Wii Sales: Less Than Meets the Eye

[fearsomepirate]

The console itself has been selling like hotcakes. In Japan, it's clobbering the PS2, which in turn is outselling the PS3 and X360. In the US, it's more of a neck-and-neck type race. And as new shipments of the thing sell out almost instantaneously at a price that B3Ders think is crazy high, it's obviously a very high-demand item. But the games arne't selling. Oh sure, if you look at VGcharts, 3rd party games have mostly bombed. Godfather tanked, Sonic was ignored in Japan but did OK in the US, Elebits was a colossal failure, and so on. This is what a lot of people expected, but the real news is 1st-party software. In Japan, Twilight Princess is the worst-selling Zelda of all time, selling under a half-million units on the Wii (Windwaker sold 2.6m). Warioware sold less than 1/3 the Gamecube version, which was merely a port of the GBA game. Fire Emblem bombed as well. The new Pokemon battle game sold around a quarter million units...down from 2 million on the Gamecube. Almost the same thing has happened in the USA, with the exception that Twilight Princess outsold Wind Waker (GC and Wii combined) and did fairly well in Europe, too. But almost nothing is hitting the top ten charts in any country, except...

Wii Sports and Wii Play. That's about it.

This is not just a case of "Nintendo gamers don't buy 3rd-party games," because they're not lining up to buy Nintendo games, either. My theory: the problem with all these non-gamers is, well, they're not really interested in video games in general. They're interested in Wii Sports. Wii Play is artificially high because of the controller. I think that "hardcore" gamers aren't picking up the Wii as fast, and when they do, they might mess around with a few games, but their money is more likely to go to the Virtual Console and whatever platforms they own (PS2 or 360) because the big-production games are there...or released there first, often without broken controls.

So will it turn around? Or is Wii in everyone's mind just a platform for playing legacy games legally and the occasional quirky minigame collection?

 

[Beafy]

Wasn't there a Nintendo press release stating an attachment rate of about 5:1? Even if you discount Wii Sports and Wii Play, 3:1 still ain't too shabby...

 

[Natoma]

I've given up trying to make any predictions on what the Wii will and will not do at this point. Frankly everyone that has made predictions (usually negative) have generally ended up with egg on their faces.

I will say one thing though. The Wii is starting off like the DS did in 2004. It took about a year before Nintendo's products and the 3rd party products really started using the system's capabilities.

So, short answer is, "We'll see." And I'm sticking to it.

 

[Todd33]

I asked the EB sales guy (who owns a Wii) what he plays, he said mostly virtual console games. Many of the games were $19.99, including Far Cry. That's a pretty fast drop in price for new games, which means they bombed. They could have released a motion sensing add-on for the GC and bundled it for $100, instead they seem to be milking people for $250 and the people like it, no accounting for taste...

Maybe when my kids are older and the Wii 2 is HD I might by another Nintendo system.

 

[Natoma]

Wasn't there a Nintendo press release stating an attachment rate of about 5:1? Even if you discount Wii Sports and Wii Play, 3:1 still ain't too shabby...

Yea that was from their financial statement.

Btw, if you discount Wii Sports and Wii Play, you have a higher attach ratio than 3:1. There were 5.84m Wii's sold through March 31st, with 6 million shipped. Wii Sports sold about 1.5 million copies worldwide, and Wii Play is right behind it with around 1.1 million. 5:1 means that 29.2 million copies of Wii software were sold. Subtract Wii Sports and Wii Play and your attach rate is 4.6.

That means that there is a lot of 3rd party software being sold out there.

 

[PatrickL]

Last MC sales there were only 2 wii games in the top 50 if you discount wii sport and wii play. Not a good number really but not a lot of good games out yet.
In the same chart there were zero PS3 or 360 games in the top 50 too .....

 

[Natoma]

I asked the EB sales guy (who owns a Wii) what he plays, he said mostly virtual console games. Many of the games were $19.99, including Far Cry. That's a pretty fast drop in price for new games, which means they bombed. They could have released a motion sensing add-on for the GC and bundled it for $100, instead they seem to be milking people for $250 and the people like it, no accounting for taste...

Maybe when my kids are older and the Wii 2 is HD I might by another Nintendo system.

It isn't Nintendo's fault that a lot of 3rd parties are repackaging old games and tacking on Wiimote sensing capabilities. Hell, even Nintendo has done that in a few games so far; Zelda for example, which at least is an A game, tacked on sensing or no.

This situation reminds me of the Miyamoto interview with Newsweek a month or so ago. He stated quite bluntly that the reason why 3rd party software has typically not sold so well on Nintendo platforms in recent years is because many 3rd parties assign their 3rd and 4th string teams to develop games.

Basically saying, you're trying to compete against Nintendo's 1st string teams with 3rd and 4th string teams? No wonder 3rd parties have been getting slaughtered.

If they bring their A team to the Wii, it'll sell. Otherwise, they shouldn't expect owners to just buy shovelware. Publishers had to learn the same lesson with the DS.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

But the games arne't selling.

Is it? I read last week Ubi almost sold 1million copies of RS.

but the real news is 1st-party software. In Japan, Twilight Princess is the worst-selling Zelda of all time

Not really suprising. As far as I know Japan never really liked 3d zelda's and with the game launching at the same time as wii its not that strange it didnt sold alot.

Warioware sold less than 1/3 the Gamecube version

I didnt excpect anything else from a half assed mini game game wich sells for the full price around here. I wouldnt even spend 10 bucks on it. Also the small userbase probably helped bad sales.

The new Pokemon battle game sold around a quarter million units

Again, not suprising. Its a shitty game. Just like the N64 en GC version. Only this time there was a really small userbase wich just made it sell even worse.

So will it turn around? Or is Wii in everyone's mind just a platform for playing legacy games legally and the occasional quirky minigame collection?

It will if decent games come out. I dont think it so much a problem of ''non gamers'' buying a Wii but just of bad games. RS sold almost 1:5, so if you make a decent game wich is not some last gen port and do some marketing you can definitly sell plenty. But a port of a last gen game, like godfather (thoug I think its a good game on Wii, the controlls really add something), a crappy mini game game like wario and a half assed pokemon obviously aint gonna cut it. That doesnt has anything to do with Wii our with the people who buy a Wii but purely with the fact that nobody is going to buy crap games by the masses. Not on Wii, not on x360, not on ps3 not on anything.

 

[22psi]

I think the console itself is pretty cool and the control mechanism is out of the box; however, I've played it at a few friends' houses and yes it's pretty fun for get togethers but the games really lack depth. Wario Ware was wacky fun but it's like mini-games, really got bored of it after the first few times around. I don't think I'll get a Wii until some substantial games come out. Right now it's all appeal and lacking in substance for me.

 

[Natoma]

I think the console itself is pretty cool and the control mechanism is out of the box; however, I've played it at a few friends' houses and yes it's pretty fun for get togethers but the games really lack depth. Wario Ware was wacky fun but it's like mini-games, really got bored of it after the first few times around. I don't think I'll get a Wii until some substantial games come out. Right now it's all appeal and lacking in substance for me.

Heh. Sounds like the complaint of any newly launched system. Why the Wii should be any different is anyone's guess.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

I asked the EB sales guy (who owns a Wii) what he plays, he said mostly virtual console games. Many of the games were $19.99, including Far Cry. That's a pretty fast drop in price for new games, which means they bombed. They could have released a motion sensing add-on for the GC and bundled it for $100, instead they seem to be milking people for $250 and the people like it, no accounting for taste...

Maybe when my kids are older and the Wii 2 is HD I might by another Nintendo system.

Well have you ever read the far cry reviews? this game is supposed to be as bad as drinking horse shit tru a straw to put it in VGnerd terms. It looks like a psx game, the controlls seem to suck, and it generally seem to be crap, no wonder it bombs. You can hardly blame Wii for that.

 

[Nesh]

The console itself has been selling like hotcakes. In Japan, it's clobbering the PS2, which in turn is outselling the PS3 and X360. In the US, it's more of a neck-and-neck type race. And as new shipments of the thing sell out almost instantaneously at a price that B3Ders think is crazy high, it's obviously a very high-demand item. But the games arne't selling. Oh sure, if you look at VGcharts, 3rd party games have mostly bombed. Godfather tanked, Sonic was ignored in Japan but did OK in the US, Elebits was a colossal failure, and so on. This is what a lot of people expected, but the real news is 1st-party software. In Japan, Twilight Princess is the worst-selling Zelda of all time, selling under a half-million units on the Wii (Windwaker sold 2.6m). Warioware sold less than 1/3 the Gamecube version, which was merely a port of the GBA game. Fire Emblem bombed as well. The new Pokemon battle game sold around a quarter million units...down from 2 million on the Gamecube. Almost the same thing has happened in the USA, with the exception that Twilight Princess outsold Wind Waker (GC and Wii combined) and did fairly well in Europe, too. But almost nothing is hitting the top ten charts in any country, except...

Wii Sports and Wii Play. That's about it.

This is not just a case of "Nintendo gamers don't buy 3rd-party games," because they're not lining up to buy Nintendo games, either. My theory: the problem with all these non-gamers is, well, they're not really interested in video games in general. They're interested in Wii Sports. Wii Play is artificially high because of the controller. I think that "hardcore" gamers aren't picking up the Wii as fast, and when they do, they might mess around with a few games, but their money is more likely to go to the Virtual Console and whatever platforms they own (PS2 or 360) because the big-production games are there...or released there first, often without broken controls.

So will it turn around? Or is Wii in everyone's mind just a platform for playing legacy games legally and the occasional quirky minigame collection?

Interesting find

 

[Natoma]

Interesting find

Not really. 29.2 million pieces of software were sold for the Wii. ~26.6 million were not Wii Sports or Wii Play. ~24.8 million when you subtract Red Steel and Rayman Raving Rabbids. ~23.5 million when you subtract Zelda.

That's a lot of software sold, i.e. an attach rate of 4. Something is selling on these systems. Could it be said that there aren't that many 1m sellers? Yes. It's a launch system. But it definitely can't be said that software isn't selling.

That's just plain incorrect.

 

[swaaye]

I've seen non-gamers go wowzers over Wii Sports. It's new and guaranteed to excite people. It doesn't last though. Maybe a few hours of fun, and IMO it's only fun if you have people around with you.

If they can get a large number of unique, quality titles out, I'm sure the machine will last. If not, it's going to fizzle out. I haven't really played mine much at all for months now.

One thing I think is worth worry is that there are much more successful party games out there. And honestly, I think Wii is selling as a multiplayer party machine right now. Guitar Hero doesn't need motion sensing to succeed, for example. I don't even see an application for it there. So, I'm not sure what Wii's niche is exactly, and I'm unsure of the real potential of that motion sensing. I can see it as rather useless (or downright annoying) for quite a few genres, actually.

 

[Natoma]

One thing I think is worth worry is that there are much more successful party games out there. And honestly, I think Wii is selling as a multiplayer party machine right now. Guitar Hero doesn't need motion sensing to succeed, for example. So, I'm not sure what Wii's niche is exactly, and I'm unsure of the real potential of that motion sensing. It's rather useless (or downright annoying) for quite a few genres, actually.

Succeed? No. Greatly enhanced? Certainly. http://wii.ign.com/articles/783/783421p1.html

And then there are games like Godfather which everyone who has played it states is a HUGE enhancement over the other versions, because of the motion sensing.

And then there are the comments regarding Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. Apparently the testers of the game have stated that the Wiimote and Nunchuk are extremely close to Keyboard/Mouse playability. Bodes well, particularly after games like Red Steel did a mediocre representation of the controls for a FPS.

 

[Asher]

Succeed? No. Greatly enhanced? Certainly. http://wii.ign.com/articles/783/783421p1.html

Greatly enhanced? Well, that's an opinion thing...

The GH II controller comes with a motion sensor already, BTW...?

 

[Asher]

Not really. 29.2 million pieces of software were sold for the Wii. ~26.6 million were not Wii Sports or Wii Play.

How do you figure this?

There's 1 Wii Sports "sold" per console. How many consoles are there?

How many total Wii Play units were sold?

 

[StefanS]

How do you figure this?

There's 1 Wii Sports "sold" per console. How many consoles are there?

How many total Wii Play units were sold?

Natoma's numbers are wrong:

Wii Sports ~5.125 million units sold: 2.37 (Americas, bundled)+1.47 (Europe, bundled)+1.285 million (sold)

Wii Play: 1.055 million sold in Japan

 

[Natoma]

Bundles don't count toward Attach Rate. That'd be silly if they did. I counted only separate sales of the software.

 

[StefanS]

Bundles don't count toward Attach Rate. That'd be silly if they did. I counted only separate sales of the software.

But they do. There're counted in the software sales category. Unless you do the whole silly monthly attachrate stuff.