General Gaming Sales/Charts Discussion

[Daft]

I think Plus will help it gain traction. WipeOut and Lumines are both free this month, which is nice, and after a few months, that list of games that Plus users amount has got to become tempting - buy your Vita and you'll already have 7/8 games to go from the start. And to boot, even though there are no new games out until March (Person 4 is out next month, I think - forgot that) Plus will have a few games for free to busy me. If AC, CoD, LBP or Resistance happen to be on that list I'll be happy. If not...I'll be kind of annoyed. Then again, there are a shit load of PS3/360 games out in the meantime so I doubt I'll notice.

 

Like the Wii U I think it'll need a price drop to really get it going. I'm a little surprised it's doing so dreadfully (the Vita) but personally I'm pretty happy with it (I play it like once a week - which is a lot for me because I don't have as much time for games as I used to).

 

I picked up NFS for £20 t'other day. It's awesome. I bloody hated hot pursuit. Still, would prefer a Burnout.

 

/Off topic

 

So yes, the Wii U and the Vita. Kindred spirits, if you ask me.

[Grazza]

Paper Mario SS's rise is really weird! It's tracking Mario & Luigi 3's chart position pattern (and Japanese sales) creepily similarly!

 

What on earth caused its re-entry and rise?

 

I know Tesco suddenly started stocking it (and definitely didn't have it on release). Maybe some other shops did too.

[liger05]

I think Plus will help it gain traction. WipeOut and Lumines are both free this month, which is nice, and after a few months, that list of games that Plus users amount has got to become tempting - buy your Vita and you'll already have 7/8 games to go from the start. And to boot, even though there are no new games out until March (Person 4 is out next month, I think - forgot that) Plus will have a few games for free to busy me. If AC, CoD, LBP or Resistance happen to be on that list I'll be happy. If not...I'll be kind of annoyed. Then again, there are a shit load of PS3/360 games out in the meantime so I doubt I'll notice.

 

Like the Wii U I think it'll need a price drop to really get it going. I'm a little surprised it's doing so dreadfully (the Vita) but personally I'm pretty happy with it (I play it like once a week - which is a lot for me because I don't have as much time for games as I used to).

 

I picked up NFS for £20 t'other day. It's awesome. I bloody hated hot pursuit. Still, would prefer a Burnout.

 

/Off topic

 

So yes, the Wii U and the Vita. Kindred spirits, if you ask me.

 

A price drop and free 16gb memory card. As soon as I saw the price of those memory cards that was me out. No purchase. Sony were stupid to go down that route again!

 

Nintendo have IP's which Sony dont have and thats a big difference. The Wii U will get those games but Sony wont ever release AAA IP as a Vita exclusive. They need more 3rd party support but the HW sales mean that will be a problem. Not really sure if the Vita will be around in 12 months.

Edited January 28, 2013 by liger05

[Daft]

I don't think it's as simple as that.

 

Also, and it's no excuse for Sony, but it's not hard to find a hardware bundle with a memory card. At launch I got an 8GB with mine, plus a game for £220.

[Hero-of-Time]

Here's a Wii U sales struggle article by our very own Tom Phillips. It's quite a good read.

 

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-01-25-nintendos-wii-u-sales-struggle

[Goron_3]

Here's a Wii U sales struggle article by our very own Tom Phillips. It's quite a good read.

 

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-01-25-nintendos-wii-u-sales-struggle

 

'In terms of money made, it took four weeks for the Wii U to earn £18 million - the amount that the original Wii made in its launch week. That's despite all three Wii U launch bundles costing more, with the most popular Premium bundle priced at least £100 higher per unit.'

[Serebii]

Here's a Wii U sales struggle article by our very own Tom Phillips. It's quite a good read.

 

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-01-25-nintendos-wii-u-sales-struggle

It does seem to miss a fair few points that NEED to be factored in here.

 

I can't wait for people to see the "next gen" consoles having similar issues, because I can GUARANTEE you that they will.

[Retro_Link]

I can't wait for people to see the "next gen" consoles having similar issues, because I can GUARANTEE you that they will.

Maybe, but they are already getting the games and will be getting the next-gen games... this was Nintendo's 'catch-up' console and they're not pulling it off at the moment.

[Serebii]

Maybe, but they are already getting the games and will be getting the next-gen games... this was Nintendo's 'catch-up' console and they're not pulling it off at the moment.

Yeah, and how many of these games will be available within the launch window?

[Retro_Link]

Yeah, and how many of these games will be available within the launch window?

What games?... we hardly know off a single game that's coming out past E3 this year. The point is, when the games DO come out, they will be there on those consoles.

 

Even if the consoles struggle they'll still be the 'go to' place for all current-gen and next-gen games. Which is something Nintendo can't seem to guarantee, despite this supposedly being the console to do so.

[liger05]

It does seem to miss a fair few points that NEED to be factored in here.

 

I can't wait for people to see the "next gen" consoles having similar issues, because I can GUARANTEE you that they will.

 

I think you are right in these sense that both Durango & Orbis will likely not fly out of the gate. There will be the Wii U, 360 and PS3 still eating up potential sales. However it is possible one of them will fly of the shelves and If I was going to pick one it would be the next xbox.

 

The Xbox in the US especially has great momentum and they will be launching a new console off the back of that. If you look at how they marketed the Kinect then no doubt they are going to market the next xbox like crazy.

 

When you talk about similar issues, what do you mean?

 

I would say neither will be the marketing disaster which nintendo has had with the Wii U. There will be no confusion of what is the new console and what isnt. Lack of hype like the Wii U? I aint so sure about that either. We will say how E3 plays put and if Sony or MS manager to make a complete mess of it like nintendo did last year?

 

MS and Sony will get 3rd party support for the next consoles. We still dont know if the Wii U has third parties on board and we could see developers use excuses like the WiiU isnt powerful enough once the next gen hits.

 

Prior to the Wii Nintendo Consoles struggled in the UK. We might just be seeing that again. The UK historically hasnt been a great region for Nintendo home console sales.

 

In 2 days we will get the numbers from Nintendo. The HW is one thing but I'm really interested in the Sofware sales. How they forecasted 24 mil games sold by March 31st amazes me? I dont know what games nintendo thought people would buy but it's going to be interesting to see how much software has really been sold as it will be knowhere near 24 million.

 

I wonder if the Wii U has managed to get to 100k in the UK by now? No guarantee of that.

Edited January 29, 2013 by liger05

[Daft]

I don't think there's ever been this short a lead in time to a pair of new consoles so I wouldn't be surprised if a whole host of publishers/developers weren't NDA'd up to the eyeballs. WatchDogs and Star Wars 1313 being prime examples of next-gen games that can't be announced as such.

 

I don't think comparisons to previous console launches will be very useful this time. The situation is all change.

[liger05]

I don't think there's ever been this short a lead in time to a pair of new consoles so I wouldn't be surprised if a whole host of publishers/developers weren't NDA'd up to the eyeballs. WatchDogs and Star Wars 1313 being prime examples of next-gen games that can't be announced as such.

 

I don't think comparisons to previous console launches will be very useful this time. The situation is all change.

 

Recent and up n coming 3rd party titles.

 

Metal gear Rising

Bioshock 3

Crysis 3

Dead space 3

Metal gear phantom Pain

Tomb Raider

Dishonored

GTA V

Dark soul 2

DmC

Resident evil 6

Dead or alive 5

Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm 3

Far Cry 3

FFXIII:Lightning Returns

 

If no confirmed Wii U release is down to NDA's then nintendo need to stop with such policy. Personally I dont think it is due to NDA's and unfortuantly the games are not coming to the Wii U. Well not at the same time as the 360 and PS3 versions anyway.

[Daft]

I'm not talking about Nintendo. God knows what they think they're up to. The NDAs are there because neither Microsoft or Sony have officially announced a new console - so developers can't announce a game for a platform that hasn't officially been unveiled.

 

Also, it's 'Bioshock Infinite'.

Edited January 29, 2013 by Daft

[liger05]

I'm not talking about Nintendo. God knows what they think they're up to.

 

Oh sorry. With the next gen consoles of course NDA's are there and they should be as it would be stupid to see games confirmed before the consoles have even been announced. E3 should see a whole bunch of games announced for those consoles.

 

The question that needs anwering I suppose is 'is the Wii U futureproof'? Once these games are announced and and confirmed for the next gen consoles will we see downports to the Wii U?

Edited January 29, 2013 by liger05

[Daft]

Yeah, sorry, we're on the same page now.

[Captain Falcon]

In 2 days we will get the numbers from Nintendo. The HW is one thing but I'm really interested in the Sofware sales. How they forecasted 24 mil games sold by March 31st amazes me? I dont know what games nintendo thought people would buy but it's going to be interesting to see how much software has really been sold as it will be knowhere near 24 million.

 

It's also worth noting that Nintendo's forecasted 24m games sales does not include software bundled with hardware - so all those copies of NintendoLand that have been sold as part of the Premium set don't count toward that 24m target.

[liger05]

It's also worth noting that Nintendo's forecasted 24m games sales does not include software bundled with hardware - so all those copies of NintendoLand that have been sold as part of the Premium set don't count toward that 24m target.

 

The HW Target wont be met but was realistic. The software forecast is just crazy and I would love to know how they come to that conclusion. Didnt know the nintendoland bundles were not included......Ouch its going to be brutal!

[Captain Falcon]

The HW Target wont be met but was realistic. The software forecast is just crazy and I would love to know how they come to that conclusion. Didnt know the nintendoland bundles were not included......Ouch its going to be brutal!

 

I'm not sure it was realistic but it depends how you arrive at that figure and there is a quote from Pachter, in that Eurogamer article, that reflects this nicely, though some bozzo in the comments section decided to twist it into a typical "Pachter is an idiot" post.

 

"In fairness, [Nintendo's] forecast of 5.5 million global consoles shipped by 31st March was the reason my expectations were higher.

 

Now what this says is that he didn't feel the number was that outlandish after Nintendo came out with it though it was higher than his expectation before he knew of it.

 

What the commentor failed to read was that Pachter saw that figure of 5.5m and assumed that Nintendo were going to pursue an aggressive marketing campaign and advertise this thing up the wazzoo with quality adverts that got the message across. Had they done this, and successfully drawn in all the Nintendo fans as well, that figure doesn't look so out there.

 

But Nintendo failed to do that... and it's not for the first time either they've set themselves up for a big fall. Nintendo talked the big game about learning from the 3DS launch, but they have repeated a silly number of the same mistakes and come up with a console that isn't likely to meet its targets. And, it pains me to say, it just isn't that surprising. Nintendo like to talk a good game but once again, we find ourselves looking at a company that just doesn't get it. The Wii U is not the Wii and it never will be, much like the 3DS is not the DS and never will be - and it wasn't until they realised the latter that they started to make the 3DS work.

 

And in that regard, that 5.5m was very bold and borderline arrogant.

 

The 24m software sales was never going to be hit in a million years as it requires them to sell over 4 games per machine, not including bundled software, and that they sell all 5.5m units. It was a pipe dream from day one.

[liger05]

I'm not sure it was realistic but it depends how you arrive at that figure and there is a quote from Pachter, in that Eurogamer article, that reflects this nicely, though some bozzo in the comments section decided to twist it into a typical "Pachter is an idiot" post.

 

 

 

Now what this says is that he didn't feel the number was that outlandish after Nintendo came out with it though it was higher than his expectation before he knew of it.

 

What the commentor failed to read was that Pachter saw that figure of 5.5m and assumed that Nintendo were going to pursue an aggressive marketing campaign and advertise this thing up the wazzoo with quality adverts that got the message across. Had they done this, and successfully drawn in all the Nintendo fans as well, that figure doesn't look so out there.

 

But Nintendo failed to do that... and it's not for the first time either they've set themselves up for a big fall. Nintendo talked the big game about learning from the 3DS launch, but they have repeated a silly number of the same mistakes and come up with a console that isn't likely to meet its targets. And, it pains me to say, it just isn't that surprising. Nintendo like to talk a good game but once again, we find ourselves looking at a company that just doesn't get it. The Wii U is not the Wii and it never will be, much like the 3DS is not the DS and never will be - and it wasn't until they realised the latter that they started to make the 3DS work.

 

And in that regard, that 5.5m was very bold and borderline arrogant.

 

The 24m software sales was never going to be hit in a million years as it requires them to sell over 4 games per machine, not including bundled software, and that they sell all 5.5m units. It was a pipe dream from day one.

 

What annoys me is the lack of marketing, bad advertising and an inability to actually get across to the consumer what the wii U is. I think I remember reading somewhere that the marketing agency they used before actually quit as they thought Nintendo Japan had no idea how to market in the US and were trying to tell them what to do when they knew it was wrong. I'm not sure if that's true but something is majorly wrong on the marketing side and they need a reboot from scratch as what they have done in marketing the wii u has sucked big time.

[Grazza]

Just from chatting around, I think people do get it now - they just don't want it, which is a massive problem. I bumped into one of my old schoolfriends the other day and she just said "It doesn't grab me".

 

Whether Nintendo Land and the GamePad will appeal to the "Wii" audience when you can get it all for £200, we'll see. I doubt it, but it's possible (and not before then, surely).

 

On the other extreme, I think it would be selling better even at £300 if it had 1) a traditional controller (with analogue triggers), 2) hardware that was clearly the most powerful at the moment and 3) plenty of 3D games. What I want from a handheld and home console are different. For the latter, I want loads of 3D worlds to explore. The Nintendo Direct this month was absolutely fantastic, but they'll have to keep up that sort of standard.

[liger05]

Just from chatting around, I think people do get it now - they just don't want it, which is a massive problem. I bumped into one of my old schoolfriends the other day and she just said "It doesn't grab me".

 

Whether Nintendo Land and the GamePad will appeal to the "Wii" audience when you can get it all for £200, we'll see. I doubt it, but it's possible (and not before then, surely).

 

On the other extreme, I think it would be selling better even at £300 if it had 1) a traditional controller (with analogue triggers), 2) hardware that was clearly the most powerful at the moment and 3) plenty of 3D games. What I want from a handheld and home console are different. For the latter, I want loads of 3D worlds to explore. The Nintendo Direct this month was absolutely fantastic, but they'll have to keep up that sort of standard.

 

For me I was mad hyped for the Gamecube, Wii, 3DS and that hype didnt die quickly after purchase. With the wii u I felt underwhelmed pretty quickly and I'm not recommending it to any of my friends who ask what I think.

 

It's strange as I've never felt this way with a nintendo piece of hardware before. Things like finding out the VC is coming and getting excited and then within hours finding out the games are likely to run @ 50hz is just a killer.

 

Nintendo have released the numbers for Oct - Dec

 

Nintendo posts $160M net income

 

Shipped (not units sold)

 

Nintendo 3DS hardware: 12.71 million

Nintendo 3DS software: 39.56 million

Animal Crossing: New Leaf: 2.73 million

 

Wii U hardware: 3.06 million

Wii U software: 11.69 million

NSMBU: 2.01 million

Nintendo Land: 2.33 million

 

Wii hardware: 3.53 million

Wii software: 45.08 million

Mario Party 9: over 1 million

 

Wii U forecast revised.

 

4 million Wii Us (down from 5.5)

16 million Wii U software (down from 25).

 

Nintendo 3DS

 

October - December 2011

 

Japan - 2.53 million

The Americas - 3.34 million

Other - 2.49 million

 

Total - 8.36 million

 

October - December 2012

 

Japan - 2.95 million

The Americas - 2.59 million

Other - 2.11 million

 

Total - 7.65 million

Edited January 30, 2013 by liger05

[Dcubed]

The results were better than I had expected TBH and oh look...

 

US: 1.32 million

Japan: 0.83 million

Europe: 0.9 million

 

It seems that once again, the UK has only made up a small fraction of their total EU sales (less than 10% according to

Eurogamer/chart track, who state that Wii U stood at around 80,000 at the start of January)

 

Told you guys that the UK sales weren't representative of the whole of Europe! :p Now less so than ever before.

 

Strange that they chose to downgrade their forecasts for all of their consoles and not just Wii U. I would've thought that with all the big 3DS software being pushed back into this quarter we'd see their 3DS hardware and software forecasts rise accordingly!

 

Also 1 million units for the next 2 months WW seems really quite conservative, even considering the wasteland of releases until Monster Hunter 3U...

 

BTW, the software attach rate is really very good! 3.8 in total, with NSMBU and Nintendo Land acheiving insane attach rates of 65.7% and 76.1% respectively )

 

Edit: Ahh, forgot that these were shipment figures. The sell-through data (actual sales to consumers) is coming tomorrow...

Edited January 30, 2013 by Dcubed

[Serebii]

For me I was mad hyped for the Gamecube, Wii, 3DS and that hype didnt die quickly after purchase. With the wii u I felt underwhelmed pretty quickly and I'm not recommending it to any of my friends who ask what I think.

 

It's strange as I've never felt this way with a nintendo piece of hardware before. Things like finding out the VC is coming and getting excited and then within hours finding out the games are likely to run @ 50hz is just a killer.

 

Nintendo have released the numbers for Oct - Dec

 

 

 

Wii U forecast revised.

 

4 million Wii Us (down from 5.5)

16 million Wii U software (down from 25).

See, not as doom and gloom as you thought. Not as good as they had hoped, but they're back making a profit, 3 million is pretty decent.

 

The revised sales through Q1 make sense considering they had to delay many of their games into Q2.

[Dcubed]

See, not as doom and gloom as you thought. Not as good as they had hoped, but they're back making a profit, 3 million is pretty decent.

 

The revised sales through Q1 make sense considering they had to delay many of their games into Q2.

 

Indeed it is. It doesn't explain the drop for 3DS though. If anything, it should have risen now that all of its previous Q3 & Q4 releases in the west were pushed back to this March!