The Nintendo Wii U continues to sell poorly


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Although Nintendo swung to profits for the first half of the 2013 fiscal year, the company admitted that its Nintendo Wii U console is still selling rather poorly, and adversely affecting its overall operations.

Only 460,000 Wii U consoles were sold worldwide in the first six months of the current fiscal year. Since we already know that 160,000 of those were sold in the first quarter, that means that around 300,000 Wii U consoles were sold for the quarter ended September 30.

Nintendo was unable to hide its disappointment in its financial quarter report, noting that the releases of Pikmin 3 and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD have done little to turn the tide for the fledging console.

"The Wii U hardware still has a negative impact on Nintendo's profits," the company said, adding that advertising, research and development for the console is also dragging the company's earnings down. The console has now sold 3.91 million units worldwide in total.

But it wasn't all bad news, as the Nintendo 3DS continues to sell well. Tomodachi Collection for the 3DS sold 1.63 million in Japan, while Animal Crossing: New Leaf surpassed 2.49 million units worldwide for the fiscal year.

As a result, the Nintendo 3DS has now sold 3.89 million hardware units this fiscal year, with 34.98 million 3DS handhelds sold to date. The company expects this number to jump over the current quarter, thanks to the release of Pokemon X & Y, the release of the Nintendo 2DS, and the holiday period in general.

And the company is hoping that the upcoming release of Super Mario 3D World is going to boost Nintendo Wii U sales during this quarter.

For the six months ended September 30, 2013, Nintendo posted revenues of 196.5 billion yen ($2.0 billion), down 2.2 percent compared to 201.0 billion yen ($2.05 billion) year-over-year, and profits of 600 million yen ($6.1 million), compared to losses of 28.0 billion yen ($285.2 million) year-over-year.

 

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/203579/The_Nintendo_Wii_U_continues_to_sell_poorly.php

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In other news, the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii (while stocks last) are cheaper than ever here in Australia - just $148, $138 and $74 AUD respectively from Big W (from October 31st).

 

I don't expect sales to be strong without Mario Kart U, the U controller (I wish they'd include a classic controller in the pack) and high price (compared to previous gen consoles, which are still great to play).

 

Edit: watching the Mario Kart 8 trailer, I was dissapointed to see that textures still appear like (or worse) than those of 7th generation consoles. Mario Kart 8 doesn't seem to break any ground - perhaps they should get some ideas from the arcade version (which has significantly different game play).

 

Edit 2: on the other hand, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze looks awesome:

 

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I can offer up the reasons why I decided against buying a Wii U:

 

  • Price Vs. number of games I wanted: It's tough to justify spending $300+ on a console when there are only about 2 games that I really, really wanted.
  • Nintendo isn't yet selling the Wii U touch controller by itself: I love the controller, as does my husband, so why does only one player get to have one? I want to play 2-player games and I want both of us to have an equal experience.
  • Wind Waker HD?!: The 3DS is getting a new Zelda game this year and the Wii U isn't?

I may still get a Wii U in the future when the price goes down and there are more games available that I'm interested in.

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The tablet controller is useless for multiplayer.

Also how did you find two games you really wanted...

As for a Zelda game, it's coming, but lates. Just like all the other system movers that are coming next year, 1,5 years late or more by release date. Nintendo us putting all their developers on DS games it seems... Putting all their eggs in a doomed basket...

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As for a Zelda game, it's coming, but lates. Just like all the other system movers that are coming next year, 1,5 years late or more by release date. Nintendo us putting all their developers on DS games it seems... Putting all their eggs in a doomed basket...

 

Wait, did you seriously just take a trip back to 2011 and try to say nintendo's handheld is doomed?

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Wind Waker HD?!: The 3DS is getting a new Zelda game this year and the Wii U isn't?

 

The last Zelda title came out less than two years ago, expecting another one already? This isn't Madden.

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Wait, did you seriously just take a trip back to 2011 and try to say nintendo's handheld is doomed?

 

IT is, right now they're selling, and they will sell for a few years, but how long do you realistically see handhelds lasting ? realistically ?

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IT is, right now they're selling, and they will sell for a few years, but how long do you realistically see handhelds lasting ? realistically ?

for a long time.  There are some people that will always want a dedicated portable gaming system.  I'll give you that the market will probably not be anywhere near as big as it was during the height of the Nintendo DS but it won't disappear completely.  Not every portable game is suited for exclusively touchscreen controls that phones have so there will be a market for a dedicated handheld.

 

Obviously however Nintendo would be foolish to not have a long term plan in place to prepare for the collapse of the handheld market but in the short term it's nothing they have to worry about now.  It's funny when the Vita came out against 3DS I said Sony is going to cream Nintendo this time around the Vita appeared to me to be the perfect portable finally almost a near HD portable.  Look what happened the Vita is basically dead and a far technically inferior system destroyed it.  Nintendo won because of software plain and simple.  So the portable space can be supported with "outdated" hardware if you have great software to support it.  Unfortunately that's what has killed the Wii U since release, for the most part not good software and not enough of it.

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Irrelevant, Nintendo launched the console without a single system seller. sure there was Mario, but as awesome as NSMB is, it alone isn't a system seller. and they stll haven't released any system sellers, oh yeah Pikmin... eh whatever. 

 

Where's, Zelda, Mario Kart, Smash Bro's, a new D Mario(even though I'm a firm believer in the classic 2.5D games being superior and Mario should never have been 3D), and the rest of the family.

 

so far they have two first party titles, one isn't that big o a system seller, the other has a narrow audience, and they have practically no interesting third party titles. 

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In other news, the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii (while stocks last) are cheaper than ever here in Australia - just $148, $138 and $74 AUD respectively from Big W (from October 31st).

 

I don't expect sales to be strong without Mario Kart U, the U controller (I wish they'd include a classic controller in the pack) and high price (compared to previous gen consoles, which are still great to play).

 

Edit: watching the Mario Kart 8 trailer, I was dissapointed to see that textures still appear like (or worse) than those of 7th generation consoles. Mario Kart 8 doesn't seem to break any ground - perhaps they should get some ideas from the arcade version (which has significantly different game play).

 

Edit 2: on the other hand, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze looks awesome:

 

 

The Problem with that game and the Wii U is without seeing the Old Wii version and that new version side by side the new version doesn't look that much better graphical wise to make me want to buy the Wii U.

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for a long time.  There are some people that will always want a dedicated portable gaming system.  I'll give you that the market will probably not be anywhere near as big as it was during the height of the Nintendo DS but it won't disappear completely.  Not every portable game is suited for exclusively touchscreen controls that phones have so there will be a market for a dedicated handheld.

 

Obviously however Nintendo would be foolish to not have a long term plan in place to prepare for the collapse of the handheld market but in the short term it's nothing they have to worry about now.

 

No, controls will never be great on a touch screen. guess what. people don't care, people don't play those games. The DS market will shrink to a point where it's not economically feasible to keep it alive. like the Wii U. 

 

Do you think Nintendo would keep the DS alive if it sold 400k a year, or when it drops to 200 ? what about 100k, or 50k ? 

 

How many peopel do you see on the bus or train playing on a DS compared to a phone or tablet ? adults already have a phone and would rather play on that, kids are more and more playing on the phone or a tablet today as well. 

 

it's not dead yet, but it's certainly doomed, like the compact camera. There's no phone that does as good a job as compact camera, not even the Lumia 1020. but they're still dead. 

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The Problem with that game and the Wii U is without seeing the Old Wii version and that new version side by side the new version doesn't look that much better graphical wise to make me want to buy the Wii U.

 

sure they don't, if you have coke bottle glasses and an old non HD tube TV...

 

its a stylized game anyway. 

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I've been with Nintendo since the beginning and will be till the end but I can't deny the fact that they should just do software. It is what they are truly the best at. I don't see any reason they couldn't partner with Microsoft or Sony (or both) and build up the platform necessary to deliver their software.

 

If they are still hell bent on hardware (moreso their peripherals), they could simply build attachments to extend one of the next gen consoles. At this rate, there will come a day in-which them being a hardware creator will come down to sheer pride; no way does it make sense in a not so distant future to keep selling their hardware...

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No, controls will never be great on a touch screen. guess what. people don't care, people don't play those games. The DS market will shrink to a point where it's not economically feasible to keep it alive. like the Wii U. 

 

Do you think Nintendo would keep the DS alive if it sold 400k a year, or when it drops to 200 ? what about 100k, or 50k ? 

 

How many peopel do you see on the bus or train playing on a DS compared to a phone or tablet ? adults already have a phone and would rather play on that, kids are more and more playing on the phone or a tablet today as well. 

 

it's not dead yet, but it's certainly doomed, like the compact camera. There's no phone that does as good a job as compact camera, not even the Lumia 1020. but they're still dead. 

Show me a phone with physical controls that has games the quality of the 3DS' proper library. A touchscreen is no good for most games I play on my 3DS, even games like Pokemon. For every one good cell phone game, there's probably 1000 crappy ones. I've played Pokemon X since I got for 78 hours--how many cell phone games offer that kind of entertainment?

 

Seems like everyone is a market analysis nowadays.

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Did you even read my post ? cause you seem to ignore all of it. 

 

Really? I read your post. The only part I missed was the "lack of physical controls." You're still (attempting) to analyze a market. Heck, you act like the 3DS is a failure. Um, it's not. For the record, the 3DS is doing great. The Wii U is the only Nintendo console not doing good (aka a failure)--even the GameCube was a success, monetarily speaking.

 

Again, show me an app store with the consistent quality of titles available on the 3DS or even DS. Casual to casual, hardcore to hardcore--the dedicated console dominates the cell phone market. Hands down.

 

Oh, by the way, aren't you a hardcore gamer? Why would you even begin to compare casual "Cut the Rope" or "Angry Birds" to first-party Nintendo or even the good third parties offered in the Nintendo ecosystem? Before you say you didn't--you did by saying the cell phone market will eventually run Nintendo's handhelds into the ground.

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The DS sales curve is decidedly downward. again I didn't say it's dying it. but look at the market. the DS market is shrinking, and the mobile games market is growing at record rates.

 

no you can't play games as good on the mobile since it doesn't have controls. But people dont care, it's a time waster, for serious gaming they have consoles or computers. 

 

and the app store doesn't need consistent quality. the tp sellers of the quality games on the app store is still outselling the top selling DS games.  it just needs good games, not only good games.

 

As for comparison, people don't need or want to play core games on the go, they're happy to play casual time wasters on the go. 

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