Nintendo Makes Major Reductions in Wii U, 3DS Sales Projections

[StewShearerOld]

Nintendo Makes Major Reductions in Wii U, 3DS Sales Projections

Nintendo is now predicting an operating loss for fiscal year 2013 of $335 million.

Despite being faced with Wii U sales that have consistently looked as though they would fail to meet its sales projections, Nintendo has, up until now, refused to revise its numbers. That being the case, with fiscal year 2013 creeping closer and closer to its close, the company has finally given in and updated its projections to reflect less successful realities.

Whereas in the past Nintendo had predicted it would sell 9 million Wii U's by the fiscal year's end, it's now lowered that number to a significantly more modest 2.8 million. Likewise, the 3DS's projections are being dropped from 18 million units sold to a lesser prediction of 13.5 million units. Accompanying the lowered expectations for hardware are a decreased expectations for software and an anticipated operating loss for the company of 35 billion Yen ($335 million).

According to Nintendo like NPD. The Wii U, in turn, "showed some progress in the year-end sales season" as Nintendo released several of its franchise heavy hitters, but ultimately failed to gain the ground the company had hoped for. We can only imagine a pair of highly anticipated console launches might have had something to do with that.

Source: <a href=http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2014/01/nintendo_confirms_major_reductions_in_sales_and_financial_projections>Nintendo Life


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[SKBPinkie]

Well, that really sucks for them. Especially considering the great Mario games that came out.
However, I'm sure SSMB 3 will definitely raise those numbers quite a bit.

P.S. It says 9 mullion Wii U's in the second paragraph.

Fixed now

 

[StewShearerOld]

Well, that really sucks for them. Especially considering the great Mario games that came out.
However, I'm sure SSMB 3 will definitely raise those numbers quite a bit.

P.S. It says 9 mullion Wii U's in the second paragraph.

Hopefully, while I haven't been much a dedicated Nintendo fan since the 90s ended, I still like to see the company do well.

 

[Insideout Ink Demon]

Such a shame, you'd have thought the big Mario release would have boosted sales.
the HMV by me had sold out of the consoles too.
whats the exchange rate 35 billion Yen to Mario Minted 24 carrat gold coins?

 

[CriticalMiss]

Nintendo had predicted it would sell 9 million Wii U's by the fiscal year's end, it's now lowered that number to a significantly more modest 2.8 million.

Wow, we make fun of publishers for their ridiculous sales targets but to get it wrong by a factor of 3 is crazy. How does this compare to how well the Wii did in its first year?

 

[Sol_HSA]

I think nintendo made a big, big mistake by deprecating Wii. They made a game console that lots of people finally see as a common household appliance, and went and ruined this with the Wii U.

Instead of again going with the MOAR STUPHH bandwagon, they really should have continued on that fork..

 

[Yopaz]

I think nintendo made a big, big mistake by deprecating Wii. They made a game console that lots of people finally see as a common household appliance, and went and ruined this with the Wii U.

Instead of again going with the MOAR STUPHH bandwagon, they really should have continued on that fork..

I disagree. The Wii was the best selling console in the previous console generation, but the sales were going down and software sales were low compared to the other 2. Great games fell flat because there wasn't an audience for it. At the end of its lifespan they were posting losses, in fact 2011 was the first year where they ever posted losses for a full year.

The Wii, despite its success didn't have a future.

 

[Vivi22]

Nintendo had predicted it would sell 9 million Wii U's by the fiscal year's end, it's now lowered that number to a significantly more modest 2.8 million.

Wow, we make fun of publishers for their ridiculous sales targets but to get it wrong by a factor of 3 is crazy. How does this compare to how well the Wii did in its first year?

The Wii U has sold less in it's first year than the PS3 or the 360 by a significant amount. I forget exactly how much but I actually worked it out based on sales estimates sometime last month out of curiosity. I think it was in the realm of at least a million less. Considering the Wii dramatically outsold both of those in it's first year, that's not an insignificant difference at all. By comparison the Wii U has been a dismal failure.

 

[BrotherRool]

Nintendo had predicted it would sell 9 million Wii U's by the fiscal year's end, it's now lowered that number to a significantly more modest 2.8 million.

Wow, we make fun of publishers for their ridiculous sales targets but to get it wrong by a factor of 3 is crazy. How does this compare to how well the Wii did in its first year?

The Wii sold 5.84 million from launch until March next year, then it sold 19 million the next year (ie this one for the Wii U)

In comparison the Wii U has sold 3.5 million in it's launch-until-march and Nintendo are predicting it will have sold 2.8 million for the entirety of this year.

I think that might make it one of the worst changes in sales rates for any console ever. Traditionally a console is meant to sell more in it's second Christmas than it's first. Nintendo have sold less over the entirety of the year then they sold on the first christmas. (they only sold 1.3 million units March till November 30th).

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For comparison. The PS3 had a rocky start, it sold 3.6 million at launch and then 9.2 million in the second year.
The Gamecube sold 3.8 million at launch and then 5.7 million in the following year.
The Xbox sold about 3.9 million at launch and then 5 million in it's next year.

We're talking Dreamcast bad right now

 

[heroicbob]

they were never going to match the success of the wii, the wii had universal appeal because it had a control system that anyone could pick up and know how to play which is why people who aren't gamers bought it.

you cant pander to the casual market they don't buy games for their toy. they play wii sports when the grand kids have come to visit.

in fact im pretty sure they should have given the wiiU a different name to tell it apart from the countless generational iterations of the ds im sure there was a lot of confusion there too

 

[VG_Addict]

So, that's three consecutive years of losses. It's time for Nintendo to go third party.

 

[Dragonbums]

So, that's three consecutive years of losses. It's time for Nintendo to go third party.

I believe that's two.

Also, you conveniently ignore the booming success of the 3DS.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Perhaps there was some sense to the pessimism after all.
I tried giving them the benefit of the doubt before due to how the 3DS pulled out of its tailspin, but I guess that isn't happening.

It still looks like the 3DS will be fine, but the WiiU numbers demonstrate the cumulative weakness of a shit game library.

Where the fuck are the games, Nintendo? Oh, right. Your new system is laughably underpowered compared to its competition, bundled with a gimmick that no developer likes, and Nintendo continues to be a pain in the ass to work with.

The Wii was dirt cheap to develop for because it was basically just Gamecube 1.5 with some gimmicky controls.
More importantly, the Wii was significantly cheaper than its competition on launch, set a trend for a major gimmick, and was appealing to pretty much everyone BUT hardcore gamers.

This time around, the WiiU is late to its own party; Tablets and touch screen gaming was already common.
The average retail price difference isn't nearly enough to justify its purchase, and even with a solid year's head start Nintendo has only managed to regurgitate some more Mario (spare me the gushing) with very little else.

The Wii sold 5.84 million from launch until March next year, then it sold 19 million the next year (ie this one for the Wii U)

In comparison the Wii U has sold 3.5 million in it's launch-until-march and Nintendo are predicting it will have sold 2.8 million for the entirety of this year.

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For comparison. The PS3 had a rocky start, it sold 3.6 million at launch and then 9.2 million in the second year.
The Gamecube sold 3.8 million at launch and then 5.7 million in the following year.
The Xbox sold about 3.9 million at launch and then 5 million in it's next year.

We're talking Dreamcast bad right now

Holy shit those numbers are bad.

 

[MrHide-Patten]

It was big mistake to try and take on Apple in the tablet gaming department. What is the laymen going to invest in; a tablet that can also acts as his phone and fit in his pocket, or a large controller that can only play video games that at least 60X more expensive than what's offered on the other device, and for a fraction of the time.

Hey don't get me wrong, I'd prefer a good Nintendo classic to usual IOS affair... but then again I've spent more time playing Asphalt8 than I have been playing Nintendo games over the past 5 months.

 

[daveNYC]

Their 3DS numbers are dropping off too. They're going to have to do something, waiting a few months and hoping that the next big Link/Mario/Whatever game will drive sales through the roof obviously isn't working.

 

[BrotherRool]

So, that's three consecutive years of losses. It's time for Nintendo to go third party.

I believe that's two.

Also, you conveniently ignore the booming success of the 3DS.

They had to revise 3DS sales down by 5 million. Saying that I agree, I'm pretty sure if Nintendo didn't have a Wii U then the 3DS would be giving them a comfortable profit now.

Nintendo as just a handhold developer would actually be pretty interesting. Imagine all of Nintendo's dev teams purely focusing on making 3DS games. I can't imagine Nintendo are going to cut the Wii U loose but I think if a dispassionate executive took Nintendo over, it would probably be a smart move. It's just capital and time being thrown after good money, when they still have other avenues that would benefit more.


But I can't imagine Nintendo doing that and whilst these numbers are much worse than they've ever been before, they might be able to claw back Gamecube numbers or maybe find some way to attract Wii fans. If they manage that though, we'll have to fall down and worship Nintendo's genius. One of the great things about the Wii is that anyone using it looks a little bit silly, so it's a naturally fun console to play with friends. Having a guy poke at a tablet doesn't do that so much and the casuals probably aren't interested enough to care about better graphics or cool asymmetric games.

 

[daveNYC]

Dunno about going handheld only. You do that and you're betting on going up against all the tablet and phone makers. Sure the dedicated hardware will be better for games and have better controls, and the games that they'll put out will also be better, but a dedicated gaming device is a hard sell given the continued improvement of the other hardware.

You could do it, but you'd really have to be hoping that the tablet and phone companies don't manage to come out with something that's good enough for gaming that people just go for that because the device is multi-function.

 

[Worgen]

Damn shame since the wiiU is a cool lil console, wonderful 101 is tits awesome and monster hunter 3 has the best console multi I've seen, then again I like having a server browser.

 

[faefrost]

Nintendo had predicted it would sell 9 million Wii U's by the fiscal year's end, it's now lowered that number to a significantly more modest 2.8 million.

Wow, we make fun of publishers for their ridiculous sales targets but to get it wrong by a factor of 3 is crazy. How does this compare to how well the Wii did in its first year?

The Wii U has sold less in it's first year than the PS3 or the 360 by a significant amount. I forget exactly how much but I actually worked it out based on sales estimates sometime last month out of curiosity. I think it was in the realm of at least a million less. Considering the Wii dramatically outsold both of those in it's first year, that's not an insignificant difference at all. By comparison the Wii U has been a dismal failure.

Put it this way. In a year of release (With 2 Christmas seasons mind you) the WiiU sold just under 3 million units. That's for the first YEAR. PS4 and XBox One each broke 3 million within 2-3 WEEKS of launch.

 

[VG_Addict]

So, that's three consecutive years of losses. It's time for Nintendo to go third party.

I believe that's two.

Also, you conveniently ignore the booming success of the 3DS.

But the sites say three consecutive years.