Pachter: Nintendo Should "Consider Getting Out of the Wii U Business"

[VG_Addict]

Like I said, maybe there's no need for Nintendo consoles anymore.

 

[xaszatm]

Nintendo has just as much a chance of the Wii U succeeding as the PS3 or the 3DS has a chance of succeeding. All they need is a strong advertising campaign. There is a market for the Wii U. It's just that the audience doesn't know it exists due to a lack of advertising. If Nintendo can pull a heavy add campaign, they will start making a profit again. Whether or not they "win" this console race, that will be unlikely at best, but make a profit on the console? Yeah, that is likely.

The PS3's sales were never as bad as the Wii U's. And that was *with* being priced much higher. And the PS3 actually had third party support, since it was powerful enough to run the same games that the PC and 360 could run. And Sony actually invested in online so that they wouldn't be two generations behind like the Wii U is now. And they had a lot of loyal PS2 fans who were actual gamers, and as such were looking to upgrade eventually. So there's really no comparing the two consoles at all.

"NEED MOAR MARKETING" gets thrown around every time a product that somebody likes fails. Shit gets heavily marketed and still fails all the time. Sometimes it just isn't what the market wants, and no amount of intense raging superiority complex on the part of Nintendo fans is going to change that.

...ha.ha.ha. Insulting people is so much fun, ain't it? Must really make you find yourself, no? Once again, there is third party support for the Wii U, it's not huge, and needs to expand, but it's there. Secondly, "Actual" gamers? Really? Are those like "real" Scotsmen? Like it or not, there is a casual market that are interested in consoles.

Finally, you're right. There are many examples of things where marketing something heavily didn't increase sales. However, the Wii U has seen little to no advertising at all and many people who don't follow video game news or information are still confused whether or not the Wii U is an upgrade to the Wii or a new console altogether. An increase in advertisements to dispel the notion that the Wii U is a new console rather than an upgrade would, at the very least, inform the audience. This will help Nintendo connect to its audience that will buy Nintendo consoles.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

...ha.ha.ha. Insulting people is so much fun, ain't it? Must really make you find yourself, no? Once again, there is third party support for the Wii U, it's not huge, and needs to expand, but it's there. Secondly, "Actual" gamers? Really? Are those like "real" Scotsmen? Like it or not, there is a casual market that are interested in consoles.

Finally, you're right. There are many examples of things where marketing something heavily didn't increase sales. However, the Wii U has seen little to no advertising at all and many people who don't follow video game news or information are still confused whether or not the Wii U is an upgrade to the Wii or a new console altogether. An increase in advertisements to dispel the notion that the Wii U is a new console rather than an upgrade would, at the very least, inform the audience. This will help Nintendo connect to its audience that will buy Nintendo consoles.

I would think if anything they should just go back the Wii mindset. So far trying to appeal to the "hardcore" is a waste of time as you're talking about an audience that will keep moving goal posts to excuse not having to buy Nintendo products. Why try appealing to an audience that irrationally hates you? They're just not worth the effort on anyone's part anymore and the sooner they're dumped the better the company will be.

 

[spartandude]

At least the situation with the 3DS isn't as dire as the Wii U.

By "not as dire" you mean making up enough money to cover both the 3DS and also the WiiU departments and still have money left over? Then yes it's only a little bit less dire than the Wii U

 

[BarkBarker]

Smash bros, mario kart and X will ship the fucking thing like lightning, the console shoulda had games ready ages ago, but don't you DARE count them out yet, they got shit coming that will empty store shelves.

 

[WeepingAngels]

At least the situation with the 3DS isn't as dire as the Wii U.

By "not as dire" you mean making up enough money to cover both the 3DS and also the WiiU departments and still have money left over? Then yes it's only a little bit less dire than the Wii U

Didn't hear about this?

Nintendo cuts net profit forecast from 55 billion yen profit to 25 billion loss

http://www.n-europe.com/news/nintendo-cuts-net-profit-forecast-from-55-billion-yen-profit-to-25-billion-loss-2

Smash bros, mario kart and X will ship the fucking thing like lightning, the console shoulda had games ready ages ago, but don't you DARE count them out yet, they got shit coming that will empty store shelves.

Just like every other game on the Wii U was supposed to clear store shelves and didn't? NSMB U, 3D World, Pikmin 3, Wonderful 101, etc...

No one is counting them out but they are in trouble.

 

[Doclector]

It probably says a lot when my general attitude to seeing a story with Pachter's name attached to it provokes the reaction of "Oh god, here we go again."

Yes, nintendo's consoles aren't doing so well right now. Yes, they would probably rake the money in if they decided to go multiplatform with their first party IPs. No, they are not doing badly enough that nintendo should give up on having their own consoles altogether. I mean, that's one hell of an extreme solution, Pachter. Plus, as much as some touch screen/motion controls don't work, nintendo ain't gonna be willing to give up that potential in order to cater to other platforms.

 

[Strazdas]

This title should just be renamed to "Pachter makes a "prediction" that has striking similarities to the comments seen on your average news article.

but then all Patcher articles would be under same name.

And this explains why people who have intelligence don't listen to Patcher.

They do. They listen to him and PAY him for his opinions.

OT: Seriously, why do we listen to this hack again? Here, I'll make a prediction: Nintendo will be just fine. Do I get news article based on my accuracy?

Probably because Patcher has a history of being around 50% correct in his predictions, which considering the nature of his predictions is a very high number. Also he is not maknig any predictions in this article, but expressing his opinion, on his private twitter account, not asking us to listen or anything.

Except ditching the Wii U would piss off the 5 million people who bought it, and the few devs who ARE making games for it. You don't think 5 million is a lot? Trust me, that's more than enough to make an impact in Nintendo's consumer base.

Also, people tend to ignore Pachter because his predictions have been wrong more often than they've been right.

last generation nintendos userbase was far larger than either of the other two competitors. This generation nintendo sold less in entire year than the competitors did in less than a month. It is definatelly worth sacrificing 5 million userbase if that measn getting back the other 100+ million.
And its not like the time is wrong, the competitors all seem to be a PC in disguise rather than a console. make a powerful plug-and-play device and youll definatelly get traction from the people who bought consoles for ease of use that the new generation lost.

So basically you agree and think Pachter's idea of Ditching the Wii U is a good thing?.

Ditching WiiU was a good idea before Patcher said it. It wasnt his idea either.

No, no it's really not at all, you're telling customers directly that the money they have spent on such a console is now worthless and that support must be dropped and their consoles devalued, that's not what a customer would ever want to hear.

What costumer? The 100 million+ that refused to "downgrade" to WiiU?

Also "more horsepower"?, really is this what everything in the videogame industry is to properly amount to?, are we still on the hype kool aid or something from 2010?.

considering that current consoles could hardly compete with average PC from 2010 in "horsepower" we are not at that stage yet.

 

[Soxafloppin]

I've always said my dream is to have Pokemon Red/Blue through to Emerald released on Android/Iphone with online trading between all versions. Simply beautiful.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Does anyone really care what this guy says? 'Cause I certainly don't. Besides I'd rather see Nintendo's franchise's die then have them on the Xbox or Playstation. ...well maybe I could stomach the Playstation.

 

[SargeSmash]

I was about to say this sounded reasonable... but then I realized, if Nintendo did take this course of action, then all the devs would be skittish about ever supporting another Nintendo console. So instead of throwing a few crumbs Nintendo's way, they'd ignore it entirely, leave Nintendo to fail, and have them have to go multiplatform permanently.

 

[Aeonknight]

I stand by my prior stance on the Wii U. It already has a few games that look fun, but give me that new Xeno game from Monolith Soft and a legit Zelda game, and it'll be my next major gaming purchase. Sorry but multiplayer Mario rehashes aren't enough to sell me on a new console (even if the first one was fun as hell.)

 

[loa]

So nintendo should do the sega 32x and saturn dance?
Yeah, because that ended so well for them.
If the box is out and people invested their money already, you can't just turn around and abandon it and then expect them to buy the "new and improved box that we'll totally support this time for realsies!".

 

[GamemasterAnthony]

No, Pachter. That's not what they need to do.

Six steps to save the Wii U:

• 
  [li]More games - They're making progress on this front, but the I think the turning point will be Mario Kart 8.[/li]
  [li]Better marketing - I recently saw an ad on TV that explained that the Wii U isn't just an add-on. They should've been doing this type of ad all along, and they should've been advertising a lot more.[/li]
  [li]Better bundles - For now New Super Mario Bros. is okay (Nintendo Land was always a bad choice), but before holiday 2014 season, they need to start bundling Super Smash Bros or Mario Kart 8.[/li]
  [li]Stop selling the Wii - This is contributing to consumer confusion. Introducing a new model of Wii (the Wii Mini) after launching the Wii U was a colossal mistake. Continuing to sell either version of the Wii is a bigger one. Both the Wii and the Wii Mini need to be ditched ASAP in order for the Wii U to ever gain any real traction.[/li]
  [li]Stop ignoring franchises - We want a new Star Fox game that builds on the foundation set by the first two (think Assault, but actually make a complete game this time). We want a new F-Zero game at all. A new Puzzle League game would be nice, if it can find a big enough audience (maybe rebranded as a Luigi game?). A new Wars game would be a fantastic fit for the Wii U's gamepad.[/li]
  [li]VIRTUAL CONSOLE - Seriously, they've got a huge backlog of games, a fair few people who would be quite willing to re-purchase them, and very little cost in rereleasing them compared to new games. When the Wii was young, I used to get excited to see what new Virtual Console games would come out every week. It was a fantastic hype builder, and helped keep people's minds where you wanted them. It got regular features on quite a few gaming news sites (read: free advertising).[/li]

The Wii U doesn't have to die. It can be made profitable. But Nintendo really needs to look at why it's failing and fix those problems before that can possibly happen. If something isn't working, the solution isn't do the same thing but more of it. Once Nintendo gets that figured out, I think the Wii U perform do acceptably.

P.S. Thanks

I'd like to Nth what Covarr said...but add that Nintendo should try to lure in a lot of the third party companies to make some good games for the Wii U. I think the hardware has promise, especially since if I had the programming skill I could easily make a functioning RPG using the touch screen to move and command characters. Problem is too many companies aren't really seeing the potential the Wii U has because they see it as too gimmicky.

CAPTCHA: end of story

Well said, Captcha. Well said.

 

[Rad Party God]

Spoiler: Clicky Snip.

No, Pachter. That's not what they need to do.

Six steps to save the Wii U:

• 
  [li]More games - They're making progress on this front, but the I think the turning point will be Mario Kart 8.[/li]
  [li]Better marketing - I recently saw an ad on TV that explained that the Wii U isn't just an add-on. They should've been doing this type of ad all along, and they should've been advertising a lot more.[/li]
  [li]Better bundles - For now New Super Mario Bros. is okay (Nintendo Land was always a bad choice), but before holiday 2014 season, they need to start bundling Super Smash Bros or Mario Kart 8.[/li]
  [li]Stop selling the Wii - This is contributing to consumer confusion. Introducing a new model of Wii (the Wii Mini) after launching the Wii U was a colossal mistake. Continuing to sell either version of the Wii is a bigger one. Both the Wii and the Wii Mini need to be ditched ASAP in order for the Wii U to ever gain any real traction.[/li]
  [li]Stop ignoring franchises - We want a new Star Fox game that builds on the foundation set by the first two (think Assault, but actually make a complete game this time). We want a new F-Zero game at all. A new Puzzle League game would be nice, if it can find a big enough audience (maybe rebranded as a Luigi game?). A new Wars game would be a fantastic fit for the Wii U's gamepad.[/li]
  [li]VIRTUAL CONSOLE - Seriously, they've got a huge backlog of games, a fair few people who would be quite willing to re-purchase them, and very little cost in rereleasing them compared to new games. When the Wii was young, I used to get excited to see what new Virtual Console games would come out every week. It was a fantastic hype builder, and helped keep people's minds where you wanted them. It got regular features on quite a few gaming news sites (read: free advertising).[/li]

The Wii U doesn't have to die. It can be made profitable. But Nintendo really needs to look at why it's failing and fix those problems before that can possibly happen. If something isn't working, the solution isn't do the same thing but more of it. Once Nintendo gets that figured out, I think the Wii U perform do acceptably.

P.S. Thanks

I absolutely agree with you on every single front and all these are what (I hope) Nintendo's already doing/considering to do and it's the reason they managed to stay afloat for so many decades and Pachter, well, keeps playing guess on the internet.

As for the Virtual Console front, I wouldn't have high hopes for it, considering how dismal Ninty's been treating it lately, as for new audiences for it, it's a sad day when youngsters can't play Super Metroid without asking "Y Cant Metroid Crawl?".

 

[VG_Addict]

Honestly, I don't think ONE bad console gen is going to kill Nintendo, especially after coming off the Wii and DS, both of which were insanely profitable. Hell, it took Sega several consecutive failures to go third party.

 

[Hiroshi Mishima]

Who the hell would buy a Nintendo console in the future if the drop Wii U support in under 2 years.

Doesn't anyone remember what Sega did with the Dreamcast? I'm still upset I spent lot of money I didn't really have to get the console, my first truly-owned-by-me-and-not-borrowed-or-rented Sega console... and they fucked yanked it after 2 years. It took me almost a year to save up a fair chunk of money again to start buying games after I'd gotten it (cause I borrowed from family members and had to repay over time, mainly playing rentals)..

Sorry, going off there. I mean to say after finally getting my first Sega Console (always bought Nintendo thought I loved both companies), they take the console and games off the market and it becomes almost impossible to find any good games. I was outraged, disappointed, and really lost faith in Sega.

They never truly recovered, either, to be honest. They became third party and frequently the butt of jokes, their games having iffy quality (Sonic 2006, anyone?) and getting into fights with people over silly shit.

I don't wanna see that happen to Nintendo, I gotta be honest here. I may not be interested in the Wii U yet, but I'm not interested in ANY of the new consoles. I got a 3DS because my DS broke and I thought it'd be a good investment. I don't even have a PS3, and I only got an Xbox 360 cause my cousin did and I didn't like having to borrow/visit just to play it.

Really, I think Pach is a fool. He's always been heavily against Nintendo.

 

[Covarr]

I'd like to Nth what Covarr said...but add that Nintendo should try to lure in a lot of the third party companies to make some good games for the Wii U. I think the hardware has promise, especially since if I had the programming skill I could easily make a functioning RPG using the touch screen to move and command characters. Problem is too many companies aren't really seeing the potential the Wii U has because they see it as too gimmicky.

Sadly, this isn't so simple a task. The reason most third parties aren't developing for the Wii U has nothing to do with a "gimmicky controller". It's because the console isn't selling well enough, and publishers are afraid games will not sell well enough. The only way Nintendo can get third parties to work on the Wii U at this point is to put in the majority investment themselves, as they did with Bayonetta 2 (and supposedly Sonic Lost World).

Just like every other game on the Wii U was supposed to clear store shelves and didn't? NSMB U, 3D World, Pikmin 3, Wonderful 101, etc...

Pikmin 3 and The Wonderful 101 are both excellent games, but they weren't what the system needs. Both are too niche, neither received proper marketing, and the latter doesn't have a "whoa, cool" factor (the former doesn't really need it). New Super Mario Bros. U and Super Mario 3D World couldn't do it because people are starting to get burned out on samey platformers. 3D World may have been stellar, but it had the same look and feel that the franchise has been overusing since 2006. It could've done a lot better if they gave it its own distinct style and personality, like Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Sunshine both had.

I do think Super Smash Bros. and Mario Kart 8 will help a lot. Neither has oversaturated the market to the extent straight platformers have, both are getting actual hype and marketing, and both have long histories of being system sellers. Hell, Mario Kart is consistently in the top three sellers on virtually every system. It was second on N64, GC, Wii, currently is on 3DS, and was 3rd best seller on DS. This is a franchise that always pushes units, and frankly should've been a higher priority for Nintendo to get out sooner.

That's not to say that "two big games" is all the system needs. As I said in a previous post, Nintendo needs to open up their VC library, bundle better games, ditch the Wii, and stop ignoring their more mature-friendly franchises. But if they get their act together, then these two games will almost certainly be the breaking point, and the console will be able to take off very suddenly.

P.S. Thanks

 

[WeepingAngels]

Pikmin 3 and The Wonderful 101 are both excellent games, but they weren't what the system needs. Both are too niche, neither received proper marketing, and the latter doesn't have a "whoa, cool" factor (the former doesn't really need it). New Super Mario Bros. U and Super Mario 3D World couldn't do it because people are starting to get burned out on samey platformers. 3D World may have been stellar, but it had the same look and feel that the franchise has been overusing since 2006. It could've done a lot better if they gave it its own distinct style and personality, like Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Sunshine both had.

I do think Super Smash Bros. and Mario Kart 8 will help a lot. Neither has oversaturated the market to the extent straight platformers have, both are getting actual hype and marketing, and both have long histories of being system sellers. Hell, Mario Kart is consistently in the top three sellers on virtually every system. It was second on N64, GC, Wii, currently is on 3DS, and was 3rd best seller on DS. This is a franchise that always pushes units, and frankly should've been a higher priority for Nintendo to get out sooner.

That's not to say that "two big games" is all the system needs. As I said in a previous post, Nintendo needs to open up their VC library, bundle better games, ditch the Wii, and stop ignoring their more mature-friendly franchises. But if they get their act together, then these two games will almost certainly be the breaking point, and the console will be able to take off very suddenly.

P.S. Thanks

We'll see what happens but I don't believe either game will make a huge splash.

As for dumping the Wii, yeah I agree now that they are no longer offering a proper Wii. The Wii Mini has to be the worst slim model I have ever seen. They removed the SD card slot, the virtual console, Wiiware and even though it didn't begin with the Wii Mini, it also has no support for Gamecube controllers (a big deal for Smash Brothers fans) or Gamecube games. They also removed support for component cables, a move that makes no sense given that HDTV's have a higher adoption rate now than when the Wii came out.

Yes, it is criminal how they treat the virtual console.