Wii U selling 'steadily' says Nintendo president
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata gave more moderated comments on Wii U sales than the ones from NoA head Reggie Fils-Aime, calling sales "not bad" and saying he feels it's selling "steadily."
Nintendo of America head Reggie Fils-Aime was bullish after the Wii U's first week of sales, claiming it was "essentially sold out." Now that the dust has settled on the holiday season, though, company president Satoru Iwata has made more moderate comments. He conceded that it didn't replicate the Wii's booming success, but expressed confidence in its health on the whole.
"At the end of the Christmas season, it wasn't as though stores in the U.S. had no Wii U left in stock, as it was when Wii was first sold in that popular boom," Iwata told Reuters. "But sales are not bad, and I feel it's selling steadily."
Iwata also acknowledged that splitting the console into two flavors made it difficult for Nintendo to balance the stock for each. "It was the first time Nintendo released two models of the game console at the same time ... and I believe there was a challenge with balancing this," he said. "Specifically, inventory levels for the premium, deluxe package was unbalanced as many people wanted that version and couldn't find it."
The Wii U sold about 400,000 units worldwide in its first week on the market, and sold more than 600,000 during December in Japan. That crosses the million mark, without counting holiday sales in the US or Europe. Nintendo has stated that it intends to sell 5.5 million Wii U units by the end of March.
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Steve Watts posted a new article, Wii U selling 'steadily' says Nintendo president.
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata gave more moderated comments on Wii U sales than the ones from NoA head Reggie Fils-Aime, calling sales "not bad" and saying he feels it's selling "steadily."-
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There were barely any reviews for it either.
http://www.metacritic.com/game/wii-u/funky-barn -
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Ouch.
This wasn't a problem back in the day. Consoles would have a steady stream of shooters, platformers, racing games, and all sorts of other stuff coming in. Nowadays, everyone is aiming to make the next AAA multimillion seller. So no decent games get financing, just games with guns and blood and 'splosions. -
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I never said it was a failure, but it's pretty much the only piece of tech in my house I've had no reason to turn on in the last 30 days. I beat Mario and got tired of Zombi-U. I'm sure this thing will have some decent stuff out for it , but look at the Vita. A great system that's not selling too well and devs aren't finding fun and interesting ways to use the hardware. The few games that have been worth a damn on Vita have been either "let's cram this full console experience into a handheld, it's OK if it runs like ass" (AssLib) or "this is innovative and way better than an iOS game" (Little Big Planet). Wii-U is probably going to be like this and hopefully the latter type of game will be much more prevalent, but I'm not holding my breath. I forsee either a wasteland like Vita or shovelware city like Wii. Both systems are new-ish so here's to hoping for the best.
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It's doing terrible in Europe across all versions. I went to the hypermarket last week and saw approx 14 Deluxe and 20+ basics. Noone was in sight. There was also a lot of stocks (10/15) anytime even just before christmas.
Also why would anyone buy the basic, wtf was Nintendo thinking? It's just a terrible deal.-
I guess they thought the cheap option would tempt a lot of people on the fence, but the silly thing is, most early adopters are enthusiasts or fans who are usually willing to pay that little bit more. The cheap option would make more sense later down the line when they wanted to boost sales and could have offered a more dramatic discount.
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Maybe you've mentioned it, but I don't have time to search your impressive post history so I'll just ask: Why didn't you like the Wii? You and others mention a lack of games--could you be more specific? Because I love my Wii. (That's what he said.) But seriously, it was a solid system that let you play lots of newer games plus granted access to classics on a number of retro consoles.
I just don't get the hate.
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I'm a known Nintendo defender, but this really isn't a big deal. Most consoles launch with a very small selection of games. Some systems are lucky to have one "system seller" type of game like Halo or Super Mario Bros. available on day one. In most cases, it takes several months for new, more compelling software to come out. I remember buying a PS2 within a month or so of launch and playing nothing but Dead or Alive 2 Hardcore for quite some time before another title caught my eye.
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