Ranma-kun Posted June 17, 2014 Report Share Posted June 17, 2014 (edited) http://www.gamespot.com/articles/mario-kart-8-drives-massive-wii-u-sales-3ds-is-number-two-console-on-npd/1100-6420520/ Wii U sales are up over 85% over April and over 90% over May of last year.Part of that success was likely driven by anticipation for Mario Kart 8, which had immensely successful sales on its own. According to Nintendo NPD data for all of the US, Mario Kart 8 came in as the "No. 3 best-selling software SKU in May." That's even more impressive when taking into account that the game launched on May 30, so it only factored into two days of the NPD's month-long report. Nintendo reported earlier that Mario Kart 8 was the Wii U's fastest-selling game so far, with 1.2 million sales shortly after launch. Edited June 17, 2014 by Ranma-kun Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirty Coin Posted June 17, 2014 Report Share Posted June 17, 2014 I had mixed feelings about the Wii U up until about the beginning of the year. I knew there were good games in the pipeline, that I wanted to play, and there even were a couple games released already I liked as well. But personally I really wanted to see the direction Sony and Microsoft went with their consoles and that's what pushed me over into the Wii U camp. There are a lot of games that the Wii U won't be able to play, so maybe three to four years down the line I'll buy a PS4/XB1 after a price drop or two, but Nintendo is the only company I really trust at this point. I think the good things that Nintendo has been doing for the past year and a half are finally starting to pay off in terms of sales. In a lot of ways it reminds me of the 3DS, which also had a rocky start but after that it started going strong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Notoffensive Posted June 17, 2014 Report Share Posted June 17, 2014 I think the good things that Nintendo has been doing for the past year and a half are finally starting to pay off in terms of sales. I don't think releasing a single game the casual market eats up, can count as multiple things. They did literally nothing from launch till Mario Kart. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirty Coin Posted June 17, 2014 Report Share Posted June 17, 2014 I don't think releasing a single game the casual market eats up, can count as multiple things. They did literally nothing from launch till Mario Kart. They kept care of the people who did buy a Wii U, they continued to work on the software, they didn't cancel big projects, they didn't do anything silly like Super Mario Bros for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. They stuck to their guns even when the console wasn't doing well, exactly what they did with the 3DS. Compare that to Microsoft and how little time it took for them to flip with the Xbox One. I'm not saying Nintendo is the perfect company, or hell even the best, but they don't bow to peer pressure. That's what I mean when I say good things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ranma-kun Posted June 17, 2014 Report Share Posted June 17, 2014 I think the good things that Nintendo has been doing for the past year and a half are finally starting to pay off in terms of sales. I don't think releasing a single game the casual market eats up, can count as multiple things. They did literally nothing from launch till Mario Kart. There were alot of games inbetween but none of them really seemed to capture mainstream appeal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanis Posted June 17, 2014 Report Share Posted June 17, 2014 I think the good things that Nintendo has been doing for the past year and a half are finally starting to pay off in terms of sales. I don't think releasing a single game the casual market eats up, can count as multiple things. They did literally nothing from launch till Mario Kart. What game are you referring to? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tsukumo Yuma Posted June 17, 2014 Report Share Posted June 17, 2014 (edited) I think the good things that Nintendo has been doing for the past year and a half are finally starting to pay off in terms of sales. I don't think releasing a single game the casual market eats up, can count as multiple things. They did literally nothing from launch till Mario Kart. What game are you referring to? Maybe he is talking about the Zelda games for Wii U that came out last fall, or Sonic? Edited June 17, 2014 by Tsukumo Yuma Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Notoffensive Posted June 17, 2014 Report Share Posted June 17, 2014 I don't think releasing a single game the casual market eats up, can count as multiple things. They did literally nothing from launch till Mario Kart. They kept care of the people who did buy a Wii U, they continued to work on the software, they didn't cancel big projects, they didn't do anything silly like Super Mario Bros for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. They stuck to their guns even when the console wasn't doing well, exactly what they did with the 3DS. Compare that to Microsoft and how little time it took for them to flip with the Xbox One. I'm not saying Nintendo is the perfect company, or hell even the best, but they don't bow to peer pressure. That's what I mean when I say good things. I don't really feel cared for as a Wii U owner. It's pretty hard to cancel any games when you're only working on two at any given time. If not releasing games on the competitions consoles is a win, then Sony won the world series. How did they stick to their guns? They did a price cut for the 3DS and later removed the 3D all together, then apologized a million times about how poorly the Wii U was doing. Which in the case of any companies, price drops and new models have always resulted in good. I wish Nintendo did bend to peer pressure, then maybe we wouldn't have to wait a decade for new games of existing franchises. What game are you referring to? Mario Kart, the only game that has brought up system sales in any significant way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanis Posted June 17, 2014 Report Share Posted June 17, 2014 What game are you referring to?Mario Kart, the only game that has brought up system sales in any significant way. Mario Kart is 'casual'.XD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadow Links Posted June 18, 2014 Report Share Posted June 18, 2014 The sad thing is that console sales mean very little for nintendo as a company. They actually don't make a profit on a console sale. But its close enough that they are back in the green after 1 game sale. (or at least that how it was a while back) Nintendo fans always come out for their franchises though. Mario Kart 8 was just the beginning. With a really good showing at E3, they now have Smash Bros coming at the end of the year and confirmed a new Zelda. X was confirmed as Xenoblade should draw more people too as a solid RPG from the wii and developers on Xeno projects. Hyrule warriors is an interesting premise combining Zelda and Dynasty warriors. Bayonetta 2 as an exclusive is a steal from other consoles, not to mention remaking the first. Then don't forget Kirby Of course no word on others like Metroid is a disappointment. By the release of Zelda, I'd say that the Wii U will still be viable. After that it really depends on how long they string out the 1st party heavy hitters. Then you cant forget the effect of piracy. It wasn't too long ago that Wii Key U was announced for pre-order. Wii U games are being ripped, but there still is no actual apps to play anything besides vWii. I imagine that will still have a slight increase in sales as well as when it becomes fully hacked. (im still waiting for my console pokemon game akin to pokemon stadium too) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Notoffensive Posted June 18, 2014 Report Share Posted June 18, 2014 Maybe he is talking about the Zelda games for Wii U that came out last fall, or Sonic? >he Only one Zelda game has come out and Sonic didn't sell shit. Anyway neither of them boosted sales 600% in the UK. Mario Kart is 'casual'. XD 1. Simplistic mechanics 2. Most of its players show no discernible skill 3. People that don't normally play games play it That's how I would describe most iPhone games and it's how I would describe Mario Kart. Sure the game has high-level tactics like snaking, inside drifting, fire hopping and the such but the vast majority of players don't utilize them let alone aren't aware of these things. A game can only be as successful as the size of the casual audience is. You think the millions of people that play the top sellers like COD, Battlefield, Halo, GTA, Uncharted, Smash, etc. are all pro level players? VGchartz is down right now so I can't check the sales of Mass Effect but I remember the devs saying only 30% or something that of people that played actually completed a storyline. Not 100% the game and got all the achievements but just a single ending to the game. I think the game sold like around four million on the 360 which is the only platform the game had been on at the time so roughly three million people didn't even complete the story and stopped playing for whatever reason. These are your casual players, they spend their money frivolously and will play a game for a few weeks or a hour here and there before they sell it to GameStop because they got "bored" with it or stuck or any other number of reasons. Is the casual market good for the industry? Simple answer is yes. Without the sales of the yearly sports titles, EA wouldn't have had the extra money to develop titles like Dead Space and Dante's Inferno. Is the casual market bad for the industry? Again the simple answer is yes. As developers shoot for larger sales numbers and a bigger audience, this causes them to tone down their games in complexity and remove or alter things that long staying fans of the franchise might have liked such as the new version of battle mode in Mario Kart 8. So when I say something is casual, don't take offense and assume I mean it's bad. I actually play MK8 and plenty of other "casual" games. I have 6000+ coins in the new battle mode despite thinking it's utter shit compared to the older games. When I say casual, I mean that's the main demographics of people they're aiming for just like how other media can be aimed at people of certain genders, race or taste. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirty Coin Posted June 18, 2014 Report Share Posted June 18, 2014 I'm just curious what you want from Nintendo in order to be happy with the Wii U. They've been using the same playbook for years at this point, so I don't really see any room for legitimate surprise or disappointment. They go for evergreen, not annual titles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Notoffensive Posted June 18, 2014 Report Share Posted June 18, 2014 I'm just curious what you want from Nintendo in order to be happy with the Wii U. They've been using the same playbook for years at this point, so I don't really see any room for legitimate surprise or disappointment. They go for evergreen, not annual titles. Well that's mostly the problem, I've been around for a couple of decades and I've only seen Nintendo scale back more and more over all this time. Just two gens ago the GameCube had a lot of first party games we just aren't seeing any more. (I mean both in quality and quantity.) Where's the cool original stuff like Geist, Eternal Darkness and Baten Kaitos? What the Hell happened to Custom Robo and F-Zero? Glad we're finally getting Star Fox back but no word on a new Metroid? No instead we get several Zelda titles and several Mario ones because that's what sells in the west. Because of the success with the Wii/DS they thought they could just sit on their hands and sell off name recognition with their two new handhelds. Sony learned that wasn't the case with the PS3 and now Nintendo is learning that lesson it's just a shame they managed to turn things around with the 3DS and haven't yet applied those tactics to the Wii U, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirty Coin Posted June 18, 2014 Report Share Posted June 18, 2014 Come on you know Metroid is in the works lol. Otherwise though all valid points. Some of those are a bit before my time, and all I can say is I don't think they've aged well. I don't think Nintendo is working solely off name recognition, I just think they've had a horrible time selling anything other than their big games. They have released other games, that aren't working off that big name bonus, but they just tend to crash and burn. Sony and Microsoft are definitely better at kickstarting IPs, but I think really even then that isn't a big console business, compared to PC. I dunno. You're definitely right, but I think Nintendo really is trying to put that same effort of the 3DS into the Wii U. It's just that it takes a significant amount of effort to actually get there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tsukumo Yuma Posted June 18, 2014 Report Share Posted June 18, 2014 Maybe he is talking about the Zelda games for Wii U that came out last fall, or Sonic? >he Only one Zelda game has come out and Sonic didn't sell shit. Anyway neither of them boosted sales 600% in the UK. I thought worls wide, it did considerably good. Not judging by one country, but many coutries sales. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Notoffensive Posted June 18, 2014 Report Share Posted June 18, 2014 Maybe he is talking about the Zelda games for Wii U that came out last fall, or Sonic? >he Only one Zelda game has come out and Sonic didn't sell shit. Anyway neither of them boosted sales 600% in the UK. I thought worls wide, it did considerably good. Not judging by one country, but many coutries sales. Sonic Olympics and Racing 2 sold 300k each. Lost World did 200k. Global sales. Technically those aren't bad numbers as not every game can get a million sales but in comparison to the first two Olympic games on the old Wii? That was 7 million and 4. This goes back to the casual thing I was talking about, way more casual players gets you a lot more sales. You had mostly hardcore people that owned a Wii U pre-MK8 and so casual games such as Olympics did worse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ranma-kun Posted June 22, 2014 Report Share Posted June 22, 2014 (edited) Indies seem to do exceptionally well on the Wii U eshop although I am not sure why. Edited June 22, 2014 by Ranma-kun Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirty Coin Posted June 22, 2014 Report Share Posted June 22, 2014 Exceptionally well compared to what? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ranma-kun Posted June 22, 2014 Report Share Posted June 22, 2014 Everything alot of them sell better than they do on steam. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
† ballard Posted June 24, 2014 Report Share Posted June 24, 2014 I was actually happy with Nintendo's E3. It's what convinced me to buy a Wii U. Xenoblade Chronicles X looks absolutely amazing to me. Splatoon looks like it would be a lot of fun to play, and Zelda U looks great. I'm glad that Nintendo didn't drop the Wii U. Dropping a console out of the gate is not a good idea at all. Look at what happened to Sega. They kept coming out with consoles, and they ended up losing their customers faith in them to actually support a platform long enough for it to be a viable purchase. I don't want Nintendo to go down that road. If they dropped the 3DS when it was doing bad I would have been able to play all of the great games that I now own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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