Nintendo Confirms Wii U has Flopped

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Celecia

Celecia

Pokemon Master
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I don't know if this has been posted previously or not, but here it is.

Nintendo has confirmed what we knew already: its unhappy controller/console combo, the Wii U, is a flop. The company said hardware sales of the Wii U had failed to reach its target during the year-end, pushing it into a third consecutive annual loss, Reuters reports.

“We failed to reach our target for hardware sales during the year-end, when revenues are the highest,” said Nintendo’s president, Satoru Iwata, at a shareholder briefing on the sales figures.

With the Wii U failing to shift off shelves — and that despite a $50 price cut last September, to $299 — Nintendo has slashed its global sales forecast for the device for the year to March 31 by almost 70%. It said it’s expecting Wii U sales to number just 2.8 million units over that period. It also cut its sales forecast for its handheld 3DS console to 13.5 million units from 18 million.

Both Nintendo’s devices are facing fierce competition from non-specialist consumer hardware fuelled by thousands of often inexpensive games apps — aka the smartphones and tablets running on platforms such as Google’s Android OS and Apple’s iOS. Ownership of app-supporting mobile devices has exploded since the original Wii’s hey-day, of circa 2006, shifting the gaming goalposts from the living room to people’s pockets.

Meanwhile, the home console market has been increasingly dominated by Microsoft’s Xbox and Sony’s PlayStation — leaving Nintendo to be squeezed out by those more powerful home consoles at the higher end, attracting pro gamers with huge franchise titles such as Grand Theft Auto, and driven out at the lower end by the consumerization of portable gaming via mainstream mobile devices. Talk about a rock and a hard place.

The other point to note is that the Wii U itself just isn’t very good. It’s neither fish nor fowl, so to speak. As TC columnist MG Siegler put it back in September, it’s “a poor concept accentuated by poor hardware”. He also described Nintendo as being “in the beginning of a death spiral”. Today’s sales forecasts pour more fuel on those flames.

Nintendo said it is now expecting an operating loss of 35 billion yen ($335.76 million) this business year vs its initial forecast of a 100 billion yen profit. It also warned of a net loss of 25 billion yen for the year ending on March 31 — having previously projected a 55 billion yen profit. And expects revenues of 590 billion yen, down 36% from its prior forecast.

Update: Nintendo appears to be mulling a new smartphone-focused business strategy, according to comments reported by Bloomberg. “We are thinking about a new business structure,” Iwata is reported as saying at a press conference in Osaka, Japan.

“Given the expansion of smart devices, we are naturally studying how smart devices can be used to grow the game-player business. It’s not as simple as enabling Mario to move on a smartphone.”

It’s unclear exactly what Nintendo is considering but it appears to be reluctant to allow its flagship gaming franchises to simply be unchained from its own hardware and offered as apps on other platforms.

“We cannot continue a business without winning,” Iwata added. “We must take a skeptical approach whether we can still simply make game players, offer them in the same way as in the past for 20,000 yen or 30,000 yen, and sell titles for a couple of thousand yen each.”
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Source: http://techcrunch.com/2014/01/17/wii-u-not-selling/

My thoughts:

I mostly agree with the sentiments of the article. While I do think the Wii U has some really cool things to it, I feel that Nintendo maybe tried too hard to be innovative and new. I think they cashed out their 'fresh new style' points with the Wii. Nintendo keep trying unique console styles and features, and some haven't worked out as well as they'd hoped. The N64 was still using cartridges while Sony moved onto CD-ROMs, for example. Or when Microsoft and Sony moved to DVDs, Nintendo opted for those... odd little mini-disk things for the Gamecube.

Personally, I'd love to own a Wii U. But the issue I have is that aside from ZombiU, all the games I'd be interested in playing exist on other platforms, that I already own. There are quite a few franchises that could tempt me if they decided to release on the Wii U, however. I absolutely adored Rune Factory: Tides of Destiny, to the point I bought it twice on PS3 (Imported a Canadian copy, then bought the UK version when it finally came out). Harvest Moon is another series I'd love to play on a main console, not a handheld. Fire Emblem would also be a good one. I know there is a FE game in the works, but that's probably at minimum a year away.

If Nintendo can build up a repertoire of games that don't purely pander to youngsters and Mario fans, I think they could pull this back. Picking up some third-party IPs would help immensely, too.
 
As far as I'm concerned the Wii U is a great system. For some reason though that I can not figure out which affected the big three, they somehow forgot that what sells systems is games.

Sony forgot making the Vita the psp go v2. Microsoft forgot and the Xbox one is lagging badly and then you have Nintendo with the bad 3DS start and the current Wii U state.

I don't know if the just focused on the hardware instead of software or advance things too far for developers to keep up, but they need to get their act in gear before Steam kills one of them.
 
I think the Wii U is a great system too! I already have more great Wii U exclusive games than I can play. The quantity is lower due to poor third party efforts, but at least Nintendo is offering experiences that can't be found elsewhere, and ones that appeal to a broad range of gamers.

This E3 needs to be a strong showing for them.
 
The Wii U is a great system with great games, but as EA has said for Battlefield 4 on Wii U, "We would be better off releasing games on a system that is known for it's hardcore games, rather than a system which's main selling point is kiddie games". The Wii U has great potential for being a console for all ages. But the Wii U is overlooked by many gamers because of the abundance of games that are aimed towards a younger audience. 3rd party devs should put some more effort in Wii U games, and see how the sales go up. Mario Kart 8 will be causing the sales to go up atleast for a while, so that can turn some tables around.
 
not really surprised at this. They could do so much better. I think the release of Smash and MK8 will turn things around and they will sell more units.
 
not really surprised at this. They could do so much better. I think the release of Smash and MK8 will turn things around and they will sell more units.
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yes, I know for a fact that the release of SSB4 and Mario Kart 8 will increase sales. I feel bad for Nintendo because 3rd party devs are not going to work on popular games.
 
Nintendo hasn't been any good because all we've really gotten is rehashed Mario games. Wind Waker and Pikmin are the best games we've gotten and one of the is a remake.

Mario Kart and Spasm Bros. will give the Wii U a much needed boost, but Nintendo need to listen to us and gives us what we want. An HD Zelda game like the Tech Demo they showed a while back and new games for Starfox, F-Zero, and/or Earthbound even. They don't really need 3rd party support to make the Wii U successful with all the amazing franchises they have.
 
Nintendo hasn't been any good because all we've really gotten is rehashed Mario games. Wind Waker and Pikmin are the best games we've gotten and one of the is a remake.

Mario Kart and Spasm Bros. will give the Wii U a much needed boost, but Nintendo need to listen to us and gives us what we want. An HD Zelda game like the Tech Demo they showed a while back and new games for Starfox, F-Zero, and/or Earthbound even. They don't really need 3rd party support to make the Wii U successful with all the amazing franchises they have.
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Earthbound already came out in America on the WiiU VC.

I agree that mk8/'spasm bros' will boost sales and if not, Zelda U is the last chance.
 
I know, I meant a brand new Earthbound game for Wii U. But that'll probably never happen.

Mario Kart and Smash Bros. are the reason I finally bought a Wii U and I'm sure a lot of other people did for that same reason as well.
 
  • #10
If the third party developers did realize (as you said) what sells systems is games and they made a whole bunch of games for the wii u including Nintendo's own games. It would sell like hotcakes, especially to the people who haven't switched over from last gen. The games would also sell like hotcakes too (probably).
 
  • #11
Nintendo hasn't been any good because all we've really gotten is rehashed Mario games. Wind Waker and Pikmin are the best games we've gotten and one of the is a remake.

Mario Kart and Spasm Bros. will give the Wii U a much needed boost, but Nintendo need to listen to us and gives us what we want. An HD Zelda game like the Tech Demo they showed a while back and new games for Starfox, F-Zero, and/or Earthbound even. They don't really need 3rd party support to make the Wii U successful with all the amazing franchises they have.
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Yes, I agree with that. They have less 3rd party games and they need to reveal more games the Audience want. They are working on Zelda U. Nintendo took the idea of ruby/Sapphire remakes and made them into real games. They should also do that for Wii U games.
 
  • #12
If Nintendo can build up a repertoire of games that don't purely pander to youngsters and Mario fans, I think they could pull this back. Picking up some third-party IPs would help immensely, too.
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That will NEVER happen! GUAHAHAHAHAHA!
 
  • #13
In my opinion, the Wii U is a fantastic gaming console. I agree it got off to a horrible start having a drought of games, but now I see the tables turning around, this E3 is going to be amazing for Nintendo, as they will be giving out so much information on new games, that we've all been waiting for. So far, they have an amazing lineup of first-party games, that gamers been wanting for: Super Smash Bros. 4, Hyrule Warriors, X, Bayonetta 2, Zelda U, Yoshi's Yarn, Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem, Sonic Boom and an amazing library of Indie games. The Wii U has flopped, this isn't nothing new to us (at least Nintendo finally accepted it). But, I think the're doing their best to make it better, and I'm positive I won't be disappointed in Nintendo's presentation at this year's E3.
 
  • #14
The fact that the WiiU doesn't sell that much is not a big thing. We all know that Nintendo will do something to make its sales rise. Also, the WiiU isn't a total flop in Japan, if you compare it with other consoles. (No data for the X1, since it's still not released there).

And, the number of sold WiiU units are numbers. The thing who count the most is the number of games on it.

So, if you want my opinion, I would say that the X1 and the PS4 are flops, in the sense where it's a total videogaming desert. I'm not referring to the sales for these two consoles, though. Nintendo and third-party developers just need to make great games on it, and the WiiU's sales will rise.
 
  • #15
I was searching the web when I found this... Looks like Phillips now wants to kick Nintendo while it's down... http://www.ipbrief.net/2014/05/21/philips-trying-to-pull-the-plug-on-nintendos-wii-and-wii-u/

The fact that the WiiU doesn't sell that much is not a big thing. We all know that Nintendo will do something to make its sales rise. Also, the WiiU isn't a total flop in Japan, if you compare it with other consoles. (No data for the X1, since it's still not released there).

And, the number of sold WiiU units are numbers. The thing who count the most is the number of games on it.

So, if you want my opinion, I would say that the X1 and the PS4 are flops, in the sense where it's a total videogaming desert. I'm not referring to the sales for these two consoles, though. Nintendo and third-party developers just need to make great games on it, and the WiiU's sales will rise.
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And yes, that is true but the developers want to only make games for consoles with the most numbers and where they have a base of gamers on that console who are sure to buy it. It's sad but it's just the way the developers like to do it. And they won't change their ways for some reason.
 
  • #17
It's nothing new really. So many have tried suing Nintendo for patent claims. 99% fail.
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Yeah, the only patent claim that Nintendo lost recently was with the 3DS, and that was in 2013.
The patent in question relates to technology Tomita created for developing 3D images without the need for 3DS glasses.
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Also, I'd like to add to this topic, that the Wii U, has been trending consecutively on Twitter, it has everyone talking, which is a good thing, the news of the Hyrule Warriors game, and (fake) leaks of Nintendo's E3 announcements is what got it trending, I think this is great news, at least people are talking about the console, most in positive!
 
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  • #18
Also, I'd like to add to this topic, that the Wii U, has been trending consecutively on Twitter, it has everyone talking, which is a good thing, the news of the Hyrule Warriors game, and (fake) leaks of Nintendo's E3 announcements is what got it trending, I think this is great news, at least people are talking about the console, most in positive!
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So, the console is now starting to get a reputation of console with good games! That's a great thing, because this console really deserve it, if you judge the number of good games available on it. I won't be able to get it, but I'll still be watching some Let's Plays on Youtube to see what the games looks like.
 
  • #19
Not meeting sales expectations and "flopping" are two very different things. I think sometimes media (and some gamers) forget this. Let's see how the Wii U is doing six months from now.
 
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