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Wii U selling bad?

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  • I think the Wii U certainly has potential and a future ahead of it. I think that perhaps one of the biggest things going against the Wii U right now is gamer’s decisions to wait and see what Sony and Microsoft are going to bring to the table. $300-$350 may not be the most expensive price tags that home consoles have had attached to them, but it’s still expensive. To the best of my knowledge, these are the most expensive price points of any Nintendo console. And if this past generation is any indication as to what the pricing may be for Sony and Microsoft’s next offerings, you know there’s a chance that they will be priced higher than the Wii U.

    I think that there are those who want the facts before making a decision. There are gamers who want to know everything that the PS4 and next Xbox will be able to do and how expensive they’ll be before they choose which next gen console they want to purchase. I think that once E3 has come and gone and gamers know more about the next PlayStation and Xbox, know more about upcoming Wii U games, and then once a bit more time has passed and the new consoles are on store shelves and new Wii U games are available, I think we just may see a rise in Wii U sales.

    Let’s face it, depending on the type of gamer you are and the games that interest you, there may not be many if any games that can cause you to justify spending $300+ on a new console. Gamers may like Mario games and think that New Super Mario Bros. U looks fun, but it may not sit with them as a truly next gen game in comparison to a 3D Mario game along the lines of Super Mario 64 and the Galaxy series. Then there’s the fact that some or most third party games are ports of games that have already been released on current gen consoles. A stronger line up of both first party and third party games should help Wii U sales.

  • The Wii U has two problems, one of which generally plagues every new console and platform.


    1.  This is the one that always happens--early generational drought.  Think of it two ways--there are console generations, and within those, are release generations which are roughly annual around the console itself.  Every new console--INCLUDING the X360, 3DS, Vita, and PS3--tends to go through a first-year/first-generation drought where only a few brave developers and publishers are actively backing the system, others are still finishing their initial entry products, and the bulk of the releases were mashed into the release window--or very delayed.  

    First gen releases are ALMOST NEVER the defining titles for a new console, and most consoles do not see their first major releases until the second, sophomore, generation--the start of Year Two.  Look back--this is when Gears of War and Halo 3 launched on the X360.  This is when Metroid Prime launched on the GameCube.  This is when the first truly system-selling, console-defining titles start rolling out.

    This happens to all consoles, and will happen to the Durango and PS4 at this time next year. The Wii U will recover, and I have a feeling that Nintendo has some very big guns to blast at E3 this time around--Retro has been quiet for too long, the new Smash Bros will finally be shown, we might get a release date and new footage of Monolith Soft's "X" game, and Nintendo themselves have hinted at new titles for late 2013 that haven't been announced yet.


    2.  This is the big one--Nintendo.  Nintendo poured money into backing, promoting, and advertising the Wii and because of this, the Wii was foremost on the minds of consumers.  They have failed at properly or consistently promoting the Wii U.  Advertising has been sparse and, to some, apparently confusing.  Nintendo also has a habit of not promoting 3rd party wares for their machines, which has never been helpful.  Sony ran pretty consistent ads for the PS3 each showing off 2-6 general PS3 titles, which gave a very good impression of what was available on it.



    And that's it.  Those are the only reasons it's sales are so low right now.  The Wii U's launch library isn't bad for as young as it is, but better advertising would make up for any supposed lull in releases.  After all, the N64 survived, and it had the worst initial dry spell of pretty much any console ever.

  • Pikmin 3 is why I am buying the Wii U.

  • i think its because people feel its not really a next gen console vs whats coming out, and I think most people are going to buy a xb1 or ps4 first. The wii might do better later after a price drop when people have some extra cash to burn. They would do well to drop price when or before the real next gen consoles come out. Im sure the future of the console will be ok though. Its just growing very slowly.


    I personally have not liked Nintendos consoles and methods since the Wii came out, however in the last 3 weeks Ive seen some games that look like thye could be some fun. Like for the right price and when the right games are out like zelda or a metroid and all the stuff from e3, I think might actually even buy a WiiU, somehting I never thought would happen. but never for its current price. Nintendo themselves have established that their consoles are cheap but fun. They cannot charge more than 299 for a console I think. They should got some real hardware and not last gen in the console if they wanted to do that.


    Imagine the hardware in the WiiU was the same as xb1 and ps4, and it released last year for 299 or even its current price. It woulda sold HARD and nintendo would have stranglehold on next gen already. Instead they cheaped out on everyone and this is the result. Both devs and consumers are not so interested. I personally feel like id be getting ripped off. That kid in the picture is the perfect reason why. The console is made for him. Not me unfortunately. Nintendo has abandoned me as a gamer since the Wii....

  • not everyone has 300$ for a new console,i think people are going to wait till theres plenty of games they want to play on that console,like me im waiting for smash bros,a new zelda,and mario kart.

    im guessing things will pick up soon,they got somthing planed for this console.

  • @chiefslayer Couldn't agree more. I remember when the Wii U was first out, I never planned to get it. When I saw the youtube vids of it just out of curiousity, I couldn't understand what it was. I felt the same way when the original Wii came out because it felt like they just turned their console into a gimmick machine for kids and casual gamers. It was embarrassing to me and that memory stayed in my mind when the Wii U came out so I thought it would most likely just be another gimmick machine. Why aren't those same people buying Wii U's? Maybe because there's the big boom of tablets now and because casuals don't seem like the most devoted gamers so it's not like they were gunna stay devoted to Nintendo.

    All they needed to do was make good games and with good enough hardware that others would want to make games for their system. They didn't need cheap gimmicks and they still don't because they have good games but they really need more games and it seems like insanity to just rely on a few franchises to keep a console going.

  • 1 The exciting features are just gimmicks the same as Kinect a lot of people don't care about gimmicks

    2 The WiiU doesn't have the best graphics and being that a lot of people care about graphics so much that probably contributes to it not doing so well

    3 It does not have the greatest library of games at the moment certainly not enough to warrant spending a couple hundred dollars in this economy

    4 Gameplay and stories while the WiiU games have fun gameplay the stories compared to the games on the 360,ps3 and soon for the xbone and ps4 are kinda bland. Mario is saving peach for the 50th time, Mario is racing with his friends, link is going to fight ganondorf for the 20th time. Nintendo needs to stop relying on Mario and Zelda to gain sales.

  • @chaosknight22 Well yeah a lot of people don't care about gimmicks though a lot did with the original Wii.

    I'll never understand everyone with their obsession over "realistic" graphics. Good graphics can come in more forms than just making things look as realistic as possible.

    The bad thing about all these systems is that they mostly only cater to a certain type of gamer. PS4 and Xbone are for the more "hardcore" (as much as I hate that term) gamers while the Wii U is more for casual gamers. That's how it seems anyway. I don't know about the PS4 and Xbone (since I don't own either) but one thing that always irritated me about the PS3 and 360 was that it was as if it belonged to one person and one person alone. "Wanna play online with your buddy sitting next to you? Too bad, but you can still play offline even though it sucks." That's pretty much how those two systems felt to me and I doubt PS4 and Xbone will be any different so if I want a PS4 and to be able to play online with someone I live with, I need to buy another $400 system, which is ridiculous. Nintendo however seems to embrace good old fashion couch coop but at the expense of online. I wish they would offer both for all games that are multiplayer but that's not happening.

    It's no doubt that Wii U needs more games but it's good that it's backwards compatible whether or not many people care for Wii games.

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