Wii U Catch-All

Aaron D. wrote:

It's a bit of a Chicken or the Egg thing, but since the delay announcement I've wondered if the game got pushed so the Wii U install base could grow more before release. Like it has less to do with the 360/PS3 port and more to do with Wii U sales potential.

There were some horrific numbers coming out of the last NPD cycle stating that for 3rd party Wii U software, the only title to break the 100,000 units sold barrier worldwide was ZombiU.

That's gotta scare the pants of any publisher with heavy resources invested in the system.

I've said this before but it bears repeating. NPD is useless and bordering on irrelevant. They talking about US retail only, not all retail and don't count digital downloads as anything but rough guesses. Not saying Wii U software is doing great (it isn't) but NPD numbers are all but pointless now.

gamerparent wrote:

Didn't the Wii U see 70% or something of users connected to the internet? I thought it was one of those stats that Iwata talked about. That's a pretty good ratio. Besides, if you didn't connect to the internet you wouldn't have the day one system update. Which makes that 70% number seem kind of low, actually...

re: Rayman - The kicker for me is that I have the game pre-ordered, and because it's part of a larger order, part of which has shipped, I can't cancel it anymore... So if it came out on eShop I'd have two copies of it. :(

Actually, the number given was 74% of WiiU's connected. And to give perspective of where the numbers are going, the 3DS is now 80% connected, up from 60% last year. Via Nintendo.

If you're not connected, you're in a quickly shrinking minority.

Parallax Abstraction wrote:

I've said this before but it bears repeating. NPD is useless and bordering on irrelevant. They talking about US retail only, not all retail and don't count digital downloads as anything but rough guesses. Not saying Wii U software is doing great (it isn't) but NPD numbers are all but pointless now.

One should also remember that up until February of last year, they didn't have official numbers for WalMart. Who know what other outlets they're missing.

As pointed out in the 3DS thread, there's another Nintendo Direct tomorrow morning which is expected to talk about the Wii U. Hopefully they will detail the upcoming firmware update(s) as part of the presentation.

Not much was announced for the Wii U today: New Super Luigi U DLC for NSMBU later this year, sounds like it's a new campaign for the game. I wonder if Mario Galaxy 2 would've been a DLC addon for Galaxy 1 if Nintendo had a real online strategy during the Wii years...

Also, Street View is available today for those who care.

Hopefully there's another Nintendo Direct focused on the Wii U in March or April. Seems like they're doing alternating presentations on a semi-monthly basis.

Jasonofindy wrote:

Right now, the Skylanders display and section is actually larger and more prominent than the WiiU in most of my local stores. What will it look like after the launch of two more consoles if Nintendo alienates retailers?

Skylanders figures take up a lot of physical space. What's more, there are lots of neat looking bits to put on display. And those little bits are probably more profitable. I wouldn't be surprised if a store makes much more profit from a single Skylanders figure than they do from a WiiU.

Oh, and there's now a Miiverse community dedicated to Zelda. That was kind of a "Um... okay..." kind of announcement. It goes to show how barren the Wii U cupboard is that a Miiverse community gets a mention in the Nintendo Direct.

shoptroll wrote:

Not much was announced for the Wii U today: New Super Luigi U DLC for NSMBU later this year, sounds like it's a new campaign for the game. I wonder if Mario Galaxy 2 would've been a DLC addon for Galaxy 1 if Nintendo had a real online strategy during the Wii years...

Also, Street View is available today for those who care.

Hopefully there's another Nintendo Direct focused on the Wii U in March or April. Seems like they're doing alternating presentations on a semi-monthly basis.

I didn't think I'd care about Wii Street U but after trying it out it brought a smile to my face. It's basically virtual tours of places around the world. They even have "tours" of different cities and monuments, including the White House, and Barcelona (which is my favourite city). It works well, it's high def, and scans your movements pretty accurately. There's a preset tour path to follow, but it's kinda neat.

I checked out Florence, to see the church that's in Assassin's Creed II... that was fun. I wasn't able to kill any of the passerby, though.

The Wii U version of Need for Speed: Most Wanted will be using the assets and lighting from the PC version, a decided improvement over PS3 and 360. A higher draw distance as well. It's good to see someone finally acknowledge that the system is capable of more than the older machines, and it's not surprising that it's Criterion since they were one of the few developers to use the PS3's extra oomph for prior games like Burnout Paradise. The video below has details.

This is one of the few multiplatform games announced for Wii U that I'm both interested in and haven't played elsewhere. I tend not to buy NFS games, but I did love Paradise so I'll be buying this at some point. Unfortunately it's coming out on 3/19, known around my parts as Monster Hunter Day.

I don't think I'll buy it, as I typically don't find much value in racing games beyond maybe a week of gameplay. But I do have to say that game looks gorgeous. I'd fiddle with a demo for sure.

Speaking of demos, less than a week to go on that other one. Can't wait!

gamerparent wrote:

Oh, and there's now a Miiverse community dedicated to Zelda. That was kind of a "Um... okay..." kind of announcement. It goes to show how barren the Wii U cupboard is that a Miiverse community gets a mention in the Nintendo Direct.

Or how popular Miiverse is. Keep in mind, they did a Wii U specific Nintendo Direct a few weeks ago and we still have E3 coming up in a couple months. March is the end of the drought for me, there are 4 games I want to buy: The Amazing Spider-Man, Mosnter Hunter, Lego City, and NFSMW.

Yes Miiverse is very popular, and yes, we had our Wii U stuff earlier. It's just pretty clear that it was mostly a bout the 3DS today.

same here, Monster Hunter will take March and beyond for me. I'm definitely hot on Need for Speed, as I love driving games. And sounds like they took care to make the Wii U version a good version, I will buy it to support that.

Yeah, my Wii U will be really busy starting in mid-March. MH3U and Lego City Undercover are definite buys, though Lego City's $50 price point makes me wonder about their confidence in the product. Buying NFS:MW depends on how the gaming budget looks at that point, really.

I'm also excited for Injustice: Gods Among Us on 4/16. Mortal Kombat 9 was good enough that Netherrealm deserves my support at launch. I had been under the impression it would be releasing late for Wii U, but apparently not.

Blind_Evil wrote:

Yeah, my Wii U will be really busy starting in mid-March. MH3U and Lego City Undercover are definite buys, though Lego City's $50 price point makes me wonder about their confidence in the product.

Well $50 was the default price for Wii games wasn't it? From what I've seen it seems like publishers are split on whether or not they can charge an extra $10 for Wii U games. With Lego City the graphics style should save on art costs, so they might be playing it safe because they can afford to.

Actually now that I think about it, all of the Lego licensed games start at $50. I just hope this is a more ambitious game than those.

Blind_Evil wrote:

January NPD numbers came out and the unconfirmed number for Wii U hardware is not pretty. Originally people were saying 79k, which has now been lowered to 55k.

I'll have more to say about this at work, but my two general points of discussion:

1. I think Nintendo's mistake was almost entirely out of their hands in 2012. The casual player that carried the Wii for so long didn't make the jump, and the Wii alienated a lot of gamers like us (not me, but you know what I mean). I think it was a little too high priced as well, but that's less an issue.

2. As I've said, the absolute worst case scenario here is a Gamecube/N64 type long-term performance for the Wii U and such a low number is possibly a step in that direction. Ironically the Gamecube is one of my all-time favorite systems. I don't think this would sink Nintendo, but it would put them under a lot of duress to succeed with their next machine.

I think Nintendo's mistake was their advertising. Most people don't even know about the Wii U and the ones that have heard about it don't even know what it is.

I haven't seen any commercials.

January NPD numbers came out and the unconfirmed number for Wii U hardware is not pretty. Originally people were saying 79k, which has now been lowered to 55k. This is US-only of course.

I'll have more to say about this after work, but my two general points of discussion:

1. I think Nintendo's mistake was almost entirely out of their hands in 2012. The casual player that carried the Wii for so long didn't make the jump, and the Wii alienated a lot of gamers like us (not me, but you know what I mean). I think it was a little too high priced as well, but that's less an issue. Really the casual crowd sitting out, the writing was on the wall for that and that's why the Wii U is a bit more gamer-centric. But they didn't push far enough in that direction and considering how butt-hurt the core gamers were over the Wii I don't know that PS4-level specs would have helped any.

2. As I've said, the absolute worst case scenario here is a Gamecube/N64 type long-term performance for the Wii U and such a low number is possibly a step in that direction. Ironically the Gamecube is one of my all-time favorite systems. I don't think this would sink Nintendo, but it would put them under a lot of duress to succeed with their next machine.

Blind_Evil wrote:

I'm also excited for Injustice: Gods Among Us on 4/16. Mortal Kombat 9 was good enough that Netherrealm deserves my support at launch. I had been under the impression it would be releasing late for Wii U, but apparently not.

I agree with you, we should support the "good" companies that do same date releases, or the ones that make their ports with care and respect for the users. Sorry to get all bleeding heart on you, I'm trying to put my money where my mouth is and I encourage everyone else to do the same.

Pile be damned, I've got a system to support!

The first tweet I saw about it on Twitter noted that Xbox 360 sold more than the Wii-U last month, to which I say "duh". The PS2 sold more than the Xbox 360 in that system's initial launch as well. The Wii was also a special case in that it was a phenomenon, so people comparing that to Wii-U sales are still ignoring, well, history.

Pardon for going on this particular tangent, but it is a lot like how everyone points to how horrible it was that Hitler did bad things and Nazis and etc., but ignore that the whole reason he gained power was he had a vision and a promise to a Germany that was broken up and in shambles following World War 1. I'm fuzzy on the details, but the point is the numbers are meaningless without the context, just as Hitler's crimes are meaningless without the context of how he became capable of such crimes to begin with.

You could compare the next Xbox and Playstation to the Wii's numbers and they won't match. It's a different time, a different economy and a different market.

ccesarano wrote:

The first tweet I saw about it on Twitter noted that Xbox 360 sold more than the Wii-U last month, to which I say "duh". The PS2 sold more than the Xbox 360 in that system's initial launch as well. The Wii was also a special case in that it was a phenomenon, so people comparing that to Wii-U sales are still ignoring, well, history.

Pardon for going on this particular tangent, but it is a lot like how everyone points to how horrible it was that Hitler did bad things and Nazis and etc., but ignore that the whole reason he gained power was he had a vision and a promise to a Germany that was broken up and in shambles following World War 1. I'm fuzzy on the details, but the point is the numbers are meaningless without the context, just as Hitler's crimes are meaningless without the context of how he became capable of such crimes to begin with.

You could compare the next Xbox and Playstation to the Wii's numbers and they won't match. It's a different time, a different economy and a different market.

You're comparing Hitler's rise to power to console launches? wtf.

Wait, did we seriously just go straight to Hitler when comparing sales numbers of video game console systems? I thought there was a Internet Forum process that we had to go through first before we got here?

ccesarano wrote:

You could compare the next Xbox and Playstation to the Wii's numbers and they won't match. It's a different time, a different economy and a different market.

This is pretty much all that needs to be said. I mean the WiiU numbers are low--which I thought was being expected. I'm just a little confused with what we gain (if anything) by comparing past sales numbers for different consoles?

Blind_Evil wrote:

1. I think Nintendo's mistake was almost entirely out of their hands in 2012. The casual player that carried the Wii for so long didn't make the jump, and the Wii alienated a lot of gamers like us (not me, but you know what I mean). I think it was a little too high priced as well, but that's less an issue. Really the casual crowd sitting out, the writing was on the wall for that and that's why the Wii U is a bit more gamer-centric. But they didn't push far enough in that direction and considering how butt-hurt the core gamers were over the Wii I don't know that PS4-level specs would have helped any.

2. As I've said, the absolute worst case scenario here is a Gamecube/N64 type long-term performance for the Wii U and such a low number is possibly a step in that direction. Ironically the Gamecube is one of my all-time favorite systems. I don't think this would sink Nintendo, but it would put them under a lot of duress to succeed with their next machine.

I'm still not worried. Look how long it took the DS and the 3DS to ramp up, or the PS3 for that matter. I agree that the advertising on the Wii U could've been better, but that's in the past and the system is out now so really all they can do is to just knuckle down and get the games out.

It's also a marathon, not a sprint, so while the numbers might suck now that doesn't mean the system is automatically relegated to the same place as the N64 and GameCube. Besides, the Gamecube was not a bad system by any stretch.

We're in the middle of a drought (which will hopefully ease a little next month), and while I don't have anything in the near future on my list (March is packed with PC games for me) I'm somewhat curious about Monster Hunter and Lego City. Plus, there's whatever tricks Nintendo has up their sleeves for Nintendo Direct. Seriously, announcing there's a new Mario & Luigi game coming out in 4 months (the earliest "summer" release window) in North America? That's crazy and would've been a miracle a decade ago. We need a surprise like that for the Wii U, stat.

On a side note, Nintendo Direct is the new Nintendo Power. No wonder they didn't have a problem with selling the magazine off to Future.

It's way too early in the morning for Godwin.

Hardware numbers are one of the only areas where NPD's data is somewhat relevant (though only sort of because they're US only) but as others have said, Nintendo is in this as a marathon and not a sprint. Unfortunately, the clueless twits that make up the bulk of Wall Street investors don't want marathons. They want huge, fast returns and scream doom and gloom when they don't get them. No one wants to invest long-term any more. The good thing at least is that Nintendo doesn't seem to care and is saying "Wait, you'll see." I think that's a smart strategy for them and that the bulk of titles they have coming this year will cement the Wii U's potential as a successful platform, though of course none of the press or investors will eat any crow on that.

I was happy to see what the announced yesterday (get Luigi's Mansion 3DS in my eye holes NOW!) but I am concerned about the lack of new ideas in what I've seen announced. I love Nintendo franchises, don't get my wrong but with the challenges they now face, I really think they need to branch out some and start embracing more ideas than just their core IP stable. They still have a lot of money, now's the time to throw a bunch of new ideas at the wall in addition to returning to the well.

EDIT: Ugh, I just saw Arthur Gies post on Twitter how bad this is because the PS3 sold more units in its first January than the Wii U, even at 599 US dollars. Right Arthur, because the world wasn't in a massive recession then. Ugh.

Parallax Abstraction wrote:

Hardware numbers are one of the only areas where NPD's data is somewhat relevant (though only sort of because they're US only) but as others have said, Nintendo is in this as a marathon and not a sprint. Unfortunately, the clueless twits that make up the bulk of Wall Street investors don't want marathons. They want huge, fast returns and scream doom and gloom when they don't get them. No one wants to invest long-term any more. The good thing at least is that Nintendo doesn't seem to care and is saying "Wait, you'll see." I think that's a smart strategy for them and that the bulk of titles they have coming this year will cement the Wii U's potential as a successful platform, though of course none of the press or investors will eat any crow on that.

I was happy to see what the announced yesterday (get Luigi's Mansion 3DS in my eye holes NOW!) but I am concerned about the lack of new ideas in what I've seen announced. I love Nintendo franchises, don't get my wrong but with the challenges they now face, I really think they need to branch out some and start embracing more ideas than just their core IP stable. They still have a lot of money, now's the time to throw a bunch of new ideas at the wall in addition to returning to the well.

EDIT: Ugh, I just saw Arthur Gies post on Twitter how bad this is because the PS3 sold more units in its first January than the Wii U, even at 599 US dollars. Right Arthur, because the world wasn't in a massive recession then. Ugh.

Anyway you look at it... those numbers are terrible for Nintendo. Anyone who thinks those numbers aren't terrible is delusional. Nintendo needs to get their marketing team kicked into high gear and get a price drop or I'm afraid this is going to get really ugly for them.

I still don't understand why they didn't have more first party stuff ready for launch or 3-4 months after launch. I mean they knew they were bringing it out and they weren't exactly releasing a ton of first party stuff for the Wii at the end of it's life so wtf were they doing the past couple of years? Makes me wonder if they tied up most of their first party programers and resources into the 3DS.

Parallax Abstraction wrote:

Unfortunately, the clueless twits that make up the bulk of Wall Street investors don't want marathons. They want huge, fast returns and scream doom and gloom when they don't get them. No one wants to invest long-term any more.

This has been the case since the 90's. Maxis had great trouble trying to reconcile their product lineup with the fact that Wall Street mostly cares about quarter to quarter and year to year improvements. Ken Williams has also said this was a major problem for Sierra too. It's really hard to deliver software products like clockwork especially in a creative/hit-driven sector, and this probably explains while biggest publishers have at least one annual product to anchor their investors.

Parallax Abstraction wrote:

They still have a lot of money, now's the time to throw a bunch of new ideas at the wall in addition to returning to the well.

I haven't played any of them, but from what I can tell Nintendo is throwing a bunch of ideas at the wall in the 3DS eShop. I think we'll see that continue on the Wii U but it won't be until later this year or early next year.

EDIT:

Gumbie wrote:

I still don't understand why they didn't have more first party stuff ready for launch or 3-4 months after launch.

I seem to recall they were telegraphing Pikmin 3 for a launch window release but that seems to have pushed back. Anyone know what happened?

Gumbie wrote:
Parallax Abstraction wrote:

EDIT: Ugh, I just saw Arthur Gies post on Twitter how bad this is because the PS3 sold more units in its first January than the Wii U, even at 599 US dollars. Right Arthur, because the world wasn't in a massive recession then. Ugh.

Anyway you look at it... those numbers are terrible for Nintendo. Anyone who thinks those numbers aren't terrible is delusional. Nintendo needs to get their marketing team kicked into high gear and get a price drop or I'm afraid this is going to get really ugly for them.

I tend to agree with Gumbie but I would recommend unfollowing Gies regardless ;).

Y'know, on the topic of muddled marketing... official web pages like this don't really help

No company can continue to bleed cash... even Nintendo. Clearly something needs to change because as strong as the 3DS is doing (at least thats what everyone here is telling me) Nintendo continues to bleed their cash reserves. At some point they have to either turn it around (in the face of more than likely two new consoles) OR contract in size and shed payroll/expense. Do they have to announce Layoffs in Japan? I felt the under-reported unification of their hardware teams would have led to an announcement of some layoffs but AFAIK there were none.

I would also like to point out that it only took 39 pages to Goodwin the thread

Honestly, I just want to play fun video games. I'm not worried about the Wii U's success, I don't think it's going to tank and stop having games. This is all a non-starter for me.