We suspect that most Nintendo fans in the UK would acknowledge that the company's having a tough time in the country. Splatoon has been an exception in holding its own this summer along with a couple of other evergreen games, and the 3DS remains popular, but in the overall picture the big N is struggling in this particular market.
This week does portray a bit of a low, however. Devil's Third, a timed exclusive on Wii U ahead of a free-to-play multiplayer-centric PC version in the future, has failed to chart in either the all-format or single format top 40. In fact, over its launch weekend it only managed 8th place in the Wii U-only chart, coming behind the likes of Mario Party 10 and LEGO Jurassic Park.
The rest of the chart brings little cheer. Disney is likely disappointed to see Disney Infinity 3.0 beaten into third place in the all-format results by Xbox One and PS4 exclusives (Gears of War: Ultimate Edition in top spot and Until Dawn second), while sales of the Wii U version aren't great. In the single format chart the Wii U iteration is down in 26th place, making it the poorest selling version.
Splatoon is still leading the charge of Nintendo's games, but new releases this week and a presumed dip in sales has seen it drop down 12 places to 35th in the all-format charts.
It's a poor week by any standards for Nintendo in the UK - for example Disney Infinity 3.0 is number one in the Wii U-only chart, and we should consider that it placed a poor 26th in the overall single format chart.
Comments (35)
Whoops.
Bought stealth 2 instead after reading the poor reviews on this game, no regrets either.
@davetheshrew I recently bought Stealth 2 as well. It's amazing. The multiplayer was a big letdown though. But I can sort of understand why they didn't just allow you and a friend to both be clones and tackle the puzzles together simultaneously. Still, it's turned out to not be as engaging as it could have otherwise been.
Okay, Okay
Lisen. UK Nintendo
I'm not saying that the UK souldn't have awesome things or special editions
I AM asking WHY is that there are so many AWESOME things like a special edition of Fatal Frame or so many awesome rewards from club nintendo RIP, when it seems to me thar nintendo there does NOT seems to have such a strong presense!?
Whyyyy?
Not that Nintendo is so strong in NA but..... you get me, right?
All this came out cause Devil Thord and Yoshi's WW came waaay before to the UK than NA
Oh and I don't even live in NA I live on a ..... not so nice place.... butttt I depend on Nintendo NA for my games
My local GAME didn't even carry Devil's Third
I don't think many units have hit retail.
I'm enjoying what I've played so far. I hope it'll be a cult classic
I don't think anyone was expecting this to be high on the charts after all the crap it went though. I don't even expect it to do well here in the Americas
Oh well, only a week till Mario Maker...
I was in my local game store at the weekend. A guy came in, obviously looking specifically for Devil's Third as he went straight to the Wii U section and picked up the 1 box they had on the shelf, and took it to the counter to ask for the price as it was not labelled. The staff member then took the game and said, 'I'm not sure if this is out yet', but did go and check out the back to find out. When they came back they said, 'It came out Friday, and is £50'. The guy ended up not buying it. I mean, really Game, £50! They don't even charge £50 for Nintendo's first party games.
Went into Target on Monday and they didn't even have DI 3.0 out yet. Despite a half page ad saying Sunday 8AM the woman who works there told me the memo said not to put it out until Friday the 4th. Maybe the game releasing on Sunday of the UK 3 day holiday weekend hurt sales there against the 2 games above it which I'll just assume came out the previous Tuesday? 5 extra days of sales could matter.
As for Nintendo in the UK overall, well I suppose Wii U owners there could become pen pals w/ Xbox One owners in Japan and commiserate.
What did you expect,It got mediocre to terrible review scores,Im not shocked no one bothered to get it,Im sure Mario Maker should at least break the top 5.
Just come back from holiday to France (I live in the UK). Couldn't believe how much shelf space there was in a typical supermarket for Wii U - almost as much as for Sony or Microsoft's consoles - compared to a typical UK supermarket, where it's practically non-existent.
I wonder why Nintendo do so poorly here in particular?
As a UK gamer I love my Wii U, but judging on several reviews there is no way i am buying Devils Third at full or near full price.
@antonvaltaz it's the same in Germany. UK has such poor coverage for Nintendo but some of the most loyal fans in the world. It's been like this for 20 odd years. Don't be surprised about this. People are getting ready for Mario Maker and splatting away in Splatoon. Good times
DI 3.0 only just came out today in Australia how long has it been available in Europe?
A bad game on a poor selling system in a weak market for Nintendo sells poorly? Didn't see that coming.
Ouch
Devils third or Metal Gear Solid 5? tough choice but I bought mgs.
@Boxmonkey lol, exactly!
Why would anyone expect us to spend money on crap games when there's so many good games out there?
It's a shame when good games don't sell. Nobody should be upset when bad games flop.
@The_Dude_Abides
I agree with the first paragraph, Nintendo are paying for their previous neglect of the UK. However your second paragraph doesn't tally with either my experience(I know 1 PC gamer) or, more importantly, console sales figures in the UK.
Not surprised
I bought it, perordered from gameseek and got it here yesterday, don't know when I'll get to play it though.
Some guys here in Dublin got it in gamestop and smyths etc but they said it's like hens teeth, very hard to find.
It prob sold, with UK and Ireland sales combined maybe, 300 copies? Max? If it's out of the top 40 it's totally failed, which is a shame cause the video Barry did on YouTube on Saturday made me glad I bought it.
Well bummer. Gettem next time. There's some pretty decent Christmas releases coming
Would love to get this for the multiplayer but if only a few hundred users are online for now what will happen when Mario Maker comes out next week?
Splatoon is the only Wii U game I've bought all year. I might get Xenoblade and Starfox, might. Releasing Starfox the same week as SW Battlefront is idiotic
Might buy this when it hits £5 just to see how bad it really is, which to be honest won't be too long.
@antonvaltaz Yeah, I remember reading that Nintendo has quite a following in France and Germany. They're also surprisingly popular here in Australia, as well as New Zealand. I've always found it interesting how certain countries prefer on brand over another.
Either way, Nintendo seriously needs to improve its standing in the UK - much like how Microsoft is always facing an uphill battle in Japan. It's a shame too, as I feel both Wii U and Xbox One are far superior to PS4 ATM. Sony is blatantly coasting along with remakes and a woeful online/customer service. It's amazing how much hype and smart marketing can do for a mediocre product (see: Apple).
@Boxmonkey MGSV blowed. It's basically a Peace Walker clone, and that was my least favorite MGS of all. MGS died after 4, as it should have. I blame Konami for trying to flog a dead horse.
@Boxmonkey Same here. I've always been biased towards making a Nintendo purchase over any other and was interested in this, however, coming out near MGSV it didn't make it a hard choice and I've never played a full MGS (only GZ on ps+ which sold it to me). I wish there was a demo 'test fire', that would surely sway if it was any good, as I don't have a decent PC I couldn't test this on there either.
Well there are better games
@Kage_88 I have an Xbox One. It's not superior to the Wii U except in graphical power and how it's been hardly made use of.
I've not seen any promotion for this game from Nintendo, and even I didn't know that it was out now. So, how on earth do they expect the average consumer to know it's out?
There's a reason Splatoon sold well and that's because the average person had heard about this cool new game involving squids and ink. How had they heard about it? Because Nintendo actually advertised the game!!!
Pre-ordered it and got it on launch day, but am still yet to find time to even open it so far. Knew it wasn't going to sell brilliantly, and it was obvious that the scores were going to be mediocre at best, but I must admit, I'm still looking forward to finally finding the time to start it up
Waiting for next week to be the complete opposite
We need to look on the bright side. It wasn't outsold by Fifa 13. Of course Fifa 13 had price on its side.
@Tender_Cutlet I'm curious how mario maker will sell. Do people really want to pay £40 to make some 2d mario levels? Sadly I'll be giving this a miss..just like splatoon
Tap here to load 35 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...