All purpose sales and sales rumors/anecdotes thread next gen+

[Pressure]

Not to worry, it seems the Wii U is actually doing better than we all expected. Talk about a kick in the groin for Microsoft.

Microsoft has sold 7.41 million units, while Nintendo has sold 7.29 million units.

As soon as the franchise heavy games hits, it should surpass the Xbox One.

 

[Bagel seed]

Sony will likely be supply constrained in multiple markets so dropping the price would simply be throwing money away. I bet MS has diverted a ton of stock to the US, they should take at least one of the months. If not, hooo boy the comments will be fun to read :smile:

 

[Shifty Geezer]

They are more relevant than ever...

They are reaching their smallest audience ever. Isn't that the definition of decreasing relevance? Irrespective of quality, if they aren't reaching people and aren't shaping the landscape, they aren't relevant, at least in the mainstream definition. One could argue Nintendo are more relevant to their audience than ever, although I doubt that's possible to prove. Reduced sales of hardware would paint a contrary picture.

 

[DieH@rd]

Not to worry, it seems the Wii U is actually doing better than we all expected. Talk about a kick in the groin for Microsoft.

I would not go as far as that. The only "doing better" that they are achieving is not shipping consoles as abysmally as last year, when they in one quarter even had the occurrence of EU territory RETURNING more consoles to Nintendo than accepting them. Last year they were ultra bad, now they are just bad.

And MS has nothing to fear. They are matching Nintendos WW shipments only with their US territory sales.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

They are reaching their smallest audience ever. Isn't that the definition of decreasing relevance? Irrespective of quality, if they aren't reaching people and aren't shaping the landscape, they aren't relevant, at least in the mainstream definition. One could argue Nintendo are more relevant to their audience than ever, although I doubt that's possible to prove. Reduced sales of hardware would paint a contrary picture.

I think Nintendo have two problems. The first is people like me who have played generation after generation of Nintendo game but have got to the point where I don't want to buy another version of Mario Kart or Mario Land/World. I love Zelda but it's about the last Nintendo franchise I have any interest in and I'm not buying a whole console to play it

The second is that many of Nintendo's classic franchise like Mario are probably not appealing to upcoming generations of gamers. To be blunt they are from a bygone era. The gameplay may be awesome, it usually is, but if the vibe and tone of a game don't appeal, you're screwed.

As many people have already said, they need new new IP. Modern IP. IP that has broad appeal. Gears of War and Uncharted strike me good examples of the type of IP they need. But not clones of these games.

 

[Goodtwin]

They are reaching their smallest audience ever. Isn't that the definition of decreasing relevance? Irrespective of quality, if they aren't reaching people and aren't shaping the landscape, they aren't relevant, at least in the mainstream definition. One could argue Nintendo are more relevant to their audience than ever, although I doubt that's possible to prove. Reduced sales of hardware would paint a contrary picture.

Too early to know that for sure. Wii U could still surpass the Gamecube, so its very possible that Nintendo will be just as, if not more relevant in the console space than they were back in 2005. Gamecube was off to a much better start than Wii U, but it had a far superior launch lineup to that of Wii U, Smash Bros was there for its first Christmas, and Super Mario Sunshine released about 9 months after Gamecube launched. Not to mention Gamecube's priced was slashed to $149 within six months, and down to $99 within two years. Gamecubes sales were abysmal in years three four and five, so its not inconceivable that Wii U couldn't sell much better during its year three four and five, and surpass the Gamecubes lifetime sales. Not saying that this will happen, I actually have a $100 bet that says Wii U wont outsell the Gamecube within five years of release, but my point is that we don't yet know for certain Nintendo is any more or less relevant now than they were in 2005.

 

[dobwal]

Sony will likely be supply constrained in multiple markets so dropping the price would simply be throwing money away. I bet MS has diverted a ton of stock to the US, they should take at least one of the months. If not, hooo boy the comments will be fun to read :smile:

Well, the price cut is providing some momentum as the COD:AW and AC skus are the top selling consoles at Amazon at the moment.

I'm pretty skeptical that will hold up throughout the holidays.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Too early to know that for sure. Wii U could still surpass the Gamecube, so its very possible that Nintendo will be just as, if not more relevant in the console space than they were back in 2005.

That's not really a good target though. And considering the console market has grown, Nintendo should be looking at the same proportion of the market to match past targets.

I'll add that Nintendo wouldn't need to sell big to be relevant. If they can influence gaming culture, create ideas that are copied, come up with new game genres, etc., they can be a highly relevant niche player. But being restricted to an ever diminishing corner of the gaming market, I'm not really seeing that. Wii was influential - Nintendo had clout with that one. Wii U hasn't - no-one's copying the wuublet idea, and games aren't really using it to great effect from what I hear. So there's nothing really about Nintendo at the moment that's making ripples in the gaming space. And it's only getting harder with more and more players.

 

[wco81]

Has the Wii U had a price cut at all?

Or even bundling deals like the ones MS is doing?

 

[deathindustrial]

Gears of War and Uncharted strike me good examples of the type of IP they need. But not clones of these games.

Nintendo specializes in toys for children and has since the SNES era (an example of this would be the censoring of Mortal Combat on that system). Since the N64 they are functionally the "Disney" of the console space and that is why parents buy the console - they feel safe about plopping their little ones in front of it.

I doubt even the average American parent would buy Gears of War for their 6 year old so it makes little sense for a family friendly toy company to focus heavily on mature themed games. What they need to focus on is sturdy hardware at a competitive price.

IMHO of course.

Cheers

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Nintendo specializes in toys for children and has since the SNES era (an example of this would be the censoring of Mortal Combat on that system).

This obviously isn't working.

I doubt even the average American parent would buy Gears of War for their 6 year old so it makes little sense for a family friendly toy company to focus heavily on mature themed games. What they need to focus on is sturdy hardware at a competitive price.

I'm not suggesting this. To be clear, I think Nintendo should be courting a new market - the market who are currently spending a lot on PlayStation and Xbox games. And drop the gimmicky control schemes. This only makes it that much harder for third party developers to support the platforms.

 

[Shortbread]

Both XB1 bundles are now ahead of the PS4 game console on Amazon. The great price cut apocalypse has begun...

#9 XB1 COD:AW bundle
#10 XB1 ACU bundle

 

[Sonic]

Nintendo's greatest strengths are also its greatest weaknesses or so it seems. They still make great playing games to this day that are always fun and enjoyable. But the market has moved on and Nintendo has failed to adapt. Releasing sub-par hardware has had a detrimental effect on the sales of the console I suspect. IF they want their next console to have decent sales then it will need to be a fully fleshed out system that has a decent online infrastructure and more diverse content that will open them up to new buyers.

I've little faith Wii U will surpass Gamecube in sales within the 5 year mark. Nintendo's core audience will continue to buy the system but even their core audience has likely shrunk. Maybe if they head down the HD remakes of previous games it would be a good way to sell some systems. I wouldn't mind playing past Zelda and Mario games in full HD glory, and given how ancient these games are the Wii U should be able to handle them easily. But given the current interest the general populace seems to have for the system I don't see it selling past GCN numbers.



If PS4 sells a lot of consoles stateside this holiday season it could do pretty nicely for Sony given the current strength of the dollar.

XB1 might end up taking November with the price cut and the bundles. PS4 has a huge amount of momentum but it seems like XB1 is finally picking up some momentum up if the Amazon charts are anything to go by. $50 might just enough to actually win a month in the US. Though I still have doubts.

 

[Rangers]

I've thought the PS4 X1 high sales shouldn't be surprising. Last gen, 100m Wii, 85 PS3 85 X360.

This gen, Wii U might do 20m? Tops? That's a lot of excess consoles that appear to be resulting in big gains for MS and Sony.

Plus, counting inflation, the prices are more mainstream at launch than ever, at least last gen. No $600 PS3, XBO started at 399 (quickly anyway), then 349

 

[Deleted member 11852]

I've thought the PS4 X1 high sales shouldn't be surprising. Last gen, 100m Wii, 85 PS3 85 X360. This gen, Wii U might do 20m? Tops? That's a lot of excess consoles that appear to be resulting in big gains for MS and Sony.

I don't believe the sales differential between Wii and Wii U will translate into significant numbers for Microsoft and Sony this gen.

Anecdotal but I know so many people who never had any interest in games but bough a Wii because it was one of those weird cultural fads. It wasn't a fad in gaming but a wider fad that briefly captured the attention of non-gamers helped in part because of the activity/fitness connotations. But beyond Wii Sports people really weren't buying Wii games enmasse because they weren't gamers. Many of those Wii owners, and I'd estimate the majority, are not going to replacing the Wii with another gaming device.

 

[goonergaz]

I don't believe the sales differential between Wii and Wii U will translate into significant numbers for Microsoft and Sony this gen.

Anecdotal but I know so many people who never had any interest in games but bough a Wii because it was one of those weird cultural fads. It wasn't a fad in gaming but a wider fad that briefly captured the attention of non-gamers helped in part because of the activity/fitness connotations. But beyond Wii Sports people really weren't buying Wii games enmasse because they weren't gamers. Many of those Wii owners, and I'd estimate the majority, are not going to replacing the Wii with another gaming device.

not only that but the Wii was super-cheap so you had many who owned Wii60 & PSWii

 

[-tkf-]

They are reaching their smallest audience ever. Isn't that the definition of decreasing relevance? Irrespective of quality, if they aren't reaching people and aren't shaping the landscape, they aren't relevant, at least in the mainstream definition. One could argue Nintendo are more relevant to their audience than ever, although I doubt that's possible to prove. Reduced sales of hardware would paint a contrary picture.

Are they really? Sure they have a WII U that isn't doing mindblowing well, but they have what i would consider a ok sized Audience with 13 million sold Pokemon games on the 3DS (handheld i know) and there is plenty of other big sellers on that system.

It seems to me that they have a big Audience, the issue is getting the WII U into those hands, they imho failed with idea of a Tablet Controller, they took the DS idea and made it even bigger, but it wasn´t the dual screen that made the DS a hit (imho) it was price and games.

What they need is to price the WII U according to it´s market position and Audience (WII U 2DS?), drop the price, get the Audience back, and keep on building those games that simply can't be had anywhere else.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Are they really?

Presently, yes. You may be right that they can sell to lots more, but in terms of numbers, Nintendo's console is the weakest ever and their handheld, although doing okay, is not doing as well as previous handhelds. So their audience is now their smallest audience, certainly proportion wise. Apple and Google have more relevance for (casual) mobile gamers than Nintendo now, eating into Nintendo's former piece of pie.

 

[Arwin]

I would expect at least a minimum of 40 million Wii U sold by the end of the generation unless they kill it early or they fail to drop the price any further.

 

[Rangers]

I would expect at least a minimum of 40 million Wii U sold by the end of the generation unless they kill it early or they fail to drop the price any further.

No current sales suggest this...they suggest more like a struggle to reach 20 million.

Consider Xbox and Gamecube sold around 25 million, Wii U doesn't seem nearly as popular as those.