General Nintendo sales/business discussion topic (previously: The Wii U Thread)

[Wraith]

Kay, so every time I try to use my Wii U gamepad lately, the sticks are doing this weird thing where if I push it forward or backward, whatever game I'm playing acts like the stick is stuck in that direction even if I let the stick go or push it in a different direction. What do I do?

[Solkia]

Sounds like a worn out spring. HAppened to my GC controllers all the time.

 

I'd jut call nintendo and see if you're still within warranty

[Wraith]

I already know my warrenty's gone, and fuck me if I want to pay for a new gamepad.

 

 

 

This thing's just been a pain in the ass lately. Ironically this is the most I've played it since I bought it..

[VO.SUPER]

 

These are the top 10s of 2013. Before anyone pops are gasket at 3D World not being on there, take a look and see that no exclusives are on this list. 

 

- full-year sales in 2013 were down 2 percent to $12.97 billion
- PS4, XB1 and 2DS helped push hardware sales up 5 percent to $4.26 billion
- software sales slipped 9 percent to $6.12 billion
- Accessories went up 3 percent to $2.6 billion
- December sales were up 2 percent to $3.28 billion
- December hardware was up 28 percent to $1.37 billion
- December accessories were also up 4 percent to $631 million
- December software sales fell 17 percent to $1.28 billion

 

[Sami]

So last December was the best month the Wii U's ever seen sales-wise, according to the NPD report. This means a minimum of 463k units sold last month. 

 

Hard to tell what that means without an actual number, though. Anything less than 500k is still bad.

[Patticus]

For the Wii U, those are godly sales figures. If Nintendo can keep these big name releases up, maybe there is hope for the little console yet...

 

The 3DS is rumored to have sold over a million units that month alone, by the way, making it the best selling system of the month and the entire year.

[SIXTH-RATE SOMA]

Hard to tell what that means without an actual number, though. Anything less than 500k is still bad.

 

Well, excuse me for appreciating the upswing =P

[Brad]

As long as Nintendo keep up the software releases, continue the strong first party support and have a sweetly low price tag, I have a feeling we'll see another 3DS effect yet.

[Komodin]

Nintendo now projects a loss after slashing Wii U sales forecast by 69 percent:

http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/17/5318198/nintendo-cuts-estimates-after-slow-sales

 

Ooh boy... well, as much as I can't say that I didn't see this coming, this still stings a good deal.

[Nepenthe]

.... How is it even possible to overshoot the mark by that much? They're not going to make a single percentage of that target. No, they're going for an operating loss of hundreds of millions. Everyone needs to be fired.

[Conando]

As opposed to the competition losing even more each year? Seriously, though. They need to know to operate within their means with the Wii U. Don't overproduce something that is slow selling. I mean, they have the 3DS as a money maker. They need to balance whatever they're doing, because the 3DS sold 1 million on Black Friday alone, and continues to sell hundreds of thousands each week. They shouldn't be losing a significant amount when they're making so much on 3DS.

[Autosaver]

Yup. It's pretty bad.

 

I don't think the management will be changed until 2015. I'm betting they're waiting for their big releases in 2014 (Mario Kart, Smash Bros, Donkey Kong, Bayonetta 2, potentially Zelda) to see if they do anything. If they end up doing poorly, then Nintendo is pretty much screwed.

 

A problem with the "fire them all!" logic is that despite Nintendo receiving millions in losses, how much in BILLIONS did the company profit off the same leadership? Nintendo can suffer tons of losses and still live, and the 3DS has proven to be a success. They just need to turn around the Wii U. If they can't do that by the end of 2015, then it will become a problem.

 

I'm also wondering what Miyamoto's secret project is. If it's revolutionary, it could be something good for the system.

[Conando]

Well, Nintendo isn't, but Iwata and the rest of the upper management are.

[Autosaver]

 

Well, Nintendo isn't, but Iwata and the rest of the upper management are.

 

Nintendo being screwed would result in changes in upper management is what I meant in my post.

 

Also, these are estimates. The end sales could be worse or better. I figure it might do better based on Mario Kart and Smash to be honest.

[Solkia]

Don Mattrick for new President

[Autosaver]

On the positive side, it at least shows that Nintendo realizes the Wii U is in deep trouble. Maybe we can expect a bigger push. More game announcements, new features, new marketing push, etc?

 

There are two different paths the Wii U will go

 

Smash Bros/Mario Kart sell megatons --> Wii U sales rebound, starts selling well.

 

Smash/Mario Kart doesn't move systems --> Wii U is pretty much done and on life support from here on out. A miracle must happen to band-aid from here.

 

 

Nintendo got too cocky this generation. Making a system with the name "Wii-U" to run off the Wii crowd only created problems, not success for the system. Nintendo also had problems with HD development in that they take way too long to release games for it. It also has a poor marketing push while creating confusion. Last, their online needs a revamp.

 

Hopefully they'll try to fix all of this in their panic mode.

[Your Vest Friend]

They shouldn't be losing a significant amount when they're making so much on 3DS.

 

They're making so much on it that they had to lower their estimate for that as well, although not as much as the Wii U. 

[Autosaver]

Wonderful 101 is only $24 at Bestbuy and Amazon.

 

Probably going to pick it up now at this price.

[SuperLink]

They're making so much on it that they had to lower their estimate for that as well, although not as much as the Wii U. 

They had to lower their 3DS estimate because it was doing so well? Did you mean it's doing worse than they expected?

 

EDIT: Iwata is remaining as President, at least until he sees things through

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-01-17-nintendo-slashes-wii-u-forecast-from-9m-to-2-8m

 

Really shocking to see the 3DS fell so short? How did that happen? It was doing really damn well?? Were they just overconfident or is it really not doing good enough?

[Sami]

They had to lower their 3DS estimate because it was doing so well? Did you mean it's doing worse than they expected?

EDIT: Iwata is remaining as President, at least until he sees things through

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-01-17-nintendo-slashes-wii-u-forecast-from-9m-to-2-8m

Really shocking to see the 3DS fell so short? How did that happen? It was doing really damn well?? Were they just overconfident or is it really not doing good enough?

It's not doing as well as the DS. The entire company is suffering from a loss of revenue right now. 3DS is still making them money, yes, but their handheld division has been growing weaker and weaker for years now. If they don't see an upswing with the 3DS' successor they actually could be doomed. Especially since it's the only pillar holding them up at this point.

[SuperLink]

The lack of 3DS (and by extension, Vita) success is almost certainly due to the booming phone/tablet market (fad?) and honestly it's kind of amazing that the relatively traditional platform is still performing well with phones and tablets around, it means people still want handheld games consoles.

 

If the phone/tablet thing is just a fad then Nintendo will be fine.. if not, they'll have to think hard about that. Personally I don't understand how such a huge amount of people want to do portable games without buttons, it's shite.

[Sami]

The lack of 3DS (and by extension, Vita) success is almost certainly due to the booming phone/tablet market (fad?) and honestly it's kind of amazing that the relatively traditional platform is still performing well with phones and tablets around, it means people still want handheld games consoles. If the phone/tablet thing is just a fad then Nintendo will be fine.. if not, they'll have to think hard about that. Personally I don't understand how such a huge amount of people want to do portable games without buttons, it's shite.

The problem isn't that people prefer buttonless gaming over traditional handhelds, though - it's that those handhelds are starting to lose their appeal in general in the face of devices that can browse the internet (and actually pretty decently, unlike the 3DS and Vita) type up and read documents, watch Netflix, Hulu, and just about every other video player out there, text and call friends and colleagues, and just about everything else you could possibly expect a handheld device to do it 2014. I'm not saying that I personally prefer phones over handhelds (I own both the 3DS and Vita and quite like some of their games), but that's why the marker is shrinking. Adults no longer buy Game Boys to play Tetris in between meetings because their phone can do that anyway, plus more. Old people aren't buying DS' for brain training because smartphones and iPods can do that at a much cheaper price anyway, plus more. Parents are choosing to buy their kids iPods and phones over 3DS' because they're more productive - you can read books on them, unlike with a 3DS. Honestly? I'd get in on it too if Sony or Nintendo were to release a smartphone of their own with buttons. Carrying around two devices is a hassle. The market for traditional handheld game consoles is unfortunately shrinking, and Nintendo has to act sooner rather than later, or they'll be in some real trouble once it reaches a breaking point. Edit - Found a graph to illustrate why the 3DS is still "underperforming" -

[SuperLink]

That's a very good point. It's a shame because dedicated games players are the kind of machine I want. If there was a handheld console more like a home console that had good apps like netflix and for computing too, I'd be up for that. I'm just really not a fan of systems where games are second to everything else :// especially as someone who generally prefers handheld consoles to well.. everything.

[Sami]

I'm fairly sure that the iPhone 5s is actually more powerful than the 3DS, isn't it? It seems it can run the same games at a much higher resolution, if Theatrhythm is any indication.

I don't think phones are really held back by hardware anymore, since we've kind of reached a point where every popular handheld device is of at least processing power. All it really needs is buttons, in my opinion. Hell, if I could use Bluetooth to connect my DS4 to my phone and play full new games on it I'd be set.

[SuperLink]

it's not that I think phones are weak, I've never had a problem with handhelds having lower-than-console power. I'm talking games being a "side-attraction" for phones and work tablets, they're not made with games in mind first and foremost, and as a result whenever you have any kind of RAM or memory issue, games are the first ones to take a quality hit, and when running games a phone that would normally last on a day of battery lasts like 3 hours.

 

That all bugs me. If someone made a phone or tablet-like device with buttons where games that was optimised with games in mind I'd be all for that, but for now, phones and tablets aren't my thing because games on them is more of an afterthought than anything else.

 

I'd like to think that if Nintendo (and Sony in Japan) can maintain a grip on the handheld market through phone/tablet's biggest boom, things will calm down again and handheld consoles will continue to have a place on the market.