Wii Outselling Wii U, Only 160,000 Units Shipped Last Quarter 212
rescendent writes with news that the Wii U still isn't selling very well. From the article: "Nintendo's Wii U console sold only 160,000 units worldwide during the past three months, with the company blaming a lack of first-party releases for the poor performance. Software sales for the system were just 1.3 million units. During the period Nintendo sold 90,000 Wii U consoles in Japan, 60,000 in the US and only 10,000 in Europe and Australia."
El Reg reports that the Wii sold 210,000 units in the same quarter. On the bright side, Nintendo is once again profitable.
Bad Price Point (Score:3, Interesting)
Nintendo has always had a cost niche that set them apart from xbox and ps3. Why would they want to go head to head? My kids are older now and I am not going to shell out that much money because they want to play a few titles that they liked when they were younger.
Who buys (and keeps) this crap console anyway? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:The move to HD hurt them (Score:5, Interesting)
You are correct about most things, but will disagree on your assessment of the Wii U tablet. If used properly, it could offer some very unique game play.
They've started to scratch the surface of that potential in a few "Nintendoland" minigames; the Luigi Ghost game and Metroid most notably. Being able to host competitive multiplayer on actual separate screens is a new development in console gaming.
Of course, these two little games aren't nearly enough to sell a system, or completely validate the concept... but it's a start. We need developers to actually utilize this technology to make new, interesting games. Imagine a dungeon crawler game, one person with the Tablet is the Dungeon Master, controlling hordes of orcs/zombies/etc like an RTS while up to 4 players on normal controllers try and make it through the dungeon, or save the princess, or whatever. The concept works for any cooperative multiplayer game... just let one person act as the opponent in place of the computer. Left 4 Dead does a similar thing, but it requires every player to have their own copy of the game, and be sitting on their own TV, with their own console/computer, etc. Wii U could bring that concept to a single living room couch.
Another big step will be the possibility of hosting multiple tablets on a single system. Especially for sports games, where your tablet can serve as your playbook. No more picking plays onscreen where the other player can clearly see what you're running. The TV can be dedicated to the actual on-field situation, with substitutions, sneak plays, formations, etc handled on the tablet. Hell, this could make for actual compelling "Video Games as a spectator sport." Two players have their tablets, control the plays, etc while a crowd watches a TV. To them, it looks like a regular game, with slightly awkward running motions at times.
I don't want one (Score:4, Interesting)
So now we have the new Wii U and my kids haven't peeped about it, none of their friends have one, my wife doesn't know it exists, and Nintendo hasn't shown me anything interesting.
I am not saying that the thing is great or that it sucks. I just don't know and haven't seen anything cool about it.