Nintendo Hoping for Strong Wii U Holiday Sales

[Hutcher]

Honestly for me it doesn't even need to be a new IP. They could take one of their existing IPs in a different direction, like what Square did with Super Mario RPG years ago. What I'd love to see is a new Metroid game (maybe 3rd or 1st person, incorporating some tablet elements) with a more open world; maybe a Mass Effect style setup where you can choose different planets to visit, and different missions or objectives are available at the different worlds at different times.

Other M was terrible. Samus is due for a return to form. If they release a good new Metroid title (or better yet, a series) that goes a little out of the box, I could see myself picking up a Wii-U.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

And again, I remind you that the only way in which the sales of the Wii U have been miserable are in comparison to the sales of the Wii. They've beaten *every other console* in terms of sales over the same period from launch. I'm getting so annoyed that people are saying, "Oh.. the Wii U isn't selling! The Wii U isn't selling!" Damn thing's been out for less than a year, people. Yeah, it doesn't have the same install base as a console that's been going for 6 or 7 years now, through three iterations, etc.. gee. I wonder why?

Personally, I can't wait until the PS4 and Xbone get released and we start to see *their* sales figures. Of course, then what we'll see is people going, "Oh.. the Wii U must have caught the last gasp of the market before it completely collapsed."

People never do seem to remember to emphasize CONTEXT, do they? Furthermore, yes, 1st year release for every console from the first Playstation and beyond have always been slow in one way or another. People need to brush up on their history.

I honestly don't get this. Even if Nintendo made a new IP, we're all going to be comparing it to something different, even if they make a game they've never made before. Let's say that they make a MOBA: Then we're all going to compare it to DOTA, DOTA 2 and LoL. Let's say they make a shooter: We're all going to compare it to Call of Duty and Battlefield. Let's say they play it safe, and simply make another platformer: We're all going to compare it to Mario. And in every circumstance, I do not see the new IP beating the old (Sales-wise).

Meanwhile, 3 New Nintendo IP's (Dillon's Rolling Western, HarmoKnights and Pushmo/Crashmo) are out on eShops, and people don't even acknowledge there existence! This makes me think that if Nintendo made a new IP, people are simply going to say "What's this? Nintendo did something new? Eh, well it sucks anyways, so it's not a New IP."

That and they have a new IP coming ANYWAY with The Wonderful 101 in September. Nintendo knows that an IP has to be more than a NAME. They need to make sure an experience is unique.

As for the Wii U sales, with a new Mario, DKC, and the Wind Waker HD remake, I'm pretty sure they'll be fine. The problem with the PS4 is that its launch only has a HANDFUL of PS4-exclusive titles and then you get into the hidden costs. If anything Nintendo is probably poised to deliver harder than either MS or Sony are and that's BEFORE we get into next year with Mario Kart 8 and Smash Bros.

 

[Hutcher]

And I don't know how you can say that the sales figures for the Wii-U aren't bad when you have articles like this:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/100810130

in which Satoru Iwata himself steps up and takes the blame for the system's poor sales to date.

No. He steps up and takes the blame for the system's sales *not meeting expectations*.. There's a critical difference there. The problem doesn't lie in the sales of the Wii U, it lies in the idiotic expectations that came following the Wii.

Depends how you interpret it. If a system's sales "Don't meet expectations", it depends on whose expectations those are. If it's the expectations of the media and the console market, then I'll give you that one. However, if the expectations he's referring to are NINTENDO'S (which is probably the case, judging by how most of the articles quoting him are written), that's a different story. If Nintendo's CEO says that their sales are not meeting their own expectations, then I don't see how the argument can be made that the sales haven't been disappointing.

Either way, it's a pretty disigenuous argument you're making when the title of the article quoting him, posted on Nintendoland of all places, is "Iwata: We Are To Blame For Poor Wii U Sales".

 

[Hutcher]

Where on earth did you get the notion that a console manufacturer can't be wrong on their expectations? May I suggest you examine a little company known as Sony?

Except that this is a business. When they release a system, they have expectations and projections on how many units it will sell. When the system fails to meet these expectations, those sales are bad from the company's standpoint. Plain and simple, if the company itself admits that sales were "below their expectations", then they are bad. No two ways about it.

And Microsoft and Sony are better able to weather these doldrums of a new console launch, because they have other streams of revenue to help their bottom line when a new console's sales are below projections. They have the option of being able to "ride it out" until the sales figures come around, which both companies did successfully this generation.