing out for that game.
WIIU NEEDS BEST OF THIRDPARTY
Yeah so if Wii U you had those 3rd party tittles like PS4 then why isn’t PS4 exclusives outselling the same games on 360 and Xbox One? I thought the purpose of buying a specific console were excluoves 1st and 3rd party second. Yet every month on sales charts excluisves are going further and further down on the list yet those 3rd party tittles never leave top ten. Sunset overdrive should have been top ten this day. Yet it didn’t sell Amy better than never advertised BAYONETTA 2. So people rather play 3rd party tittles on their favorite console before an exclusive. Halo is Microsoft’s Mario and Sega’s Sonic. Yet no where near GTA V. And all these broken3rd party games yet the developers get income. so they don’t work hard for their next future broken game.
GTA V is not a broken third party game…
In fact, its the only few decent 3rd party game out there ATM and the ONLY legit “remaster” port of 2014.
You mean the same party that served constant overhyped/falsely advertised/rehashed/broken/”remaster” garbage? Fuck that. Nintendo and the fans are too good to be suckered into their cons on a CD.
Best console hands down.
How is the Wii U the best console? Games want the same games you can play from last gen consoles with beefer graphics. I mean look how long Sunset Overdrive lasted in top ten compared to AC and GTAV. It sort of sucks that the future of consoles lost the exclusivity. Now they are just boxes that give you the same games but a different brand. Sega Genesis and SNES had a reason to buy their exclusives. You needed both consoles to get the full experience. Nintendo is still in this belief about exclusivity. But its not Nintendo that’s changed it’s the gamers. For some dumb reason 3rd party broken games are the best sellers.
Because Wii U doesnt fuck you in the ass with broken and falsely overhyped/advertised 3rd party trash (except Sonic Boom but Sonic on home consoles since SA2 sucks anyway), an online service that doesnt get constantly hacked every week and for $50-60 a year, I ain’t paying for that shit just to play games online when I can do that for free elsewhere like umm..a fucking PC. What else..doesnt play the whole “buy us because we have best graphics even though PC is superior since forever + 1” deception as the third party mainly Ubisoft make the most stupidest excuses of not achieving the promised and flawless “1080p/60FPS” which Nintendo accomplishes on their own hardware without a problem while Ubisoft says “oh 30FPS is more suitable becuase its more cinematic”. Give me a fucking break. 2014 for the third party side is a fucking joke when Nintendo and few other companies have devilered their stuff with flying colors and 2014 stands as a testament for why the gaming generation has become a shallow ass popularity contest participated by the dumbest population of “gamers” buying trash instead of other games that clearly earned its worth like Bayonetta 2.
http://38.media.tumblr.com/c58f53d6920b93413f2e40cc55cc2782/tumblr_ngjeo6tQEP1tfr7ufo1_400.gif
That little twat got his ass handed to him by a pussy.
Nice kitty, disgusting baby ape…
To be honest, he deserved that…
All apes deserves all the misery they are inflicted with…
I don’t think that this year sucked at gaming… there were good games, like Dragon Age Inquisition, Shadow of Mordor, Shovel Knight, GTA: V, Bayonetta… what I mean is, not EVERY good game came from Nintendo, but I agree that the best games are on Nintendo Consoles… MK8, Bayonetta (again), SSB (both), and so on…
How so? Wii U has no games.
When you say “Wii U has no games” you mean 3rd party right? Funny how 3rd party tittles are better sellers than exclusives on any console. Why is that?
How so? All I see from the other side are broken “remaster” garbages and cons like Destiny and The Crew.
You missed Super Mario 3D World, DKC: Tropical Freeze, Pikmin 3, Bayonetta 2, Smash Bros. 4, MK8, may I go on or are you gonna try to stop me and say Call of Duty is better than all of Nintendo’s game combined like a fucking idiot?
Calm your hormones kid. I mean it
Plus don’t forget amiibo, Hyrule Warriors and Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire, those have sold so well as well! amiibo is turning out to be a real good thing for Nintendo and I love it!
How do people know MK8 was the worst selling if Nintendo never release info on digital sales. Never understood that dumb assumption.
Oh speaking of digital sales, may I add I bought Toad Treasure tracker on eshop so um that physical software sales release WON’T have my sale on there. But rather play stupid as if the physical copies means accurate 100% in sales. N64 and GameCube didn’t have eshop right?
To be fair, the Wii U is WAY better (in terms of game quality/diversity) than the Wii. It might not have a library like the SNES or N64, but- hey- next years looking pretty fine (and this year was much better than last year). It’s an improvement. And with Zelda, Splatoon, Xenoblade, Project Cars, and Star Fox just around the corner- I certainly am going to have a lot of fun on the Wii U (although- Bayonetta, Smash Bros, Hyrule Warriors, Wind Waked, Injstice, and Mario Kart should last me and my family a long time).
Yes but people don’t won’t quality games anymore. People won’t rushed, broken 3rd party games these days.
Becuase their mental capacity has shrunked at an alarming level. Human intelligence in general no longer exists..in fact, it never did.
Yep that’s pretty much you in 2 sentences
polygon is a halfassed website that nobody should take serious
Look who’s talking self-racist. Wii U sucked because Advance Warfare is not on it I guess…
Stranga be conflicted over whether to support a positive Nintendo comment or to keep on being butthurt about sasori.
You said MLK is overrated, your videos are horrible, your opinions are dumb and full of hypocrisy (example: i hate ssb, i want it. Only social rejecrs get excited for bayonetta 2, i want it, wii u is not next gen, i was welcomed to nexr gen when i got it). Yeah, you are the voice of reson and everybody should take you serious. Keep having fun with your boredom.
Lol everyone knows you’re the same pathetic loser every time
http://www.nidcr.nih.gov/oralhealth/Topics/DevelopmentalDisabilities/PublishingImages/childwithdownsyndrome.jpg
Nintendo is simply better.
Nintendo is simply eternity…
i’m hoping someone checks out my new website at Nintendo Secrets dot com … thanks!
Well thats one sensibke thing I agree from the biased Polygon. If you think about it from the third rate party side, Watchdogs is PR overhyped BS, Destiny is a scam, Halo: Master Chief is broken, Assassin’s Creed is broken, DriverClub is broken, Advanced Warfare is broken plus REHASHED AS ALWAYS, The Crew is a boring, fucking paywall nightmare and there’s too many fucking “remaster” ports to woo idiots to rebuy the same game aside from GTA5 which is the ONLY “remaster” port that made significant changes and additions from the original. Of course Nintendo had its best year in 2914 because they did their job to ensure their games are as content rich, stable, fun and as fairly profitable as possible. Third parties merely rehashed 1-2 year old games and falsely advertised new ones for cash in scams and yet, most peole are still buying their garbage which blows my mind but only a little bit because its typical to me that gamers these days are so fucking stupid.
Worst remaster award goes to The Last of Us. Same shitty gam… movie, but in 1080p 60fps and (almost) all the dlc, whoop dee fucking do.
That “game” is more suitable as a movie.
And ironically they are making a movie of it and even more ironically, they aren’t even going to cast the actress that girl in the game was modeled after…
Humans are so incredibly stupid…
Wow. That is fucking stupid. Then again, this is Sony we’re talking about…
Have you nintendo diehards ever heard of the concept of money? Get a life guys this is miserable of what you’re doing. Bashing, worshipping a company that ultimately still is a business, and talking shit especially stranga. Now THIS is why human intelligence never existed stranga and commander
Ever heard the concept of having “common sense” and rightful opinions? I guess not. Then by all means, continue being an unwise fool buring your wallet for BS half ass products and models.
Common sense? From you? HA
We value better things than caring whether or not they creators make the money…
My purpose in this current programming of mine is to see the Xbots destroyed for all eternity and restore the glory of gaming again…
This is how Nintendo ALWAYS is. They deliver quality and fun (and innovation). While the “others” deliver quantity and making a quick buck. Even with Nintendo’s casual games. They’re casual games done right. Usually anyway.
So what you’re trying to say is that Nintendo isn’t in for the money? Ignoring the “others” that spend years on projects (rocksteady, take two, CD Projekt red)