Topic: Official Sales Thread

[Nile Boogie Returns]

Gosh, Nintendo really did a terrible job with the Wii U. I love this console to death, I just hate that I can't see a future post-2006 for this thing.

Are you a Timelord? Also in what regard to you mean terrible? Cause from a software standpoint, it's been above ps4/xb1 since they launched and nothing on the horizon appears to be changing that. As long as their marketshare does't drop below 25% for an extended period of time (6months), I thinks Wii u will get solid support and they may even get some other publishers to come back. Its hard to ignore a platform,( albeit weak )with nearly 10 miilion users.

[marvel_moviefan_2012]

Gosh, Nintendo really did a terrible job with the Wii U. I love this console to death, I just hate that I can't see a future post-2006 for this thing.

Are you a Timelord? Also in what regard to you mean terrible? Cause from a software standpoint, it's been above ps4/xb1 since they launched and nothing on the horizon appears to be changing that. As long as their marketshare does't drop below 25% for an extended period of time (6months), I thinks Wii u will get solid support and they may even get some other publishers to come back. Its hard to ignore a platform,( albeit weak )with nearly 10 miilion users.

Sure it is, it depends on how long it takes to get those 10 million users compared to the competition as well as the return on investment. TG16 sold 10 million units in five years and had less than 100 games released for it. Dreamcast sold close to that in 3 years and never got more than token support even when it was a hot item.

There is so much more to the decisions than "user base" just look at Wii as an example. Third parties are not coming back they didn't come back one Game Cube after jumping ship and that thing was selling far better than Wii U.

[Nile Boogie Returns]

My numbers might be off but whats the WW difference between Wii U and Xboxone? 1.5m maybe 2m if it's even that big.

[Soren]

I'm glad Captain Toad is doing so well. Also Tropical Freeze at 440k, Hyrule Warriors at 370k and Bayonetta at 135k. Sonic somehow convinced 68k people to buy it.

[Nile Boogie Returns]

Soren are the US numbers only?

[Soren]

They appear to be, yes.

[Nile Boogie Returns]

So Hyrule Warriors is close to 600k WW, not bad indeed.

[Louieturkey]

So Hyrule Warriors is close to 600k WW, not bad indeed.

Does that include Europe?

[Shaymin]

That's US + Japan. Looks like based on that, Tropical Freeze is at least over 500k worldwide, which should earn Retro the right to finish the fight.

[BranDonk Kong]

My numbers might be off but whats the WW difference between Wii U and Xboxone? 1.5m maybe 2m if it's even that big.

Xbone is ahead of Wii U by 2 million, that includes Japan which does not exist for Xbone, and of course remembering that it came out one year after the Wii U. It's easy to argue that Xbone would be at about triple Wii U sales if it came out at the same time, and PS4 would be at quadruple (it has already doubled Wii U's LTD (over 18 million), again, with a year less of sales).

[marvel_moviefan_2012]

PS4 has already won the sales race between the three consoles, the fight for second place has already been decided all we don't know is how long will Nintendo keep the Wii U on life support before pulling the plug.

[Luigi Dude]

That's US + Japan. Looks like based on that, Tropical Freeze is at least over 500k worldwide, which should earn Retro the right to finish the fight.

The 440k for Tropical Freeze is just physical sales in America, so with digital, it could be close to 500k in North America alone.  It sold a little over 100K in Japan, and it was on top of the charts in France and Germany when it was originally released.  So realistically Tropical Freeze should be over 700k and maybe even closer to 800k.  So yeah, it'll surpass the 1 million mark sometime this year.

[Nile Boogie Returns]

(in my best Rambo voice) "NOTHING IS OVER!"

Wii U is at 10million units  and xbox is at 12million. And while it would take and "Act of God" (Half-life 3 bundled with Shenmue and DQ11) to catch PS4, it's far too early to know how the rest of this gen shakes out. Amiibo Poke'mon MMO on wii u could easily close that gap in a few months. [/size][size=78%] [/size]

[MagicCow64]

I think it's possible at this point that the WiiU gets into the Gamecube sales ballpark, which was looking like a pretty doubtful proposition this time last year. Granted, that's not really tying, given population growth, but it'll take some of the stink off the console in retrospect. The Gamecube is fairly well-remembered at this point for its library, and even with the third-party apocalypse I think the WiiU will finish out with an equally respectable line-up.

[Evan_B]

The way I see it, Nintendo will announce an Animal Crossing title for 2016, and then phase out the console. The Wii U is just not selling and Nintendo doesn't know what to do to make this happen.

[Phil]

The important thing to do for Nintendo is to make the Wii U profitable, if they haven't already. A new console may just start a new cycle of losses for Nintendo, so it might be in the company's best interest to ride out the Wii U for as long as possible.

[Luigi Dude]

The way I see it, Nintendo will announce an Animal Crossing title for 2016, and then phase out the console. The Wii U is just not selling and Nintendo doesn't know what to do to make this happen.

You do realize the sales were higher this year then last year right?  Not only that, but Nintendo is actually profiting off the systems sold this year unlike last year were they were selling at a loss.

Seriously, the Wii U will end up with the traditional 5 year Nintendo lifespan in the end.  The whole goal for all Nintendo systems is to be profitable and right now the Wii U is actually achieving that.  Yes they would like Wii U sales to be higher, but they're not going to kill it off premature only to then rush a new system to launch because that's much riskier and can loss a lot more money in the end which Sega already proved long ago.  The Gamecube, despite selling worse then the N64 still lasted as long for the exact same reason.  Nintendo isn't Sega, and knows that achieving profit off a system is the number one goal even if that means supporting a system with a smaller userbase for a few years longer.

[Khushrenada]

Exactly. If Nintendo were to release a new console in 2016, that means they would be competing with PS4 and XBone and their 3 year lead. And even if XBone is still lagging behind and close to Wii U levels, do you think Microsoft is going to kill that system off after just 3 years to start a new generation along with Nintendo? They'll probably ride it out for 5 years also. Sony obviously isn't going to start the next generation first with the position they're currently in. If Nintendo were to launch a new system in 2016 while Sony and Microsoft wait another couple years until they launch their successors, then isn't Nintendo back in the same spot they are with Wii U with people calling it last generation or a half generation behind? It won't be "next-gen" anymore.

Unless they truly believe they aren't competing with Sony and Microsoft and can just launch whatever product they want at anytime they want, I think they will ride out the Wii U for a few more years to stay close in line with the Sony and Microsoft successors. I'd still be surprised if that means they will launch a console with hardware specs and programming very similar to what Sony and MS are doing though. But I do think they will at least try to stay close to their launches.

[Nile Boogie Returns]

It'a more about marketshare and less about sales numbers per se. Assuming the current gen sale pie is approx. 45million consoles, Wii U is at about 23% to XboxOne 26% and thats after a price drop and crazy good bundle.  Nintendo is doing exactly what I wanted them to do after their outstanding E3 last year and thats Double Down on the WiiU. "Save for the future but not at the expense of the moment. Be mindful of the living gamer."

[Evan_B]

I remain hopeful, but Nintendo is running out of ideas, honestly. They're padding the Wii U with games like Captain Toad and Rainbow Curse NOW and that doesn't leave room for full-sized games later. I'm a bit confused as to what their scheme is with the Wii U, however I will say this- I'm extremely interested for what they DO put out on the Wii U come 2016 (aside from the obligatory Animal Crossing) because we've been hearing about the same games for the past two years and those are just about ready to launch.

[Ian Sane]

Five years is not a normal console lifespan anymore.  The Wii lasted six years, the PS3 seven and the Xbox 360 eight.  If the Wii U lasts for five years then Nintendo is still releasing their next console well before the start of the next generation and needs to make an educated guess on what sort of hardware they'll be competing with.  Is there much a difference if they do that after five years or four?  The Wii U sure as hell isn't going to last seven years or whatever timeframe it will be before the other guys move to a new gen.  Nintendo either needs to release a future proof console that competes with the next gen or they release two consoles approximately within the same generation as the PS3/XB1 and move to the next gen around the same time as the other guys.  Let's assume the PS5 and XB2(?) come out in 2020.  Nintendo could release a Wii U successor in 2016 giving the Wii U a four year lifespan and then release that console's successor in 2021, giving it a five year lifespan and only being one year off of the other guys.  They don't even have to guess then.  The 2016 console merely has to be a match for the PS4 and the 2021 console has to match competing consoles that have already been released.  And Nintendo has no consoles that really got abandoned as the Wii U gets the same lifespan as the original Xbox.

[marvel_moviefan_2012]

Niles you keep forgetting that no matter what happens sales wise the Xbox One is too similar to PS4 so its going to be seen as the true competition whereas Wii U is still seen as last gen. Like it or not that is how the rest of the worlds sees it even if Nintendo and their die hard fans don't. Also Xbox One has strong third party support and has already passed Wii U sales in half the time, so no Wii U is not going to stick close to Xbox One by this time next year the big boys will be so far ahead Nintendo will have no choice but to consider moving on, like the rest of the world already has. Wii U isn't going to do GamCube numbers that is a fantasy, its taken 2 years of struggling to get here, even if it gets a five year span, year three is the peak so year for and five are downhill Wii U has to catch up to where Gamecube was in the middle of its life before Wii U gets to the middle and that is not happening period. Wii U will be lucky to move 18 million lifetime.

[NWR_insanolord]

If Nintendo's going to release a console of comparable to the PS4 and Xbox One, sooner rather than later is better. If they'd released the Wii U in 2010 it might have worked. Banking on getting ports from your competition's a more effective strategy if your competition has more than a year left in its life.

[BranDonk Kong]

Honestly the end of the year is basically when that window of comparable specs disappears. Their best bet would be making a console with the same architecture as the XBone and PS4, maybe just HIGHER clockspeeds and more RAM, period. That would basically ensure 100% of 3rd party games, since development is so similar on both consoles. They just need to add something to make it sell, but they cannot afford to gimp on the specs whatsoever, and really need to just basically use the same chipsets.

[NWR_insanolord]

With the way consoles are at this point, they could probably be fine doing it in 2016. Probably over half a console cycle left to piggyback onto.