Why the low sales for the Wii U?

lindbergh

lindbergh

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According to a number of sources, the Wii U is desperately lacking in sales. So poor are the sales of the Wii U that retailers are now considering to give the console less shelf space and less advertising like what this article said. What could be contributing to the low sales of the Wii U? Could it ever live up to the success of the original Wii? Or would the system go back to what happened to the N64?
 
The Wii U didn't come out the gate like the Wii for a number of reasons; first and foremost being it's name.

The Wii was HIGHLY successful with the casual market, and casual gamers were/are confused about exactly what the WiiU is. This is an industry that's highly reliant on Numbered installments (PlayStation 3, Call of Duty 4, etc) so most of the casual market pretty much considered the WiiU an add on. Not to mention the system was HORRIBLY marketed to the casual base that made it so popular to begin with. You couple that with a completely different control type then what the previous generation had, and no MUST HAVE titles out the gate, and well.. your system is going to have a bad time.

I love my WiiU even though there really isn't a killer app for it at this time. But then again, the 3DS didn't exactly have any must have titles coming out the gate and took awhile to pick up steam. I think by Holiday season of this year the WiiU will have gained decent traction, what with the HD Re- Release of Wind Waker, and other titles like Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem coming out.

You really can't compare the n64 to the WiiU, its more of a comparison to the GameCube if anything.
 
I bought a Wii U first day. Sold it on ebay for a profit... I don't know. I thought it looked interesting, but the fact that it is just an HD Wii doesn't excite me very much. Nintendo is not adapting to the HD nature of today. It will be labeled as a younger person's console than any serious gamers platform of choice.

I am not saying anything bad about it. But, first and foremost there was no Smash Brothers at launch. Nintendo console are only worth it because of first party games and nothing more. Lacking any solid first party Nintendo game is making this a weak contender. When the new Smash Brothers comes out, I will buy a Wii U. Plain and simple. Providing they bring Gynecologist Mario (Pink Dr. Mario) back with the electric pap smear to the face, Lucus makes a return, and they ungimp Samus. Samus was the best in Melee hands down.
 
In a nutshell, I honest think Nintendo knows its fan it's course in America. They have to invest more time into a worthwhile console for people to actually enjoy.
 
Everyone's pretty much right, the wii u is just an up rezzed wii with a new controller so the mainstream already has a feel for the gimmick. Sales will pick up when more first party games are released (next mario galixy/Zelda/SSB) but until then most people (myself included) will just wait until their game is released and hope that there was a price drop.
 
I don't think the price point is unreasonable, but it is unreasonable for the lack of first party support. Sony has been a mixed bag too this generation. The iconic games like Ratchet and Clank and Crash Bandicoot on top of losing exclusivity for a handful of titles (GTA being a big one).

Like I said before, Super Smash Bros would make me go to the store today and buy one. All of the other first party titles they have would just be icing. Zelda better than Twilight Princess would make me happy. Mario Galaxy was good, so something along those lines would be awesome.
 
It has no exclusive software that makes it worth it since most of its games are multiplatform right now. A new Zelda and Mario would fix that...
 
Like all the new consoles, they are just rushing the hardware and forgetting the reason people buy consoles... because of the games! And lately they seem to have problems with that concept. The 3DS and PSVita are suffering from that too, and then people keep nitpicking the little they get and no one is satisfied!
 
I figure it's because it doesn't hit any demographic hard enough. It alienates hardcore gamers because it is just now catching up in terms of power while the next Xbox and PS4 are around the corner, and the casual market isn't as interested because the Wii U doesn't offer a plethora of new features, not to mention the advent of mobile games over the past few years. The one trump card Nintendo always has is their awesome exclusives. It'll just take one great Mario or Zelda game to reel 'em in.
 
I actually expected this to happen because Nintendo just doesn't know how to utilize their gaming consoles. If you look at the gamecube you will see the enormous potential there. They did nothing with that and other consoles were dominating.

Now with the Wii it was hyped up to the extreme. Many people thought it was cool and something new. After, a couple weeks and some even days of having it. They sold them because they knew what was to come. The Wii will never get the market that Sony and Microsoft has because they are simply not in the same league. It doesn't even look like they are even trying to market the Wii U. The name itself makes it sound like a add on to the Wii and not a new console.

The whole thing was just bad from the start.
 
It reminds me of the 3DS when it was just launched. It was doing so poorly, everyone thought it was leading towards a downward spiral.

I think it's generally quite new and people are willing to embrace a new generation of consoles yet. The main thing is .. there aren't any really AAA games out for it yet, which will come eventually as Nintendo makes their own games without depending on external devs.
 
Because people are not interested. The console they put out didn't seem to grab peoples attention. In order for it to get popular, they must think of some feature or game that will make people buy it. Although it is pretty hard to do in the current situation they're in right now.
 
Nintendo's consoles haven't really been mainstream since the 64. They have a loyal set of fans who will continue to buy their consoles and games, but I don't think they're breaking the mold and capturing the market share of the 360/PS3/PC gaming fans. Nintendo's consoles satisfy a different type of gamer, but there seem to be less of these out there than there are people who want the 'traditional' method of playing games.
 
I was just reading about the low sales in Wired. They were charting out the popularity and progression of Nintendo and showed a steep decline for Wii U. I didn't even hear any press on the Wii U at all. I don't know what their marketing team was doing this whole time.
 
sillylucy said:
I was just reading about the low sales in Wired. They were charting out the popularity and progression of Nintendo and showed a steep decline for Wii U. I didn't even hear any press on the Wii U at all. I don't know what their marketing team was doing this whole time.
Click to expand...
Yeah, they haven't been announcing anything at all lately, have they? E3 is coming up soon, though. They aren't gonna hold a conference like Sony/Microsoft, though, from what I hear. But they will still do their own thing. Hopefully they at least announce a Mario game for the Wii U. The Wii U is really lacking in games that aren't available on PS3/360/PC.
 
I think it might be due to not enough Nintendo exclusive titles yet and a mix of third party title games. Like mentioned before the 3DS did terribly in sales first
of all but now that there are more exclusive and better titles coming out sales have increased. I think once Nintendo pull out some more exclusive and good
games for the Wii-U (Such as Pikmin 3) sales will increase and with the 3rd party titles coming out for it it'll help convince people to buy it.
 
Once some first party games come out of the gate, the Wii U will be a successful console. I think first and foremost, they aren't trying to compete directly with the other guys. Nintendo had always done it's own thing and been a success and this generation will be no different. I expect to see some fantastic games from these guys, I just wish they would have had a better launch. I own a Wii U and don't regret it a bit, the gamepad is a REALLY cool feature. I can lay on the couch and play Mega Man X on the Virtual Console while the wife watches her women shows, that's every married man's dream.
 
Just a blunder of marketing and a lack of any good games is what I would attribute to the WiiU's failure. The name WiiU is a pretty bad name too, why not just go for the Wii2? or the WiiII.

I still believe that it's going to pick up in sales really quick once the other consoles start coming out and the kids starting asking for a new console.
 
BlackSolaris said:
Like all the new consoles, they are just rushing the hardware and forgetting the reason people buy consoles... because of the games! And lately they seem to have problems with that concept. The 3DS and PSVita are suffering from that too, and then people keep nitpicking the little they get and no one is satisfied!
Click to expand...

I have to agree with this,console developers seem to think we are such loyal sheep that we will buy their console regardless, they never seem to take into account that it is the software we actually want,I personally don't use a particular system for its bell and whistles I us it for playing games.
 
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