April 2013 NPD: Wii U sells between 30,000 and 40,000 units

A rough estimate of US Wii U hardware sales for the month of April is in.

[jc48573]

keep it up. I will get one so that I can play Bayonetta 2.

@ItachiUchiha

yea, need me some Zelda and Luigi as well.

[ltachiUchiha]

Ill buy one just for zelda and a new mario galaxy.

[Rusty515]

No. I've had enough of Mario galaxy. I'd like it to be in a new universe or...super mario sunshine 2 would be pretty awesome too...

[EliteGameKnight]

I don't think its a new Mario Galaxy, but it is a new 3D game. Every Nintendo generation with 3D graphics had there own.

N64: Super Mario 64
Gamecube: Super Mario Sunshine
Wii: Mario galaxy (2)
3DS: Super Mario 3D Land

[tuglu_pati]

I will buy one when Zelda and Metroid drops.

[CalvinKlein]

wonder if it will get a boost thsi month from the xbox1 announcement of crap. I will get a wiiu now after a ps4 instead of xbox-1

[3-4-5]

We need Mario 64 2.

The way it was set up was near perfect.

[ltachiUchiha]

Damn thats average but then again there isnt a new mario or zelda or metroid game to really start pushing the wii u sales.

[ApolloTheBoss]

Can't wait to see next month's report, though. After X-Sh*t-In-The-Box's reveal, Wii U sales have skyrocketed.

[SexyGamerDude]

You can see that report now. It already happened.

[PopRocks359]

I believe Apollo means he wants to know about the total sales for Wii U in May since the recent development involving the Xbox One caused its sales to skyrocket (at least with Amazon UK).

[ApolloTheBoss]

@PopRocks359 Thank you. That's exactly what I'm talking about.

[papashango]

actually skyrocketing sales would mean gamers don't see much in xbox one AND the ps4...

[diepdiep]

By the time the Wii U sales report for May and later months arrive, 3rd party developers will no longer be able to use the Wii U's "low user base" excuse.

[BeZdaBest]

after the low consumer.."reason".. .

their going to use the"only nintendo games sell on nintendo consoles" trap card

[ABizzel1]

Well "low user base" was only 1 of many problems with the Wii U.

1. Low install base
2. Underpowered (specifically due to the AWFUL CPU and slow RAM)
3. Core 3rd party games don't sell well on NIntendo consoles (proven since N64)
4. A Wii U version of the game must be developed separately instead of being a simple PS360 port (lazy devs., but PS360 aren't really their focus anymore with newer hardware out, and unfortunately the Wii U is closer to the PS360 than the PS4 / X1)

They may seem like excuses to fans, but they're 100% TRUTH.

[Whymii]

And based off your personal experiences, what are its strengths? Oh wait you probably don't own one but you read N4G. You can spot them, they all use the same so called facts (read opinions of others)..

For example, BO2 has an attach rate of over 6% (equivalent to 5 million on PS3) and zombiu is close to 10% (8.5 million PS3). Not bad sales and certainly not proof of 3rd party publishers not selling well on Nintendo. It's simply a matter of low instal base equalling low total sales.

But hey, what's the point of checking facts when you know the opinions of others so well. The fact is that the Wii u and Nintendo have their strengths and weaknesses just like everybody else. Lets wait and see what the future brings and not parrot the past.

[kneon]

While attach rate may be an interesting number it doesn't pay the bills. It's the total sales that matter and if they don't cover the development costs then it's not worth it.

[Whymii]

Nice try at business logic, however you obviously don't understand the product life cycle. Losses are invariably made by products in the early stages of their life cycle and developers and publishers know this. Just as they also know that developing for an unknown variable, such as possible future sales of an unproven product is always going to be risky. Some choose to take these risks because the payoff can be more than money, rather positioning, future market opportunities and brand development. Others choose to play it safe and go where the market currently is.

Software developers and publishers will have to make similar risk analysis with the new Sony and MS consoles. Personally, I hope they all do well, however this is unlikely given the record closures of developers and publishers when the industry has over a quarter of a billion tried and proven consoles in homes now. The risks will be even greater for the next generation because the costs will be greater and the smaller instal bases will make cost recovery almost impossible in the beginning.

[ABizzel1]

@Whymii

As you saw later I'm actually a big Nintendo fan, or at least I was. I love Nintendo's IP's and always will, but their consoles are always held back by some dumb decisions.

N64: Refused to give up cartridges thus birthing Sony's PlayStation
Gamecube: Mini Disk that could only store 1.4GB's
Wii: Rehash of the Gamecube's tech with 50% boost to CPU and GPU speeds and 2x memory
Wii U: Barely above PS360 thanks to an awful CPU and slow RAM.

I think Nintendo is smart not to go head to head with Sony and MS in specs., especially considering their games focus on art style rather than raw power to produce graphics. But a better CPU brings better AI, physics, objects on screen which could never hurt any of their games, a better GPU means we can see games that need to push graphics hard look amazing like Zelda & Metroid, as well as better aid the CPU in it's task, and good RAM will make sure the entire system functions to max capacity.

What I'm trying to say is I don't want Nintendo to try to be Sony and MS, I just want them to do better with their console and with 3rd party support.

In 2014 mobile GPU's (Tegra 5) will surpass the PS360 and in 2015 (Tegra 6) will surpass the Wii U. That's not good for what is their flagship console.

I wanted Nintendo to go with an AMD Trinity APU and 4GB DDR3 RAM, or a HD 6670 GPU. Either of those would have held the Wii U.

[Robtherobot2013]

Not bad. I love my Wii U!

[Shok]

No games, no sales. Simple as that.

[Chidori]

Smash bros is coming...

[ABizzel1]

3D Mario, Mario Kart U, Super Smash U, and Pokemon U are all they need to reach 10 million in sales by the end of the year (just over 3 million now).

Metroid, Zelda Windwaker HD, Pikmin, Wonderful 100, Bayonetta 2, SMT vs Fire Emblem, Yarn Yoshi, and "X" are all just there to make things even better.

My guess is that's the retail line-up for the Wii U from now until E3 2014, and it looks pretty good (12 games).

[Williamson]

After playing around with my newly purchased wii u I gotta say that im impressed with it. Although the load times are kind of long, and i dislike how i might have to buy an external hdd due to such low memory.

[ABizzel1]

That's another thing I hate about the Wii U. It's 2013 give us a freaking HDD or at least sale one (although it should be included). 160GB HDD are $30 and 320GB are only $50, drop that in there and call it a day.

[Whymii]

What Nintendo giveth in one hand they taketh with the other.

Hate is such a loaded word. There's a lot to like with the wii u, but it comes with a price. When those great games you listed come out, that price will shrink and the love will grow.

So endth the Sermon of Shigeru.

[PigPen]

I love that they went for the external hard drive.

[dafegamer]

ill buy one for the next Mario, Zelda and Smash bros title. Also hopefully some new IPs from Monolith and Retro studios

[animegamingnerd]

i am happy to say i was one of those 40.000 people who bought a Wii U last month

[jcnba28]

The Wii U has now sold over 3.5 million units. To put this into perspective, during the same period in their first 6 months, the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 both sold under 3 million units. So all of this "Wii U is doomed" nonsense is very, very premature.