Nintendo confident Wii U will sell this holiday
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
Company president Satoru Iwata claims healthy preorder figures for new console indicate system will see strong sales at launch.
The Wii U will enjoy a healthy launch in North America, Europe, and Australia next month. That's according to Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, who said during a financial presentation that preorder figures for the Wii U make it clear the system will hit the ground running.
"If you look at how preorders are doing at the moment, it is not an exaggeration to say that Wii U is sure to sell well in this holiday season," he said.
Iwata claimed last week that preorders for the Wii U had sold out at many retailers, with a waitlist for the console at GameStop numbering more than a quarter of a million people.
The executive cautioned that though Wii U sales may get off to a quick start, keeping sales strong into next year is the real task. To maximize the prospect of sales longevity for the Wii U, Iwata revealed that several games that were being readied to be among the 23 launch titles for the system were pushed to 2013 to keep gamers interested. He did not name any of these, and all 23 previously announced launch titles remain on-schedule.
"Nintendo tends to release too many titles at the launch of a hardware system and as a result suffers a drop in new games for quite some time after launch, and for the Wii U launch, we are being very careful not to let it happen," he said. "Fortunately, third-party publishers overseas are launching many titles for us this time, and we were able to push back the release of some of the titles that we had originally intended to release as launch titles until next year."
Another way in which Nintendo plans to bolster consumer interest in the Wii U beyond 2012 is through word-of-mouth. Iwata said when players try out Nintendo Land (bundled with the $350 Wii U deluxe model) he hopes they will be inclined to talk with their friends about the game.
This, combined with a new slate of games launching in 2013, is how Nintendo expects to keep consumer interest in the Wii U after launch, Iwata said. There will be a total of 52 titles available for the Wii U by March 31, 2013, including Pikmin 3, Mass Effect 3, Lego City Undercover, and Rayman Legends.
Iwata also addressed the news that the Wii U will be sold at a loss at launch. He said he does not know at what point in time the new hardware will begin to be sold at a profit, noting that the company's focus is centered on the platform business as a whole instead of just hardware or just software. He said he expects the overall Wii U platform to make "solid contributions" to Nintendo's profits in the next fiscal year.
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.
213 comments
1 Like Wii U will sell no doubt but I WON'T be one of those people on the Nintendo bandwagon come launch time. I'd rather wait and see if Nintendo can "Wii" me.
1 Like Why people? Why?!?! A fool and his money are soon parted...
Wii U has shown absolutely nothing of interest to me or my friends.
I think civil gamers are holding off to see if Nintendo is actually going to put effort in making tons of quality first party titles, and invest in strong 3rd party support like the Super Nintendo. They will need it, in a console market occupied a lot more by core gamers thanks to the booming success of the casual iOS, Facebook and Android games.
1 Like They're on a good start with 3rd party support, with still no word of what Sony/Microsoft have planned, giving them at least a full year's head start, they would have to screw up royally to make the Wii U fail.
@Nintyfan95 One thing that made me mad about Nintendo is what they did with the 3ds like when they dropped the price and then came out with the xl I was so pissed thats another reason Im realy not killing myself over having to wait and but a WiiU
@firstclassgamer Doesn't Nintendo always do that with their handhelds? Besides dropping the price on the 3DS was actually a good thing considering it was suppose to be under $200 from the beginning and they make up for that by giving early buyers 20 free games and dropping the price so those who hadn't buy it yet could finally afford it. The XL is really nothing special, aside from better battery life, bigger design, and two bigger screens, it offers nothing new from the original.
What a mess.......Toys r Us big xmas catalog mailed is a disaster ad. It gives no launch date, price or explanation what it is other than its in Hd and compatible with the Wii. Im thinking initially epic fail.....too confusing for parents. Sure the gamers will buy it, but face it GAmestops "sold out" preorders is only like 350,000, not very impressive....I think Nintendo is going to pull the "fake" sold out to create demand for after xmas while they get their crap together. Holy geez that controller is huge when your holding it....not sure after playing Rayman...nice graphics but no WOW factor
As of Oct 30, 2012 we only have 16 days left before launch of the Wii U. If one has not already pre-ordered one and really wants one prepare to stay up late and hung out at your local Walmart until around 12 midnight to pick u up one.
Which reminds me, I have two for sell, anyone want one for only a few hundred over MSRP. What a bahgan!!!!
I don't plan on buying one in the near future, but it'd be stupid for anyone to say it wouldn't sell....it's new and it's during a holiday season...of course it will sell.
until i have not heard of a starfox game or new smash brothers release i will not by this system.
3 Like A new Nintendo console and the holiday season? They have nothing to worry about in my opinion.
1 Like The question is will it sell after the holiday? Its a given that the Nintendo fans will all buy it. But will the 360/PS3 and casual audiences buy it? I will eventually get it if only for Pikmin 3 but I'm in no rush to be an early adopter.
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It's all about the games, many 360/PS3 owners will get the Wii U if they seen enough games that appeal to them. Remember how this generation started? The PS2 absolutely dominated last gen but many PS2 owners were quick to switch over to the 360 since the PS3's launch was rather disastrous.
Nintendo's E3 next year will probably be the most important E3 for the Wii U because if they roll out the big guns like Retro's project, Monolith Soft's project, Miyamoto's new IP, the return of F-Zero and/or Star Fox, along with the expect 3D Mario, MarioKart, with teasers of the next Smash Brothers and Zelda, I think a lot of people will get on board at the point and this is not considering what 3rd parties are working on for the Wii U.
I also hope they do what they've been doing with the 3DS in regards to DLC, which is pretty much free DLC daily for a year.
1 Like Gamestop has the demo of the Wii U in. I had one pre-ordered before (Lego City sold me), but after playing the demo I was very happy I had one pre-ordered. Even though the tablet controller is large, it felt comfortable to hold and the screen was very responsive. The game that was playable was Rayman and it integrated using the touchscreen very well. It also seems that if you had two people playing it would be just as fun.
@Spartacus073 Ah, thanks for mentioning this. I'll have to stop by my local EB games and see if they've got a demo system up tomorrow.
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Freaking Hawaii doesn't have it yet DX Eagerly waiting to see it in person, I heard Rayman Legends looks much better in person than the videos have been showing us.
This mans that they have quotes of Nintendo really don't know nothing, look at pre-orders and you know how well it will do. Simple.
Much as I like Nintendo, I'm still not sold on it. I think it's neat and all, and I personally have no doubts that it'll do well, but the announced games just aren't blowing ME away.
Mind you, if they confirm a US release for the Wii U version of Dragon Quest 10, I'll preorder the thing right now without a second thought.
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@ABEzilla116 @littlelynn84 I love Bayonetta but I already went through 2 Nintendo consoles and they both failed. Right now the Wii U graphics aren't everything for me so thats not enough the games they are getting are just extra ports of existing games. Plus that memory space is way to low compare to the other consoles. 8gb and 32gb are to small the least amount should of have been 100 gb.
But then that would've jacked up the price by another $100, Reggie stated that they're giving us the option to expand memory the way we want to and since expandable memory is very cheap, I'd rather have it this way. Plus the visuals will get better, and home consoles always launch with a lot of ports.
Might be a successful launch but I bet sells will go down quickly, when people realize that this is just another gimmicky PoS like the last one.
@sephirothsfan02 Yeah the Wii was so easy to find after launch..... oh wait. No it was hard to get after 3 years on the market.
2 Like They're obviously withholding how many they have to spike the demand...and it will work!
4 Like Not having a quality first party game at launch makes this the most disappointing new Nintendo console launch in human history. Where's the breath taking Mario or Zelda title? Even the Gamecube launched with Luigi's Mansion, Star Wars and Wave Race.
4 Like I hope with the Wii U, Nintendo could possibly make it to where you can connect the Nintendo 3DS to the system and play 3DS games on the Wii U (at least stream 3DS games to the TV). That would be cool.
I also hope they bring a "Flipnote Studio" to Wii U. The Gamepad would be perfect for it.
I'm sure it will sell. On another note, does anyone know how long ZombieU is in gameplay hours?
It seems that that will vary though depending on your skill level because the story only progresses as you unravel the mystery of the Apocalypse so you could probably play a good 40 hours before you finally beat the game.
5 Like I still don't see any real reason to buy it at the moment.. I mean , Nintendo Land , ZombiU , and NSMB are all nice games , and Pikmin 3 looks fun , but I don't see any (future or launch titles) that make me know I have to have a wii-u, I'll care about 3rd party multi-play support when my ps3 stops getting it , because I can't shell out $300 for some minor advantages. I'll have to see a 1st party game I can really sink a lot of time into , give me a massive epic Zelda or epic expansive metroid or the likes of Star Fox Adventures and I'll be sold . I'm not going to buy a console for games I know I'll only play 15 minutes then go off and watch tv.
This console lacks a system seller on launch and will suffer from that. There is good options but none that scream WOW from the get go. When I got the Wii at european launch I wanted to play Twilight Princess badly, I'm not rooting for Super Mario Bros Wii U.
@romainsimoni Yeah but if I remember correctly, Twilight Princess wasn't really a system seller on the Wii either. It was a port, a lot of ppl I knew who bought that game only bought it for the GameCube instead of the Wii.
3 Like But if you read people's list of games they want to get, it's varied instead of soley focused on Nintendo titles, this is good for 3rd parties and if their games sell well on the Wii U, that'll only encourage more 3rd party support. Nintendo WILL come out with their major titles, but I think this time the recognized that while their games have great selling power, they're also attention hogs and take the attention away from most other games coming out within the same period.
1 Like @abHS4L88 @romainsimoni but the problem is that most of those 3rd party games are either already out or coming to a system that is already out before it comes to the wiiu
1 Like Not most, only like half, so far only Black Ops 2, Assassin's Creed 3 (both of which will have only been out no more than 3 weeks), Darksiders 2, Ninja Gaiden 3 (highly improved version at that), Tekken Tag 2, Batman, Mass Effect 3, and Fifa 2013, the rest will be coming alongside the Wii U or after it launches. Plus this has always been true of every console launch since the Playstation.
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