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[Tricky I Shadow]

They do. When you factor in the required memory card, it comes to 10$ less than a 360 with Kinect. No longer a price point people can stomach for a handheld.

Well I can't agree with you. If you can afford it I think its great value for money.....no way in hell it deserves to be doing as bad as it is. I mean 35k in a month? ;_;

 

[Miles X]

If you don't get the joke, then it can't be funny.

Don't be the guy who doesn't get the obvious ones.

His other posts suggest he isn't joking, unless he jokes a lot.

 

[leatherhat]

My premise wasn't WiiU > Vita in third party support. Didn't mean to cme off that way if I dd.

3 is 200% more than 1

Both are bad.

Obviously. My point is just that wiiU failing is way worse for nintendo than vita failing is for sony.

 

[Aquamarine]

Why is Wii Sports still not online?

Why isn't there an achievement system? Why isn't there a robust, ubiquitous, transferable account system? Why don't all of their titles have competent online multiplayer with leaderboards? Why isn't there an integrated Wii VC system with a large VC library? Why has NA Wii U advertising confused consumers into thinking it was a new controller?

You know, the simple things that a new CEO could solve quite easily.

 

[TAS]

Is the 55k number confirmed? That just sounds impossibly low.

 

[Version 3.0]

Um, would a Wii2 need to render games at twice the framerate to qualify? To 2 screens? Why would a "Wii HD" name imply anything other than a new iteration of a console, one that offers all the features of the Wii but now in HD? It's like implying that people on the iphone 4 are shocked that non-native apps don't render at full resolution.

Not what I'm referring to. Pachter specifically predicted a new Wii model - not a successor - a few years back that would output HD. You know, because nobody liked the Wii since it only did 480p. That was the "Wii HD", and it never appeared.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

So Sony have a decent console in the PS3 and an Abomination that is the Vita (hey I still love mine, but I understand those sales feels)

Nintendo on the other hand has a beastly console that is the 3DS and an Abomination that is the WiiU

Amazing!

3DS is only beastly in Japan, struggling elsewhere.

This is really bad for Nintendo, as both of their core businesses are suffering significantly.

 

[Warm Machine]

Seems like the next Nintendo console is going to be a handheld with AirPlay style functionality. No way am I expecting a handheld and a standalone console from them again.

Just on the game development front alone having their teams building for a single flexible platform could they cover their release requirements for a change.

 

[Baconsammy]

Wonder if I could trade my Wii U straight up for a 3DS? Lol. I doubt it.

Trade? No way. Amazon is giving a LOLworthy 100 dollars for a used Wii U in perfect like-new condition. You could easily sell one on Amazon for about 290-310. That would net you a 3DS XL plus a bunch of games.

 

[Father_Brain]

Nintendo couldn't afford to drop the 3DS, but they did it because they had no choice.

They were making a profit on 3DS at $250, and 3DS became profitable again only 13 months after the price cut. They could afford it.

 

[volpone]

No. Iwata, then Reggie. And put Miyamoto into a closet somewhere to play with Wii Music forever.

There's no heir apparent to Iwata though. A move like that could destabilize the entire company. Miyamoto seems to be moving in to what he should be doing which is fostering a new generation of talent. Yoshiaki Koizumi should be over-seeing R&D/EAD at this point. That motherfucker knows videogames.

 

[MikeE21286]

Obviously. My point is that wiiU failing is way worse for nintendo than vita failing is for sony.

Agreed. A vita failure is way less impact full tan a WiiU failure.

 

[metalslimer]

Well I can't agree with you. If you can afford it I think its great value for money.....no way in hell it deserves to be doing as bad as it is. I mean 35k in a month? ;_;

Sony treats it as a 2nd class platfom, consumers will treat it as a 2nd class system. End of story.

 

[pelican]

Wii U chilling with his new friends, PC and PSP.

Er, PC games sell. fool.

 

[malyce]

The concept is a dud. They told everyone that complicated controllers were dead, that the future was about motion control, and laughing and jumping and having fun...and then totally reversed course. Now the message is the same complicated dual analog controllers as the other guys with a tablet stuck in the middle. It's confusing, and convoluted, and not nearly as much fun.

The Wii U is Iwata grasping at straws, unsure what to do now that the casual market he was so proud of is happy with iPads and Smartphones, and the core is perfectly happy with Playstation's and Xbox's and PC's. They have no quarter. The Wii U is what happens when a company has a hit, squanders the good will and marketshare that hit built, and has no idea how to catch lightning a second time.

Kaz's Son across the belly
The Wii U lost already

 

[Cheebo]

Well I can't agree with you. If you can afford it I think its great value for money.....no way in hell it deserves to be doing as bad as it is. I mean 35k in a month? ;_;

It was downright stupid to release a handheld at that price in the post-mobile era. It is why Sony deserves it to fail. They made all the mistakes themselves.

 

[jay]

It seems like you haven't seen the transcripts from the shareholder Q&As then.

Investors want Nintendo to focus on producing handhelds...you know, the things they're actually successful in right now.

I called you BurtPork. Get it?

 

[Scum]

Is the 55k number confirmed? That just sounds impossibly low.

Don't be surprise by it, at all. Expect similar or worse for Feb and possibly March.

 

[DaBoss]

3DS is only beastly in Japan, struggling elsewhere.

This is really bad for Nintendo, as both of their core businesses are suffering significantly.

Struggling is a strong word, I would say doing below expectations.

 

[NomarTyme]

Oh boy WiiU.

 

[Nekofrog]

There's no heir apparent to Iwata though. A move like that could destabilize the entire company. Miyamoto seems to be moving in to what he should be doing which is fostering a new generation of talent. Yoshiaki Koizumi should be over-seeing R&D/EAD at this point. That motherfucker knows videogames.

The Gooch doesn't seem to be doing a whole lot these days...










... or Bernie Stolar. Jesus christ what did I just say

 

[shinra-bansho]

Looks like sales will fall way short of even Nintendo's lowered expectations for the fiscal year. This may mean that we will see Iwata step down in the next few months. CEOs have to take responsibility for their companies' failings. Sadly, Iwata had two of the most disastrous console launches of all time under his watch.

Thought I'd look into this:

830K were shipped to Japan; 770-780K have been sold-through (Feb 10th). Given 6 more weeks selling at its current rate, it will just sell through the initial shipment.

1.32M were shipped to the Americas; ~939K have been sold-through in the US (Feb 2nd). Given 2 more months at current sales, there will still be 250K in the channel from the original launch shipment. (Minus whatever was sold in Canada.)

900K were shipped to Other; ~430K were sold-through in Europe (2012). No tracking data since.

It's actually conceivable that the only place that might need the channel refilled is Japan.

:/

 

[Aquamarine]

Is the 55k number confirmed? That just sounds impossibly low.

More or less, yes. It's probably closer to 56K, but that doesn't really matter at the end of the day.

 

[AzaK]

;_________;

That's kinda sad actually.

 

[Tobor]

Why isn't there an achievement system? Why don't all of their titles have competent online multiplayer with leaderboards? Why isn't there an integrated Wii VC system with a large VC library?

You know, the simple things that a new CEO could solve quite easily.

/thumbs up

 

[Baconsammy]

Vita did 30k in a 5 week period. I wonder how many Amazon sold in a 6 hour period when they lowered it to 179.00?

 

[lenovox1]

It's not a "Wii HD". It doesn't even render Wii games in HD, for Pete's sake.

But yeah, it's way too late. They should've either released it earlier, while the Wii brand was still strong, or (at the very least) called it something else.

The Wii U? They weren't even ready to launch the console back in November. They didn't have final development kits out until the middle of last year. They didn't even have the final documentation of the hardware available. They were tweaking the hardware of this thing up until the final possible moment. And let's not even get started on the OS and bundled software. Nintendo may have possibly been actually ready to launch this summer, but they obviously wanted that head start.

This whole thing has kind of been a mess.

 

[Version 3.0]

The Gooch doesn't seem to be doing a whole lot these days...


... or Bernie Stolar. Jesus christ what did I just say

Howard Lincoln. He's still up in Seattle, isn't he, managing the Mariners for Nintendo?

 

[jay]

The Gooch doesn't seem to be doing a whole lot these days...

... or Bernie Stolar. Jesus christ what did I just say

Stolar and Yamauchi see eye to eye on RPGs, so it may be a match made in heaven.

 

[Gahiggidy]

No. Iwata, then Reggie. And put Miyamoto into a closet somewhere to play with Wii Music forever.



Dude... as much as abhor what Nintendo has done over the last 5 years, an online port of Wii Sports would keep me busy forever. FORRREVVVURR.

Yup, they shoulda never made Sports Resort with motion+ and instead made Wii Sports Tournament, with seasons, playoff brackets in each country, and finally worldwide championship games, broadcast worldwide for all to watch.

 

[Striek]

Struggling is a strong word, I would say doing below expectations.

Struggling to meet expectations?

 

[Version 3.0]

The Wii U? They weren't even ready to launch the console back in November. They didn't have final development kits out until the middle of last year. They didn't even have the final documentation of the hardware available. They were tweaking the hardware of this thing up until the final possible moment. And let's not even get started on the OS and bundled software.

This whole thing has kind of been a mess.

Yeah, sorry, I'm mixing my systems here. What I meant was, they should've done the "Wii HD" thing earlier, to keep the brand alive, or else abandoned the brand with this new system.

 

[GraveRobberX]

3DS is only beastly in Japan, struggling elsewhere.

This is really bad for Nintendo.

Yeah but it's making them some money, the WiiU is a complete disaster right now

3DS got price drop but it was followed up by heavy hitters to keep consumers satitated

What does WiiU have on the horizon?

If WiiU drops to $200 tomorrow, it will still have the same problem of the $299.99-$349.99 WiiU, there isn't content to keep consumers satiated
Great I saved $150 on a Paper Weight!

All these Nintendo Directs showing off all these promised future games, are still promises and future titles, nothing is currently being delivered

Hell a Zelda right now would be awesome, but they are so back on a WiiU Zelda they are doing HD Remix of WW just to keep the hardcores at bay

 

[Baconsammy]

Howard Lincoln. He's still up in Seattle, isn't he, managing the Mariners for Nintendo?

Oh god is that why they suck now? I only go see them when a team that's good comes to town.

 

[Man-is-Obsolete]

Wii U is somewhat surprising just because it is only 2 months removed from release and could have benefited from the "i got all these gift cards for Christmas". Though anecdotally it is struggling a lot in my area. The Vita, however, is no surprise. No retail releases, no retail promotions, no adevertising. My only hope is that Sony has something planned soon for the Vita that makes sense of this silence. Feb. 20th please?

 

[Plinko]

I have a feeling several higher-ups at a Nintendo lose their jobs within the next month.

 

[ffdgh]

So the 55k is real? Ouch

I wanna see 3ds now.

 

[neptunes]

Vita did 30k in a 5 week period. I wonder how many Amazon sold in a 6 hour period when they lowered it to 179.00?

The solution to WiiU's problem isn't a price-cut, but for the Vita it sure as hell is.

I think a $149.99 price point would do well (not even close to 3DS well) but better than it is now.

 

[metalslimer]

Struggling to meet expectations?

3DS hasn't met a single sales projection from Nintendo yet.

 

[Ridley327]

I think he meant that no major console has ever had a worse January in the US than the Wii U. The Wii U has had a stronger first three months than some other platforms in the US, but this 55,000 number is unprecedented.

I understand that this January total is unprecedented in its awfulness, but it still doesn't change the fact that unless Nintendo has been lying all these years about how many Virtual Boys that it ultimately shipped out, the Wii U has already outsold its lifetime total in just the US.

 

[DaBoss]

Struggling to meet expectations?

Hmm, I guess I mean it's doing okay, but is below expectations in NA (and worldwide total). In France and Germany, it's doing well.

 

[Branduil]

Releasing Wii U 2 years earlier certainly would have been better, considering they basically killed the Wii off at that time.

Nintendo is going to have to ask itself some very hard questions about how it can survive in the console space, and what it can do to achieve that.

 

[uncledonnie]

Can't believe we are looking at 2 gens in a row where one company had a resounding first place lead and absolutely squandered it. And this time it's got the potential to be far worse for Nintendo than it was for Sony.

 

[Cheebo]

Struggling to meet expectations?

Nintendo has never once hit one of their 3ds goals and always has to reduce their next quarter predictions and then again fail to meet those. It's not going good plain and simple.

Doing amazing in Japan doesn't fix the situation in the west.

I am REALLY curious to see 3ds numbers, the fact everyone here just assumes it did great for some reason is odd.

 

[nib95]

GAF pretty much predicted this fate for the Wii U and Vita. Only thing GAF has been way off on as a consensus imo is the success of the Wii, but that casual ship has sailed. Lightning won't strike in such a fad'tastic way again any time soon imo.

 

[Plinko]

Releasing Wii U 2 years earlier certainly would have been better, considering they basically killed the Wii off at that time.

Nintendo is going to have to ask itself some very hard questions about how it can survive in the console space, and what it can do to achieve that.

With that gamepad it probably would have cost over $500.

 

[Version 3.0]

Oh god is that why they suck now? I only go see them when a team that's good comes to town.

Ha ha! I know nothing of it, really, but I doubt it's his fault. He's an executive, not a coach or scout. But I'm speaking from complete ignorance, so for all I know, he has an iron grip on calling pitches and batting lineup.

 

[BruceLeeRoy]

Can't believe we are looking at 2 gens in a row where one company had a resounding first place lead and absolutely squandered it. And this time it's got the potential to be far worse for Nintendo than it was for Sony.

Unlike with Sony though I think a lot of us saw this coming.

 

[bjb]

How could the Wii U die this fast? It doesn't make any logical sense.

 

[pelican]

It only gets better for Nintendo.

On Wednesday Sony drop the first Next Gen bomb. And MS are still waiting in the wings between now and GDC (hopefully).

Time for a major rethink, and software.