WiiU - Part 1

[Havok83]

Ah, here's the numbers for the PS3's worst quarter worldwide at the beginning: 700,000

http://www.scei.co.jp/corporate/data/bizdataps3_sale_e.html

And it was competing against the Wii and the 360 at the time at $599 main SKU and little compelling software.

wow I'm surprised bc I thought it was doing much worse than that

 

[Tron Bonne]

I saw those sales numbers earlier today, and wowzers. I knew the U wasn't selling well, but that's pretty abysmal. It had an uphill battle anyway, though. Horrible name, bad marketing, and relying on the casual audience to carry over from the Wii. I don't know if there's any turning back at this point; it would have to take a lot just to get to GC status sales-wise.

 

[Benstamania]

Here's what I think...

The WiiU is in MAJOR trouble, MAJOR. Nintendo however? Not so much... I mean, the N64 and GameCube were considered failures by some but were still very profitable for Nintendo.. If I remember correctly I read that the WiiU hasn't even touched GameCube numbers when you compare the two numbers after they were on the shelf for a year..

Granted, the WiiU still has a few months to go before it hits the year mark but with the PS4 (possibly) coming out end of October/Early November and the One coming out mid to late November..They're not gonna make up those numbers.

Nintendo as a hardware developer, IMHO, isn't going to go anywhere. The WiiU however..Could easily get the plug pulled on it. I doubt it does, but we'll see.

 

[zenith16]

Wow Bens back. yeah we'll see. But as you and I said earlier a price drop is necessary if they want to make sure the Wii U as a console is appealing to potential buyers.(parents of kids etc ) now more then ever.

 

[Benstamania]

They HAVE to drop the price and they HAVE to market it. Put in a pack in game (maybe Super Luigi U?) and that might make up some grounds. They'll have to drop it cheap though.... 249.99 would be their best price point, IMHO.

 

[Havok83]

$250 for the deluxe and they need to just drop the basic. It would be crazy of them to keep that at $350 with the PS3 just $50 more. Nintendo needs to start getting aggressive as their approach has been too laid back

 

[Benstamania]

Yep.

Nintendo Directs need to expand too.. Maybe make them into a type of commercial letting you know that you have a new system out.

You know..like they used to do..

[YT]BrI-A94aLfo[/YT]

NOW you're playing with power! Super Power!

 

[Iceman]

SNES was really well marketed. EVeryone at my school knew about and wanted one back then.

 

[Benstamania]

Yep, those commercials still ring in my head.

 

[zenith16]

oh I agree. They have been already phasing out the basic though. if it were me I would have been thinking about puttin out a stronger Wii U though way later down the line and just have the current deluxe be the focus with a dropped price.

But if were talking about them being more aggressive both better marketing and later on a WiIU that will stop other certain developers/ publishers from always skipping Nintendo over cause of their obsession with cloud ETC would be a smart move. well I think I'd do it for the hard drive space among other things since MMo's are at play as well now . if it can be done at a more affordable price too.

I'd do that. but they need to make sure other publishers and dev's can't write them off. and don't let have an excuse to.


It's what they should have been doing the whole time.


Report: Wii U basic $199 at Walmart Canada next week

(1 hour ago)
20

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The basic version of Nintendo's Wii U console will be just $199 at Walmart locations in Canada starting Friday, August 2, according to a retailer ad that sprouted up online. The ad notes that the sale counts for online purchases.

Walmart isn't the only Canadian retailer with discounts on Wii U systems, as The Source is currently offering the basic version for $250 and the deluxe system for $300. The basic model's standard retail price is $300, whereas the deluxe model is normally $350. Given that Nintendo moved just 160,000 Wii U consoles worldwide in Q1 2014 (April 2013 through June 2013), discounting its home console might just be a good idea.

[Thanks, Kevin.]
Source: Gimme Gimme Games

yeah they really need to finish up with the phase out.

 

[Matt Mortem]

You know what the Wii U needs to pick up sales? GAMES. ****ING GAMES!!!

 

[Soapy]

If I was in charge, I would get rid of that expensive ****ing touch screen controller as fast as possible. That would help them lower the price a great deal.

At the end of the day there's a lot of smart things Nintendo could try to improve their situation, but I honestly feel like nothing would work. At least not the way they would need it to. It would be like trying to put a bandage on a severed limb.

 

[zenith16]

Surgery it's more then alot of people can handle. Can't say much more other then they need to pull out of this badly.

 

[Spidey-Bat]

If I was in charge, I would get rid of that expensive ****ing touch screen controller as fast as possible. That would help them lower the price a great deal.

To say that would be shooting themselves in the foot would be an understatement.

At the end of the day there's a lot of smart things Nintendo could try to improve their situation, but I honestly feel like nothing would work. At least not the way they would need it to. It would be like trying to put a bandage on a severed limb.

Games. Their mistake was launching with New Super Mario Bros U which, while a decent game, is just another rehashed 2D Mario game that would work better on the 3DS. It didn't help that they gave 3rd parties the opportunity to have the spotlight at launch only to have them churn out ports of old games. Except UbiSoft who chose to delay Rayman Legends for no reason and release it on the other platforms.

 

[Havok83]

Its Nintendo's damn fault for not having any games, not only when the Wii U launched but in the months following. There was virtually nothing coming out on the Wii a year before the Wii U dropped. What were they doing in all that time? You would have thought they'd have stuff prepared for the system considering that hiatus they had going on. Look at Sony. They've had a steady stream of their first party material on the PS3 in this past year and they have some planned for launch and the launch window to follow and theres still GamesCom to announce more 2014 titles. That's how Nintendo should have gone into this. They've had a years headstart and its puzzling how they failed to take advantage of that

 

[zenith16]

on a more positive note this was just put up.

Nintendo's indie guy on opening the gates for developers

(16 minutes ago)
1

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Nintendo is the Willy Wonka chocolate factory of the gaming world.

The products that roll out of Nintendo's doors are whimsical and wildly different than what leaves Microsoft or Sony's factories. Nintendo creates games and consoles in a secret vacuum of ergonomic white walls and strict NDAs, with rooms populated by fantastical creatures and short, foreign men with mustaches and overalls.

At least, that's an apt analogy that one developer recently made about Nintendo, the company's Business Development Manager, Dan Adelman, tells me. He's Nintendo's indie outreach specialist, and for years he's been scouting potential developers for Wii, 3DS and Wii U, and he's been a part of the company's recent evolution into what he hopes is a more open, transparent distributor.

Picture Willy Wonka's glass elevator.

"Historically, Nintendo has seemed kind of hard to approach, kind of like there's a closed system where if a developer already knows somebody at Nintendo or has some kind of 'in,' they're in, but otherwise there's no way to interface with the company," Adelman says. "I think we're putting a lot of effort into changing that and making ourselves more accessible, so I really want to make sure that people realize that it's actually pretty easy now – and we're trying to make it easier – to work with us and release games on our systems."

If Adelman is Wonka, he wants every developer to get a Golden Ticket. Continue Reading

source:JoyStiq

 

[8Diagrams(WU)]

Nintendo needs a radical change of strategy and image. Get a new person on top and get back to the SNES days in terms of marketing and game diversity.

Things right now arent smooth, calling a new console the wiiu and not having games ready for it after the 3ds debacle is pretty bad imo. They need places like Retro pumping out games, not taking out like 3 years to come up with Donkey Kong country tropical freeze. They need lots of developers to have unique games and to be considered an acceptable ecosystem for 3rd party devs to port their games.

Lots of bad choices all based on the fact they do not want to acknowledge the reality of the industry they are part of. You can pretend to live in your own bubble only for so long.

Its time for a change.

 

[Tron Bonne]

The Wii U is shaping up to be a disaster, but it's worth keeping in mind that the 3DS is more than fine, even if it's not up there with the original DS. And the Wii was a huge success (call it a fluke if you want, but it was still colossal for them). The GC was considered a disappointment, but still turned a healthy profit side-by-side with the GBA (which I believe was their most successful handheld). Nintendo is far from doomed, and they aren't as in much trouble as people seem to think. Even though they still the Wii U at a lose, it's been said to be a very small lose and that even a small amount of software sales can compensate.

The real blunder that Nintendo has made this gen was with the marketing, I think. Not only did they fail to sell the gamepad in the same way they did the original Wii's motion controls, just the way they named it (this was also the case, I think, with the 3DS to a lesser extent), and how they didn't change the logo even with the awful name. It's series of ideas that seems so basic, it's amazing that they passed through.

 

[WolfCypher]

The Wii U is shaping up to be a disaster, but it's worth keeping in mind that the 3DS is more than fine, even if it's not up there with the original DS. And the Wii was a huge success (call it a fluke if you want, but it was still colossal for them). The GC was considered a disappointment, but still turned a healthy profit side-by-side with the GBA (which I believe was their most successful handheld). Nintendo is far from doomed, and they aren't as in much trouble as people seem to think. Even though they still the Wii U at a lose, it's been said to be a very small lose and that even a small amount of software sales can compensate.

The real blunder that Nintendo has made this gen was with the marketing, I think. Not only did they fail to sell the gamepad in the same way they did the original Wii's motion controls, just the way they named it (this was also the case, I think, with the 3DS to a lesser extent), and how they didn't change the logo even with the awful name. It's series of ideas that seems so basic, it's amazing that they passed through.

Actually their most successful handheld was the DS. I have nothing else to add, sadly.

 

[Tron Bonne]

Ah, my bad then. I knew the DS was a big seller, but I thought the GBA was the overall king. I guess that extra re-release or two will do it

 

[Iceman]

Nintendo can cope with a failed wii U. They are still not doing that badly overall with the favourable yen and the 3DS. But wii U itself might be beyond saving even if they get it all right from this point on. A massive permanent price cut plus the arrival of all the big gun games will give them a last chance to get back in the mix but really they needed to do well & get an install base in that 1st year before PS4 & XB1. I never understood the strategy of launching at the tech level they've chosen so close to true next gen consoles and at a time when previous gen competitiors that aren't technically far behind will be available for next to nothing (& with massive game libraries). I said the casual crowd wouldn't be upgrading as they got what they needed with the wii but it's much worse than that. In the UK (& I guess much of the rest of Europe judging from the recent figures) I've seen almost no adverts for wii U (admittedly I hardly watch TV) or heard anyone mention it. The marketing has been unbelievably bad & there is no awareness of this product amongst non gamers.

 

[Mrs. Sawyer]

They screwed up the moment they decided to call it the Wii U (which confuses casuals) and decided to go with a significantly weaker technology (which alienates more dedicated gamers).

 

[hippie_hunter]

I don't think that the Wii U is underpowered at all. In today's day and age where most people don't give a crap about games and the simple fact that the PS4/XBOne aren't that huge of a leap visually, graphics aren't the Wii U's problem. And neither is the name, they tried to capitalize on the success of the Wii, most companies try to do that.

The Wii U's problems come from:

1. Horrible, horrible, HORRIBLE promotion. When Nintendo first introduced the Wii U at E3, they were incoherent and confusing. They acted as if the Wii U was just a controller extension of the Wii. And since then we have barely seen any promotions for the system on TV, newspapers, magazines, the Internet, etc. Tech companies need to be in your face in regards to promotion the way Sony, Microsoft, Samsung, and Apple are and Nintendo isn't doing it.

2. Changes in consumer attitudes. In today's day and age, asides from smartphones which are heavily subsidized by phone carriers, consumers are getting slower and slower to upgrade their consumer tech. The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One will be facing this problem as well.

3. No damn games. Seriously, I haven't bought a single game for the Wii U ever since I bought it on launch day. While it's great that Pikmin 3 is launching in a few days, it still isn't no Mario Kart 8, Super Mario 3D World, Wii Fit U, a proper Legend of Zelda sequel, and Super Smash Bros., none of which will appear until December at the earliest. Few people are going to buy a Wii U just to play New Super Mario Bros. U.

4. It's overpriced. Right now the Wii U is in competition with the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Two systems that have far bigger game libraries, offer far more services, and more robust online systems and are cheaper than the Wii U. Nintendo's competition offers far more value at lower costs. And with the upcoming the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, while they will cost more, look to be offering more value than the Wii U by having the services that their predecessors have and more. The Wii U needs to be at least $100 cheaper.

 

[Havok83]

I don't think that the Wii U is underpowered at all. In today's day and age where most people don't give a crap about games and the simple fact that the PS4/XBOne aren't that huge of a leap visually, graphics aren't the Wii U's problem. And neither is the name, they tried to capitalize on the success of the Wii, most companies try to do that.

.

Which they failed at. Not only des it sound like a Wii, it looks similar to one as well. When uninformed people hear the name, it just screams that its just another Wii and people still think it is one, just with a tablet packed in. They should have chosen a different name to highlight that its different. This wouldst have been as much if a problem with better promotion but considering they failed in that department, it made the whole name issue that much worse

And yes the Wii U is underpowered. It may not make as much of a difference right now, but the disparities between if and the rest will become even more apparent in the years to come. The X1 will set the benchmark for next gen titles and we'll see the Wii U get inferior ports as its specs barely keep up with that. That is of course if publishers even bother to give it ports which may not happen with alot of titles if the username doesn't increase.

 

[StrainedEyes]

Wii U versions of games are also getting gimped, like the new Batman not having multiplayer.

I have never felt like Nintendo made the right decision with this thing.