Topic: Official Sales Thread

[azeke]

Dudebros who buy CoD games every year already made the switch.

Their (dead) weight will be enough to tip the scales in favour of Xbone over Wii U.

PS4 will be selling regardless of games (just like it did for entirety of this year), though CoD of course will help.

[broodwars]

     Whats the big Holiday title for PS4/1? There may not be one definitive title just a lot of solid support. Halo, GTA are just remakes, albeit very fine titles in that. Lord of the fallen and Middle Earth could be very solid titles indeed but they don't completely differ (on the surface) from Hyrule Warriors and Bayonetta 2. Without going tit for tat, it appears this could be a most interesting choice for the holiday gamer.

Major titles on PS4/Xbox One this Fall (no comment on quality, just sales or hype potential) that will not be on Wii U:

*Also not counting re-releases like Sleepy Dogs and [Kirby's Epic Yarn HD-er] (i.e. GTA)*

Destiny
Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor
Forza Horizon 2
Alien Isolation
Project Spark
Driveclub
NBA2K15
The Evil Within
Sunset Overdrive
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
Assassin's Creed Unity
The Crew
Dragon Age Inquisition
Far Cry 4
LittleBigPlanet 3
Ori and the Blind Forest (OK, not a big system-seller, but I wanted to spotlight that game because it looks amazing)

By comparison, let's look at the Wii U's Fall Lineup that's not available on the other consoles:

Hyrule Warriors
Bayonetta 2
Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyre
Smash Bros. U (maybe. Nintendo hasn't officially confirmed it yet, despite the leaks)
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (maybe. Nintendo hasn't officially confirmed it yet, and it's been delayed to 2015 everywhere else)

Pathetic.

[Ymeegod]

Couple of reasons why I think Nintendo's WII U numbers are going be low this season:

1.  Retailer store space:  The Wii U is combined with the WII into one tiny shelf way in the back in 90% of the retailers around me: Walmart, Gamestop, Target, ect. 

2.  Not on kids wishlists.  Ask any preteen/teenager if they want an WII U and they are going say they want the next GTA/COD/Minecraft mostly because their friends play them.

3.  No marketing push--you have to spend money to make money and Nintendo's hasn't made any effort on this font. Activision are whores at this, look at Destiny for example; Activision spent $200 million just to market that one game and Nintendo hasn't spent that much for marketing an entire CONSOLE let alone one game. 

[Enner]

Super Smash Bros. for 3DS sells 1 million units in Japan.
http://www.nintendo.co.jp/corporate/release/2014/140916.html (Japanese)

For those wondering why the 3DS version exists, this is the reason why.

[Nile Boogie Returns]

Destiny
Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor
Forza Horizon 2
Alien Isolation
Project Spark
Driveclub
NBA2K15
The Evil Within
Sunset Overdrive
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
Assassin's Creed Unity
The Crew
Dragon Age Inquisition
Far Cry 4
LittleBigPlanet 3
Ori and the Blind Forest (OK, not a big system-seller, but I wanted to spotlight that game because it looks amazing)

By comparison, let's look at the Wii U's Fall Lineup that's not available on the other consoles:

Hyrule Warriors
Bayonetta 2
Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyre
Smash Bros. U (maybe. Nintendo hasn't officially confirmed it yet, despite the leaks)
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (maybe. Nintendo hasn't officially confirmed it yet, and it's been delayed to 2015 everywhere else)

Pathetic.

Let's not omit "Teslagrad and The Fall" from the WiiU list! Wont make that big of a difference to some, for other Teslagrad is the type of game that tips the scale.

[Ceric]

Super Smash Bros. for 3DS sells 1 million units in Japan.
http://www.nintendo.co.jp/corporate/release/2014/140916.html (Japanese)

For those wondering why the 3DS version exists, this is the reason why.

<Insert favorite version of Cliche Dragon BallZ Reference>

[BranDonk Kong]

By comparison, let's look at the Wii U's Fall Lineup that people will buy:

Smash Bros. U (maybe. Nintendo hasn't officially confirmed it yet, despite the leaks)

Pathetic.

[Sarail]

     Whats the big Holiday title for PS4/1? There may not be one definitive title just a lot of solid support. Halo, GTA are just remakes, albeit very fine titles in that. Lord of the fallen and Middle Earth could be very solid titles indeed but they don't completely differ (on the surface) from Hyrule Warriors and Bayonetta 2. Without going tit for tat, it appears this could be a most interesting choice for the holiday gamer.

Major titles on PS4/Xbox One this Fall (no comment on quality, just sales or hype potential) that will not be on Wii U:

*Also not counting re-releases like Sleepy Dogs and [Kirby's Epic Yarn HD-er] (i.e. GTA)*

Destiny
Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor
Forza Horizon 2
Alien Isolation
Project Spark
Driveclub
NBA2K15
The Evil Within
Sunset Overdrive
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
Assassin's Creed Unity
The Crew
Dragon Age Inquisition
Far Cry 4
LittleBigPlanet 3
Ori and the Blind Forest (OK, not a big system-seller, but I wanted to spotlight that game because it looks amazing)

By comparison, let's look at the Wii U's Fall Lineup that's not available on the other consoles:

Hyrule Warriors
Bayonetta 2
Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyre
Smash Bros. U (maybe. Nintendo hasn't officially confirmed it yet, despite the leaks)
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (maybe. Nintendo hasn't officially confirmed it yet, and it's been delayed to 2015 everywhere else)

Pathetic.

Opinion!

Of all of the games not coming to Wii U in that list, Sunset Overdrive looks to be the only semi-interesting title to me, but it's not enough to push me over the edge to buy a Xbox One.

But on the Wii U list, Hyrule Warriors, Bayo 2, Smash, and Captain Toad will give me LOADS of fun and fill my gaming tastes just fine.

Just because YOU don't think it's great, doesn't mean it's that way for the majority of people.

[Ian Sane]

From a marketing perspective it looks really bad if there are all these games coming out on every console except yours.  What you do have doesn't grab as much attention because what you don't ends up being the bigger list.  So it isn't about buying a Wii U for Game X, it's about casting aside all these other games in exchange for getting Game X.  Either that or it's spending hundreds of extra dollars to buy a second console just for Game X.  That's a really hard sell.  When you look at it that way you can see why something so unambitious like NSMB U fails to move systems.  You need something really exceptional and special to be worth that sort of investment from the customer.

Nintendo has had this problem since the N64.  It took industry changing games like Super Mario 64, Goldeneye and Ocarina of Time for the N64 to stand a chance.  The Wii succeeded by appealing to a new demographic that wasn't the target audience of all those other games you had to cast aside and it also had a never-been-seen-before industry changing game in Wii Sports.  The Gamecube didn't have either scenario and floundered and the Wii U is in the same situation.

Nintendo talks big about being an "everyone" company but both the Wii and Wii U's designs were very exclusionary.  You either take this completely unique alternative or pay a premium to get it as an extra.  No one else asks you to make a choice like that.

[Ceric]

What I'm interested in:

PS4/XBone
Destiny*
Project Spark♫
Sunset Overdrive♫
Far Cry 4♫
LittleBigPlanet 3♫
Ori and the Blind Forest*

WiiU:
Hyrule Warriors*
Bayonetta 2*
Smash Bros. U*
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker*

* I'll Probably Buy or have bought
♫ I'm interested in but not really owning or playing.


Nintendo's marketing is probably one of its biggest hurdle.  If they could get to regular getting to Destiny level of marketing they be doing a lot better.  Nintendo though is not going to put in the infrastructure or spend the cash that would do that for them.

[NWR_insanolord]

The thing is, I think out of both those lists the most exciting and hyped up title of all is Smash Bros. I know a fair number of people who aren't really Nintendo fans but are hugely hyped for Smash. If it's marketed properly (and doesn't suck) I think that alone will get Wii U to respectability during the holidays.

[broodwars]

Opinion!

Of all of the games not coming to Wii U in that list, Sunset Overdrive looks to be the only semi-interesting title to me, but it's not enough to push me over the edge to buy a Xbox One.

But on the Wii U list, Hyrule Warriors, Bayo 2, Smash, and Captain Toad will give me LOADS of fun and fill my gaming tastes just fine.

Just because YOU don't think it's great, doesn't mean it's that way for the majority of people.

I gave a total of 2 opinions on that post: the first was that Oni & The Blind Forest looked really cool, and the second was that the Wii U's lineup was pathetic by comparison.  It is, however, a fact that the list of major games ALONE from large publishers vastly outnumbers the Wii U's ENTIRE Fall 2014 output (IIRC, the only game I skipped was a Pac-man game that won't sell on any platform).

And, incidentally, just because YOU think a platform with 4 games in the Fall is great compared to platforms with 4 games every two weeks, that doesn't mean it's that way for the majority of people. And the sales have proven that.  :

And Nile Boogie, I'd love to see this fantasy world you live in where Kickstarter indie titles no one knows or cares about like The Fall and Teslagrad "tip the scales" in a market where the likes of every major game in the industry is on every console but the Wii U.  I like the Fall. Hell, I like Teslagrad as well, but they're extremely flawed minor titles no one will remember even 2 months from now.

[Nile Boogie Returns]

And Nile Boogie, I'd love to see this fantasy world you live in where Kickstarter indie titles no one knows or cares about like The Fall and Teslagrad "tip the scales" in a market where the likes of every major game in the industry is on every console but the Wii U.  I like the Fall. Hell, I like Teslagrad as well, but they're extremely flawed minor titles no one will remember even 2 months from now.

I beg your pardon that is not what I meant. I do not paint gamers with broad strokes and the comments of "tip the scale" was for an individual gamer looking to make a purchase this fall. For every PS41U owner there are 10 gamers still playing last ten systems, and they are quite happy there.




25million next gen consoles sold in 2 years is less than 10% of last gens overall total sales. Crazy as it may sound but a Metroidvaina game could be the cherry on top of a Smash Sundae. Just like DriveClub and Little BiG Planet 3 could get me to buy a Ps4 over say Sunset Overdrive and Oni and the Blind Forest (which does look outstanding).




Also, sales haven't proven anything when talking about XBOXONE. That system, with all its hype and marketing is in (almost) as much trouble as the WiiU.

Lastly. When talking about the indie vs. Mainstream titles the best game Ive played all year was an indie title. And you just never know when you're sitting on the next Minecraft.

[ShyGuy]

Well Smash 3DS made a big splash in Japan. Will wait for Enner to post the numbers.

[Ceric]

Ori and the Blind Forest is coming out for PC which I don't see hindering that experience or being especially taxing.  Pretty much its Sunset Overdrive be the last man standing for ya Niles.

[Nile Boogie Returns]

Welp I guess that's it then! PS4U for me then. It's funny how much my gaming taste have changed in my old age.

[Ian Sane]

Historically consoles with weak third party support get creamed by consoles with strong support.  Consumers like quantity and variety.  It just makes sense from a numbers perspective.  The more games you have the greater the chance that you'll cover a person's specific tastes.

The one exception in all of videogame history is the Wii.  So why would the Wii U buck the trend?

[NWR_insanolord]

Nobody's arguing the Wii U's going to win this war. What some are saying is it might win, or come close to winning, the battle of this holiday season, due largely to Sony and Microsoft not bringing anything to the table the rest of the year.

[BranDonk Kong]

The battle this holiday season means nothing though, and it won't.

[Adrock]

While it means nothing, that's beside the point. It's like everyone is talking about something different here.

Person 1: Wii U may sell well this holiday season.
Person 2: I like macaroni and cheese.
Person 3: The other consoles will outsell Wii U.
Person 1: Fine, but that's not really what I was talking abo...
Person 2: I like macaroni and cheese.

[NWR_insanolord]

It means something to Nintendo's bottom line, and to its shareholders, which could be important as they maneuver toward doing something else. Doesn't really mean anything to us directly, though, but that's not really what this thread's about anyway.

[broodwars]

Nobody's arguing the Wii U's going to win this war. What some are saying is it might win, or come close to winning, the battle of this holiday season, due largely to Sony and Microsoft not bringing anything to the table the rest of the year.

To which I argued that this was the same claim made last year when the Xbone/PS4 launch lineup looked weak, and Nintendo had an excellent new Mario game. Both 3D World and the Wii U bombed spectacularly. This holiday, I absolutely agree that the Wii U will see a dead console bump from the release of Smash Bros., provided Nintendo finally gets around to putting a ring on that goddamn game and releases it this Fall.  However, as well as that game will sell, the other consoles are releasing several times more games in that span of time. If you want to argue that Smash Bros. will outsell any Sony or Microsoft 1st party title this Fall, I completely agree. I just don't see Smash selling enough Wii U consoles to outsell the PS4/Xbone consoles their competitors will sell on the strength of their Wii U-excluding 1st & 3rd party lineups.  And the general public won't give a damn about Bayonetta or Hyrule Warriors.  I just don't see the Wii U winning the Christmas sales war, not without a price drop or some serious bundle action.

[Ian Sane]

It means something to Nintendo's bottom line, and to its shareholders, which could be important as they maneuver toward doing something else. Doesn't really mean anything to us directly, though, but that's not really what this thread's about anyway.

Sure it means something to us.  Nintendo financial situation affects their future decisions which affects what products they decide to release.  If a game you like doesn't sell well the chances of getting a sequel are low.  It makes sense for Nintendo fans to observe sales to get an idea of what direction the company will go in.

Unless you just get gratification from Nintendo "winning" regardless of what product they put out.  That's just stupid.

[BranDonk Kong]

Well if it is that significant, then hopefully for us, holiday sales for Wii U completely suck.

[Triforce Hermit]

I just don't see the Wii U winning the Christmas sales war, not without a price drop or some serious bundle action.

They do have bundle action. For the 3DS, a soon to be obsolete platform.