Nintendo Drops Behind Sony in Japan as Wii U Sales Tumble

Well, the Wii U harwdare shortages in JP has been an issue for some weeks now, and now there are virtually no Wii U systems anywhere left to sell. The sales figures reflects that.

man the stock shortage is hurting the wii u badly :/

Await Major releases?

Well but with the rumoured release of Mother 3 ...oh wait they already have it. (ENVY)

Apparently, it's a CPU production issue. And the Wii U shortage is expected to last for several weeks now.

Those sales are shocking. March will be interesting with Pokkén Tournament and Zelda TP HD at least.

Minecraft has tremendous staying power!

Wow, stock shortage or no, we haven't seen Wii U numbers that low since the summer of 2014 if I recall correctly.

Oh, that Wii U drop, though...

@GLA The system figures will be the same or less in March if Nintendo continue to have problem delivering systems.

The Wii U sales were no surprise, after these stock shortages. What surprised me actually was the boost in Xbox One sales.

Also, the shortages might have been caused by a problem in the factory. I mean, you can't give another reason to it, since the Wii U is selling at least 8-10K every week even without new titles released. And the Wii was being made until 2013, and the other consoles also were being made at least until the new hardware would release. So there is no other possible excuse than a malfunction of the factory.

I wonder how long it will take them to replenish supplies of the Wii U? Gotta be a good thing in a way for Nintendo though cause it means they aren't storing millions of Japan Wii U's in a warehouse.

This was inevitable, but has come slightly earlier than I thought it would.

The Wii U is now entirely irrelevant and cannot expect to establish a larger user base than it already has. It just isn't going to happen.

Nintendo have pretty much confirmed the NX is hitting by March 2017. I think waiting later than this year is really gonna hurt their financials and they need a HUGE launch this side of Christmas 2016.

I only hope they've got it ready for sale and widely distributed in the next 10 months otherwise April '15 / April '16 financial year is gonna see Nintendo hurting bad and a huge drop in investment.

@DESS-M-8 So, when were you expecting the Wii U system shortage to come in JP?

The stock shortages at "some" retailers easily identifiable online. None of the major chains have ANY in stock. Neither does Amazon.jp.

Wow!!! Xbone had a massive bump! A game release or something? Lol.

But seriously, well done ps4, WiiU should be ashamed of itself

@jariw nice one 😜

The drop in sales was inevitably gonna hit Japan. The trend has been global for a LONG time now. It was only so long before it finally happened in its hometown.

It has nothing to do with hardware shortages either.

I think it makes it all the more important that Nintendo needs to communicate where they are with the NX. lets face it. With all of the NX talk and Wii U shortages, who is going to buy a Wii U if production is stepped up.

They have three games coming out in the next two months (assuming Star Fox isn't pushed back). Why would you buy a system just for that if they are releasing a system a few months later? If NX is truly a 'third pillar,' one might consider a Wii U.

Insane damage control in the comments lol.
did you people forgot that wii u average is 10k without shortages?
this week's numbers not much of a big deal.

It is too late to get 3rd parties back on the Wii U wagon I'm afraid... a shame, as I would still like to buy a ton of of games if they ever came out on Wii U, essential stuff like "Ultra Street Fighter IV" and what not. Heck, some more Namco love would be welcome too. "Ridge Racer U", "Ace Combat U"... "SoulCalibur U"! Ah, one can dream...

There's 2 ways this could be considered:

(1) Nintendo has abandoned making Wii U consoles and so NX comes November 2016, they then become irrelevant due to using the early 00s SEGA strategy or (2) Some kind of factory problem, NX comes November 2017 and sales hurt until the problem is fixed.

EDIT: Making comments in the new forums are a complete mess...

Where is 90's Arcade Racer?

@jariw How do you have a production issue on a 4 year old CPU that only sells a few thousand a month?

My initial reaction was they were holding inventory back for the Pokken bundle due next month, thinking that would be a good seller in Japan, but you always know what's going on. Do you think they'll have to push back the bundle launch?

It's a little surprising that the PS3 is still selling.

Meanwhile, the Xbox One has a 311% increase!

lol

@sjfhsduk Did you forget that the Wii U was at 100k a week not just long ago? And compare to the Splatoon figures for the last week, which is 3 times higher than the hardware sales (which is WAY different to any other weeks since the Splatoon bundle was released). The Wii U shortages has been going on for some time now.

@rjejr Apparently, according to some JP retailers, they are not expecting a new HW supply until late February or early March. But perhaps Nintendo are currently saving remaining HW units for the Pokken release? I don't know. The CPU factory mentioned was Mitsumi's. It's all very strange.

Less than 4,000 wiius being sold in a week is really worrisome. Hopefully they can turn this around.

Well it's still much better than the UK charts! 😂

@fortius54
We've heard that third pillar nonsense before. Eventhough Nintendo is more than financially equipped enough to handle three systems, if the NX comes out and sells like the Wii did, there'd be no reason to stick with the 'third pillar' stuff. And in the Western part of the world especially, they need to move away from the Wii branding as soon as possible. Hopefully this fall shopping season.

I'm surprised that Monster Hunter X is still selling huge!

Not great numbers in general when four-figure sales can slip a title into the top ten.

It never ceases to amaze me how badly the Wii U is doing, even when there's talk of system shortages in Japan (which are more likely because Nintendo has slowed down production as no one gives a sh*t than because the system was selling so well it couldn't produce units fast enough to meet demand).

I actually heard, from facebook, that Japan were low on stock of WiiU's.

@DESS-M-8 - I have to admire your tenacity in sticking with the narrative.

Facts? Circumstances? BAH! ...There's perfectly good Nintendoom to spread around.

While no one is expecting the Wii U sell like gangbusters in the post holiday season, only a dedicated hater would insist manufacturing shortages have nothing to do with it, and that this is the fulfillment of some grand prophecy marking the end of Nintendo's hardware platform.

Godspeed, Nintendoom faithful...godspeed!

@rjejr lol, quite easily. The Wii U has been selling upwards of 8000 a week in Japan with some very large spikes. If Nintendo have low production runs and an issue causes a halt it wouldn't take long for a shortage!

So there was a Wii U shortage... I was surprised for a moment there. Hopefully it'll bounce back soon.

I'll never understand the reporting of this chart, the 3ds is clearly in second place. It really doesn't matter how many variations it covers it's still the same platform and they all play the same games (bar 1)

@Action51 wow, what irrelevant sarcasm based on a completely clueless perspective.

I've been a huge Nintendo fan since 1988, have owned and advocated all their consoles and games and genuinely believe they are the best developer of hardware and software for the last 30 years. How they have marketed said hardware has left more than much to be desired.

However, if you can honestly take a step back and truly look at the Wii U position and see anything above a shambolic failure then.......... Oh dear.

I am gutted as I personally have invested heavily in Wii U since three days before it launched. I bought a 2TB Toshiba external drive in anticipation of the volume of software I'd be buying for it.

I have bought Over 100 games for Wii U, full retail and virtual console; and still not reached 50% capacity of my external drive which an astounding feat by Nintendo.

However the utter lack of support following a stall before it started result in building a user base has made the Wii U univestavle for most companies and there is no way of turning that round.

Being a Nintendo only gamer has been more painful this generation than any that have come before. Consistently dropping sales figures are evidencing that.

Nintendo needs NX and it needs it ASAP, they know that.

Manufacturing of Wii U hardware will be stopping soon, if not already. More so they need to strategise how to maximise sales of the last however units, it's the original amiibo problem in reverse.

You are about to supersede your own product and in turn reduce an already dwindling demand. How much do you spend and where do you spend it? A very hard balancing act especially at the end of a consoles life.

I am the far extreme of nintendoom. I am am genuinely excited about Nintendo and what they will do with NX. Wii U on the other hand? Wii U is dead globally and the last few remaining titles this year are for existing users and fans only I'm afraid.

Book yourself a reality check my friend.

Sony has Japan on lockdown from here on in, believe it!!

@ThomasBW84: I've got a question regarding the title: Does this mean that in Japan the Wii U was still leading in total hardware sales until just recently?
(I just found [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_game_consoles_by_region#Japan]numbers from two years ago[url] and the Wii U had indeed sold twice as much as the PS4, but I thought the PS4 had surpassed the Wii U a long time ago in Japan)

Shortage of Wii U's in Japan? Well, every store I go to in the US is embarrassingly fully stocked so maybe we should just send all the systems that Americans don't want over there?

So doomed sauron just filled a diaper.

I like the optimism here but even if there weren't "stock shortages" in japan, I doubt sales would be too much higher anyway...

On a different subject I like the new site design!

Those stock issues really hit the Wii U hard. I can't remember the last time Wii U weekly Japan sales dipped that low - I think it was early 2015, but I could be wrong. Hopefully, the stock issues end soon.

Huh, the numbers don't look all that low compared to normal. I don't know, I'm not exactly observant. I'd like to say that the NX needs to release before the year is out as the Wii U is dead weight with no possible hope of recovery. But that would be misguided. I believe that the NX coming out soon would do more harm than good. Nintendo's current image in the eye of the general public is not good. And once the general public stops caring about something, that's pretty much it, most people usually take the popular opinion at face value, that's how it becomes the popular opinion. If NX launches soon, it could be construed as an act of damage control and desperation by Nintendo as the Wii U is dead so (relatively) soon in its lifespan. Such things are seen as a sign of weakness and could be understood as the NX itself being a desperate and poorly thought out concept whose entire existence is predicated upon the Wii U sucking so bad. And it subsequently won't sell. As excited and hyped as I am for NX, the realist in me firmly believes that the NX is doomed to fail because of how badly the Wii U flopped. No one cares about Nintendo and nothing is going to change that.

@grumblebuzzz
I'm genuinely surprised how well PS4 and Xbox One are selling (at least according to the people who give us the numbers), because it's not just Wii U that I see fully stocked in stores, I also see plenty of PS4s and Xbox One's. Back in the days of the original Wii the system was doing sick sales numbers and it was evident in the fact you couldn't find one anywhere for at least 2 1/2 years. I'm glad the PS4 and Xbox One are selling though, because I thought this gen had potential to be bad given all the talk prior to it.

@TheBigK
Xbox 360 was released after just four years of the original Xbox which MS pulled the plug on as soon as 360 hit. That didn't hurt MS' image at all. The public doesn't care for the Wii brand, that's obvious, I wouldn't say it doesn't care for Nintendo though. It all depends on how the NX is marketed and if Nintendo can win support from some of the big Western third parties like Rockstar and Bethesda. If that happens, things get very interesting.

Hey, great job to Microsoft for tripling Xbone sales this week!

😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱 3,393???????? Nintendo really needs to do something QUICK!!!!!

@DESS-M-8 - Well done!

You've created a strawman and painted me as some foolish optimist who thinks the Wii U is perfect.

I'll be the first to admit, this console has never sold very well, and it will never be a success story for Nintendo, but the strange fetish people like you have for declaring doom and gloom and pushing ahead with your agenda regardless of the facts is baffling.

So keep insisting it's the end of Nintendo every week...someday you'll get your weird little dream...but not this week.

@Action51

The topic of the article is stating that Wii U sales have now dropped in Japan recently.

Some posters immediately apportioned this to a hardware shortage.

I believed the cause was more concerning than that and allocated the reason more to the fact the Japanese market will, and has, eventually join the global trend of the Wii U's position within the console industry.

Correct me if I'm wrong; you then labelled this opinion as "Nintendoom"? An attempt to refute my statement supported only with juvenile colloquialism, no reason, or logic; just based purely on the fact you didn't like what I said so I must be evil and hate Nintendo.

I, then explained my opinion that you disagreed with, with no bias or speculation, merely a subjective point of view (isn't that what forums are for? to discuss opposing opinion?).

There was nothing conflated about my response directed at you, or maybe you got the definition wrong or chose the wrong word?
I fully understood what you said, and your opinion, it just had no substance or relevance to the discussion within this thread.

Neither have I painted you as any strawman. The point I made was to support my original opinion that you disagreed with. Apologies if you found anything confusing, I shall break things down further from now on, but I didn't see anything i said that wasn't stated plainly.

Neither have I claimed the end of of Nintendo now, or any week.
If anything I want Nintendo to do very well indeed, I just don't want them to cling to the sinking Wii U for too long the same way they did the original Wii.

I've said 'neither' a lot in this response, but I found it quite hilarious the amount of statements you made that were not based on anything had said.

Maybe the lady who protests of supposed strawmen doth protest too much?

Take care.

@Gamer83

That's a really good point, actually. I'm a Nintendo-only gamer so I will openly admit that I'm pretty ignorant to the gaming industry as a whole. At the very least, it'll be interesting to see how Nintendo handles the NX. It's going to be a pretty exciting year.

@DESS-M-8 - Wow...somebody sure likes to write long, self-righteous, condescending posts.

You just can't admit that maybe there is a confluence of factors including a chip shortage and a post-holiday season doldrums with very little new software to stir up excitement?

Not when you have an agenda to spread Nintendoom! Facts and circumstances be damned!

Hey, I understand Nintendoom is a full time hobby, Nintendo has been on the verge of bankruptcy and self-destruction since the late 90s...keep at it, some day your wish will come true!

@Action51 "wow.... Somebody sure likes to write long, self righteous condescending posts" excellent example of Illeism, well done.

Really

Everything that follows is just pure "ignoratio elenchi" not to mention exceptional catachresis; double kudos.

You are arguing a point that you have invented. Nothing you have said just sounds like something addressing somebody else in a completely different argument. Insulting and continuing a discourse of pure irrelevance to force a point that nobody asked you about or even broached in the first place.

whats more confusing is how you constantly contradict yourself. Makes for difficult reading when trying to decipher what you are talking about and if here is any point in what you are saying in the first place.

The Wii u is selling poorly, globally, and has been for some time.

The sales in Japan have eventually taken a dip.

To assign this entirely to supply circumstances and other political issues is a distorted and narrow view of a bigger problem. Don't you agree?

@DESS-M-8 -

Did you get the last word in?
Did you "win"?

I can't wait to see where you chime in next. Let's see if all your condescending tirades and hysterical ranting is legitimate, or if you are, as I suspect:

A Negative Nintendoom Narrative pusher.

@Action51 are you 12 years old or something? You literally have no reading and listening skills and are just repeatedly banging a drum for an accusation you are pushing at me for no reason.

Nothing I have said or stated is even remotely inline with anything you are waffling about neither has it been in the same vein as a rant or tirade. If you've read anything I've written in the context of a rant, that's because that is the narrative you hold in your mind while you read my posts as you are quite clearly ranting and still hold that train of thought while you are reading.

I have repeatedly attempted to discuss the points made by the author of this thread. Responded by yourself as having the insightful perspective equivalent to a child having a tantrum "nintendoom! Nintendoom! You hate Nintendo and want to see it fail!"

It seems you are more obsessed with the failure of Nintendo than any other poster I've ever seen.

I think you've also earned the coining of a new Nintendo buzz word.

You my boy, are Nintendumb.

@DESS-M-8 - Nice angry rant filled with insults and personal attacks.

You accuse me of "being 12 years old", but I would reply by mentioning that twelve year olds rarely have a grasp of irony, and certainly your accusation is quite ironic.

All I can say now, since I'm going to refrain from the sort of personal insults that you've engaged in, is:

Let's see how your posts go from here on out. We'll see what your true intent and agenda is.

@Action51 for someone that claims to have a grasp or irony, I think you'd best invest in a dictionary and a thesaurus; although by your confusing misguided prose I'd guess you already have the latter but not the former.

I've not insulted you at any point never mind levelled a personal attack until the closing line of my previous post which was after constant attempts at condescension and sarcasm from you directed at me. Any attempt at attack and insults has been from you since the outset.

Neither have you attempted to even broach being on topic for the discussion within this thread.

I wasn't going to respond to your last message as it has gotten beyond pathetic and you quite clearly just typing to get a certain reaction and getting frustrated that it isn't working.

If you can't respond on topic and insist on responding only about semantics and trying to turn a pointless argument to your advantage which you have catastrophically failed at from the beginning, I'd suggest leaving it well alone and grow up. Stay in (or go back to) school, which ever applies and learn to enjoy life and video games instead of festering in your pit of hate and trying being a stereotypical keyboard warrior.

@DESS-M-8 - LOL.

All I can say is: We'll see if you are legitimate, or a troll by what you do from here on out.

I'm not going to get my hopes up.

@Action51 turns out that all you can really say is .......... Nothing. Nothing of any worth, point or context.

Quite amazing really. That's 5 times you've made that statement now and it got boring 3 times ago. You are now literally vying for "last word" status and it has dwindled below pathetic.

Please either keep yourself on topic, or yet again reply with some inane and vacuous statement like "let's see what you do from here" it means nothing, has zero relevance to anything and just makes you sound dumb, which in sure you're not?

@DESS-M-8 - I've made my points clear.

I suppose we'll see how your behavior plays out in the future, and then you'll be vindicated.

Right?

@Action51 you made no points at any point, let alone make clear ones.

It remains to be seen if you even understand the words you seem to be randomly pulling from an online wiki-based thesaurus.

Exactly what am I needing "vindication" from????

Leave it alone, play video games, enjoy them, tie it easy and take care of yourself

@DESS-M-8 - Got to have the last word, doncha?

@Action51 I think it's entirely obvious that that is your affliction. Trying to end a conversation by stating nothing more than that itself.

Entirely bored of you and this, this has been the most off-topic dialogue I have ever witnessed.

Feel free to reply to this with some further inane tripe and secure yourself a "last word" victory, if your pathetic enough to need that?

@DESS-M-8 - There you go, you got the last word!

Oops, now I did!

I'm confused!

@Action51

@DESS-M-8

Have you ever seen a whale, with a polka dot tail?

Did you ever see a man, with eight fingers on his hand?

@Action51 nope and no