Wii U fails to outsell its predecessor in December
By
Martin Gaston, News Editor
Nintendo's newest sold 460,000 during month and made over $300 million in the US after 41 days on sale; New Super Mario Bros. U sold with over 65 per cent of Wii U consoles.
Nintendo has celebrated the revenue-generating ability of its fledgling Wii U console in America, reporting the machine sold 460,000 units in December 2012, but the new device still struggled to keep up with the 475,000 sold by the original Wii in the same month. Nintendo reported that the total US sales for the Wii U are now close to 890,000 after 41 days on the market.
Wii U has made over $300 million in the US, whereas the Wii had managed $270 million at this point in its lifetime. "While the Wii launch established new benchmarks in the United States, Wii U has surpassed its predecessor in perhaps the most important category: revenue generation," said Scott Moffitt, sales and marketing vice president at Nintendo.
Nintendo does not mention that, at $300, even the basic Wii U package sells for more than the Wii's launch price of $250: if the Wii U was being sold for $250, the total revenue would be closer to $222 million, but the Wii U's performance was enough to help Nintendo's stock price rise 5.6 percent to close at ¥9,070 ($102).
The deluxe Wii U SKU retails for $350 in America, and Nintendo reports that this package has been virtually sold out throughout the entire holiday season. "The demand for the Deluxe SKU, which was essentially sold out at retail this holiday, and the strong attach rate of New Super Mario Bros. U shows that we have the value and the games to drive momentum in 2013. We look forward to offering great new experiences and bringing smiles to millions of new faces throughout the year," added Moffitt.
Nintendo also revealed that New Super Mario Bros. U has now sold over 585,000 units, giving it an attachment rate of more than 65 per cent.
Overall, the publisher shifted 2.65 million hardware units in December 2012--the 11th consecutive year that Nintendo has flogged over 8 million hardware units, and in a year hardware sales saw a 22 per cent plunge from 2011, according to the NPD Group.
By
Martin Gaston, News Editor
Martin Gaston has absolutely never at all had the song from Beauty and the Beast sung to him at any point during his life, ever.
415 comments
the sales have been slow but sturdy!nintendo appeals to people from all walks of life!its not all about records!what the new hardware has to offer consumers is all that matters!will satisfaction be guaranteed?is the question!
I will get one, but I'm a bit too busy now. Would probably wait longer but my old Wii drive is really noisy :(
That's because people who were burned by the wii refused to get burned again by wiiU
How can you get burned by the Wii? It never overheated, I can understand getting burned by the 360 because that system can get pretty hot.
Jokes aside, if you got "burned" by the Wii, it's your own damn fault because either you didn't bother researching and finding all the great games the Wii had to offer or you flat out refused to play them because they weren't in HD.
I'll admit, I love it when a game has amazing visuals, being an artist I appreciate this, but at the same time, I'm not going to let it get in the way of me enjoying a great game.
@dogpigfish that must be your ONLY game system or you must not play games that much..
@COPMAN221ISBACK @dogpigfish Have to agree with dogpigfish, My PS3 and Xbox have been relegated to media players since I got the Wii U.
4 Like The Wii U i thought was a gimmick. Just like the original. My old Wii was sitting on my dresser collecting dust, so I traded it in and bought the new Wii U. Best money I have spent. This system has the potential to uproot any "Next Gen" system with one simple fact: the Gamepad. So what if a stupid system has a gamepad? I will give you 3 reasons: 1) I can play the majority of the games that are out on the gamepad WHILE watching football or something on my flatscreen 2) Instead of Splitscreen, one player can use the gamepad while the other uses the tv 3) The potential the gamepad can bring. Most of the ignorant comments are not based on facts. NintendoLand is mediocre but brings some fresh ideas to the table. My son and I played MarioChase for almost an hour the other day. The game is Tag, plain and simple. One player hides (using the GamePad) while the other chases. It is a simple concept but extremely entertaining and is something new compared to the plethora of shooters on the market. I am waiting for that game that will knock the Wii U out if the park. Did I get this excited buying the Xbox 360 or PS3 years ago? No.
1 Like It will take a while for the Wii U to gather momentum, just as the original Wii did. However, Nintendo believes they can pull off the same strategy they implemented in 2006.
....Release a console with last generation appeal with a new way to play games of said generation. The Wii gave us a new perspective of playing PS2/XBOX/Gamecube titles. With the XBOX 360 having Kinect, and PS3 having "Move", this generation has already been introduced with new "Gimmicks". XBOX 360's "Xbox Surface/Smart Glass" in the works. The PS3 extended their "Remote Play/Location Free" services to the PSVITA.
How will the Wii U gamepad serve as the better alternative?
I believe the Wii U will win because of it's simplicity. SmartGlass, and playing PS3 games through a Vita requires time, money, and basic computer knowledge. The Wii U requires non of these. Children love it. Parents love it.
@jaijames and PS stands for 'Pile of S**t'. If a slightly better CPU and GPU is the only argument you've got then watch how the least powerful console destroys the competition like it always has done with EVER OTHER console war that's come before it!
@wcwj26 It's destroying the competition? Look, I don't care about the Xbox, I don't care about the Wii U and I don't care about the PS3.
But to say that Nintendo is destroying the competition is laughable at best. The Wii U sold 460,000 this December and 400,000 on Black Friday. Now for comparison The Xbox 360 (a 7 year old console about to be replaced in the coming year or two) sold over 750,000 on Black Friday alone.
So how exactly do you explain that Nintendo is "destroying the competition" when they sold as many of their brand new console in almost 3 months that the 7 year old Xbox 360 sold in one day? How's that for an argument on top of the fact that it's CPU and GPU would've been considered poor even 5 years ago?
I can also name at least 8 major game titles that have announced they're not even considering development for the Wii U, and multiple others that have since pulled their Wii U development.
Does the Wii U have potential? Yes. Is it currently falling flat on its face and doing nothing with that potential? Pretty much.
@wcwj26 Yes it applies to only US but I don't think you get how big of a deal that is.
A 7 year old console, outselling a brand new console by almost double. Imagine if the Super Nintendo had sold almost twice as many Playstation 2's in the year the PS2 came out? It's not exactly a good starting sign.
@BuBsay Also I didn't say Nintendo will destroy the competition. I said every other underwhelming console has destroyed it's more powerful counterpart throughout the history of console gaming!
@BuBsay Wii U has a small library because it's been barely out 2 months, Xbox and PS... 7 years... huge libraries. Also, your figures only consider US sales, believe it or not there's a big wide world out there! As for graphical power, history speaks for itself. Thinking a better CPU and GPU can sell large amounts of systems is a tired old cliche that anyone over 25 knows is BS. Wii U is already starting to put clear daylight between it's next gen rivals (and anybody who says Nextbox and PS4 are going to fly off the shelves and outsell Wii U are relying on pure conjecture). As for the 8 major game titles, their probably all current gen games and no developer is going to put them on a new system knowing that the majority of Wii U owners already own a Xbox/PS3. As for Wii U falling flat on it's face..... It's been 2 fecking months! Your expectations are somewhat ignorant and unrealistic. Actually if we're gonna go about this using your logic then Xbox/PS3 didn't get there faces out of the dirt for over a year.
Yet the Wii was considered next gen despite barely being more powerful than the XBox. The Wii U is clearly more powerful than the 360/PS3 yet that's not enough for "gamers" like you.
OF COURSE!!! it has NO FUCKING GAMES yet!! you brainless freaks. Now turn your computers off and go commit mass suicide for my pleasure...that's all thank you.
@KILLEDbCRITICAL Though I do agree with you on it having no games yet being the reason it didn't sell more than the Wii as yet.
1 Like Every store I go to has Wii U's in stock. I don't think Nintendo has shown anyone a reason to buy one yet. Until that happens many will stick with what they already have.
@wcwj26 Ya but apparently no countries outside of the US exist to Americans. I mean even Xbox 360 sales outside the US do not matter since apparently US is the ONLY country in the world.
@BestJinjo They never will eliminate someone will always be there to take over. I also dont think the PC market is going to stay idle its already been getting a nice kick and its still going up. Devs need a lot of sales for their games so they are starting to support in mass the pc now. Thats one of the reasons for windows 8 its to get sales on both the console and pc market or at least try to get as much money out of it as possible.
1 Like @wcwj26 Yup. I've been following their sneaky strategy since Xbox 1 days. They lost $4 billion on Xbox 1 just to create the brand name and mind-share. People aren't seeing the big picture. If Nintendo is out of the console business, it leaves MS ($225 billion market capitalization) going against Sony ($11 billion). I said this on several occasions and not just in this thread and people keep ignoring this.
Scenario: Nintendo goes bust. MS launches a crazy powerful console or undercuts Sony without even trying just to bankrupt them. I can't believe people even support MS's console given what they are up to and the audacity to charge Live fees. MS's plan is to eliminate competition so that they can dictate prices and choices in the console business.
2 Like @wcwj26 The funny part is Xbox 720 live fees of $60 per year over the next 8 years are going to be the equivalent of getting a Wii U+external HDD or PS4. I don't see Gamespot post weekly articles that people should WAKE UP and stop paying for Xbox Live. Wii U hate articles, almost daily.
@BestJinjo Just finished a 12 hour shift, so thanks for the heads up. Never would of spotted it!
1 Like @nonfanboygamer1 The Deluxe is completely sold out at the 2 largest electronics stores in Canada.
Futureshop & BestBuy
You can't just assume the console is selling poorly everywhere in the world!
@BestJinjo Touchy aren't we? Nintendo fans always are. That I will assume. Relax, I'm just speaking for the states, where it supposedly is selling good.
6 Like Why is such a minuscule difference in sales between the two such big news? So the Wii U sold 15k less than the Wii. So what? That's 15k out of near 500k in both cases, such a small fraction that it's barely worth commenting on. Is the gaming world really so devoid of big stories that this can be considered a big deal?
@Cyber_Skaarj Do you really not understand the significance of a brand new console not being able to outsell its 5 year old predecessor or do you need some pretty pictures to spell it out for you?
3 Like I think these numbers are very impressive considering Nintendo still didnt released any of their real strong IP's.
1 Like Granted, at its launch, Wii was a new thing. Now, it's just an HD version of the same system. Certainly Nintendo expected that.
@abHS4L88 Hmm... Wii couldn't even compete with Xbox and PS3 in terms of HD and Wii U came in late. Butthurt?
Not at all, I own both a Wii and 360 so I didn't miss out on much. Unlike most "gamers" I understand the reasoning and why the Wii needed to happen. The Wii U didn't come in late, it came in precisely when it needed to come, like a wizard.
Either way, you didn't answer my question, just dodged it with some pointless comment about the Wii and Wii U.
2 Like one has to consider that the wii was released under very different economic circumstances. I don't think people are as willing to spend money on gaming novelties at the moment and it's becoming clear because even the vita was struggling
1 Like @emptycow Graphically it looks like an upscaled up MGS4. If this is next gen console animation then there's gonna be ALOT of fanboys with egg on there face!
5 Like @emptycow That's running on an i7 with 32GB ram and a GTX680. If anything it's showing what PC's could do right now if it wasn't for consoles. It's highly scalable so it will probably run on the next batch of consoles, but don't expect graphics like that.
2 Like @emptycow I didnt know final fantasy was coming to pc, great news. The era of half assed consoles games are coming to a close.
@ElaisseLOL...half assed games you will find on every gaming plattform.
And Final Fantasy XIV came to pc's and it was a disaster...so the brand FF is no guarantee for a quality game.
@sladakrobot I was making a slight joke on the ff game Ive played all of the pc ones. Anyway What I meant about pc is that games would be so much better if they were developed for pc rather then the low standards of a console. AC3 farcry 3 crysis 2,3 the devs stated they were making it for console so they had to lower their standards a lot to get it to run. It sucks that we have to rely on the modding community to get good quality content out of the games we purchase.
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