Lost in the crush?

Nintendo launched Super Mario 3D World in the UK last week, on the same day as Sony released its PS4 console in the country. It was a bold move — no doubt intended to prove that while Sony has the new tech, the Wii U has the best games this Christmas — but it didn't quite go according to plan.

Mario's latest outing — which we gave 10/10 in our review — was beaten in the UK charts by a host of other games, including Sony's own platformer, Knack. The irony is that Knack has received some pretty lukewarm reviews.

Kenny Linder — a former developer at the now-defunct Sony-owned BigBig Studios — has taken to NeoGAF to share his view on the situation, and it's not pretty reading for Nintendo fans:

Releasing [SM3DW] the same day as PS4 in UK/EU wasn’t wise. The frustrating thing was this game was probably ready to go in October. I think retail and the market will push Nintendo in a direction whether they like it or not. They MUST be in danger of losing shelf space at this point. Retail will have four major consoles (PS3/4, 360/One) plus 3DS/2DS to push which will all move units, and it looks like Mario can’t help even poor Wii U out. If it goes from shelves, it will be finished. I am still confident in my crazy mind that Wii U will not see another Christmas after this one. But that’s just me. The future games will just get moved/axed.

Releasing Mario on Friday was a really stupid thing to do, it could of come out weeks before that. I wonder if the same gamers who buy Nintendo home systems (150k of them in UK) are the same gamers that buy PS4/Xbox? That might explain lack of sales this week. Otherwise, nobody gives a s***. Also, I haven’t seen a single Mario 3D World advert on UK TV, whereas the other two (PS4 more so, especially last night, holy s***) are on all the time. They have failed to see what the market wants.

Linder is actually wrong about the TV ads — Nintendo was running them on UK TV the whole week of release, and continues to do so this week — but do you think he has a point regarding Nintendo's release strategy? Would it have been wiser to release Super Mario 3D World in a week when it wasn't likely to get lost amid the PS4 rush? We're pretty sure the Wii U will be around for while yet, but what are your thoughts on Linder's dire prediction that the system won't see another Christmas after this one? Post a comment below to let us know.

[source gamingbolt.com, via neogaf.com]