Pachter: Why Would Anyone Buy A Wii U?

[Karloff]

Pachter: Why Would Anyone Buy A Wii U?

Nintendo waited two years too long to release a competitive console, Michael Pachter thinks.

"I think by the time [Nintendo] did launch a console which stacks up really well," said Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/123286-Price-Drop-Wont-Help-Ailing-Wii-U-Claims-Analyst] to ABC News 10, "the other two guys [Sony and Microsoft] passed them by, and I think they're in a world of trouble right now." Waiting two years too long to launch a competitive console has cost Nintendo. Pachter's no fan of Nintendo's marketing strategy right now, and thinks Nintendo has a mountain of work to do before it's anything other than a distant third in the console race.

Pachter's not the only one to be filled with Wii U negativity; EA [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/125073-EA-To-Nintendo-Wiill-Come-Back-If-U-Sell-More-Boxes] recently said it wasn't about to support a console that doesn't have a big audience. However these debates tend not to trouble the mainstream audience, which doesn't care who does what to whom in the gaming world. Except this time Pachter's telling the ABC News audience - the definition of mainstream - that "I don't think they're going to get that mojo back" and "why would anyone buy a Wii U" when there's a PS4 on offer for just $50 more than Nintendo's console. That's got to hurt.

"If Activision pulls support; if you see Ubisoft, you see Take-Two pull support," Pachter concludes, "the Wii U is a Nintendo-only gaming device which is the way they were back with the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985." That won't sell many more consoles [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/121778-Wii-U-Sales-Forecast-Cut], and console sales are what Nintendo desperately needs.

Source: Nintendo Life [http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2013/07/pachter_nintendo_has_lost_its_mojo]


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[Jumwa]

The 3DS has functionally zero third party support and is doing amazing. Something tells me however it goes, Nintendo will manage. They could potentially carve out a nice little niche for themselves for Nintendo-only titles, some Japanese ports and indie releases.

This guy has been predicting doom for Nintendo for years, he's never really been right before.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

I'd buy a Wii-U before I'd buy either of the other 2. For what that's worth.

 

[xdiesp]

At least they are doing something different. It might be they are content with their niche.

Scorpions sting themselves to death when surrounded by fire. I guess that would be my cue when all consoles share the same library of military shooters, EA sport games and yearly sandbox crap.

 

[seditary]

So how many times now has Pachter predicted doom and gloom for Nintendo?

I have the distinct feeling they will outlive him easily.

 

[balfore]

At least they are doing something different. It might be they are content with their niche.

Scorpions sting themselves to death when surrounded by fire. I guess that would be my cue when all consoles share the same library of military shooters, EA sport games and yearly sandbox crap.

As business I can almost guarantee they are not content with their niche, you always want to grow.
But I don't think it's all doom and gloom for Nintendo.

 

[Baresark]

I will buy one as soon as they have more software I'm interested in. I bought a 3DS as soon as it had 5 games I was interested in. I just bought a Vita because it's software library will be up to my expectation this summer and I got it for cheap on Ebay (though I did not take into account how much fun it would be to play my favorite PS1 games on, so it's well beyond my software library expectations at this point because it's more fun to play them on that than my PS3). Analysts are funny. They have the same chances of predicting things as anyone else, but they have access to more data than the average user so they have more clout. But interestingly enough, no analysts ever predict anything outside the mathematical curve for luck... so good luck Pachter, that is all you have really.

 

[Andy Shandy]

At the moment, he kinda has a fair point.

Give it a few months though, there'll be a few games at least that would make a Wii U purchase worth it. Pikmin 3, Wonderful 101, Sonic: Lost World, etc.

 

[Robetid]

I bought it for one reason, I skipped the Wii and the Wii-u is BACKWARDS COMPATIBLE. Now I can play two generations of games on one console (withought having to pay for a digital download), something I think it's competition fails to look at.

 

[Tazzman]

Has this man ever not predicted the doom of something, I bet you right now he's at home predicting the end of Waffles. Anyway When the WiiU has more games on it then it'll pick up. Although if nintendo release another console in the same way they did this one then they'll be in a heap of trouble.

 

[CriticalMiss]

Has this man ever not predicted the doom of something, I bet you right now he's at home predicting the end of Waffles. Anyway When the WiiU has more games on it then it'll pick up. Although if nintendo release another console in the same way they did this one then they'll be in a heap of trouble.

He's pretty good at predicting the ends of sentences. His signature is putting a little dot where he thinks. they end So far I've yet to master that art .

 

[TrevHead]

Sure Nintendo has really dropped the ball with the WiiU but it's the only next gen console I plan on buying for the moment, the upcoming E3 titles are more to my tastes than most of the titles Sony or MS showed.

 

[Eiv]

I actually agree with him. Nintendo should actually just go the way of Sega and license games. Saying that, I do miss Sega, Dreamcast being one of my favourite consoles. Just wish that Nintendo would stop trying to be the "cool non-conformist hipster kid with the iMac" and bring some real competition to the table.

 

[Tazzman]

Has this man ever not predicted the doom of something, I bet you right now he's at home predicting the end of Waffles. Anyway When the WiiU has more games on it then it'll pick up. Although if nintendo release another console in the same way they did this one then they'll be in a heap of trouble.

He's pretty good at predicting the ends of sentences. His signature is putting a little dot where he thinks. they end So far I've yet to master that art

By god you're. right the man is a genius how could. I ever doubt him haa

 

[BrotherRool]

The problem isn't so much that the Wii U doesn't/won't have good games for it, but Nintendo had to prove that it wasn't like the Wii where you could play the good games at the exclusion of playing every other game released this console generation and they've still utterly failed at that. They actually didn't need brilliant games like Zombie U, what they need is lots and lots of announcements about how all the games that are coming out for the other consoles are going to be coming out for the Wii U too. People are already worried that the hardware is going to make that impossible a few years down the road and they've got a proven track record of failing. They needed to really push that angle and focus all their PR on it, but they too quickly settled back into the tactic of relying on their first-party titles being good enough that people are willing to not be able to play any other games to get them.

The 3DS has functionally zero third party support and is doing amazing. Something tells me however it goes, Nintendo will manage. They could potentially carve out a nice little niche for themselves for Nintendo-only titles, some Japanese ports and indie releases.

This guy has been predicting doom for Nintendo for years, he's never really been right before.

I do believe it will survive (and may even end up doing well) but the big difference between the 3DS and the Wii U is this. The 3DS has better third-party support than it's competitor, so buying a 3DS gets you basically all the good new handheld releases, whereas in a best case scenario a Wii U is locking you out of a ton of good games at the moment.