Wii-U may seem DOA at the moment but my ps3 and xbox are sat on a shelf gathering a weeks dust at the minute cuz ive never been off Lego city Undercover
February Wii U sales in US hit 64,000 - Report
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
Nintendo's latest home console off to a slow start for 2013 in the United States; weekly performance worse than any recorded week for current-gen systems.
Research firm NPD Group yesterday announced that Wii U sales for February in the United States were up 40 percent on a weekly basis over January's figures, believed to be 57,000 units. If this is true, then the Wii U's performance in February was better, but not by much, totaling around 64,000 units for the month.
Gamasutra points out that the Wii U's performance in February, when averaged out by week, is worse than any recorded week for the current generation of consoles (Wii, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3).
Microsoft was the only platform holder to announce February hardware sales, trumpeting an industry-leading 302,000 units sold during the month and its 26th straight month as the top seller in the United States.
The Wii U has officially sold just over 3 million units by the end of December. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata previously apologized for a lack of software support for the system, while GameStop executive Rob Lloyd said he believes the system needs a blockbuster to spark sales.
Nintendo has a number of high-profile Wii U games in development, including next week's Lego City Undercover. Beyond that, new Mario Kart, Zelda, and Smash Bros. games, among others, are coming to the platform.
Mario and Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto said this week that he is not worried yet about the long-term sales potential for the Wii U.
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.
343 comments
1 Like Of course Microsoft touted their "NA" numbers. Their getting kicked to the curb by PS3 in worldwide figures. Not long before they move into last place this gen.
the only reason the wii sold like it did because it was easy to hack and pirate games once the wii u get full hack it will sell
Eddie! you forgot PS VITA, So WII U DIDN´T weekly performance worse than any recorded week for current-gen systems.
1 Like The WiiU came out, nobody cared, core gamers didnt care and neither did the casuals, what's next? The PS4.
1 Like @AgentA-Mi6 The casuals probably don't even realise it's ever been released, why upgrade from the Wii (that's been sitting under the stairs for the last 5 years anyway) if they can still use the Wii for Wii-Fit, or Brain Training?
The hardcore realised that they'd been deserted as Nintendo chased the casual cash cow and figured... no big deal, not like we lost anything.
No wonder the sales are so low considering how awful that link pic is. It looks like they tried to make it look bad on purpose.
We need Dragon Quest 10 in the States. It's Japanese version has had great reviews. Bring some of that Wii U love this way.
The 3DS price drop 6 months after launch has us all waiting for/expecting a similar drop on the Wii U.
@bluespire1 Not me not putting a down payment for a car toward a console $500 please might as well build a UGM PC for $1000 and have the ability to upgrade it.
@BamaGoatt @bluespire1 Already have a $1200.00 dollar PC custom built by cyber power and drive an 03 Nissan next up next gen Sony or Microsoft console if God allows it however...
long time ago i said the 360 would be the highest selling system in the usa till next gen started... i was wrong.. it will be number 1 till the nextbox comes out
@monson21502 lol you jumping on that grenade again good luck. In this economy $500 systems will be a tough sale.
5 Like It's what you get for releasing a system with very outdated hardware that won't support multiplatform titles.
@Alex__V yeah thats why they scored Watchdogs on a wiiu right? Consoles are always outdated when they hit shelves anyways weak argument.
@BamaGoatt @Alex__V Watchdogs is multiplat for x360/ps3. I'm talking ps4/next xbox here. They are both x86 jaguar based. Wii U has powerpc cores like the xbox 360. Simply put the next cod, gta, elder scrolls are probably not gonna see the wii U.
Consoles are not always outdated when they hit shelves... Not this much anyway. PS3/x360 had a great gpu/processor at the time they came out. That's not the case this time around for ps4, now it's just "ok" compared to pc but still way better and recent than a 3 year old gpu that's in the wii u that also has to render the extra controller display...
@Alex__V apart from every other game you mentioned. the next cod could be ported to a ps2 they havent changed the engine in the last 13 years. my local CEx has 4561 used copies of black ops 2 and isnt buying anymore they are telling people to bin them or donate to cancer research shop next door.
1 Like @Alex__V thought thought the non gamers who bought a wii would buy this because tablets are hot sellers
@monson21502 @Alex__V Casual gamers buy the system and a couple of games and never, so 3rd parties end selling nothing compared with "gamers" consoles, so 3rd parties cut support to Nintendo by cancelling projects or not even considering the console again.
Of course, Nintendo doesn´t suffer from this because they profit for each system sold, but it´s not the same for 3rd parties. This is why Nintendo is always alone with their Mario and Zelda and Pokémon while other consoles (PS3/X360) gets spectacullar series and games form 3rd parties.
@grbolivar They are selling Wii U at a loss, and Wii had lots of spectacular series as well. Get your shitty facts straight.
No games, then no sales, i really want to buy a WiiU but so far there hasn't been anything that interesting for it, i'm pretty confident that they will show some amazing stuff for this E3 to get better sales on holidays but meanwhile the console just won't sell.
1 Like @madsnakehhh ZombiU has surprised me, given its mixed reviews. Probably the best survival horror I've played in the last couple of years. One of the most solid launch title I've ever played, at the very least.
1 Like @madsnakehhh Lego City undercover comes out Tuesday it's getting good reviews said to be GTA with legos minus hookers that equals a must buy if you ask me.
1 Like Come on fanboys. Keep using the "All consoles struggle at launch!" excuse. It gets worse every time.
Nintendo went for the casuals with the Wii and ignored everyone else. Now they reap what they sow.
Some of you people make me laugh your arguments are all twisted up. I like how emptycow uses the same argument to explain the wii's total sales and then turns it around to explain the now dried up sales. It would be easier to just state facts emptycow all of the systems win through marketing. that is why the wii sold like hotcakes. How many Wii ads have you seen over the past 2 years not many they no longer need to market it so sales dry up. If you think marketing doesn't push systems just remember the PS1 days and the slogan Are you red e to play? BTW I still see ads for xbox 360 and PS3 running today it's easy to sell when the other company stops marketing.
Also, lol wtf 40%?
57,000*1.4=79800
Waaaat. You know articles do become less trustworthy if the journalists can't get solid facts/do elementary grade mathematics smh.
It's ironic how Nintendo really wanted this console to thrive off of 3rd party support, although they have a couple of solid 3rd party exclusives (Lego City and Bayonetta 2), I really think that what's gonna save them (as always) is gonna be their solid 1st party releases.
I bet a lot of people are like me, I'm biding my time until Zelda's released.
I just hope that they don't start to rush their 1st party games in order to release them faster for the WiiU :/
2 Like I'm sorry, but how does this make any sense? We know the number of consoles Nintendo sold in the US for January was approximately 57,000. The NPD analyst came out and stated that Nintendo saw a 40% increase in Wii U hardware sales for the month of February.
57,000 x .4 = 22,800
57,000 + 22,800 = 79,800
79,800 isn't "great," but it sure as hell isn't 64,000.
@X_Colbert_X I had to read it a few times.
It says the WEEKLY sales are up 40% compared to January and the numbers presented are for the whole months of January and February. It's safe to assume that the weekly number at the beginning of February hadn't increased by 40% immediately but probably by the last week of February.
In short: last week of February the sales are up 40% compared to the first week of January.
That's the only way I can explain it at this point. Who knows though.
1 Like That was my assumption as well, however, several other sites--Gamesutra, Cnet, Ars Technica, etc.--are reporting "that weekly sales on average increased around 40% in February." Seeing as this is an average percentage, one would logically assume a 40% increase across all weeks. Either it's phrased in a misleading manner or the math is equally misleading.
You're right though, there's really no clear way to explain all of this until we get some official numbers.
2 Like Nintendo should just go to Handheld Market from here on out, and ditch consoles. They have dominated the handhelds for god knows how long but cant make decent decisions as far as consoles are concerned to save their lives =(
@finalkain They can't make decent handheld decisions either. 3DS almost died if they wouldn't have provided that huge price cut.
3DS still uses resistive touch, ridiculously low pixel density and TN panels. Let's face it, Nintendo wants to make a buck off customers while Sony is ready to put everything in for a razor-thin profit margin or even no profit. Most of the money they get back is from the software and licenses they sell.
@finalkain Smartphones have destroyed their handheld market share, and they're not getting it back.
After the Wii is third best saling console of all time and the best saling home console of this generation. That would be dumb.
1 Like There are no games for it besides New Super Mario Bros U, ZombiiU, and maybe Nintendo Land. What else would you expect? Hell, I want an excuse to buy one, but right now there are more reasons for me to buy a Vita than there are to buy a WiiU. It needs software, genuinely good software, and it needs it ASAP.
I think the Wii U can wait nothing on the PS4 looks particularly good accept for the multiplatform games.
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