Wii U retail impressions?

[Strange]

Nah I checked ebay yesterday and the basic is trading at ~ 320 USD and the premium trading at around 420 USD.


Actually a quick search resulted in this


Nintendo Wii U (Latest Model) - Basic Set 8 GB White Console

Item condition: New
Ended: Nov 19, 2012 09:50:58 PST
Winning bid: US $335.99 [ 7 bids ]
Shipping: Varies based on location and shipping method
Item location: Star, Idaho, United States

trading prices on 19th ending at $335 is a good sign that there is high availability and relatively crappy demand.



Basic models right now have buy it now prices of around $360 (which means very little) while
Premium models have buy it now prices of around $460

I generally don't look at "buy it now" prices as they mean nothing. The seller can sell it at a million bucks if he wants.

giving the auction a closer look and finding completed listings you see a much more gloomier picture in which basic models are ending at around $330~360 basic and $410~450 premium

Comparing that to the $300 basic and $350 for premium official prices, auction prices are right now at pretty much break even point for these sellers after taxes and fees.

 

[Grall]

Amazon and nintendo have had some kind of long-standing spat over Idon'tknowwhat. They (meaning amazon) even refused to carry much of nintendo's wares, both hardware and software, up until quite recently or somesuch.

Low sales on amazon doesn't have to mean diddly really with this in mind. Let's wait for some more reliable sales metric, if nothing else then ninty themselves will have to release some kind of PR eventually.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

Just because some are up on eBay for high prices doesn't mean they actually sell as well.

We have a yearly electronic music festival here and in the second or third year all the weekly tickets sold out in advance so people were buying them at two or even three times the original price.
Next year a lot of people bought extra tickets in the hope of selling them, but demand turned out to be lower and they were stuck, trying to sell at half the price in the end.

Now let's remember how the Wii was impossible to get for months, just as the PS3 - makes sense that some people with superficial knowledge are trying to bank on this once again, but demand could be once again low.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Now let's remember how the Wii was impossible to get for months, just as the PS3 - makes sense that some people with superficial knowledge are trying to bank on this once again, but demand could be once again low.

That's what I'd expect. People would have preordered Wii U's hoping to sell them on and make an easy buck. If demand is then low, the price on eBay should be kept around RRP; conversely, high demand should see the eBay price increase. That's why eBay value should be a broad barometer for launch demand. It would appear that article was a little premature in its conclusion if the current sale value is about RRP. Certainly there isn't the huge demand we have seen with other consoles, which signifies a weaker start for Wii U.

 

[BRiT]

Nah I checked ebay yesterday and the basic is trading at ~ 320 USD and the premium trading at around 420 USD.

giving the auction a closer look and finding completed listings you see a much more gloomier picture in which basic models are ending at around $330~360 basic and $410~450 premium

Comparing that to the $300 basic and $350 for premium official prices, auction prices are right now at pretty much break even point for these sellers after taxes and fees.

This was pretty much what I saw when I looked on Thanksgiving as well. Most of the auctions for the premiums ended around $410-$420 but did not met the seller's reserve price.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

Looks like this console should have been called Gamecube 2 instead... It'll have a hard time selling more than 30 million units throughout its life. Nintendo needs some killer apps desperately, ASAP.

 

[Strange]

Looks like this console should have been called Gamecube 2 instead... It'll have a hard time selling more than 30 million units throughout its life. Nintendo needs some killer apps desperately, ASAP.

I'm not sure even that will save the WiiU.

That's basically offloading the risk to the developers.

 

[Grall]

If wuu bombs, that most certainly means canning Iwata, and at least I have a lot of respect for the man because he's a hardware engineer originally and not a heartless suit, and a very long-standing employee who's been with the company since the early Game&Watch days IIRC.

...On the other hand, his engineering background did not stop him and the company from taking many seriously bad decisions regarding what ent into the wuu, both hardware and software-wise, so maybe he's not the best man to lead the company (anymore.) On the other hand again, who is? Surely some purebred suit would be appointed instead and I don't know what such a person would do in an institution like nintendo, or how well he could fit in really. On the other hand, Iwata's predecessor, that walking, talking mummie Yamauchi (who's as ancient as the pharaohs of ancient Egypt, and probably still lives in some mausoleum-like mansion somewhere!) was a businessman through and through.

...Of course, he made plenty bad decisions too over the years, the biggest undoubtedly being pissing off/stabbing Sony in the back in the early 90s over the SNES CDROM attachment (which as we all recall, never released anyhow.)

 

[TheLump]

If wuu bombs, that most certainly means canning Iwata, and at least I have a lot of respect for the man because he's a hardware engineer originally and not a heartless suit, and a very long-standing employee who's been with the company since the early Game&Watch days IIRC.

...On the other hand, his engineering background did not stop him and the company from taking many seriously bad decisions regarding what ent into the wuu, both hardware and software-wise, so maybe he's not the best man to lead the company (anymore.) On the other hand again, who is? Surely some purebred suit would be appointed instead and I don't know what such a person would do in an institution like nintendo, or how well he could fit in really. On the other hand, Iwata's predecessor, that walking, talking mummie Yamauchi (who's as ancient as the pharaohs of ancient Egypt, and probably still lives in some mausoleum-like mansion somewhere!) was a businessman through and through.

...Of course, he made plenty bad decisions too over the years, the biggest undoubtedly being pissing off/stabbing Sony in the back in the early 90s over the SNES CDROM attachment (which as we all recall, never released anyhow.)

Hmmm, I don't think they'd can him. He's been in charge of the release of two of the greatest money spinners in gaming: Wii and the DS series. He's basically overseen Nintendo's rise from the remains of the underperforming GC (which I maintain would have been twice as successful had it not had a handle and not been purple....and not originally called StarCube) to the company raking in a shed load of cash.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Hmmm, I don't think they'd can him. He's been in charge of the release of two of the greatest money spinners in gaming: Wii and the DS series.

Sounds like Kutaragi to me. Regardless of a person's legacy, if they're no longer good for the job, they have to go for the sake of the business. Not saying Iwata should - I have no opinion there.

 

[Arwin]

Too early to call failure. We've heard it so many times before. Nintendo brainwashes many at a young age, and keeps enough. They need to suddenly completely fail at creating compelling exclusives. 3DS didn't have a great launch. DS not either to be honest. But they're fine.

 

[TheLump]

Sounds like Kutaragi to me. Regardless of a person's legacy, if they're no longer good for the job, they have to go for the sake of the business. Not saying Iwata should - I have no opinion there.

Of course business comes first - but that's just it: even if WiiU bombs hard his pros outweigh his cons. He'll have earned another shot simply by being responsible for keeping Nintendo relevant after its late 90's woes.

He might step down, but I don't think they'll shove him out the door.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

Was the Gamecube a failure? And Nintendo survived it and made a very strong comeback with the Wii. Now they have all the money they made on that machine, so their position is probably much better than it was after the N64. Even if they only sell about 25 million units, they'll survive and have another chance to release a better console. 5 years from now would still be a good time to catch up to X3/PS4.

 

[joker454]

Still can't understand that tiny battery, when there is so much room to put a proper one in.

Maybe this is by design. Nintendo machines to me are designed for young kids, not for adults. So in this case the amount the kids play can be kept in check. They play for 2 to 3 hours, then the battery runs out. That's it, no more Wii U play time for tonight, they need to go do something else. From that point of view it's cool in that it puts a finite control on how long young kids spend on the console, rather than letting young kids have marathon gaming sessions which to me anyways is kinda wrong. I'm not a parent, but if I was I actually wouldn't mind the lower controller battery life to be honest. The kids can play a bit, then off to go read a book or go play outside once the battery is dead.

 

[ninzel]

Some hands on impressions.
Full disclosure: I don't own the Wiiu and my time with it was limited in time and scope.
I played around with it at a demo kiosk at Best Buy and the picture was only displayed on the WiiuPad.
All the Deluxe sets were sold out but there were two Basic sets left.
1. Controller was much lighter than I expected.
2. Primary game play buttons felt good and were pretty much the same is Wii.
No ergonomic issues,all the buttons and and shoulder pads were easy to reach and fell to hand fine. I felt that the secondary shoulder pads(l2 r2) were too close to the top ones. My fingers felt a little cramped and I wish they were more meaty and had more depth. Also wish the tops of the thumbsticks were larger.
3. One issue that did crop up was when I tried to to click down on the thumbsticks. My fingers would slip off the shoulder pads and loose grip.
Felt like I had to keep adjusting my grip. Don't have the same problem with PS3 or 360 controllers.
4. The secondary buttons like Home or TV were flush with the surface which meant you had to look down and push harder on them to select. They were probably set flush to avoid accidentally hitting them during gameplay. Would prefer them bigger.
5. The screen seems smaller than I expected.
6. No issues with the screen in terms of touch or graphics.
Everything was perfectly legible and selected fine while going though menus.
No lag.
7. The surface looks matte vs real shiny like my Ipad2. The UI has a soft look but when switching to content like game demo it sharpened. Resolution is fine for it's size.
8. I couldn't see myself playing a complex detailed game on the Pad. Just not enough real estate to see everything well,might be fine in pinch.
9. Touch screen seems "nice to have" but can't see it as "must have" at this point.
I use my Ipad more than my Macbook and it's nice to have the added comfort and convenience of a touch screen for the same reason why touch is nice on any device.
Not a buy for me just yet. I would consider buying a Deluxe at $250.

 

[Rangers]

About ebay sales/prices, I can attest as one who used to flip a few things on ebay, Wii u prices currently would be difficult to make a profit on. Be aware that in my experience ebay+paypal+auction fees generally add up to 12-13% of the selling price. So on a $450 Wii U Deluxe sale thats somewhere around $50. Then, if you the buyer paid sales tax on that Wii U, thats another ~8% where I live. Then if you provide free shipping, thats another 10-15 bucks out of your pocket.

Whats weirder to me is that ebay Wii U's are fetching even a modest premium at all. Since according to Wal Mart stock checker, almost all the Wal Marts near me still have Wii U deluxe in stock as of 5 PM friday.

I guess two things, it's regional variation, some pockets of the country are apparently sold out others not. And also, you dont pay sales tax on ebay. Which means you can pay up to ~$380 on ebay and it's the same cost as if you bought a Wii U in a store.

 

[Exophase]

Maybe this is by design. Nintendo machines to me are designed for young kids, not for adults. So in this case the amount the kids play can be kept in check. They play for 2 to 3 hours, then the battery runs out. That's it, no more Wii U play time for tonight, they need to go do something else. From that point of view it's cool in that it puts a finite control on how long young kids spend on the console, rather than letting young kids have marathon gaming sessions which to me anyways is kinda wrong. I'm not a parent, but if I was I actually wouldn't mind the lower controller battery life to be honest. The kids can play a bit, then off to go read a book or go play outside once the battery is dead.

Surely if this was the motivation they could implement a time limit via parental controls on the main unit. Or the parents could just go over and turn the thing off.

 

[Exophase]

Was the Gamecube a failure? And Nintendo survived it and made a very strong comeback with the Wii. Now they have all the money they made on that machine, so their position is probably much better than it was after the N64. Even if they only sell about 25 million units, they'll survive and have another chance to release a better console. 5 years from now would still be a good time to catch up to X3/PS4.

Take a look at their stock value over the past several years:

http://investing.money.msn.com/inve...0&DC=0&D9=0&DA=0&D1=0&symbol=NTDOY&SZ=0&PT=11

Wii's success gave them a huge upward climb from its release to 2008, where it suddenly fell off a cliff as no one wanted to buy Wiis anymore. In 2011 it then started taking another deep dive, probably not helped by the 3DS pricing stunt Nintendo pulled. Their stock value is actually now a little lower than it was when Gamecube came out, I think that makes them not as strong as you think they are.

Still, 25m units is a pretty modest goal for Nintendo, surely they can manage that much on the strength of their first party games alone. Gamecube didn't, but the market is much bigger now than it was then, particularly the European market where Nintendo first party games sell well.

 

[Brad Grenz]

About ebay sales/prices, I can attest as one who used to flip a few things on ebay, Wii u prices currently would be difficult to make a profit on. Be aware that in my experience ebay+paypal+auction fees generally add up to 12-13% of the selling price. So on a $450 Wii U Deluxe sale thats somewhere around $50. Then, if you the buyer paid sales tax on that Wii U, thats another ~8% where I live. Then if you provide free shipping, thats another 10-15 bucks out of your pocket.

Whats weirder to me is that ebay Wii U's are fetching even a modest premium at all. Since according to Wal Mart stock checker, almost all the Wal Marts near me still have Wii U deluxe in stock as of 5 PM friday.

I guess two things, it's regional variation, some pockets of the country are apparently sold out others not. And also, you dont pay sales tax on ebay. Which means you can pay up to ~$380 on ebay and it's the same cost as if you bought a Wii U in a store.

It does seem like eBay sales at this point must be going to people too lazy or ignorant to realize how readily available they are at retail. Maybe on Sunday you might've paid a price above retail, but since then it has been clear that new stock keeps coming and demand just isn't there to make them scarce.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I think that's true of eBay in general. When shopping I often find online retailers cheaper than eBay. eBay is more for hard-to-get items or 2nd hand. I'm even more amazed that one eBay seller can list an item at a (much) higher price than the same item from other sellers!