Nintendo Admits The Wii U Is A Failure
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It's been a year of console wars. While one could spend hours debating the victor, the loser has been obvious for quite some time, and Nintendo seems to finally be realizing that its Wii U is never going to be the most popular kid on the playground.
The company announced Friday that it is slashing sales projections by almost 70 percent. It now expects sales of only 2.8 million Wii U units for the fiscal year ending in March, as opposed to the company's earlier projection of 9 million.
By contrast, 4.2 million Playstation 4 and 3 million Xbox One units have sold since both consoles launched in November 2013.
Software sales for the Wii U were also halved from an expected 38 million to 19 million.
The company's failure to reach its target marks a third consecutive annual loss. Instead of the 100 billion yen profit ($958.5 million) expected, Nintendo now expects to post a 35 billion yen loss (about $335.5 million).
The successor to the extremely popular 2006 Wii console, the Wii U broke new ground by adding a second screen to the console experience. However, competition from more convenient cell phones and tablets for mobile gaming and more powerful consoles for experienced gamers left the Wii U with no distinguishing factors to set it apart from the competition.
The company's attempts to bolster Wii U sales with big title releases like "The Legend of Zelda: The Windwaker" and "Super Mario 3D World" were moderately successful. But even a $50 price cut in September of 2013 to $299 couldn't supply the success the console needed.
Nintendo's 3DS, while still popular and successful in Japan, where it sold 4.9 million of its projected 5 million units, has also taken a hit in American markets, according to Nintendo President Satoru Iwata. As a result, 3DS sales projections were cut from 18 million to 13.5 million units globally.
The original Wii is a continued success for the company, albeit a small one. Projections were raised from 2 million units to 2.6 million units.
In light of these dismal sales figures and muted hopes for the coming year, the question remains whether Nintendo will continue to survive off it's mega franchises like Zelda and Mario, as The Verge suggests it will, or if it will change its strategy to adjust to the consumer market. Only time -- and the coming year's sales -- will tell.
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I was thinking about getting a wii at some point. haven't bought a Nintendo product since the ds came out. If it hits $150 I'll cop one
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Nintendo losing because they marketing sucks. I never heard ? about the wii u until I got on this site.
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Inb4 @Sion
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have to buy a 3ds asap or a 2ds
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Just dead hardware altogether, they might create a new console in 2016/17 but there's no point. If companies are losing money on hardware and you're moving 4x the amount of games per console I say just go digital altogether. Nobody not Sony not Microsoft can compete in creating games, they just don't have the franchises, the team or the money to create gaming franchises as thorough as Nintendo's. If you're worried about mobile gaming, get rid of hardware and just sell your games across all platforms SMMFH. They'd make far more money doing that.
Can you imagine if Pokemon were available on mobile devices ? Maaaaaannnnn
At some point in the next 10 years hardware is going to be obsolete, it's estimated that by 2015/2016 80% of the general population in North America will have mobile device/smartphones or tablets that will enable internet access. At least by going digital you take away what makes Sony & Microsoft so strong - their reliance on hardware.
LMFAO no they won't. People need to stop with that ? . It's one of the most illogical things. There was a financial analysis posted on GAF a while back. In it it was pointed out that in order for Nintendo to make the same amount of profit they make on software right now on mobile they'd have to sell like over half a billion copies per title. That ? would be a disaster. Furthermore the mobile market has seen no increase in terms of sales of software published last year. The best selling mobile apps and games from last year were released in 2012. That market has already peaked.
Hardware has always been "obsolete" in the sense that game consoles are always 2 steps behind PC's in terms of specs. People gassed off tech that PC gamers grew sick of four years ago with the new consoles. Hardware will be around. You need a hub or base to centralize digital transactions in. It will be media boxes which is why PS4 and Xbox One are built the way they are and no longer just dedicated game consoles but they're not going anywhere for decades to come.
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Conversely, this isn't much diff't than when the Gamecube dropped and was going up against the PS2s and Xboxes of the world. It didn't sell all that well either. Sony & MS will sell more hardware than them for sure but I wouldn't say it's "the end". Nobody is selling more games than Nintendo, at the end of the day, aint what this about ? Shhhiiiieeeeeettttt
Nintendo's is not just having trouble making hardware projections. They've had issues hitting targeted software projections as well. This really is something that they can't no longer ignore. Big changes will have to be made to their business strategy this year. This is a year where the pressure will finally be on them hard and that's not a bad thing. They needed the wake up call. These are harsh lessons they need to learn before proceeding with their next platform which I'm sure is already well into development.
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but focus said the sales were up 300%
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Time to license these characters!!!
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They need to make an M-rated game using all the classic Nintendo characters. That would be wicked.
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Conversely, this isn't much diff't than when the Gamecube dropped and was going up against the PS2s and Xboxes of the world. It didn't sell all that well either. Sony & MS will sell more hardware than them for sure but I wouldn't say it's "the end". Nobody is selling more games than Nintendo, at the end of the day, aint what this about ? Shhhiiiieeeeeettttt
Nintendo's is not just having trouble making hardware projections. They've had issues hitting targeted software projections as well. This really is something that they can't no longer ignore. Big changes will have to be made to their business strategy this year. This is a year where the pressure will finally be on them hard and that's not a bad thing. They needed the wake up call. These are harsh lessons they need to learn before proceeding with their next platform which I'm sure is already well into development.
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Um...Super Smash Bros ain't even out yet. They need to wait for that ? before they declare anything. Mad people only getting they systems for those games...like me. ? is stupid to just declare ? before they even release their biggest money maker.
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Outside of the main Mario series Smash Bros isn't their biggest money maker. Mario Kart is. Though that one has yet to drop as well.
I haven't bought a Wii U yet only because of the price. One more price drop and they'll get my bucks with that platform. Personally even though there are a bunch of games I already want on Wii U the game that will completely solidify my purchase once and for all price drop or no price drop is Mario Kart 8. Everything else is just an awesome bonus. -
Nintendo will never license out their IP's. They're worth billions of dollars in the first place because they never took that route. Nintendo is a video game company only. This isn't Sony or Microsoft where they could go without creating an Xbox and Playstation and still survive as entities. Nintendo's hardware revenue is key to their businesses bottom line. They will destroy one of their biggest income streams ever if they put their software on hardware that isn't theirs in the first place. It's not realistic.
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Conversely, this isn't much diff't than when the Gamecube dropped and was going up against the PS2s and Xboxes of the world. It didn't sell all that well either. Sony & MS will sell more hardware than them for sure but I wouldn't say it's "the end". Nobody is selling more games than Nintendo, at the end of the day, aint what this about ? Shhhiiiieeeeeettttt
Nintendo's is not just having trouble making hardware projections. They've had issues hitting targeted software projections as well. This really is something that they can't no longer ignore. Big changes will have to be made to their business strategy this year. This is a year where the pressure will finally be on them hard and that's not a bad thing. They needed the wake up call. These are harsh lessons they need to learn before proceeding with their next platform which I'm sure is already well into development.
@Broddie good post fam !!!! I'm just vexed is all LOLOLOLOLOLOL
Only thing I will say tho is that some day I really do think the hardware-console will be replaced. Other than that good post I haven't looked at Nintendo's numbers in full yet.
It does seem tho that tech companies all over are feeling the pinch and are taking a beating. Great analysis on the mobile market peaking. I did feel last year as tho it wasn't as big a deal as people were making it out to be. Thanks for keepin em honest and clarifying.
Because of high speed internet not being such a commonality worldwide still and people being conditioned to always have physical electronics around it will be quite a while before people just rely on straight up baseless internet transactions as the norm. More than a decade I think. I could be wrong but it just doesn't seem like something that will happen that fast. People were saying consoles wouldn't be around by this point last gen and here we are still in the honeymoon of the release of 2 powerhouse consoles within the last season.
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I got the windwaker bundle its goat all I have is Mario 3d world right now. I just wish there was more 3rd party support.
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SuperSoaker wrote: »I got the windwaker bundle its goat all I have is Mario 3d world right now. I just wish there was more 3rd party support.
There won't be....
