Nintendo Highlights Increased US Hardware Sales for Wii U and 3DS in 2015

Positive news is good news....wow that statement basically adds nothing to a conversation.

Well... 20% more of too few is still not enough -.-

@Harry_Legs You're a 'glass-half-empty' kinda guy, right?

This is good, but doesn't change anything. The numbers were never going to be good enough for 3rd parties, so if Nintendo wants software it will still have to work with other studios, like for Hyrule Warriors. Also, how many Wii Us have been sold has never changed how much fun the games are, so in the end it doesn't matter.

@Extremist Not at all, I am proud and happy owner of a Sega Mega CD, Dreamcast and Wii U.

But neither my nor your opinion will change the fact that Wii U is a fail by most standards.

Mario Party 10 and Kirby aren't big releases. I think Nintendo should be happy with the sales it got.

I'd like to know where Wii U compares to XB1 since MS only talks about units shipped and not sold.

@Harry_Legs If the WiiU is a failure

then what are the CD-i, 32X, 3DO or the Virtual Boy ?

(Not saying the WiiU isnt but...)

@Faruko there are many kinds of failures. The Nintendo 64, the Dreamcast and the Gamecube were failure and it wasn't the end (except for sega).

@Faruko

Virtual Boy wasn't a home console, though it did fail but it was also due to it really... being just horrible for the games and the eyes. CD-i wasn't Nintendo.... and why do you think Phillips hasn't stayed in the console market Same goes for the 3DO. 32x wasn't really a console either as it was just an addon for the Genesis which the Genesis sold 40 million consoles. More than 4 times the Wii U. The Nintendo Colour TV game sold better than the Wii U... even the Dreamcast, the system which ruined Sega for consoles and considered an utter failure has sold better than the Wii U. I hate to say it but the Wii U is going to be Nintendo's Worst selling home console and will dethrone the gamecube from that title by probably close to half the sales.

@Faruko

Disasters for the 32X, Jaguar, Virtual Boy, etc.......dunno, you get the point, I'm not sure the Wii U is a failure either, but after the Wii era, and considering that console sales are still healthy for the competition, it is a huge disapointment.

@Faruko I guess they would classify as epic failures on first sight, though we would need to take into account what actual aims and expectations for each console were.

Nintendos sales projections for Wii U were what rendered Wii U a failure in the first place.

@ikki5 "even the Dreamcast, the system which ruined Sega for consoles and considered an utter failure has sold better than the Wii U"

What about the Saturn ?, contrary to Nintendo which lastest 3 efforst are all success, the Sega Saturn was a mega fail and the 32X/CD were terrible too, the Nomad was another WTF... Sega could not resist another disaster, and, you know, they didnt.

And btw, the DC only sold 10m, impretty sure the WiiU has sold more or its around that number (Still bad, but it hasnt sold "better" like you said)

Im not defending Nintendo by the way, but its pretty naive to compare Companies without looking their previous efforts, the DC didnt kill Sega ? it was a domino, starting with the 32X, Saturn and end it up with the DC

Well, the Dreamcast did sell better considering it was off the shelves in two years.

@Faruko
Just so you know, the Wii U isn't even over 10 million yet and it is past the lifespan now that the Dreamcast was out and then discontinued. However,about my statement, it is true. Yes, the Saturn did a little worse than the Dreamcast but it wasn't what buried Sega for the console Market. The Dreamcast did that. The Wii U is actually at about the sales figures now of the Saturn.The Saturn may have started the spiral however Sega was not able to captivate the world with the Dreamcast thus destroying Sega's console race.

Also, if we are talking about home consoles, the last three of Nintendo efforts were not really success. The gamecube barely held on and the N64 wasn't that great in numbers either It was just ok. Sure these consoles did ok for Nintendo to hold on but overall, their home consoles are dying. The Wii was a nice anomaly. The only really strong console Nintendo has is the handheld market. Hopefully Nintendo's home consoles don't keep with these failures otherwise, Nintendo will be just handheld.

I was just browsing around some stores today... the Wii U section for games is mostly empty in most retailers. walmart has 15 games on display, and most spaces were filled with wii U fit. best buy has a section smaller than the space allocated for amiibo, which isn't all too large. gamestop seems to put a lot of duplicates of the same game on display to make the wiiU section look full. the only section more pathetic than wiiU in stores is the Vita, with a whopping 5 games.

Battlefield: Hardline number 1?! Oh-dear-god-no.....

Failure or not, sales are up. It's s great console, has great games, and is cheap. I have 300+ games for my wii u. Ranging from nes to wiidisc etc... It transferred my launch wii everything to my new system. I can play 8 person smash and do every few weeks. I have had a PS3 since uncharted 2 came out. But I use it only for dark souls. Every "last of us" or beyond 2 souls, gta kill zone I played, I still go back to replaying Zelda games over and over. I love how the wii u gamepad allows me to be a married 33 year old nerd. Thanks Nintendo. My wii u is on for ATLEAST 3 hours a day. If not non stop. My 3ds is used almost as much. I only want a ps4 for bloodborne. And that's why I started playing demon souls since I never played that one.

The Wii U is a failure and Nintendo has more or less acknowledge that. It's just that some fans can't. I don't buy the "it's profitable" kool aid because Nintendo doesn't breakdown the finances of its consoles. It's all lumped together. The 3DS could be covering Wii U losses but overall when everything is totalled it equates to a profit ( a profit which by Nintendo standards of last gen, is chicken feed ).

It is what it is and what has happened has happened. It sales prove that the console doesn't appeal to the masses but this shouldn't take away from anyone enjoying the console. I do enjoy the Wii u but I am disappointed with the lack of third party support that was promised before launch. I really don't care whose fault it is that this wasn't fulfilled. The fact is it wasn't.

This E3 is going to reveal a whole lot on where Nintendo is at.

@ikki5 Last time I checked Wii U passed the 10 million mark not too long ago might wanna do your research more

@ikki5 Im not arguing if the WiiU is a failure or not (it is) but paring both companies as a whole, i dont care what the N64 or the GC did back in the day because thats about 15 years ago. when i say their last 3 were success im obviously talking about Saturn/32X/CD vs Wii/3DS/DS).

I actually would LOVE if Nintendo goes only Handhelds, their handhelds tend to be much much better, imagine ALL Nintendo developers only focussing on 1 console at a time, it would not even need 3rd party support (ok it will, but they would be releasing a nintendo game every 2 months or so,and they tend to eat the competition in the Nintendo consoles)

3DS is doing pretty well and the N3DS clearly give it another life so it can sustain a good amount of sales until the end of it's lifespan. The Wii U needs to do better, I think it's about time they need to increase the sales by introducing a better bundle or price cut.

I had hope that Splatoon, despite a new IP, could be a system seller if marketed correctly. I mean, most Nintendo IP focused on local multiplayer, while Splatoon focused on the online multiplayer, so if each of your friends want to join in Splatoon fun, they need to buy their own Wii U (we can't say the same with Mario Kart 8 or Smash Bros). So if Splatoon take off, this could change the Wii U fortune.

Many people including I really underestimated Mario Party 10, it could be a million seller when it's said and done.

Smash for Wii U has sold fairly decent numbers so far. Haters gonna hate.

Price cut at E3 to 250$

@firstnesfan that price on a splatoon bundle that would push some numbers.

@Wolfgabe Source please because every source I see doesn't even say it is over 9.5 mil

Surprised at solid charting for Mario Party 10. That's a better opening than Mario Party 9. Happy to see Bloodborne chart so well too.

@firstnesfan Would do nothing for sales. It didn't work for the Gamecube either, and that was one of the most aggressive price cuts in industry history. Nintendo's goal at this point is to maximize profit per unit, which means keeping the price at $300 and selling as many games as they can. Mario Kart has something crazy like 50% attach rate, so I'd say they're at least meeting that goal.

@ikki5 9.5m was 31 December 2014, you really think Nintendo didnt sold a single console in 4 months and 16 days ?

9.5m in 2 and a half years, that means around 3.5-4m a year, thats about 300k per month, considering the fall of the WiiU, IM SURE the console its AT LEAST doing 100k-150k per month to about 1-2m a year (50% year fall seems a decent assumption, if not a little too low), im estimating about 10m at this point, give or take

@Faruko Well, we know from NPD results that Wii U has sold about 260k in USA alone this year and something like 120k in Japan. If it was at 9.5mil shipped on Dec 31, it's certainly above 10mil now.

@ikki5 Funny you should mention the Dreamcast. It sold 10.6 million worldwide and the Wii U was at 9.2 million as of last December.

This year the Wii U may outsell the Dreamcast.

I should also point out that the "outsold" argument is a bit premature considering we don't have sales data for the Wii U during the same span as the Dreamcast. It could be a difference of less than 1 million, much smaller than everyone is assuming.

Well, it may be a rather small increase, but it's an increase no less.

Should do really well after E3. There's some heavy hitters dropping the second half of this year.

Not that I'm particularly hung up on sales. I'm more hung up on how bad I wanna play Yoshi's Wooly World, Xenoblade X and Star Fox!

Reasonable sales for target audience. If Nintendo can make more mature games for grownups (I am not talking about violent games here) its sales may grow up even more. Wii U is lack of games with mature stories, something that is apparent when i played my Xbox one.

Can Nintendo make games that target particularly at grownups?

@ikki5 the dream cast was also marked down to $150 in America. I'm sure if the wiiu did that it would be way above ten million.

I'm a realist when it comes to these numbers tho. It's still selling like a turd but somebody cracked the window so it smells a little less bad then last year. Still smell like a turd tho

@TingLz see my post bellow

@faint The cut to $99 did almost nothing for the Gamecube, other than force Nintendo to take a loss on every machine they sold.

@Faruko

Horrible, terrible, absolutely awful idea. Just a couple examples, Smash on Wii U is so much better. Not saying the 3DS isn't good. And Zelda on portable are great but to even think about not having a new console adventure makes me want to puke in my pants.

@sweetiepiejonus Just add an HDMI cable that supports 1080p and they are set

20% increase is 40% better than a 20% decrease. Let's see what the May flower Splatoon will bring.

Bet they'll be more Nintendoom comments and topic if that was the case with the decrease. Then again by Internet law, it can be up more than 100% and it still be doomed.

@Faruko Selling 1 product is never a better idea than selling 2 products.

I would rather see Nintendo focus it's assets on the portable side as well..........Nintendo handhelds, have never let me down...........Nintendo home consoles, 25% of the time it's gaming bliss, 75% of the time it's collecting dust.

@CaviarMeths actually it did. If it wasn't for the price drop it would have never reached twenty mill. I was actually working for Hastings at the time. The mix of a price cut and re 4 did wonders for that system.

@faint They lost a lot of money with that price cut. It was supposed to be recuperated in software sales. It wasn't. It was the wrong decision to make. Of course hindsight is 20/20, but now that the Wii U is in a similar position, I hope Nintendo has learned from that failure.

@CaviarMeths oh I'm not suggesting they do a price cut. You misunderstood me. I'm stating that a price cut is the only reason the dream cast broke 10 in 2 years. As much as I love the game pad I do think the should offer it without the pad and as a pro controler for 249. Sell the pad separate with a digital copy of nintendo land and game and kirby rainbow curse with a kirby Amiibo for 99.99 at select online stores and locations. I think it would help.

@TingLz
The Wii U has sold less than 10 million to date. By this time in the dreamcasts livespan, it was discontinued and sold more than 10 million. Therefore, the dreamcast sold better than the Wii U and technically the Wii U cannot catch up as the Wii U's livespan is longer than the dreamcast.

@ikki5 are you saying that even if it sells another 10 million it's still a failure compared to the dream cast?

to be fair towards the wiiU, the dreamcast was competing in an entirely different ballpark.

dreamcast was competing against Sony's and Nintendo's consoles, a newbie sensation that was getting all the games, and N64, which had a loyal fanbase with a plethera of amazing 3D games.

WiiU is competing against 2 entertainment center mature consoles with loyal fanbases, mobile gaming, and Nintendo's previous console, the Wii.

seeing how it's sold nearly as well as the dreamcast in a market with more alternatives, I'd say it's doing rather well.

The wiiu is a commercial failure but for me personally it's been great.

@faint if it sells another 10 mil, it could still be considered a failure just as the gamecube was considered to be a failing console though it survived on life support. I am only bringing up the point that Dreamcast sold better than the Wii U just to show how much of a failure the Wii U is because there is a lot of people in denial about it even though they'd call the Dreamcast a failure.

All this talk of the GameCube and Dreamcast has got me hankering for some Wave Race and Shenmue. Housework will just have to wait, again.

If Nintendo would develop a new Wave Race, with the attention they gave to MK8... oh man, that would be a dream come true!

@ikki5
"Yes, the Saturn did a little worse than the Dreamcast but it wasn't what buried Sega for the console Market. The Dreamcast did that."

No, Sega was already dead when they released the Dreamcast. The whole Sega CD/32X/Saturn ordeal burned through their finances and consumer trust, and the DC's R&D did also burned quite a lot of money.

Sega was pretty much edging on bankrrupcy when the DC came out and although the console itself was right, Sega couldn't sustain it when the PS2 came around and the whole thing just came apart.

@ultraraichu

Yeah, no matter the increase or positive news about Nintendo we'll always have the folks who insist on making it bad news or "not good enough".

Mario Party 10 found its way to the charts--on a console where it literally had no competition.

@holygeez03 You speak my mind good man. All talk is "we want F-Zero" but i would much rather see a new Wave Race.

WR always had the best water physics, just imagine how cool it might become !

@sub12

Sadly that's been the case for me too since the SNES days. N64 had more what I'd consider classics than the PS1 did, but it seemed like during the 6-month, to 1-year waits that I had between those games, my PS1-owning friends were getting a bunch of good games month after month. At certain point I'll take a bunch of good games over 1 or 2 great ones a year. And that was the gen that started the problems. I'll get raked over the coals for saying this, but I don't care, the Gamecube for me was a complete wasteland. Wii was a bit better, Wii U another improvement but it's still not close to the SNES days. The handheld systems though. The Gameboy line was awesome, especially GBA, one of my favorite systems of all-time. DS was great and 3DS has topped it. If there's one thing Nintendo has never missed on, it's the portable gaming market.

@ikki5 the dreamcast got a massive price cut (to $149 first then to $299 and it end up making Sega losing even more money.

Im dead sure if Nintendo wanted they could reduce the price to $149 instead of $299 and it will sell much much better

But this are different plans, Nintendo tries to earns as much money as possible from every console aold where as Sega was just trying to sell what was left.

Comparing numbers its possible, but when the numbers are so close

@ikki5 the dreamcast got a massive price cut (to $149 first then to $299, effective 50%) and it end up making Sega lose even more money per console sold

Im dead sure if Nintendo wanted they could reduce the price to $149 instead of $299 and it will sell much much better

But this are different plans, Nintendo tries to earns as much money as possible from every console sold where as Sega was just trying to sell what was left.

Comparing numbers its possible and its right !, but when the numbers are so close you have to take a much more holistic view, "what are the companies doing", " w
How are them", etc...

I dont think nobody its naive enough to believe that the WiiU isnt a comercial failure, but its situation its not comparable to the DC because the whole context its completely different.

@Quorthon I was initially shocked Mario Party 10 charted, because it's one of the most average and throwaway first party games on the console so far. Other than the shiny HD graphics and occasionally amusing Gamepad integration, everything is unbelievably tired and soulless. Even the menus are sterile and uninteresting.

But then I remembered much of the Nintendo fanbase probably doesn't care about how good the game actually is - as long as it's a first party game by Nintendo, that's enough to warrant a purchase. I love Nintendo and I want to see them succeed more than any other company, but I'm not blind. Mario Party 10 is about as mediocre as Nintendo games get. You're right, on a console that has no other retail games to choose from, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that something like Mario Party 10 sold as well as it did.

@khaosklub yeah, sad to see at my Walmart that the Wii U shares space with xbone

@Quorthon @FlaygletheBagel

That's probably the only reason Mario Party 10 sold that many copies - lack of other new games on the system. Otherwise it would have failed as most Nintendo fans don't care for the Mario Party series anymore. Most feel that the series went downhill (it did) and they absolutely despise the stupid car mechanic.

Had there been other new games, I doubt MP10 would have even sold that many copies.

People complaining about Mario Party forget one important thing. You are probably not the demograph intended here. My nephews absolutely love the game as does my wifes nephews. My own son is a little bit too young to play it, but I enjoy it with the kids.

Is it a good game? Not on my opinion. Does it have some neat things, Bowser party is a fun thing actually. I personally also like the amiibo interaction even though to some it is a day-one dlc (which I guess it really is, just doesn't bother me since I already got the figurines).

It's a game which is going to be bought in fair numbers, despite the fact that it is one of the worse ones in it's own franchise. Is this a good thing? No of course not. Is it still an enjoyable game to many people who buy it and to the demograph intended. On my own personal opinion and from what I've witnessed, yes.

Other than Bloodborne (which is awesome), all those other third party games are meh to decent at best.

@ikki5

I'm with Faruko, Sega's demise was due to a series of blunders not the Dreamcast, which was well received. People were concerned with the fact that Sega had attained a reputation for abandoning hardware quickly and once the pirating got out of control it was game over. Once people saw trouble brewing they stayed away, and it was easy since everyone got used to playstations and 64's, and since the other next gen hadn't launched people weren't going to risk their money on a Sega console that experience lead them to believe wouldn't last when they could just pickup a Playstation of Gamecube.

At the end of the day Sega didn't have an capital in the bank to survive even mediocre sales, and because they were getting next to no software sales they couldn't justify/afford the continued production of the system since the software was essentially free. With Nintendo's extrodinarly high software attach rates profitability despite mediocre sales is very doable and given their reputation and avaliable capital they won't be forced to abandon it any time soon.

Some people just want to see the world burn

@ikki5

Yes but surely you acknowledge the difference in predicament Faint has pointed out in regards to the dreamcast recieving a price cut and being cleared from store shelves. If Nintendo did a massive price cut surely the estimated number of consoles sold would've be higher, especially considering just how close the numbers are.Another thing to consider is Japan's home console market is not nearly as strong now as it was then and afaik this has been true for Sony as well. And as i alluded too the sales figures for all 3 consoles are estimates and need to be taken with a grain of salt.

@Gamer83

I'm right with you, even as a 10 year old, I could tell that despite loving my N64, the Playstation kids had a greater range of titles and genres. Gamecube, sold that for the orginal Xbox, never really regretted it.......Wii, some clasics, but largely ignored. Wii U? Great titles but it spent the majority of it's time collecting dust while I waited for the next Nintendo release, now sold.

Nintendo handhelds have all been ace, not taking away due to the fact that some titles are ports, the GBA has perhaps one of the best software libraries of any piece of gaming hardware, full stop.........the DS was good, but given that the 3DS refocused Nintendo efforts on non-gimmicks (IE, DS stylus or touch controls), it has been even better IMO.

I still think the Wii U has the bigger potential to become a bigger success if Nintendo does it right. I think many of us grew up with the Pokemon anime when we where young or at least I did.

I haven't really seen a lot of Nintendo commercials lately either or a Nintendo inspired anime/cartoon. I think if Nintendo could make a new anime/cartoon based upon one of their popular franchises or maybe make a new kind of Pokemon anime, I think Nintendo's popularity and Wii U's sales would go up too most likely ^^.

I do think the Wii U has reached 10 million by now or if not very soon. I don't think the Wii U is a bad console at all that resulted in the kind of low sales numbers, but rather the lack of proper advertisementa to non-Nintendo gamers like parents and kids that are just old enough to become interested in playing video games ;^^.

As an art device the Wii U still has a lot of potential I think and could excel in making a game/RPG Maker application available to attract people who are interesting in making games.

In the end, time will tell I guess .

Not as much positivity in these comments as I'd expected, or maybe hoped. Sales could have been going down. That'd have been terrible, but they're not only not going down, but up! I mean, no, it's still not where we'd like them to be, but it's still very pleasant news.

As some have said concerning the Wii U vs. Dreamcast thing, from a financial standpoint, sales numbers don't mean as much in terms of being "successful" as does profitability... if the Wii U's price was dropped significantly, it'd surely sell a lot more than it does now, but that wouldn't necessarily make it any more profitable. If the DC had a price drop, it's hardly fair at all to compare sales numbers. This, again, from a financial standpoint.

Second point: It's not as though the Dreamcast doomed Sega. It was the final attempt at success after a line of unsuccessful ones, as I see it. Nintendo, meanwhile, is hot off the heels of two phenomenons: Wii and DS. 3DS, too, isn't doing too badly either. Nintendo can afford mediocre sales much more than Sega could.

Also, I feel like using the particular word "failure" to describe the Wii U is a tad harsh. Granted, the definition of failure is "lack of success," (and I'm not trying to argue that the Wii U is successful), but I still kind of feel like "failure" makes the situation sound worse than it is. But that's just my opinion.

And finally: add my name to the list of "people who want a new Wave Race." =P

@sub12 That and the fact that gaming is bigger than ever. More gamers means higher sales.

Ok, all I need is some more people to play online with The more, the merrier!

I don't really think the Wii U should be classified as a failure, but rather as "A console that that capture the hearts of people who owned it" .

If the Wii U is really a failure it is market-wise in my view ;^^. I mean the games on the Wii U are usually great and the only genre I really see lacking right is the (J)RPG genre ;^^. Still I think we can really looking forward to Xenoblade X and FExSMT.

As I see the previous comments have been a lot about Sega, but I can't really say anything as I didn't really grew up in that period I think ;^^.

Still I think the most important thing is that the people who own the Wii U are happy with it .

Actual figures are:

PS4: 330k
XBO: 230k
Wii U: 80k

I don't know how anyone could think it harsh to label Wii U a commercial failure. It's behind the Dreamcast and Gamecube in the equivelant time frames. To go from a gen where last place will end up selling over 90 million to this..,

@Tazcat2011 Nintendo also uses shipped numbers. The 9 million consoles were shipped. All those software milestones in the press release were shipped. They got their money from retailers so it's considered sold. Considering Xbone was at 10 million shipped in November and then sold over 2 million in November and December in the US alone, it's safe to say it's ahead of Wii U now.

Sales are up? Good for you Nintendo! Now can I please have Xenoblade X?

We say the same things every month here... 'sales are up, but they are up on the previous terrible sales, so boo....' well I see an ongoing improvement, they continue to increase and I'll take it as a positive. I'm more than happy with my Wii U and monthly sales figures, up or down, will not change that.

To fans like myself, you can love the Wii U and the games on it...I do, but IT IS a failure. I love my dreamcast, still do...it was not the system that killed Sega, it was their constant releasing of consoles and add ons to make their fans buy that killed them (poor business decisions). I'd hate to see where nintendo is in 10 years from now...especially hate to see how their next console will do (which I hope it does fantastic and puts them a step ahead of microsoft and sony), but will they get the momentum back? The Wii was a great system, but it was flooded with s**t games, and some of those 3rd party games that were good, got lost in those that were horrible. Hopefully their next console is just a normal system with a normal controller, and hopefully they learned their lesson with horrible launch games, not many launch games, lack of 3rd party support. I really hope nintendo comes back strong with their next console, but I don't see them hitting gold with the Wii U at all. If they release this next console in 2016, they can compete with sony and microsoft, and then after five years, all three could be working on their next systems and release them all at the same time...keeping nintendo looking like they actually care about competition, instead of stuck in their own world.

Glad to hear sales are up, Wii U is a terrific machine, deserves all the praise it can get.

Sales are bad in comparison to Wii and XB1/PS4 but once again it is an increase year over year which was an increase over the year before. For a dying console that isnt too bad. Expect December sales to be listed as 12.7 million and lifetime to end up around 16-18 mill

@ikki5 u do know dream cast sold 10 mil units and nintendo color tv sold 1mil units... and wii is probaly 11 million units sold

Nintendo could outsell sony and microsoft and still be considered a failure, as Wii is the highest selling console next to ps2 and peoole say Wii was a failure.

@Kimite To your point about the lack of advertising, I would argue that there was a lot more wrong with the Wii U's launch than a lack of advertising. Nintendo completely failed to perceive that the majority of the Wii's target audience - casual gamers - had already left them.

So they named the console after the Wii (the casual's favorite console), launched games like Wii Fit U and NSMBU in an attempt to appeal to that audience, and expected it to sell to them again. But mobile gaming had already come along and taken that part of the audience away.

Nintendo didn't pitch the Wii U as just a casual machine though - they wanted to have success with the hardcore audience too, which is why we saw a brief stream of third party games on the system early on. But those games were overpriced versions of games we had already seen, and missing key features of what made those games special.

Why would I pay $60 on a version of Mass Effect 3 where I can't import my character, can't download any of the DLC, and can't own either of the other 2 games on the same platform? Especially when I could've bought the entire trilogy for $50 with all the DLC on either of the other consoles? Why pay 60 bucks for a version of Arkham Origins or Splinter Cell with no multiplayer when I could get either of those games with the multiplayer for the same price on other consoles? It just didn't make sense.

So not only did they lose all of their casual audience, they also lost most of their hardcore audience because third party games were lacking in quality and eventually just stopped coming to Wii U. So it was now impossible for me to get a Wii U and still play Call of Duty, Assassin's Creed, Batman, GTA, Star Wars Battlefront, The Witcher, and so on. The only audience that even owns Wii U consoles today are fans of Nintendo games. Which is a passionate audience, but a very small one these days.

It didn't help that what little advertising the Wii had was actually just bad advertising. Look at any trailers/promotional materials for the Wii U in 2011-2012, or even the picture of the Wii U on the console's box art. The controller is out in front, and the console is shoved away behind the controller like an afterthought. How is the average consumer supposed to distinguish between Wii and Wii U, or understand that the controller is not the Wii U, but the console it comes with is? When I have my friends over to play Smash Bros (and these are college students, not exactly behind with the times), they always call the controller a "Wii U," not the console itself.

Nintendo arguably made a complete and total mess of the console and their messaging. Had they done a little more audience research, they might have made a piece of hardware that, I don't know, sold units? I don't think they had any idea who they were pitching a console to, so they just made a tablet controller - (because people these days like tablets, right?) - and threw a console onto shelves hoping it would sell.

Glad to see the Wii U getting more sales. It really deserves it! I'm surprised to see Mario Party 10 do so well.

I made the mistake of buying Mario Party 10. My boys were asking for it when I let them pick a family game. I tried to sway them towards Kirby and would have left them pick up Hyrule Warriors since it has co-op; but they went with MP10. I've only played it 2.5 times and I already have no desire to play it again. My youngest has spent the most time playing it but he's back to playing Smash. My oldest was the one who wanted MP10 the most and he has admitted that he shouldn't pick the games anymore!

My gripe with that game is that it's not as strategic as the first couple games.

@Faruko @Kevlar44 @faint Curious, when did the dreamcast do this price cut? How long in it's lifespan? The Wii U has now had a longer lifespan than the Dreamcast and is still about 1 million behind. So are you saying that the console that people were not really wanted picked up probably over a million sales (you know because it had to be worse than better inorder for the Wii U to always be doing better) in a really quick time? Also, the price for the Dreamcast at launch was $199 (not the $299 you claim. Source: http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/5242/dreamcast-launch-details) and then it was cut about a year later to $150, so a cut of about $50 just like the Wii U was. It was horribly cut until there was 3 months left before they discontinued it. 3 months... so you're telling me. A console that sold so badly, in 3 month picked up over 1 million sales? If anything, it was on par with what the Wii U was which is what still baffles me on why people deny the Wii U a failure.

Also, the dreamcast was what took Sega down. Yes, their previous habits started it but it was up to Sega to convince people to go out and actually believe that this was the console to buy. They failed to do that with the dreamcast so therefore, they failed. The other releases that failed may have started it but it was the dreamcast that put the nails in the coffin and buried them in the grave for the console race.

Yes, Sega didn't have the capital in the end of keep going after their failed consoles so yes, Nintendo will stay in the race. However if the next few Nintendo consoles sell just as bad, hopefully they won't and they will fixed the issues the Wii U had, then that capital in Nintendo will eventually just keep falling. Luckily though, Nintendo has state a profit on the Wii U so that will naturally take a long time, it'll take a long time anyway with the money they have in the bank but if they just keep getting low numbers like it, it will eventually happen and Nintendo will either be gone (unlikely) or it will be handheld only.

@AJ_Lethal
Sega was on the edge of bankruptcy? Then why didn't they go bankrupt with the Dreamcast being the failure that it was? Sure, they were hurting but I doubt they were just at the edge of Bankruptcy. That is almost like people talking about Sony in it's financial woes when really, there isn't much to worry about them as a company. Also, the CD and the 32X were more add-ons to the Genesis which was already getting old so people moved on. The Saturn didn't help them but the Dreamcast was supposed to revive them and it didn't. They weren't dead when the Dreamcast was launched because if they were, they would have gone to software after the Saturn instead of the Dreamcast.

@Kimite
Then why is the Dreamcast considered "not to be a failure"? It captured the hearts of the people who bought it as well and just look at it... it is indeed classified as a failure.

@andjahiam

The Colour TV-Game was sold in only Japan and did not sell only 1 million units. It sold 3 million units and since it was a Japan release only, we only compare Japan figures so yes, the Colour TV-Game sold better as the Wii U hasn't hit 3 million sales in Japan. Worldwide, the Wii U hasn't even sold over 10 million units yet and Shipped =/=Sold. Seriously.. where did you get your numbers?

@ikki5 The dreamcast did'nt ruin Sega. The sega cd, 32x, nomad, and saturn did. The dreamcast did a lot of things right but because people got burnt in the past the dreamcast didn't sell well and also due to PS2 coming out the following year. The bad relationship with EA hurt them as well also due to the failure of saturn.

@jaymacx
Sega failed to get the Dreamcast off the ground. The others started it, the Dreamcast finished it.

well hey more wiius in homes is always a good thing.

@IceClimbers You do realize that most people do not run to the store and buy every "AAA" title that hits the shelves? I say that because Mario Party is not without competition, for a portion of the Wii U console base it has a ton of competition. It has to be more compelling than everything that released before it and that is currently cheaper than it.

I know for my family $60 isn't a small amount of money anymore. Generally that means I have to try to slowly set that cash aside over a few months time in order to do that, and that is assuming no more pressing need comes up (an unexpected ER visit for example). It means I instead bargain hunt and use things like Bing supplied Amazon Credit to buy games.

@FlaygletheBagel Just to let you know, Splinter Cell HAS multi-player, and had it from the start. However, just like the other consoles, the multi-player had to have a lot of patches before it worked properly. I played the game on Wii U, 360 and PS3, and the Wii U version was clearly the superior version in the end.

@Peach64 @Peach64 Do you have a source for XB1 numbers? NPD doesn't release hardware numbers and MS never released them.

http://venturebeat.com/2015/04/16/march-2015-npd-ps4-xbox-one/

@Harry_Legs
Because the console don't sell like Xone/PS4 the console is a fail?

So every PS3/PS4/X360/Xone game are a fail because they don't sell same numbers(not even close) of Wii Sports resort, Wii Sports, Mario Kart Wii, etc?

LOL

Sorry my friend but a console is ONLY a fail when the console have small library of good games and this is not the case of Wii U.

@Darknyht

Also he or she implying that people just buy games just to buy them made me giggle a little bit. Well there aren't any other games this week...guess I have to buy Mario Party even though everyone hates it.

Sigh, really too bad about Wii U. Sure you have fun games still, but no one should be thinking that these horrid sales don't matter. Nintendo is not going to pretend the numbers are horrible and just keep pumping out great games without an awareness of the problem.
This will most likely have an effect, either positive or negative, on the next console they make. Design, power, target audience, marketing, brand image, etc. Things can change due to sales performance of the previous system. If they didn't pay did't pay mind to these things, Nintendo would just turn into Sega 2.0.

All in favor of Wave Race: Hurricane, say I.

I.

Sales of the WiiU being up 20% while by itself doesn't seem to great 2014's were up on 2013's and now 2015's are up on 2014's.

It means the system isn't in decline on its own merits and without that many new retail releases or another price drop yet means the system atleast having some traction, even though outside a big surprise release of a game they probably won't equalize 2014's Summer(Mario Kart 8) and Winter(Smash Bros) sales .

To compare the Dreamcast and Gamecube by this point in their life span were selling at one sixth($50 DC) and one third(~$99 GC) of the current WiiU's price to try and move units.

While WiiU is behind the GC (though not the DC as the Dreamcast was out in Japan 11 months before the west) there's still far more wiggle room for pricing and new models(maybe one with a bigger hardrive for $300 while cutting the 32 GB model down to $250) than those two systems had.

@FlaygletheBagel I agree with you that there are a lot of things Nintendo could have done better in terms of messaging the Wii U to the overall audience and especially those not interested in gaming. I do think too the name Wii U wasn't the best either and maybe focused too much on either the casuals or the hardcore in the beginning.

As for the mobile aspect you are right, much of the previous Wii owners didn't upgrade to the Wii U since most of them had moved over to mobile. Like you said the Wii U had many third party games in the beginning and if I remember right didn't many of the third party games have bugs too?

Though it is sad that the Wii U version of many third party games are missing content and you have to pay more for it value-wise in some cases like you said FlaygletheBagel. The only way I guess it make sense is developememt time and resources in terms of porting and other factors I guess. Also game like Arkham Origins don't tend to that well on Wii U as many of the Wii U owners including myself aren't interested in those kinds of games.

I think the Nintendo audience can be classified as core/hardcore players depending on how you see it, though each to their own.

As for Assassin Creed and Batman I can't can't really say I am interested on those kinds of games personally, but I do miss Square Enix games on Wii U so I do feel your frustration.

As I live in Scandinavia I can't really say anything about the advertisement in America or the rest of Europe. But I do agree that Nintendo made it hard non-Nintendo fans to understand that the Wii is the console and not a controller.

I do believe the Wii U Gamepad could have been an add-on or at least focused on making the Wii U stronger in terms of preformence overall. One thing I can say is that I love the Off-TV function and bearly use the TV anymore when I am playing on the Gamepad .

I do agree Nintendo could have done a better job in pitching the best console solution to the Nintendo owners, but I think Nintendo tried to capture both the casual and the hardcore at the same time with the Wii U and could also be one of the factors why it sold less then it could otherwise have done if Nintendo did understand their core audience better.

In the end thinking about what have happened on the past wouldn't help Nintendo make the best future both for themselves other than in terms of learning from their mistakes and the Wii U better until the "NX" comes out. I do hope Nintendo will success or at least survive for the next few years .

(Sorry if my English is a bit simplified, but as a Scandinavian I still have a lot to learn in terms of English still and I am on my iPod at the moment as I aren't home right now ;^^).

@ikki5 I would like to ask who really classified the Dreamcast and also the Wii U as failures? I don't know who did it, but was it us gamers or the big game webisides to make big headlines?

How high have the sales numbers has to be in order to not be a failure really? If it classifid as sales numbers and sales speed compared to the competitors it can be true, but from what last I heard the Wii U and
Xbox One difference wasn't that high, tough it wouldn't surprise me if the Xbox One is a bit more ahead now.

In the end I am happy with my Wii U and I don't care that much if it considered a failure or not .

(I know you mentioned the Dreamcast Ikki5, but I don't really know much about the Dreamcast honestly ;^^).

Some people seem to equate a commercial 'failure' as being bad. That is not necessarily the case. Games, systems, movie etc can be absolutely brilliant and still 'fail' with consumers. On the flip side there can be financial 'sucesses' that are totally...blah.

I was hopeful of Wii U, but it really has become a console with a limited appeal to Nintendo fans, its games library has failed to achieve a broad appeal outside this audience. As Wii owner, I also didnt like how they immediatley stopped supporting the old console.

@Yorumi the problem is that the sales numbers can only tell the story of sales numbers, they are simply facts. Mario Party 10 sold (or shipped, never can tell which one they mean in these things) 290k physical copies on a single console while Final Fantasy: Type 0 HD sold 200k copies over two systems that combined have over triple the install base. So which game was a success? Both are weak titles backed by powerful franchises and both released at a similar time period.

Ben Kenobi put it best, "You’re going to find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view."

@Yorumi You point to sales numbers as the evidence of it doing badly, but you can spin numbers however you want to.

@Yorumi I would point to a lot of games in general as lacking in ambition and creativity. Most major publishers seem more interested in aping whatever is currently popular, and the industry as a whole is infected with sequelitis in the worse possible ways. It is to the point that indie software is one of the few safe havens.

@Yorumi Conversely though, many people will say MK8, SSBU and Bayonetta 2 are the pinnacle of their respective genres. I see more people praising their Wii U than the other consoles (though admittedly, I don't frequent PS or XB forums).

I don't get the talk of failure. Dreamcast didn't fail, Sega did. The company put itself in a position where it had to sell hard and fast. Sega decided it couldn't hang in there and pulled the console rather than risk the business fighting Sony and Nintendo. The Dreamcast died prematurely before it could succeed or fail, but it's early sales figures were considered positively.

I'd be surprised if Nintendo risked as much capital on the Wii U as Sega did with the Dreamcast - the Wii U has had a very cautious existence and will break even more easily than the Dreamcast would have.

Failure is subjective. The Wii U is not a failure in my eyes, I have no regrets over my purchase. What the rest of you make of it makes no difference.

Also, doesn't this article indicate Wii U is bucking the trend? Global console sales have dropped compared to April 2014, but Wii U sales have risen. That can only be positive.

@Yoruni I don't disagree, but it is a industry wide issue and not strictly a problem that is Nintendo's. But even then, some of that is subjective and between the creator and the person playing the art.

I would agree that the Wii U is not meeting the standard that Nintendo set for themselves. I think they don't know why that is either. I don't think there is exactly one magic bullet that answers it either.

That said, the console has been a good experience for a lot of it's owners, myself included. That isn't saying they are perfect, but overall I have been satisfied with my purchase.

@Yorumi I agree about Wii U seeming to play it particulary 'safe' regards its games, add in a lack of diversity in available titles overall, practically zero 3rd party support as of now, and its lack of broad appeal becomes evident.

Surprise to see Mario Party actually sell well.

To those who are disappointed in the lack of variety on the Wii U and especially you @Yorumi. (Not meant in a bad way at all Yorumi ;^^). I would say wait until after E3 with judging the Wii U, since it was actually exactly just 2 months to E3 yesterday.

I do agree that the games we have seen until now on the Wii U haven't really been that groundbreaking, but still a ton of solid and fun games has come out on the Wii U in my view.

In terms of third party games, what kind of third party games do we Nintendo gamers want for the Wii U? For me I think I want more Square Enix games on Wii U and story based games in general.

As for Nintendo making sequels is kind of natural I think, but the sequels should at least differentiate themselves from the previous entities in their series with adding new tweaks to make the sequel more interesting.

I think will wait and see if I think the Wii U as a bad future after E3, though I will probably end up on okey and higher anyway .

@Yorumi True.I don't think Wii U had the best launch games either, as I remember waiting until buying/getting the Wii U until Earthbound came out. I wasn't either jumping on the "Wii U Train" when the Wii U came out at first. I think maybe the Wii U could have done/sold better if it launched with Mario Kart 8 and Smash Bros U theoretically.

Stil I do believe the Wii U can capture more people by launching great art related games/applications and great games in general that appeal to more people than just the corset of the Nintendo fans .

(Bed now, wouldn't answer before tomorrow).

@Yorumi

Fair points but I never actually said anything about Wii U. But almost everything you said was personal opinions and generalizing and speaking for an audience (who may agree with you). I was talking about the people who associate "failure" commercially with the awful buzzword and I hate even quoting it...'epic fail.'

My point was, and feel free to show the numbers that contradict me, the definition of failure is if it doesn't make a profit. Do we actually know those numbers? If you love it or don't like the system I couldn't care less, and as I said your views on available titles are opinion not fact.

The numbers aren't but to get a sales increase when all you've offered is mario party and kirby is positive.maybe there's somebody at nintendo wondering how much more they could sell if they had more retail games out there if not for the wii u then at least for the future.

@McoobabWATP

That is a great point. There obviously is some interest or these titles wouldn't even chart if this system is such a 'failure' as it's being labeled by some.

So wake up Nintendo! Start churning out some titles and people will buy more consoles which will sell more games.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but people keep talking about sales of the actual consoles but I recall reading somewhere that most companies don't even make profit from the systems but instead the money comes from games and accessories.

The attach rate must be pretty good though.
Either way it's a great console, just not sales wise... Which isn't good for Nintendo, but at least they're still putting out great games for it, which is pretty much all that they can do (except advertise more -_-).
Hope Splatoon does well, seems pretty popular already but maybe that's just a very vocal minority.

I got MP10 for £34.99 with Mario amiibo which I felt was great value for money. It's definitely not my favourite but my boy has played the poopitypoop out of it. With 4 players it's still a great fun game.

The Wii U is the best selling system EVER in Canada and Japan!!!

@Harry_Legs I would not consider something that has sold over 9 million worldwide a failure yes sure it could be doing better but 9 million is no small number

_{Let's be nice.-Morpheel}

I'm not even sure why we're discussing the Dreamcast. It and the Wii U are not in the same position. The Dreamcast was doomed to fail because of Sega themselves, whereas the Wii U is not in that predicament.

You can keep throwing out the "it sold less than the Dreamcast" argument, but it means nothing. Nintendo is still doing well and profiting. Lastly, as faint pointed out, the Dreamcast only sold 10+ million because of its final run. Matter of fact, Sega was the failure, not the Dreamcast.

Wii U: the biggest failure everyone wishes they had

After many years without a console (last one N64) I bought a Wii U for me and of course my kids 3 weeks ago. With Mario 8 + DLCs, Smash Bros., Mario 3D World, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Splatoon, Starfox + Zelda and maybe Project Ukulele in the future I have again enough games for the next 15-20 years. A new F-Zero would be also fine. Waited a long time to get the console. Wouldn't spent to much money. Bought the Party U pack for 250 EUR and the games are now really cheap on Amazon.de. I hope that Zelda U will come to the Wii U. I'm not interested in any more. If they would stop the production at the end of next year I wouldn't care about it. At first I wasn't confident of the gamepad but nowIi think it's a important feature. For me it's a good wide to hold and the most time I play over the gamepad-display.

A 20% increase from 2014 isn't much considering how bad sales were for Wii U at this point in 2013. Any increase is good, but considering the number of top level games on the console now compared to then, I look at it as a nominal increase. If they were numbers really worth boasting about, Nintendo would issue and talk real numbers instead of hiding behind a percentage which can make anyone look good.