The Wii U sales thread - 220k shipped last quarter

[NickSCFC]

There are 3 crowds they need to appeal to to be successful.

- The Mario/Zelda crowd
- The COD/FIFA crowd
- The Wii Fit/Just Dance crowd

Wii appealed to two of these, Wii U only one.

Ah, but Wii sold 100m I hear you cry. True, but Wii Fit/Just Dance casual audience now has cheap tablets and smartphones vying for their attention.

[Alvin Flummux]

Going for 2/3 of those objectives would seem more sensible than trying to please everyone at once. Obviously, they can't ignore the Mario/Zelda crowd, that'd be unthinkable, so they can either branch out for the casuals or the CoD/FIFA crowd. I'm thinking they're leaning toward the fitness crowd again, since they did just file this fitness controller patent, though it can't be known what (if anything) will become of it:

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2016/0 ... ually_cool

[Victor Mildew]

Wii UU confirmed.

[Pedz]

Tropical freeze was hard, I didn't think about that. I dunno I just didn't think of Ori as a kids game. No idea why.

[Qazwsxedc]

@Ad7 - you're right, the NX will just be a continuation of the Wii U. For those who like that sort of stuff, it'll be great, but I'm tapping out unfortunately. I can't believe Nintendo have fallen so badly, especially given that their SNES still stands as my all time favourite console.

@Pedz - You can buy vinyl copies of Ori's soundtrack at the iam8bit store. It's supposedly a lush package.

[Captain Kinopio]

There are 3 crowds they need to appeal to to be successful.

- The Mario/Zelda crowd
- The COD/FIFA crowd
- The Wii Fit/Just Dance crowd

Wii appealed to two of these, Wii U only one.

Which one of those does the WiiU appeal to?

[Qazwsxedc]

There are 3 crowds they need to appeal to to be successful.

- The Mario/Zelda crowd
- The COD/FIFA crowd
- The Wii Fit/Just Dance crowd

Wii appealed to two of these, Wii U only one.

Which one of those does the WiiU appeal to?

- The Mario/Zelda crowd.

[Captain Kinopio]

1 half arsed Mario and no Zelda I would not qualify as appealing to the Mario/Zelda crowd.

[NickSCFC]

1 half arsed Mario and no Zelda I would not qualify as appealing to the Mario/Zelda crowd.

Maybe, an updated handheld game and another that will be available on another console is a really sad showing.

[Qazwsxedc]

1 half arsed Mario and no Zelda I would not qualify as appealing to the Mario/Zelda crowd.

Whilst I agree with the gist of your argument, I do however think that you're technically incorrect. There have been 2 Mario games (2D and pseudo 3D) as well as 2 Zelda games (both of which are remakes).

Maybe it would have been better to rephrase the "Mario/Zelda" crowd as "Nintendo" instead.

Edit: We did get Mario Kart 8, and that's really good. Maybe the best in the series thus far... I actually bought my Wii U for that game, and Bayo2 softened the blow. But yeah, I'm actually disappointed in Nintendo and my Wii U. And I won't be making that same mistake again...

[Death's Head]

@Ad7 - you're right, the NX will just be a continuation of the Wii U. For those who like that sort of stuff, it'll be great, but I'm tapping out unfortunately. I can't believe Nintendo have fallen so badly, especially given that their SNES still stands as my all time favourite console.

@Pedz - You can buy vinyl copies of Ori's soundtrack at the iam8bit store. It's supposedly a lush package.

You sound like me where the SNES is also my favourite console. Been thinking about this recently though and come to the conclusion that I never really loved Nintendo, only the SNES and this was due to the assortment of 3rd party games available on it. This is why the N64 and GC did little for me, they lacked the 3rd party support. If Nintendo went out of business tomorrow, I don't think I'd actually care.

[Poser]

Wii UU confirmed.

It looks like a sex toy. The Wii DP.

[That]

You shush Q, people don't want to read that and want to live in their Super Mario World where Nintendo continue to do their thing.

Sorry... I wasn't trying to burst any bubbles. I'll go back to my corner now...

This is a pretty weird couple of posts, I don't think anyone is offended by people saying they don't like Nintendo.

I do disagree though, I think trying to appeal to the "COD/FIFA" crowd would be a disaster after going on for two decades of sub-par third party support. That demographic can't remember the last time a Nintendo console had passable third-party support (the N64) let alone good third-party support (the SNES). They're never going to buy the NX as their primary console. It could be a 6000 fps photorealistic quantum supercomputer for £100 and 17 year old boys would still call it "gay."

The market for Nintendo consoles likes their excellent first-party games, like Mario and Zelda; their equally excellent second-party games, like Pokemon and Fire Emblem (Aside: I've always found the definition of second-party kind of awkward. Do Intelligent Systems count? I think they do, but they are still basically just part of Nintendo...); and will go for a certain kind of third party game, like Monster Hunter or Bravely Default. (They could improve, of course, but they aren't actually bad at attracting that kind of third-party game.) A single platform succeeding both the 3DS and Wii U, and achieving a critical density of those games particularly around the launch period and the first year, would do OK. Everyone who owns a Wii U or a 3DS would pick one up, and I think it would attract back some of the GameCube and GBA old guard who might have given the last generation or two a miss.

The measure of success for Nintendo from now on shouldn't be competing with Sony and Microsoft on their own terms. It should be whether they cultivate a profitable ecosystem for their own kind of games, that allows them to continue producing high-quality content for their fans that like "Nintendo-y" stuff at a rate and density that excites and hopefully grows that userbase.

[Qazwsxedc]

@Ad7 - you're right, the NX will just be a continuation of the Wii U. For those who like that sort of stuff, it'll be great, but I'm tapping out unfortunately. I can't believe Nintendo have fallen so badly, especially given that their SNES still stands as my all time favourite console.

@Pedz - You can buy vinyl copies of Ori's soundtrack at the iam8bit store. It's supposedly a lush package.

You sound like me where the SNES is also my favourite console. Been thinking about this recently though and come to the conclusion that I never really loved Nintendo, only the SNES and this was due to the assortment of 3rd party games available on it. This is why the N64 and GC did little for me, they lacked the 3rd party support. If Nintendo went out of business tomorrow, I don't think I'd actually care.

Nintendo did Zelda: A Link To The Past, and that game stands out as my favourite game of all time. So in a way, I would be gutted if Nintendo went out of business tomorrow. They've done some good work, and really do hit it out of the park when they put their mind to it. But alas, they kind of remind me of The Rolling Stones (or any of the other interchangeable legacy bands). There's no fire left in them, and they have nothing left to offer, save for replaying yesterdays hits to a crowd that seem unable to let go of their youth.

I was actually really excited by the Mario 64 reveal, and it's a shame that the N64 didn't live up to the SNES's legacy. As for the GC... by that point, I'd already given up on them. I knew even then that MS would end up upstaging Nintendo, and Sony looked as if it was continuing what it had started with the PS1.

I don't want to get all Mr Patcher on this forum, but Nintendo haven't done anything to inspire consumer confidence over the last few weeks. And considering that they've had a number of years to right their ship (like Sony did with the PS3), but still refuse to listen to consumer feedback (because Starfox Zero worked out so well for them), then I think it's safe to say that the NX will most likely continue on the same path that Nintendo are charting with the Wii U. I don't care how much money they have, because at the end of the day, they're two-bit nobodies who the vast majority of people don't care about anymore.

I wrote about how Nintendo could turn their fortunes around about two years ago. And it's interesting to note that not only has the company failed to address most of its problems, but has created new ones in the process - http://prankster101.com/articles/how-ca ... one-of-12/

[Qazwsxedc]

You shush Q, people don't want to read that and want to live in their Super Mario World where Nintendo continue to do their thing.

Sorry... I wasn't trying to burst any bubbles. I'll go back to my corner now...

This is a pretty weird couple of posts, I don't think anyone is offended by people saying they don't like Nintendo.

I do disagree though, I think trying to appeal to the "COD/FIFA" crowd would be a disaster after going on for two decades of sub-par third party support. That demographic can't remember the last time a Nintendo console had passable third-party support (the N64) let alone good third-party support (the SNES). They're never going to buy the NX as their primary console. It could be a 6000 fps photorealistic quantum supercomputer for £100 and 17 year old boys would still call it "gay."

The market for Nintendo consoles likes their excellent first-party games, like Mario and Zelda; their equally excellent second-party games, like Pokemon and Fire Emblem (Aside: I've always found the definition of second-party kind of awkward. Do Intelligent Systems count? I think they do, but they are still basically just part of Nintendo...); and will go for a certain kind of third party game, like Monster Hunter or Bravely Default. (They could improve, of course, but they aren't actually bad at attracting that kind of third-party game.) A single platform succeeding both the 3DS and Wii U, and achieving a critical density of those games particularly around the launch period and the first year, would do OK. Everyone who owns a Wii U or a 3DS would pick one up, and I think it would attract back some of the GameCube and GBA old guard who might have given the last generation or two a miss.

The measure of success for Nintendo from now on shouldn't be competing with Sony and Microsoft on their own terms. It should be whether they cultivate a profitable ecosystem for their own kind of games, that allows them to continue producing high-quality content for their fans that like "Nintendo-y" stuff at a rate and density that excites and hopefully grows that userbase.

Yeah... That's all the NX is going to be. A Nintendo-only machine. Great for people who love Nintendo, but actually a really poor value proposition for anyone else.

Nintendo have taken steps that hint at the company making small scale "mobile" games, which obviously implies that the NX won't be a "super-computer" going head to head against PS4 and XBone. And to be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if the NX is only slightly more powerful than the Wii U. There have been no reports of Nintendo ramping up staff numbers to suggest that their forthcoming games will be blockbusters, and with their games not selling bucketloads, it'll be foolish for them to invest more resources into projects that have little chance to recoup.

Nintendo have gone the way of Konami, but with their own proprietary hardware. They might as well be an Ouya at this point.

[DML]

The NX needs to be what the Wii acheived. Appealing to the Nintendo crowd, but having an irresistable gimmick that can't help but get other gamers and peoples intrigue.

[Death's Head]

The NX needs to be what the Wii acheived. Appealing to the Nintendo crowd, but having an irresistable gimmick that can't help but get other gamers and peoples intrigue.

No more gimmicks please.

[DML]

The NX needs to be what the Wii acheived. Appealing to the Nintendo crowd, but having an irresistable gimmick that can't help but get other gamers and peoples intrigue.

No more gimmicks please.

How do they sell their console without one? When I say gimmick it doesn't need to be motion controls, but it HAS to offer something that PS4 and XBone cannot. Otherwise it becomes the dedicated 'Nintendo player' most moan on about.

[Dandy Kong]

I think the number of people who are willing to spend a couple of hundred Euros/Dollars/Pounds on a device to (almost) exclusively play Nintendo first and second party games is declining and will continue to do so.

I still don't see why it would be impossible to have a Nintendo console that appeals both to the Nintendo and the COD/FIFA crowd. The NES and SNES had both great first and third party games. Sure, it's going to be hard for Nintendo to win over third party publishers, but not impossible. Purely the fact that you can play Nintendo games on such a console would be enough to differentiate it from XBox and PlayStation. (Think of the people who had a Wii or Wii U as a 'secondary' console, they would now only need to buy one console).

The casual crowd is lost to dedicated games consoles. They now play (nearly) free games on their smart phones or tablets.

The 'unique control schemes'/gimmick route is a dead end street, I'm afraid.

[Alvin Flummux]

Any attempt to woo third parties is going to have to involve three things, which have already been covered thoroughly around here:

1. Mega easy development.
Nobody's going to touch the New Nintendo if it's not easy to get into developing for. Ideally, learning how to develop for one company's system should make working on all the others of the same generation a doddle. This means conforming to the architectures of rival companies' products - not something Nintendo has a great history of, let's face it.

2. System power at least comparable to rival platforms, if not greater.
So that third party ports can at least look as snazzy as the originals. Extra power is only really necessary if Nintendo wants the graphics whore crowd, but the GCN is evidence enough that power isn't a selling point on its own.

3. A competent online strategy.
Given how big a component of gaming is online nowadays, a solid strategy here is a must. That means doing things other companies are already doing - Netflix-style VC, Xbox Live things, Trophies, etc. If the online play portion of the service can remain free of charge, even better for them. Being unafraid of online cross-play with people playing the same games on rival formats would be even better.


Controller gimmicks are really all that has set Nintendo apart from the competition since the Wii road was taken, ten years ago, allowing them to eschew raw power in favor of new, off the wall designs that get people's attention in different ways to just graphical fidelity. I think that it's well past time to take those gimmicks and refine them to perfection, using the Pro controller as the base standard, selling the gimmicks separately, as well as packaging them with certain deluxe bundles. Meanwhile, raw system power can be elevated to rival-comparable or better levels, more cheaply because more resources will be going into that than controller gimmickry.

Given that the next handheld and console will be sharing an OS ecosystem, and that the handheld will be capable of running the home console's games (albeit perhaps with some minor asset downgrades), we should probably expect that the Gamepad's ethos will inhabit the new gen console/handheld's linked relationship, rather than take the form of a new controller. They may also release a new Gamepad peripheral too, I guess - half as cheap or more than the old Gamepad, but without the internal doodads allowing real Gameboy/3DS play anywhere portability. An actual legacy controller. I could also see them release a Pro controller taking a leaf out of Sony's book, having a small touch screen integrated into the Pro's center, allowing for simplistic inventory management, map viewing etc. Basically, adding a screen to the DS4's touch pad.

Meanwhile, the Wiimote will probably evolve into a more TV remotey piece of kit, not unlike the remotes Sony and MS have for their platforms. Add in a refined nun-chuk and you've got a nice little pack-in bonus.