Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima has admitted that he knew the Wii U would be hard to sell to consumers before the actual product launched back in 2012. The thinking internally at Nintendo at the time was that it would be a success as it was riding on the back of the hugely popular Wii console. However, this wasn’t set to be the case.
“In an internal sales representative meeting, someone projected that we would sell close to 100 million Wii U systems worldwide,” he said. “The thinking was that because Wii sold well, Wii U would follow suit. I said that, since the Wii had already sold so well, we need to clearly explain the attraction of the Wii U if we are to get beyond that and sell the new system, and that this would be no easy task.”
“While we announced our shipment forecast of 800,000 Wii U hardware, we are forecasting total sales of ¥500 billion for this fiscal year, about the same as last year,” Kimishima said. “I am not currently able to talk about concrete figures for unit sales, but we are planning for NX to make up for falling Wii U sales. Software for NX will also contribute to sales and profit.”
– Tatsumi Kimishima
“I do think Wii U continues to be attractive as a media device that changes life in the living room,” Miyamoto said, then adding that “[a] similar challenge continues with NX.”
– Shigeru Miyamoto
Seems like current Prez has his head on straight while everyone else was still blinded by sales results for the Wii. He knew at least and that has me very hopeful for the NX. At least in terms of the marketing aspect… The rest will have to wait until we see the thing
P2. Didn’t we know this already? I’m pretty sure he said something similar earlier this year.
You are correct, and its sad that back then no one listened, but this gives me more confidence about the NX
The NX should, at least, play Wii, Wii U, DS and 3DS games…
Asking for too much, scrap backwards compatibility and make a powerful system for once, that’s what needs to be done
I don’t really care about BC, it was a silly joke :-P. But what you say is a little contradictory… I think if it’s a powerful system BC shouldn’t be a issue.
What in the hell does that have to-, you know what, tell that to microsoft then. Their white and scorpio is going backwards compatible…and I like that for a good dam reason. Its a pain connecting and unconnecting older consoles you want to play.
I care about BC, but not for DS or Wii, that’s obsolete. Should have specified that :P
It was a reply to “plummertime…BITCH” lol. But seriously, its more likely we are going to have it anyways because of system transfers which I thought they said something about it…
It’s funny that you give such a tall drinking order, then say “at least”. That list would be “at most”, and you know as well as I do that Nintendo is going to forego backwards compatibility for anything beyond last gen in favor of virtual console releases.
It’s a joke, sorry :-P
navi pls
http://orig04.deviantart.net/d696/f/2015/188/6/9/navi_pls_by_rkkrpl-d90ausr.png
This guy is smart. Hopefully that wisdom will tranfer over to the NX. Because i love my Wii U, but there is definitely room for improvement.
He’s a business man, that’s why. When NES and SNES were out, the CEO of Nintendo was business men. Iwata wasn’t , he was a visionary
He’s a business man, that’s why. When NES and SNES were out, the CEO of Nintendo was business men. Iwata wasn’t , he was a visionary leader with gaming and programing abilities. He did both, but he was not business. This new guy is also business. If you notice, the trend says a lot
Yeah, Iwata was awesome at making games, but his business skills were sort of lacking. Still loved the guy though. RIP.
agreed, but don’t forget…this guy is the reason why nes, snes and wii sold so good. We are dealing with a guy who made nintendo’s successes.
||Prepare for the age of The First Order of Nintendo…||
Less talk, more action. It’s good to know at least someone in Nintendo had some bit of common sense, but until I see the NX sale figures (and of course the console itself), he’s not bringing anything to the table yet.
This guy fills me with confidence about the NX and its future, and that’s saying something.
Damn, man. I want ya to see that Miyamoto is off the deep end. The CEO says Wii U didn’t seem like a good sell and not a good idea, but Moto says it’s still attractive to families in the living room. If that was the case, why didn’t it sell or is in the living room for families now. There’s no hardship to sell the NX over the Wii U because people didn’t buy Wii U in wait for another system which is your NX system. The Wii to the Wii u was a hard sell because Wii had a ton of games and third party. Why go from Wii and tons of games to Wii u and not even a Zelda game (remakes don’t count)
nintendo’s trying to recapture the wii crow with the nx. if so, dark days are ahead.
So first off… Kimi is obviously a savvy business man. However it would be great if we could all agree that it’s really easy to say you knew something would be a flop after it flops. Can we really assume that because he is saying this it means he can predict the future or something? This is no guarantee that the NX is going to be a good concept. (To be clear, I still think it will be) but he is basically hipstering us. “I knew the Wii U would be a failure before it was even released” cool bro. I knew Batman V Superman was gonna suck, does that mean I should be a studio executive? And Moto saying that the NX will look to continue the challenge of being a unique media device that changes entertainment in the living room, sounds to me like confirmation that the NX will continue Nintendo’s legacy of the dual screen experience. For what it’s worth, I think the NX will solve the development problems of porting to a system with two screens, since that was the Achilles heel of developing/porting to the Wii U. Thoughts?
When the NX idea was conceived and the system was developed, kimishima was not the prez. So the NX may very well be the last remnants of the old regime and not reflect the new leadership.
Just something to keep in mind.
so the obvious answer to Kimi’s concerns at that meeting was “but all will be fine with flagship franchises like Mario, Zelda and Metroid anchoring the WiiU”
oh, wait…
I read Kimishima’s comment & am all excited for NX. Then I read Miyamoto’s comment and I suddenly want to torture something! Oh that’s right! You get to torture someone in Grand Theft Auto V! I’ll be sure to make a second save file before that point for later uses for the next time Old Fart Miyamoto says something incredibly stupid. Please retire before my love for you gets replaced with unadulterated hate, Miyamoto. :/
Nintendo did EVERYTHING wrong with the Wii U from day 1. Starting with the horrible name. Then they fail to advertise it. To this day, I have never saw a single Wii U kiosk at any stores. Has ANYONE seen a Wii U kiosk? I didn’t buy a Wii U until well after a year past it’s launch, because there was no good games yet (Pikmin 3 was supposed to be a launch title, but got delayed several months. Grrr). And within that year+, I was SO disgusted at there not being any kiosks in stores because I wanted to play it and see what it looked like.
The final nail in the Wii U’s coffin was lack of third party support. Nintendo made promises they couldn’t keep. Ubisoft was the only third party company that I can remember who acted excited about supporting the Wii U. Which they did for a while. But then they slipped away and stopped releasing their bigger games on Wii U. If it wasn’t for Assassin’s Creed III and IV releasing on Wii U, I might have never discovered how much I LOVE that series. I would have never experienced them.
I only hope that the NX gets the same third party support as the PS4 and Xbone gets.
I didn’t have that issue with a kiosk here. Instead, we only had 1 single kiosk for Wii U console & games. It was the same with Wii, too, during it’s last year or two. 3DS suffered the same thing once til it and the games for it started to sell better. If Wii U had done better, maybe it would have gotten a second column for games. I wish Wal-Mart would start dedicating a section of space to video games instead of a small area in the Electronics section. Similar to how they got an entire space for gardening or the pharmacy.
In order for Nintendo to recapture the “Wii Crowd”, they need to make nothing but free to play candy crush and bejeweled type games. Because that’s where that crowd went, to smartphone/tablet gaming. They don’t care about real gaming. Give that shit up Nintendo. Move on to your true customers.
Nintendo did huge Mistake by Name Wii U, Should Named Revolution