Nintendo knows this, but for some reason the perception around GAF and elsewhere around the net is that 3DS has been tearing it up since the price drop, MK7 and 3D Land. That's just not the case.
NPD Sales Results for May 2013 [Up2: 360, 3DS Est, Software lowest since May 2000]
- Thread starter EviLore
- Start date
Nintendo knows this, but for some reason the perception around GAF and elsewhere around the net is that 3DS has been tearing it up since the price drop, MK7 and 3D Land. That's just not the case.
Nooo I mean Sanzaru.
http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=501518
We definitely had a thread on this. They had layoffs before the game came out I think.
They took on a lot of extra employees during the last six months of development on Sly 4, and those employees were the first to go when work dried up in November. Believe me, Sanzaru is still going.
Calamari41
41 > 38
I think that the more accurate description, and the one which explains the abysmal sales, is that the Wii U is a console for hardcore Nintendo fans who can't live without New Super Mario Bros U specifically. The attach rate of that game bears this out big time. It remains to be seen if more people will buy it when more than literally one "major" game exists on the platform.
Aeriscloud
Banned
I think they are asking for WW sales.
Exterminieren
Banned
True enough.
Let's not pretend it had a blockbuster lineup last holiday, though. After NSMB2, it had Paper Mario... and that was about it. It's had some B-Tier software that has sold nicely at the start of the year, but it's only with Animal Crossing that they've had a proven system seller since at least NSMB2 or possibly even Mario Kart.
It's certainly doing much lower numbers than DS, but it's also true that DS has been a phenomenon on its own, pretty difficult to replicate. But still, it's true that it must sell more in the West, especially in the non-Holiday season. It seems it's starting happening in Europe (Nintendo graphs have showed quite a big increase in sales share from Jan-March to April, and even more in May, when it tied with PS3 basically, despite no killer applications being released), and it'll be much more evident now that Animal Crossing has been released. The same goes for US. And this is not even counting the lineup for the next months, with Pokémon in October. However...
...this. After NSMB2, 3DS had only Paper Mario as Holiday release. On top of that, NoA forgot to release attractive bundles during Black Friday, and it resulted in horrible BF numbers.
shinra-bansho
Member
That's unfortunate.
Hopefully - not sure if that's the right word - it was essentially the downscaling of outsourcers/fixed term hires that were brought on for Sly 4, and the main body of the studio is still healthy enough.
Sly did okay from what I recall, considering it's a smaller title in the grand scheme, and I would be keen on another to continue the story.
Father_Brain
Banned
Hmm, wasn't aware that Sony had been manufacturing Vita for decades.
Cornbread78
Member
9. Battlefield 3 (360, PS3, PC)**
gotta be that new $19.99 price point...
gotta be that new $19.99 price point...
speculawyer
Member
Ugh. These numbers are terrible.
EA and Activision each only had 1 in the top 10. They can't remain so big with such dismal sales.
EA and Activision each only had 1 in the top 10. They can't remain so big with such dismal sales.
The 3DS still hasn't hit the $129 price that the DS Lite launched at. It may not be lighting up the charts, but it's selling pretty well all things considered and will likely have a massive holiday if they do manage to hit a more mass market price. Combined with Pokemon, beast mode is just a few months off.
As for Wii U, I'm not as optimistic right now. Sales won't be picking up much before the holidays, at which point I do expect some aggressive pricing and bundling. I'm not seeing quite the same strategy as they used with the 3DS really, at least not as strong yet.
point is, they manufacture and sell low volume consumer electronic items alongside their more popular stuff. This isn't apple we're talking about here.
Shipments by the manufacturer (reported quarterly) is your best guess (worldwide):
http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/sales/index.html
Exterminieren
Banned
That cassette player utilises absolutely withered technology, and retails for $200 less than Vita. Let's not pretend they're even remotely comparable.
Father_Brain
Banned
While I don't claim to know exactly how much (or little) Sony is currently losing on each unit, Vita was clearly not conceived or designed as a low-volume product. The official sales goal when it was first unveiled was for it to at least reach PSP's LTD (it'd be lucky to reach a fifth of that, even were it to remain in production for another four years), and we all know about the 10M shipment projection for the last FY.
Everything is bad this month
I'm not pretending. It demonstrate the fact that Sony is OK making and selling low volume items if they are profitable.
and?
My POV, is that they are making lemonade out of lemons. You think they are just going to throw the lemons in the trash?
speculawyer
Member
C'mon new consoles . . . save us!
Source: EA Investor Presentation at E3, 2013
Source: EA Investor Presentation at E3, 2013
That nostalgia. I had that in my bedroom in middle school.
Petrae
Member
3DS was "not bad" in that it unseated the Xbox 360 and took the top spot in the hardware rankings, but that number is nothing to really be impressed with.
Very much a "lesser of the evils" kind of thing.
C'mon new consoles . . . save us!
Source: EA Investor Presentation at E3, 2013
Wow, a Saturn logo
they already pushed it for the 3ds. they can't afford to make it a habit then people would totally stop buying their hardware at launch if they do big price drops 6 months in. it doesn't matter anyway because they are facing an uphill battle and it remains to be seen if their staple of ips can still revive them come the holiday season with 3rd party support non existent and not having the cushion of install base like they did with the wii. they are going to massively underwhelm when compared to wii. vita still has people buying games for it and games announced albeit small indies, ports, remasters or whatever which tells me they see a market with potential of making some money atleast. big publishers need to see more so they are not bothering with providing exclusive support for vita but they are atleast pushing out ports and what not. systems may not be moving well for sony but some form of software is there and more keep getting announced and i don't see why there would be this push for getting more support if they planned on discontinuing it next year like you say.
What happens to EA if the new consoles perform less than expected?C'mon new consoles . . . save us!
Source: EA Investor Presentation at E3, 2013
It sold about half of the what the PSP sold during the comparable May.
So did GBA and pretty much any other handheld. DS is the second best selling gaming system ever released, 3DS is -really- not going to approach those numbers.
The Abominable Snowman
Member
Back to PS2 levels, maybe slightly better?
C'mon new consoles . . . save us!
Source: EA Investor Presentation at E3, 2013
the spoiler is that the digital % increases to 100, and there's just a windows PC logo
Little Green Yoda
Member
Considering how much of the growth from 07-09 was due to the DS/Wii, it's going to be a rough few years unless the PS4 takes off as well as most of GAF thinks it will. Between a middling economy and more entertainment choices, the crow-eating a year from now will be grand, methinks.C'mon new consoles . . . save us!
Source: EA Investor Presentation at E3, 2013
Nightstick11
Banned
I wonder if this is a sign of a permanent slump for the industry down to pre-Wii/DS numbers. The hardware sales are pretty mindboggling, considering how cheap the Xbox 360 and PS3 are and that 3DS and Wii U are pretty new.
Petrae
Member
Cheap where? X360 is nearly 8 years old and PS3 is closing in on 7 years old, and both are still over $200 with no price cuts in sight. Combine those high costs with a lack of compelling software for the last two months, and there's really no reason for anyone to buy. The Wii U has few games and almost zero marketing and the 3DS is trying to hold its own in an increasingly mobile-influenced market.
I don't know if the market correction this gen takes us all the way back down to 128-bit generation numbers, but I'm almost certain that the unit sales we saw last gen are unattainable. The boom is over, and a more realistic sales pattern will be seen.
I'm not talking about exceeding DS sales, I'm talking about year over year with its own sales. I'm fairly certain the 3DS has been down YOY for over a year now. That is extremely bad. The story that 3DS sales turned around in the US is a myth.
Yeah. Though as already said, those YoY declines are pretty much guaranteed to reverse later this year, at least (maybe in June with Animal Crossing, too).
Exterminieren
Banned
What?
I'm reasonably certain that the year on year losses stretch back to September, at the most. Where the hell do you get over a year from?
This is ignoring the impact of the software lineup, of course. 3DS software is up YOY 60%.
Ok, I could be wrong about the exact number of months it's been down YOY, but the overall point still stands. The 3DS hasn't become some huge success like everyone seems to think. Sales trending down in the second and third years it's on the market is not a good sign for any system. The 3DS, at least in the NA market, has not been turned around.
Maybe Pokemon will finally do it.
metalslimer
Member
Looking back over the past generation or even looking at the GBA 3DS hardware sales are terrible in the US right now. Even with Animal Crossing giving its boost in June it will look mediocre in comparison. 3DS needs a price drop and new bundles. Just throw in Nintendogs, Steel Diver, and Pilotwings all free digitally and price the OG and 129 and I bet it would sell decently. Nintendo needs to learn about the current valuation of at least some of there games is not nearly as large as they think
As for Vita, even if Gamestop carries a couple under the floorboards , it's about as irrelevant to the market as some random android smartphone at this point.
As for Vita, even if Gamestop carries a couple under the floorboards , it's about as irrelevant to the market as some random android smartphone at this point.
Exterminieren
Banned
I think the combo of Pokemon, Animal Crossing, Zelda and the tide of other Nintendo IPs would spur it on, yeah. There's no doubting it's been lacking momentum for a good long while.
I think momentum has got to be the watchword, for Wii U and 3DS. Just having spikes at the holidays and a wasteland in between is not healthy, for either console.
Majmun
Member
Wii U's problem isn't just the price...
The 3DS original model desperately needs a price cut. I think 129.99 would be offer a big boost to the system to grab that part of the market that is more price sensitive. Games coming down to 34.99 might help out too.
Yes, they are the titles to watch closely, for their possible impact on hardware sales. Animal Crossing is already doing its job, as said many times, and we'll see its impact in June for sure. But it needs to be seen in July too: then, we can start say 3DS is having a good momentum. Right now, we can only say it's seeing an upward momentum in Europe quite surely, not in US (despite some little good signs in the last months, especially software wise).
The market doesn´t die off. It´s a miracle that old ass consoles sold as well as they did for that huge amount of time.
i think this could be a solution next year. this year, i feel they're focused hard on profitability. they probably don't want to drop the price with pokemon, zelda, and yoshi right around the corner. next year only has smash bros. though.