Wii U bust

[mrmt]

http://www.dailytech.com/Nintendo+M...llion+Wii+Us+for+Fiscal+Year/article30417.htm

Nintendo was betting on the Wii U for help in the sales department, but it looks like the new console has disappointed so far -- and it shows in the company's latest earnings report.

For the fiscal year ended March 31, Nintendo posted a year-over-year sales drop of 1.9 percent to 635.4 billion yen ($6.4 billion USD). The company was originally hoping for 670 billion yen.

(...)

Many are blaming the Wii U gaming console for Nintendo's lower-than-expected figures. Only 3.45 million Wii Us were sold worldwide for the last fiscal year, which just missed Nintendo's projection of 4 million sales. About 13.42 million units of software sold for the new console as well. The company sold 3.98 million original Wiis and 13.95 million 3DS handheld units.

(...)

In January of this year, Nintendo had announced that it was cutting its Wii U sales targets from 5.5 million to 4 million by March 2013. At that time, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata explained that Wii U sales were lower because of the popularity of mobile devices for gaming and the fact that this is the first time Nintendo has released two versions of a console at once.

I wonder if Sony and MSFT will face similar headwinds.

Since this thread doesn't have any real discussion involving CPUs, this belongs over in Console Gaming and has been moved as such.
-ViRGE

 

[Arkadrel]

I wonder if Sony and MSFT will face similar headwinds.

Microsoft cedes consoles to Sony, gives up on gaming
Apr 23, 2013 by Charlie Demerjian

GDC this year made one thing clear, Sony wins the next generation console race, period. This came as a bit of a surprise, but the real shock was that Microsoft didn’t even show up to the fight. No, we are not joking, Sony made a gaming console in the PS4, Microsoft made all the wrong moves to counter with the XBox 720. What you end up with are two very different products, one with a purpose, the other without. Microsoft didn’t try this round.

Time and time again at GDC developers who had both consoles praised the job Sony had done with the PS4. There were several demos run on the PS4 dev kits too, the author saw at least one dev kit directly and knows of a few more at the show. XBox 720 kits were as absent as the praise directed at Microsoft, some devs even mocked the hardware Redmond is offering.

Why Microsoft no longer cares about gaming on the XBox
Apr 24, 2013 by Charlie Demerjian

All of the development effort has been going into things other than the console’s ostensible mission of gaming. You can get TV, video, music, web browsing, and so on and so forth, usually for an added fee plus more “content” is added regularly. If you want the Miss Teen USA pageant streamed to your ad-festooned home page, you are in luck.

Basically:

1) Nintendo shot itself in the foot. That weird tablet + horrible controller, and a really low spec'ed hardware design.

2) Microsoft is aiming more at makeing 1 in all solution, that's a substitue for a PC, than focusing intirely on the consol platform. All the "always on" drama.

3) Sony put out a gameing consol.


People that buy consols for the sake of gameing, will favor the PS4.
People that want a all in 1 solution will buy a new Xbox.






From S/A:

Xbox Next will have 6 CPU cores, 12 GPU CU's & 5GB of DDR3
vs
PS4 7-8 CPU cores , 18 GPU CU's & 7 -7.5GB of GDDR5

PS4 GPU is going to be 50% more powerful & it's going to have about 50% more Ram for the games & it's main ram is going to be 150% faster than the Xbox 3's main Ram. the 32MB of Embedded Ram is going to help but it's not going to be like having 8GB of 170GB/s Ram.

^ this is why I think the PS4 will sell pretty well.

 

[Idontcare]

Nintendo assumed that the people who made their Wii successfull in the first place (families with kids) were going to be easily persuaded into getting on the same "upgrade and replace for basically no good reason" kick that the young single male demographic does for the rest of the gaming market.

I have a 9yo and a 6yo, and my Wii is 2yo, you know when I'll be replacing my Wii? When it dies or when Netflix is no longer viewable with it.

The next gaming console I buy will be because my kids have grown past the goofy silly games that Wii enabled, and in that case I ain't buying my kids yet-another-goofy gaming console. It will be a "big kids" gaming console, like a PS4 (or 5 by then).

But Nintendo thought their one-hit-wonder was going to be something they could milk on a 2-4 yr cycle, problem is kids aren't a 2-4 yr cycle. It is more like a 10yr cycle.

If Nintendo wants to play that demographic then they better well learn from Disney. You re-release your classic movies once every ten years because that is the lifespan for that demographic. My 9yo will still watch Finding Nemo the same as she did when she was 2yo.

Wii U is a failure because they released it too soon, the market they serve is already saturated with Wii's and another generation of families with kids won't be ready for another 4-5 yrs yet.

 

[SlitheryDee]

That's pretty sad. I spent a week playing with my sibling's Wii U and enjoyed it quite a bit. The new mario bros game is a blast with the new controller. Still, it wasn't enough to prompt me to buy one. If I get anything it will probably be the PS4.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Xbox and PS sales are also disasterous. Its only the games that actually sells.

Fits the overall economic trend.

 

[Ibra]

No no no. Wii U has AMD hardware, it can't sell so bad. It's Big Three.

 

[Arkadrel]

Xbox and PS sales are also disasterous. Its only the games that actually sells.

That normally happends when new products are around the corner.

Why buy something thats ancient, and about to be replaced?
When you can wait abit and either buy a used model for cheap (from ppl upgradeing),
or get a new better product.

No no no. Wii U has AMD hardware, it can't sell so bad. It's Big Three.

Sly remark. You honestly think its AMDs fault the nintendo isnt selling?

 

[SPBHM]

That's pretty sad. I spent a week playing with my sibling's Wii U and enjoyed it quite a bit. The new mario bros game is a blast with the new controller. Still, it wasn't enough to prompt me to buy one. If I get anything it will probably be the PS4.

but does it really offer any big advantage compared to the new super mario bros from the Wii? I don't think so.

Xbox and PS sales are also disasterous. Its only the games that actually sells.

Fits the overall economic trend.

I don't know what you are trying to imply here,
MS is outselling Nintendo by a huge margin with their 7 years old Xbox 360, it's not really comparable.

 

[American Gunner]

Who would have thought that a gimmicky machine that is barely catching up to 7 year old consoles wouldn't sell well with the real consoles coming out later this year...

 

[waggy]

Nintendo assumed that the people who made their Wii successfull in the first place (families with kids) were going to be easily persuaded into getting on the same "upgrade and replace for basically no good reason" kick that the young single male demographic does for the rest of the gaming market.

I have a 9yo and a 6yo, and my Wii is 2yo, you know when I'll be replacing my Wii? When it dies or when Netflix is no longer viewable with it.

The next gaming console I buy will be because my kids have grown past the goofy silly games that Wii enabled, and in that case I ain't buying my kids yet-another-goofy gaming console. It will be a "big kids" gaming console, like a PS4 (or 5 by then).

But Nintendo thought their one-hit-wonder was going to be something they could milk on a 2-4 yr cycle, problem is kids aren't a 2-4 yr cycle. It is more like a 10yr cycle.

If Nintendo wants to play that demographic then they better well learn from Disney. You re-release your classic movies once every ten years because that is the lifespan for that demographic. My 9yo will still watch Finding Nemo the same as she did when she was 2yo.

Wii U is a failure because they released it too soon, the market they serve is already saturated with Wii's and another generation of families with kids won't be ready for another 4-5 yrs yet.

I agree totally.

My wii got a lot of use with my 2 kids (I enjoyed the Mario galaxy series). But now my son is older and prefers the games on teh PS3 and PS2.

I don't see getting a wii U unless i get a damn good deal on it.

 

[Rvenger]

No no no. Wii U has AMD hardware, it can't sell so bad. It's Big Three.

Most people who buy it don't even know what AMD is.

 

[NTMBK]

No no no. Wii U has AMD hardware, it can't sell so bad. It's Big Three.

Wow, you just can't help yourself trolling can you.

 

[DaveSimmons]

No no no. Wii U has AMD hardware, it can't sell so bad. It's Big Three.

Silly troll, the 360, PS4 and Xbox 720 also use AMD hardware.

 

[Arkadrel]

http://www.kitguru.net/channel/event/jon-martindale/nintendo-not-holding-conference-at-e3/

Nintendo has announced that it has no plans to run a press conference this year at the E3 expo, despite it being one of the biggest public outings for gaming firms this year. This is counter to the usual trend of a Tuesday showing off of new Nintendo hardware and games.

The reasoning behind this is likely to be that ultimately, Nintendo is going to be overshadowed by its competitors Microsoft and Sony, which will be showing off the next-generation Xbox and PS4 respectively. This doesn’t say much for Nintendo’s confidence though.

- Jon Martindale

I think its clear Nintendo knows its in trouble.

 

[purbeast0]

^

lol wow that is really lame. i agree that basically looks like they are throwing in the towel already. that will look terrible for 3rd party devs too.

i mean if nintendo doesn't want to even make and show any good games to show off and push more wii-u's out there, why would a 3rd party dev want to do it?

 

[Skel]

Microsoft cedes consoles to Sony, gives up on gaming
Apr 23, 2013 by Charlie Demerjian


Why Microsoft no longer cares about gaming on the XBox
Apr 24, 2013 by Charlie Demerjian

Basically:

1) Nintendo shot itself in the foot. That weird tablet + horrible controller, and a really low spec'ed hardware design.

2) Microsoft is aiming more at makeing 1 in all solution, that's a substitue for a PC, than focusing intirely on the consol platform. All the "always on" drama.

3) Sony put out a gameing consol.


People that buy consols for the sake of gameing, will favor the PS4.
People that want a all in 1 solution will buy a new Xbox.






From S/A:

^ this is why I think the PS4 will sell pretty well.

Great FUD links.. I haven't read anything that amusing in some time.

 

[ImpulsE69]

Wondering if Nin is going to go the way of the DC and Sega. That would suck to be honest, but they did it to themselves. They released a sub par product with no actual games worth getting.

 

[Tweak155]

Dang are those accurate specs for the XBox Next? Sad if so.

 

[Dumac]

The Wii U will be fine once it gets games, honestly. This same thing happened with the 3DS and everyone was yelling that the sky was falling. Yet Nintendo put some great games in the pipe, and now look at it - it is doing great.

Wii U will follow suit.

 

[Dumac]

http://www.kitguru.net/channel/event/jon-martindale/nintendo-not-holding-conference-at-e3/
- Jon Martindale

I think its clear Nintendo knows its in trouble.

^

lol wow that is really lame. i agree that basically looks like they are throwing in the towel already. that will look terrible for 3rd party devs too.

i mean if nintendo doesn't want to even make and show any good games to show off and push more wii-u's out there, why would a 3rd party dev want to do it?

I don't think that is what it means.

Nintendo is shifting towards its own conference service - Nintendo direct. They stream press conferences telling people about updates/etc. They want to get away from the drama and expense of E3.

 

[purbeast0]

I don't think that is what it means.

Nintendo is shifting towards its own conference service - Nintendo direct. They stream press conferences telling people about updates/etc. They want to get away from the drama and expense of E3.

link to them stating that is why they aren't showing at e3?

don't buy that at all. all companies who have showings at e3 also have other private showings throughout the year. e3 is the defacto big boy gaming conference for the year. nintendo apparently makes the most money by far, so i don't buy the expense thing either.

if they were smart they would take the wii-u the route of the virtual boy and just can it and start from the drawing board again. maybe that is what is actually happening.

 

[American Gunner]

Yeah, I don't buy that this is a nothing step. Like purbeast said, this is the biggest conference of the year for gaming. Why take yourself out of it and not talk about your stuff. Especially when there were rumors that theu are going to be announcing all their big games. I think they know they are in trouble.

 

[Drako]

LOL at the SemiAccurate - Charlie Demerjian links. :biggrin:

 

[Dumac]

link to them stating that is why they aren't showing at e3?

don't buy that at all. all companies who have showings at e3 also have other private showings throughout the year. e3 is the defacto big boy gaming conference for the year. nintendo apparently makes the most money by far, so i don't buy the expense thing either.

if they were smart they would take the wii-u the route of the virtual boy and just can it and start from the drawing board again. maybe that is what is actually happening.

As you've already seen, a lot of news about Nintendo games and services that traditionally would be held until E3 is being delivered this year through Nintendo Directs, and various press events. This approach will continue between now and E3. No matter where you are in the world, you'll be fully informed. We look forward to continuing to provide you with Nintendo news and content in ways you haven't before experienced. Beyond the news that will be communicated through Nintendo Direct videos in the run up to E3, at the show itself we're hosting two smaller events on Tuesday morning before the LACC opens instead of just our traditional one event. A media event and a partner presentation will both occur that morning. While the audiences will be different between the two events, both will occur on the Tuesday morning of E3 (June 11) which is the date and time period the public has come to expect for Nintendo to deliver E3 news.

At the Nokia theater we'll meet with business partners (retailers, publishers, analysts, etc.) from the NOA territory and discuss our plans for driving the business and providing tailored information that this group finds useful to their operations. Nintendo has done these same type of business meetings at past E3 shows, but has not in the past few years. This year we are returning to that business partner meeting format. New this year at our booth in the LACC, prior to the show opening, we'll invite a small group of media to play our games. We will have a strong line-up of beloved franchise experiences available for immediate hands-on play. We are continuing to consider exciting new ways to bring the news of our games and information directly to the players at home during the E3 timeframe, and will have more to say about that at a later date.
source

Also

During the E3 period, we will utilize our direct communication tools, such as Nintendo Direct, to deliver information to our Japanese audience, including those who are at this financial briefing, mainly focusing on the software that we are going to launch in Japan, and we will take the same approach outside Japan for the overseas fans as well.
source

Comparing it to the virtual boy? Lol. The Wii U sold more than the 360 in the same period, despite the lackluster library and lack of graphical improvements. It just needs some time to gain traction. Again, just like the 3DS (which also outsold the DS in the same period).

 

[Dumac]

Yeah, I don't buy that this is a nothing step. Like purbeast said, this is the biggest conference of the year for gaming. Why take yourself out of it and not talk about your stuff. Especially when there were rumors that theu are going to be announcing all their big games. I think they know they are in trouble.

They are still going to announce big games - just using Nintendo Direct. Also, they are still going to have small shows at E3, just focusing on the western market.

If you aren't in the know, Nintendo now just announces their hits online (like the Link to the Past sequel) in a prepared video with gameplay and a pivotal speaker, avoiding all the drama and party favors of an event like E3. It is probably a lot cheaper, easier to organize, and maybe even more effect (that is hard to tell as of yet).