Topic: Official Sales Thread

[smallsharkbigbite]

I think everyone's putting too much blame on Iwata in all this, especially Ian. I seriously doubt things would be all that different if Yamauchi were still alive and ruling the company with an iron fist. I really don't think who's at the top is the issue, but the culture of the company. Merely replacing Iwata won't change that.

Maybe but we'll never know.  Yamauchi got away with alot because Nintendo was the Walmart of video game consoles when he was there so third parties were forced to grin and take it.  Those things don't fly when you are the local store as Nintendo is now. 

The N64 main failure was the cartridge design.  Clearly he had a hand in that decision, but initially third party support was better for the N64 over the PS1.  Gamecube third party support was equal to Xbox even though it was less than the PS2.  I don't think Iwata took over at a time of disadvantage, but one exists now.  You can blame that on the corporate culture which Yamauchi was a part of, but I don't think you can blame Yamauchi's interactions with third parties directly for the situation we are in. 

Mannypon - I get your point and Nintendo is still my #1 developer.  But I don't like dealing in absolutes.  Nintendo shortcuts at times like most developers.  I know Windwaker is a port, but it's a $50 port and at times the graphical camera glitches are awful.  In the same token, there are several great games out there that stress gameplay over graphics developed by non-Nintendo developers.  I'd give you that with a Nintendo game, there is a higher percent chance that it's a great game than a random developer.  But there are alot more games by other developers and I'm not ready to say there are more great games developed by Nintendo than all other developers combined.  I think that's the issue the market is dealing with.  With the Wii MK, Mario, SSB all sold over 30 million.  People love their games.  I think when people compare Nintendo only to what else is going on in the market, they have trouble buying a Nintendo only console and forgoing those other great games. 

Luigidude-  If they go third party they absolutely should support phones/tablets.  I actually think Brain Age, Nintendogs, and Animal Crossing would be great cell phone titles. 

I guess I've become at a peace regarding Nintendo development.  What I mean is, If they can't make money making the games I enjoy then they shouldn't make them.  If I'm a niche gamer and there isn't enough market to support me then don't.  I love video games, but I realize the world doesn't revolve around me and I have less and less time to play games anyway.  I hate reality TV, but that is 80% of TV anymore so lots of people must like it. 

I lost one of my favorite games on PC Nascar Racing 2003 by Papyrus.  Most of you don't like sim racing, it's really niche.  They used to release an annual update.  Like most games the price dropped quickly and I picked up the last version for $16.99 off of Amazon.com.  The new version is Iracing.  It changed to a subscription model at $99/year.  Now cars and tracks cost money and they keep adding those and it's online racing only.  It's a niche product and they priced it at a level where they could make money off it.  I don't fault them but I haven't played it.  I'm not willing to support the game at that price level (it helps that I live in the country and have awful internet). 

My long point is niche games either don't serve a business purpose or they need to squeeze more $ out of those that actually use the service.  I'm not ready for $99/year Mario and I'm not willing to whine to those that don't like the games I do that they should.  So If Nintendo is out of date so be it.  There have been tens of thousands of games released over the years.  I'm sure there are lots of gems I haven't played.  And if there's not I'll survive. 

[regin]

The N64 main failure was the cartridge design.  Clearly he had a hand in that decision, but initially third party support was better for the N64 over the PS1.  Gamecube third party support was equal to Xbox even though it was less than the PS2.  I don't think Iwata took over at a time of disadvantage, but one exists now.  You can blame that on the corporate culture which Yamauchi was a part of, but I don't think you can blame Yamauchi's interactions with third parties directly for the situation we are in. 

The PS1 already had more than 300 titles in its library when the N64 finally hit the market in June 1996. The N64 never hit 300 games in any region during the entire life of the console.

[Ian Sane]

I don't think things would necessarily be better if Yamauchi was still in charge.  The guy was old and the industry had passed him by.  It was time for new leadership.  But I just don't think Iwata was the right guy for the job.  The Wii and Wii U are a much different approach to consoles than their predecessors and in a nutshell that approach turned off the core gamer demographic for a quick buck from a flash-in-the-pan casual market with no loyalty that moved on to the next big thing.  To me it comes across that Iwata's approach to consoles is to offer a weak product and target an ignorant audience that doesn't know better.  Under Iwata I feel that Nintendo went from a pretty damn innovative company that lead the way in modern game design to a ridiculously conservative one that has no interest in moving forward and actually wants to move back.

Even Nintendo's infamous overly conservative online "policy" for the Gamecube wasn't revealed until after Iwata had been in charge for about a year.  But under Yamauchi the Gamecube had launched with the hardware support for online capabilities and Nintendo had ironically offered cutting edge online services in past like the Satellaview and Randnet.  But under Iwata going online, something Nintendo had ALREADY DONE,  something their console could already do, something that the rest of the industry was doing, something that was damn well expected by consumers in 2003, was suddenly deemed too risky.  The guy is a luddite WUSS who commits to a five year plan based on how things will be for the next five months.  If he was in charge of the NES it would have been a damn Atari 2600 clone incapable of running Super Mario Bros.

[Khushrenada]

The Wii and Wii U are a much different approach to consoles than their predecessors and in a nutshell that approach turned off the core gamer demographic for a quick buck from a flash-in-the-pan casual market with no loyalty that moved on to the next big thing.  To me it comes across that Iwata's approach to consoles is to offer a weak product and target an ignorant audience that doesn't know better.

I know that you dislike the Wii and Wii U direction since you post about not liking it at every opportunity but I don't really fault Nintendo for their apporach in the early years of the Wii.

They looked at the market, realized the consumer base was staying pretty close to the same size as it had been for awhile and that this market was buying less and less of their products. They could keep fighting for this market like Microsoft and Sony but look at what those consoles cost when coming onto the scene. Plus, Nintendo doesn't offer a whole lot of secondary functunality like HD-DVD or Blu-ray. So, staying equal in processing power may not have been enough to lead them to a resurgance as consumer may still chose to buy one of those other consoles since they would have to pay a lot of money for a console and thus it would be a bit easier to justify it as it could be used to play such movies as well. Maybe they get some more and better 3rd party ports but I'm not sure it changes their fortunes like Wii originally did.

Frankly, Nintendo is right to try and get more people into gaming. The more people you can sell a product to then the more money you will make. Thus, it makes sense to attempt to try and find ways to do this. You can argue that that maybe if they tried to give an equal and very comparable console as the other two, we'd finally get a real test of whether there is still support for Nintendo consoles in the traditional market but going by the situation at the end of Gamecube, it seemed hard to believe their market share would increase by doing that.

The Wii definitely did bring in new users and gamers. I was surprised at some of the people I knew who bought them. How many 40-50 year olds who have never bought a game console before do you expect to see buy and play an XBox One or PS4? But plenty bought a Wii. It is usually more costly to acquire a new costumer in business than keep an existing one. Yet, Nintendo pulled it off for awhile. Thanks to the cost and the uniqueness of the product, they even won back a lot of the traditional market as well.

However, the biggest challenge and they acknowledged this as well, was now getting this new consumer to move from Wii Sports to something like New Super Mario Bros. Wii or Mario Kart Wii. To go from casual gaming to regular gaming. They were clearly far less successful on that endeavor because of the sudden rise of smartphones and gaming on that. With the small casual timewaster games on phones, people didn't need to buy a $50 game to play more. They could spend a buck and play this fun little game that didn't need much effort or time like Wii Sports. Thus, smartphone gaming stunted the market.

I'd compare it to people who won't watch black and white movies or epics. Sure, these people may still like movies but they won't become real movie lovers if they aren't willing to broaden their tastes. Likewise, the casual market may say they play videogames or like them but they've never broadened their outlook to the greater and better products that can be found on the market because phone gaming kept them from seeing the need to spend 10-25 hours on a traditional game.

You can say that Iwata's goal/leadership is to turn off core gamers and take mony from ignorant gamers yet that still isn't a recipe for success. If core gamers were turned off by motion controls, how would that be any guarentee that non-gamers would be turned on by it? The truth is that it was designed to appeal to everyone and for a time, it did. However, the promise and potential and excitement of this new control ability was never executed as well as it could have been. How many times did people lament the fact that shooters rarely showed up on the Wii despite the motion control scheme showing itself to be an equal if not better scheme than current control stick patterns?

Although there were other factors to lead to the problems Nintendo now faces, the biggest challenge they knew and couldn't overcome was educating new players to try deeper experiences and get them hooked for future deep experiences and also changing the way the core gamer's habits of play with the new control ideas and potential.

What we are seeing right now is Nintendo trying to adapt to the way people currently play and appeal to that and failing. People play touchscreen games on the DS or their phones and tablets? We've put touchscreen controls into our console. People like dual stick action? They've finally given a more tradional dual stick control (compared to the GC's dualsticks) as well as the pro controller. HD gaming? Online gaming? That's here now but still not done as well as the competitor's are for most people. You like motion control? We've still got it.

They are trying to appeal to everyone but they've ended up appealing to no one at the moment.

[Khushrenada]

Wooo! Massive block of text! It's been awhile.

Khushrenada is back! Boo-yah.

[Ian Sane]

They looked at the market, realized the consumer base was staying pretty close to the same size as it had been for awhile and that this market was buying less and less of their products.

The market was buying less of Nintendo's products because Nintendo had their heads up their asses and were routinely screwing up simple stuff.  The solution was to get their act together.  I think it demonstrates Nintendo's stubborn and arrogant nature when their reaction to the Gamecube wasn't "****, we got a do a better job next time" but rather "well people are being big bullies and won't buy our product so we better target a new audience".  I see it as them avoiding admitting their mistakes by finding a new audience that wouldn't be so hip to videogames to notice Nintendo's warts.  Trying to get the core market back involved effort and self-improvement and that's hard so **** that, these rubes will buy a last gen console if we distract them with a gimmick and this half-baked mini-game compilation takes off.  And I think Nintendo really learned the wrong lesson from that and figured the Wii U could do the same thing.  "Hey, we can just release last gen hardware, copy the gimmick from the DS, throw on some NSMB and the suckers will just eat it up!"  And they didn't because they never had any loyalty and can get their videogame fix on their phone.  So all that's left is the "real" videogame market that wasn't too impressed with the Gamecube and noticed all the typical Nintendo problems get amplified on the Wii and is absolutely not going to buy a product that just looks like another Wii, particularly when Nintendo hasn't even addressed issues from the N64 let alone the two other consoles that have come and gone since then.

They dodged the problem on the Wii but now they're stuck and the "apology console" that the Gamecube needed to be is long overdue.

[Khushrenada]

Ah but that still doesn't answer the trickest question of all, will that bring the market into Nintendo's control or turn things around for them?

Let's say Nintendo released a console exactly the same as the PS4 except that it has Miiverse integration and free online play for Nintendo games at least. Everything else, like online structure and extra functionality or apps are the same. Does this mean that Grand Theft Auto will suddenly be made for this system along with the other two? Or any other big third party game? If they are almost identical, it should mean that would happen as it wshouldn't require much work to port it over. But what guarentee is there it would happen? And if such a game does get ported over, will it sell more than the version available on Xbox1 or PS4? Why would someone buy it on a Nintendo console instead of one of the other consoles?

If the consoles are the same, will Nintendo automatically get more marketshare against its competitors because of its first party lineup? Is that really the trump card? Because the way everyone moans about another Mario game or tired Zelda formula or Nintendo relying so much on their franchises would indicate that the core gamer audience wouldn't consider that a factor? So, what then? The console market just splits into an equal three ways? People just buy on brand name? There has to be a bit more to differentiate itself from the others.

What if flops also? Nintendo puts out a console exactly like the others as described and it flops. What then? It sounds like a good idea if you are a Nintendo loyalist or only want to buy one console because then it seems like you'll finally get all that 3rd party software you miss out on now since it would be so easy to bring over but that could still end up not happening.

Moreover, how does it grow the market? Maybe in 80 years when everyone has grown up with videogames around them, there is a much wider audience. But how many of us find ourselves playing less and less? How many people become lapsed gamers and stop playing in their 20's even? So many people are getting tired of seeing one shooter game after another because they start to look so similar and generic. If all three consoles are practically the same, how does that help the industry?

Maybe the Wii U doesn't do well this round of consoles. At least Nintendo is willing to try and experiment. But how is ""Hey, we can just release last gen hardware, copy the gimmick from the DS, throw on some NSMB and the suckers will just eat it up!" the lesson Nintendo learned and not "Hey, people are looking for new gaming experiences and there's a huge interest in gaming beyond just the core audience of people regularly playing now who are also interested in this experience as demonstrated by our sales and demand and the media so let's keep looking for ways to appeal to this demand!"?

[Ian Sane]

I would assume that if Nintendo had equal footing with the other guys they would get more support simply by being another option.  Third parties want to make multiplatform games.  At first Nintendo would probably have to be pro-active in attracting this support.  But is making it technologically IMPOSSIBLE to do ports helping third party support?  Obviously not.  So let's just assure **** support because MAYBE if we do something that could work it MIGHT fail?  That's total defeatist thinking.

Maybe the Wii U doesn't do well this round of consoles. At least Nintendo is willing to try and experiment. But how is ""Hey, we can just release last gen hardware, copy the gimmick from the DS, throw on some NSMB and the suckers will just eat it up!" the lesson Nintendo learned and not "Hey, people are looking for new gaming experiences and there's a huge interest in gaming beyond just the core audience of people regularly playing now who are also interested in this experience as demonstrated by our sales and demand and the media so let's keep looking for ways to appeal to this demand!"?

You have a much more flattering view of Nintendo than I do.  I see the Wii and Wii U as intentionally half-baked products that tried to scam consumers who didn't know better.  That's what Nintendo learned: we don't have to try.  SMB with waggle controls ain't a new experience.  It's a damn old experience with shitty gimmick controls that create the illusion of newness.  For all the talk from Nintendo about the innovations of the Wii, last gen was the most cliché cookie-cutter generation out of Nintendo yet.  And the Wii U?  What the hell new ideas has the Gamepad created?  So we get a bunch of sidescrolling platformers and party games?  "New game experiences" is Nintendo's buzzword for gimmick controllers.  It's just marketing bullshit.  Go by what Nintendo actually makes, not what they say.

The approach of the gaming industry have a couple competitors who offer very similar experiences but with exclusives defining their console has gone on for decades.  Damn near every game worth a **** was developed in this environment including most of Nintendo's best work.  Gimmicks don't accomplish ****.  Gaming moves forward in the games that are made.  The ideal console merely offers devs the luxury to make whatever game they wish.  Nintendo's approach is to stick to old clichés and dress them up with superfluous gimmicks which is bad for gaming.  Gaming deserves real innovation.  Not that Sony or MS are great at offering it but Nintendo is absolutely NOT offering it.

If anything I think a Nintendo that cannot use gimmicks as a crutch and has to come up with truly innovative concepts will have a better impact on gaming.  In the past I wanted them to succeed because I wanted the industry to be influenced by their commitment to innovation and quality.

[Khushrenada]

I would assume that if Nintendo had equal footing with the other guys they would get more support simply by being another option.  Third parties want to make multiplatform games.  At first Nintendo would probably have to be pro-active in attracting this support.  But is making it technologically IMPOSSIBLE to do ports helping third party support?  Obviously not.  So let's just assure **** support because MAYBE if we do something that could work it MIGHT fail?  That's total defeatist thinking.

I hope they would want to make multiplatform games to be in 100% of the console market but with some of the statements and actions of those in some 3rd party companies, I can't help but wonder if they still might resist doing this. Plus, if Nintendo does give incentives, will they suddenly stop if Nintendo stops giving them? Depends what Sony and Microsoft do or how large of the market Nintendo holds at such a point in time. I don't see Nintendo being interested in having to give incentives after a short period of time.

Then there is the factor that most Nintendo games are better than most third party games. It is often cited as another reason why third party games don't come over to Nintendo consoles. That people who buy Nintendo consoles only buy Nintendo games. It's an excuse for their half baked games and/or their attitude and their treatment of the fanbase which causes them to disdain their efforts when they do put something on a console.

Thus, even with equal footing to port a multiplatform game, that game has to be of a quality and appeal that it will sell well enough versus Nintendo software. Most companies can not compete against that. Nintendo software is a double edged sword. Thus, either Nintendo fans buy enough of this software that it is worth it for 3rd parties to bring it over or Nintendo has such a large market share that those who might have owned a PS whatever or Xbox whatever and normally buy it on that would now have the Nintendo console and buy it on that.

What happens if you have Batman: Arkham 4 release and Nintendo releases Mario 64 2 in the same week? Batman may still sell well but how much better might it have sold in the Mario games was sold 3 or 4 weeks later? Does Nintendo have to start evaluating which third party support they want to succeed and start arranging their release schedule around such third party games to avoid conflict? Because Nintendo won't do that. If third party games sell on their console, then great. The console might get supported more. But they don't make their money from those games selling well on their console. They make it through selling their own software and thus they'll want to release it when they think it most profitable. Third parties are not going to arrange their release dates based on when Nintendo's games come out. They'll do it according to their timetable and when other third parties are releasing their games. How do you solve that issue? Batman doesn't sell as well because of the competition from Mario on the Nintendo platform? Guess we'll stick with Sony and Microsoft where it sold much better against Generic Shooter 1 and Generic Shooter 2.

I'm not saying that Nintendo shouldn't try to make their console with specs similar enough to encourage more ports. But I'm not naive enough to think that is the only issue to solving their third party problem. If this results in Nintendo making some really brilliant games without the use of a gimmick crutch as you say, how will that help third party offerings competing against those brilliant games?

On the subject of "gimmicks", that is what the DS was considered at first but it actually did innovate. Touchscreen gaming has become huge in handheld gaming with the Vita having it along with phones and tablet gaming using it. It brought about a lot of new ideas and helped enhance gaming in a lot of ways. I've praised the DS as the best system last generation so I won't get into again. However, it did not allow for easy ports between it and the PSP. Yet, 3rd parties rose up and made unique exclusive games for the system and took advantage of its capabilities and their efforts were just as good and sometimes a bit better than Nintendo's offerings.

The DS is the cause of your discontent. It showed Nintendo that it could beat a technolgically superior competitor, that putting in new gameplay controls seemed to appeal to people and that 3rd parties would develop new software based on it. It even allowed them to appeal to the casual market with Brain Age or Crosswords will still appealing to the core audience as well. The Wii was them copying that model and it succeeded for about 4 years although it lacked 3rd party support and the balance of casual and core didn't seem to be as deftly handled. What's interesting is that the 3DS didn't try to change much between it and its predecessor. It just expanded on some of the ideas found during the DS's reign with 3D and more horsepower and online capabilities being the main new differences. The Wii U is copying that by basically being the Wii but with more horsepower, better online capabilities and a touchscreen controller as the main differences. The 3DS struggled then turned it around. The Wii U has just struggled.

Again, there's some other factors but this post is long enough and my point was just that different specs neither dissuades 3rd party support like the DS or encourages it like the Wii U.

[Ian Sane]

I've been sceptical of this "Nintendo fans only buy first party games" idea but thinking about it, rational people that want third party games would have long given up on Nintendo consoles leaving a fanbase that would consist mostly of Nintendo-only gamers.  This situation has been this way long enough that many fans would have grown up knowing nothing but.

Well it would consist of people like that and naïve idiots like me that hoped they would have turned things around by now but I (slowly) caught on.  The Wii U's hardware, due to its similarity to the Wii, gave the message that Nintendo was not going to even try to attract worthwhile third party support.  Either they're not trying or they're really clueless as to what sort of major hurdles they put in place with the Wii's design.  Either way it means jack squat for third party support and that is probably the biggest reason I have not bothered getting a Wii U.  We can talk about whether or not going with equivalent hardware would end up making a difference but it was clear that doing the same thing as before would not improve things at all and that's not a good message to send to customers.

The Wii U's design being so similar to the Wii means that the Wii's issues are not being addressed so anyone who was turned off by those issues was never going to consider buying a Wii U.  Realistically this is the same thing that sunk the Gamecube.  Anyone who had an issue with the N64 and had a negative bias towards Nintendo as a result had all of those biases confirmed within the first year.  I do not want another Wii and the Wii U's first year has done nothing but confirm to me that it is just another Wii.  Perhaps Nintendo's biggest failure here was assuming that the market wanted another Wii.

[rlse9]

I've been sceptical of this "Nintendo fans only buy first party games" idea but thinking about it, rational people that want third party games would have long given up on Nintendo consoles leaving a fanbase that would consist mostly of Nintendo-only gamers.

I still don't buy that argument.  I'd consider myself a casual gamer (if I spent more than 5 or so hours a week on gaming, it's unusual) yet I still bought 35 3rd party games for the Wii.

If Nintendo ever released a console that was on par with the competition in every way, I don't see how it couldn't be a success.  As long as it was easy enough to port to, it'd get plenty of 3rd party games; just look at how many 360/PS3 games got ported to WiiU early in its life.  And it'd have the advantage of having Nintendo games, Sony and Microsoft can't match 3D Mario games and Zelda games with their exclusive offerings unless they throw tons of money at developers.  But Nintendo never has done that.  Maybe I'm wrong but I just don't see how it would fail.

Anyway, with a WiiU under the Christmas tree, I hope things improve.  While I wasn't a fan of the idea of the WiiU when it first released, the price drop and idea of off-TV play sold me; plus I'm not spending $400-$500 on a console that doesn't even have a game packed in so PS4/XBone were out of the question.

I'm going to be optimistic and say that December is going to be a good sales month for Nintendo.  There's been so many good sales over the past couple weeks that are drawing people in (like the Skylanders bundle for $219, the original bundle and Zelda bundle being on clearance at some stores, gift cards galore with purchase), it's gotta at least help some.

[Enner]

Japan numbers!

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=736138

Top-seller: PazuDora Z: Puzzle & Dragons Z  - 543.630 / NEW

Nintendo 3DS/3DS XL sales:     181.556 /  14.227.617

PlayStation Vita/Vita TV sales:  35.946 /  2.212.624

Wii U sales: 74.903 /   1.343.139

Media Create Sales: Week 50, 2013 (Dec 09 - Dec 15)

01./00. [3DS] PazuDora Z: Puzzle & Dragons Z <RPG> (GungHo Online Entertainment) {2013.12.12} (Â¥4.400) - 543.630 / NEW
02./03. [3DS] Pokemon X / Y # <RPG> (Pokemon Co.) {2013.10.12} (Â¥4.800) - 159.244 / 3.360.163 (+42%)
03./07. [WIU] Super Mario 3D World <ACT> (Nintendo) {2013.11.21} (Â¥5.985) - 57.862 / 241.107 (+32%)
04./00. [PS3] Nobunaga's Ambition: Creativity # <SLG> (Koei Tecmo) {2013.12.12} (Â¥9.240) - 54.590 / NEW
05./04. [3DS] Attack on Titan: The Last Wings of Mankind <ACT> (Spike Chunsoft) {2013.12.05} (Â¥6.090) - 42.311 / 135.782 (-55%)
06./00. [PS3] Call of Duty: Ghosts - Dubbed Edition <ACT> (Square Enix) {2013.12.12} (Â¥7.980) - 37.519 / NEW
07./01. [PS3] Gran Turismo 6 # <RCE> (Sony Computer Entertainment) {2013.12.05} (Â¥6.980) - 37.306 / 242.090 (-82%)
08./05. [3DS] Inazuma Eleven Go Galaxy: Big Bang / Supernova <RPG> (Level 5) {2013.12.05} (Â¥5.500) - 30.517 / 122.160 (-67%)
09./11. [3DS] Monster Hunter 4 # <ACT> (Capcom) {2013.09.14} (Â¥5.990) - 27.921 / 3.030.279 (+36%)
10./16. [3DS] Animal Crossing: New Leaf # <ETC> (Nintendo) {2012.11.08} (Â¥4.800) - 26.409 / 3.522.987 (+76%)
11./17. [3DS] Friend Collection: New Life # <ETC> (Nintendo) {2013.04.18} (Â¥4.800) - 22.189 / 1.545.717 (+73%)
12./18. [3DS] Aikatsu! 2-nin no My Princess <SLG> (Bandai Namco Games) {2013.11.21} (Â¥5.480) - 18.415 / 117.675 (+45%)
13./15. [3DS] One Piece: Unlimited World Red # <ADV> (Bandai Namco Games) {2013.11.21} (Â¥5.980) - 17.906 / 141.280 (+18%)
14./24. [3DS] Disney Magic Castle: My Happy Life # <ETC> (Bandai Namco Games) {2013.08.01} (Â¥5.480) - 17.628 / 350.022
15./27. [3DS] New Super Mario Bros. 2 # <ACT> (Nintendo) {2012.07.28} (Â¥4.800) - 15.128 / 2.158.254
16./14. [PS3] World Soccer Winning Eleven 2014 <SPT> (Konami) {2013.11.14} (Â¥7.980) - 15.058 / 243.425 (-3%)
17./29. [3DS] Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon <ACT> (Nintendo) {2013.03.20} (Â¥4.800) - 15.051 / 958.510
18./10. [PS3] Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII <RPG> (Square Enix) {2013.11.21} (Â¥7.770) - 14.837 / 373.592 (-31%)
19./12. [3DS] Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai 2 # <ACT> (Sega) {2013.11.28} (Â¥6.279) - 14.566 / 121.499 (-20%)
20./25. [WIU] Taiko no Tatsujin: Wii U Version! # <ACT> (Bandai Namco Games) {2013.11.21} (Â¥5.480) - 13.980 / 51.436

Top 20

3DS - 13
PS3 - 5
WIU - 2

HARDWARE
Code:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|System | This Week  | Last Week  | Last Year  |     YTD    |  Last YTD  |     LTD     |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 3DS # |    181.556 |    125.269 |    319.025 |  4.447.737 |  4.836.260 |  14.227.617 |
|  WIU  |     74.903 |     48.762 |    126.916 |    715.852 |    435.058 |   1.343.139 |
| PSV # |     35.946 |     29.366 |     14.446 |  1.081.799 |    649.081 |   2.212.624 |
|  PS3  |     23.959 |     24.085 |     42.976 |    794.696 |  1.122.851 |   9.654.780 |
| PSP # |      6.475 |      4.416 |     33.002 |    419.183 |    791.854 |  20.048.194 |
|  WII  |      1.197 |        767 |     10.346 |     68.656 |    455.825 |  12.707.492 |
|  360  |        536 |        473 |      1.760 |     24.103 |     74.114 |   1.637.937 |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|  ALL  |    324.572 |    233.138 |    550.114 |  7.552.026 |  8.488.674 |  61.831.783 |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| PSVTV |      5.506 |      3.772 |            |     64.709 |            |      64.709 |
|  PSV  |     30.440 |     25.594 |     14.446 |  1.017.090 |    649.081 |   2.147.915 |
| 3DSLL |    130.710 |     92.375 |    206.973 |  3.031.570 |  1.687.841 |   5.121.941 |
|  3DS  |     50.846 |     32.894 |    112.052 |  1.416.167 |  3.148.419 |   9.105.676 |
|  PSP  |      6.475 |      4.416 |     33.002 |    419.183 |    791.854 |  19.872.207 |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Puzzle & Dragon Z debuts at number 1 with a whopping 543.6k units sold. Pokemon X/Y comes in at second and Super Mario 3D World sticks around at third.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Will the Wii U be able to make it to 1 million units sold this year!?
How about .9 million units!?

better tune in 2 weeks to find out.

Place your bets people.

[Shaymin]

There's an outside shot at 900k, but I just can't see it hitting a million in this year of Luigi.

Now, can it pass the PS3 before the end of the year?

[Adrock]

I don't see them hitting one million either. Nintendo finally got the ball rolling a little late, but at least they have some momentum going into the new year.

I see the Wii and Wii U as intentionally half-baked products that tried to scam consumers who didn't know better.

Well, what you see is patently false.

1. Devoting millions of dollars and countless hours to research and development on a product is the exact opposite of "intentionally half-baked."
2. The people you are erroneously claiming Nintendo tried scamming had already rejected traditional video games and everything that may be associated with it such as high spec machines designed to play said games. Didn't know better? Nope. More like "didn't give a **** about gaming to begin with."

Look, it's one thing to dislike Nintendo's products for whatever reasons you have. It's another to flat-out make things up to grouse about it. Please kindly stop with this nonsense in like every thread.

[BlackNMild2k1]

I don't know if this is what Ian Sane meant, but when I think half baked, I think something that had potential but was intentionally released well short of realizing the original concept. Something that would have needed more time and/or money that they probably didn't have.

Vs half assed, which would be just thrown together with complete disregard for quality in hopes just have product the shelf that looks appealing.

Wiimote w/o motion plus = half baked
EA's efforts on Nintendo consoles = half assed

[Ceric]

Sort of ironic looking at those numbers that the 3DS has at minimum 2 games that have sold more copies then their are Vitas and WiiUs.

[Adrock]

I don't know if this is what Ian Sane meant, but when I think half baked, I think something that had potential but was intentionally released well short of realizing the original concept. Something that would have needed more time and/or money that they probably didn't have.

Vs half assed, which would be just thrown together with complete disregard for quality in hopes just have product the shelf that looks appealing.

Wiimote w/o motion plus = half baked
EA's efforts on Nintendo consoles = half assed

I can see that more with Wii U than Wii. Nintendo entered last generation much better prepared with concepts and titles to push motion controls. I suppose not pulling the trigger on Remote Plus from the get-go could be seen as lost potential. Wii U was admittedly rushed and incomplete at launch. Nintendo needed a Wii Sports-like software that effectively demonstrates the merits of the technology and they don't have it yet. They have ideas, but they shouldn't launch a console without those ideas in full effect. Nintendo may have come unprepared for this battle, but I don't see where trying to scam people comes in.

[BranDonk Kong]

You know what they should have done? Made the Wii U GamePad 3D like the 3DS. Add another camera to the front and back, and change the LCD. That should literally be all that it would have taken. The console can already do 3Don your TV (don't think any games support it yet), I guarantee it would be selling a lot better - even if 3DTV isn't taking off so well, you could still get a LOT more functionality out of the GamePad.

[alegoicoe]

http://gonintendo.com/?mode=viewstory&id=219214


For those who compare the WiiU with the PS3

[Adrock]

PS3 was also $600 and had better third party support. It's an interesting comparison, just kind of skewed.

[Ceric]

http://gonintendo.com/?mode=viewstory&id=219214


For those who compare the WiiU with the PS3

PS3 was also $600 and had better third party support. It's an interesting comparison, just kind of skewed.

I think its a valid comparison even with those items.  People think the WiiU is over priced and people thought the PS3 was over priced.  Sony had an up hill battle so, does Nintendo.  PS3 has turned it around so well that people look at the start with Rose Tinted Glasses.  It was very much in the same position as the Wii U at the start.

[BlackNMild2k1]

http://gonintendo.com/?mode=viewstory&id=219214


For those who compare the WiiU with the PS3

PS3 was also $600 and had better third party support. It's an interesting comparison, just kind of skewed.

I think its a valid comparison even with those items.  People think the WiiU is over priced and people thought the PS3 was over priced.  Sony had an up hill battle so, does Nintendo.  PS3 has turned it around so well that people look at the start with Rose Tinted Glasses.  It was very much in the same position as the Wii U at the start.

But 2 years down the line, we are likely to not have any 3rd party support, where as 3rd parties supported Sony systems regardless of the low sales. They wrote it off as "hard times", where Nintendo gets the "wait and see" approach, which right now just means "wait and wait some more" approach, so all we can do is "keeps waiting...".

Nintendo can lower prices and then what? Release more Mario games and then what?
They could sell 10 million consoles next week, and at best that will turn into a few extra high profile games.... 1-2 years from now?

I don't know, maybe a few of the right games from all parties involved, mixed with the right price and stellar marketing can make a difference, but Nintendo's battle is being fought in the opposite direction of Sony's. Sony's problem was Price not Support. Nintendo's problem is Support not Price.
Sony fixed their problem by sliding down the price, Nintendo has to fix their problem by sliding up the support. Not sure how to fix that this late in the game.

[Ceric]

http://gonintendo.com/?mode=viewstory&id=219214


For those who compare the WiiU with the PS3

PS3 was also $600 and had better third party support. It's an interesting comparison, just kind of skewed.

I think its a valid comparison even with those items.  People think the WiiU is over priced and people thought the PS3 was over priced.  Sony had an up hill battle so, does Nintendo.  PS3 has turned it around so well that people look at the start with Rose Tinted Glasses.  It was very much in the same position as the Wii U at the start.

But 2 years down the line, we are likely to not have any 3rd party support, where as 3rd parties supported Sony systems regardless of the low sales. They wrote it off as "hard times", where Nintendo gets the "wait and see" approach, which right now just means "wait and wait some more" approach, so all we can do is "keeps waiting...".

Nintendo can lower prices and then what? Release more Mario games and then what?
They could sell 10 million consoles next week, and at best that will turn into a few extra high profile games.... 1-2 years from now?

I don't know, maybe a few of the right games from all parties involved, mixed with the right price and stellar marketing can make a difference, but Nintendo's battle is being fought in the opposite direction of Sony's. Sony's problem was Price not Support. Nintendo's problem is Support not Price.
Sony fixed their problem by sliding down the price, Nintendo has to fix their problem by sliding up the support. Not sure how to fix that this late in the game.

Sony Problem was more than just Price.  It was also being a "Me-Too" System with the 360 and the Large Shadow of the PS2.

Out of all the consoles we have to compare to PS3 is still the best fit for a comparison.  Vita would be a goodish one if it wasn't for Handhelds.  In fact it has a fan base that enjoys whats on the system, has some interesting control choices combined with traditional controls, has been terribly marketed, Recieved a Price drop, is Backward Compatible, etc.  Their is a lot to compare between the two systems.

[Luigi Dude]

Well the Wii U does have a much stronger 2104 lineup then they had for 2013.  Mario Kart and Smash Bros are both bigger then any of the titles they released in 2013.  Donkey Kong will be much bigger then Pikmin 3 and Hyrule Warriors will be bigger then Wind Waker HD.  Even something niche like Bayonetta 2 will do better then The Wonderful 101, even if it's numbers won't be good either.  Plus since we're talking about Japan here, if marketed right X could have some decent success as well with the RPG fans over there as well.


So even though Nintendo still lacks third party support, at least there own support is going to be better in 2014 then this last year.  Now how much they improve sales is going to be another story and what will be what we have to look forward to in the new year.