Exactly How Bad is the Nintendo Situation?

IGN: "Today’s financial results reveal Wii U sales below even the most pessimistic expectations. But should we be worried about Nintendo?"

[NYC_Gamer]

Nintendo needs to hire some new leadership who better understands today's home console gaming market

[dark-hollow]

I don't see that much of a problem since the new leadership managed to make two extremely successful platform of Wii and DS and the 3ds is doing very well too.

The problems with Wii u are:

1-price
2-lack of games
3-lack of a good marketing campaign.

[jimbobwahey]

I think the Wii was the exception when you take into account that the N64, GameCube and now the Wii U have all performed very poorly.

Nintendo does well in the handheld market, but when it comes to home consoles they have absolutely no idea what they doing and save for striking lucky once, they get absolutely dominated by Sony and Microsoft.

I can see Nintendo going handheld-only and focusing on that market eventually, because they just don't have the resources to keep up with the home console industry at all (see them struggling to create software for a console that's part of a generation that's now ending) and it will only get worse as time goes by. With the handheld market though, that isn't a concern and they can pump out their money makers there.

[gaffyh]

It's mainly lack of games, and because Nintendo haven't supported it well with first party titles, the console doesn't sell, and then third parties give up on it. It's a vicious circle.

[jcnba28]

Well said.

[modesign]

not really, the problem is the wii has hit the skids, its no longer "cool, hip" or a fad, its now a dud, then they blew their money on a wiiu, which turned into a dud from day 1. usually after that you fire your executives and think of a new strategy before your company hits rock bottom.

there handhelds division is successful but you cant depend on handhelds, just ask sony. lol

the real question what did nintendo do with the revenue they did get from the wii.

[ShinMaster]

The GamePad just doesn't have the same appeal as the Wii Remote. Period.

I think Nintendo was counting on the casuals and moms to buy into it the same way they did with the Wii. But that novelty has worn off.
And that's the thing about causal markets. It is fad driven and fads don't last.

The Wii U's performance is right in line with the GameCube and N64.
The Nintendo fanbase just isn't as big as the internet makes it seem.

[greenlantern2814]

I think the biggest problem is their marketing or lack there of, I have seen 3 wiiu commercials since it launched. And I know quite a few people who think it is just a really expensive tablet controller for the Wii. And the price is the next problem since many people are unaware of the features it has and the perception is that 32gb HD and 2 gb of ram are just not enough when looking at consoles with 500gb HDs and 8 gb of ram.

[MizTv]

I think they just need some good games

[SuperLupe]

The blame goes to the top management completely out of touch with what the market needs. The Wii U is a console in the wrong time frame with no market hence nobody actually going out there to buy one.

It happened with the Xbox One too until the 180 but they are still suffering the consequences.

And it also happened to the PS3 with an "unneccessary" Cell chip and using the PS3 as a trojan horse for bluray that pretty much gave an open boulevard to the 360 to get to the point it is today.

Luckily for Sony and MS they were able to turn the ship back in the righ direction (Xbox One hasn't launched yet but I'm more than convinced that MS will be just fine). As for Nintendo they have an extremely tough journey ahead of them.

[RobbyGrob]

I think you're right. Nintendo have clearly had a much too optimistic confidence in Wii U as they in large pretty much did something that they A) didn't need to do and B) have done something that Nintendo never really did before either; released a console merely to deliver better graphics. Nintendo have released amazing games without ever having to do graphics better than its opposition. Nobody really needed Wii U as the people who love Wii obviously don't do so for its HD resolution, which Nintendo have recently admitted is what is slowing Nintendo-native developers down as they're not used to having to make games made for such high resolutions, which apparently is what is creating the lack of games, which is why the console doesn't have any edge. In terms of innovation, the controller has a screen in it... so what? Their DS consoles have had that for many years, and the people who consider having such a function important obviously already have a portable console. The Wii U controller could have been released for the Wii anyway.

Consoles need a purpose, and Nintendo have yet to give a good one to the Wii U.

[kenshiro100]

Solid observation. I like Nintendo and would hate to see them fail. They need a steer in the right direction.

[ShinMaster]

So was the PS2 a Trojan horse for DVD as well?
Come on, I think Blu-ray has proven itself by now.

[Guwapo77]

I am very thankful for Sony's Trojan horse, we could had been stuck with DVDs or HD-DVD.

Pretty much spot on with your statements.

[3-4-5]

They are roughly in about the same situation as the PS3 was at this exact time after it's Launch back in 2006.

Literally maybe 100,000 units difference in terms of what was sold, between the two.

Look at the turn around the PS3 has done and understand that Nintendo has been at it much longer than Sony and will also find a way.

In fact, their victory plan is already in place, most people aren't open minded enough to see it though.

We've become a society of " know it alls" without actually knowing much at all.

5-6 huge games for Wii U to be released, plus another 5-10 in dev we haven't heard of yet.

Nintendo could literally "pull a dremcast" and fail this gen and still have Billions to spend on the next gen after this one.

That is worst case scenario.

[kneon]

The situations are very different, if the numbers I saw are correct then the Wii U has only sold about 500,000 units for the first 6 months of this year. The PS3 never sold that poorly.

You are making the mistake of looking at the total sales since launch. The launch was fine but that was because of pent up demand from the core Nintendo fans. If you were to plot this on a graph you would see sales have plummeted and there is no indication that they are going to turn around any time soon.

Even if things pick up during the holidays they might still end up selling less total units in 2013 than they did in just two months in 2012.

[Reibooi]

Comparing it to the PS3 isn't exactly a good comparison. The PS3 did come from behind to a degree but it was competing against next gen consoles looming on the horizon.

If the Wii U had come out at the start of last gen I would be 100% with ya on saying things could be easily turned around. But where the Wii U is in time it will be facing the Xbox One and PS4 and most gamers will not want to pay what is a similar price for a Wii U when it's a last gen console.

Will games turn it around? I don't know. For me personally I can say yes. At the start of the Wii U I wanted nothing to do with it but now I will be getting one for Bayonetta 2, X, Fire Emblem x SMT, Wind Waker HD and a few others that have slipped my mind. For me those games are enough of a reason to get the Wii U. But I don't know if everyone will think that way, especially with the PS4 and Xbox One right around the corner.

[3-4-5]

It's about total sales at this time and Wii U is over a million.

3D Mario - 2-5 million

Mario Kart 8 - 2-5 million

Super Smash Brothers - 2-5 million

Legend of Zelda - 2-5 million

Wind Waker HD - 300,000-1 million

Pikmin 3 - 1 million

FE X SMT = 200,000-800,000

These games will be responsible for another 1 million Wii U's sold, at least.

[Anon1974]

Another thing to consider when contrasting this to PS3 numbers is the competition. The Wii-U is underpowered and only $50 cheaper than a PS4. While the Wii enjoyed hype and a price advantage over it's competition, the Wii-U doesn't have much momentum to speak of and facing down against the PS4 and XBox One this holiday will be an uphill battle, to say the least.

On a side note, I find it a little odd IGN is accusing Sony of hiding Vita numbers by lumping them in with similar electronics. Are they also hiding sales of their cameras by grouping those together, or are they hiding something by not breaking down their television sales on their financials per model? Of course not. Investors don't expect or care to see a detailed, model by model sales breakdown of every device the company makes when the financials come out. Hell, Microsoft flat out skipped reporting Xbox 360 figures for two quarters back when they started seeing year over year declines in 2007 and no one said boo. There's nothing sinister about grouping similar products for the purpose of simplifying financial reports. Every company does it, unless they only have a handful of products to start with.

[Solo227]

The difference with the PS3 is that SONY had built a "future proof" system. And knew that the plan was to throw all resources into first party titles to build the hype.

Nintendo is trying to do that with a system that should have came out 6 years ago. With all the money they made from the Wii, you would have expected them to be way ahead of the game when it comes to the next gen. But their fatal flaw was falling for there own hype.

They built a system thats outdated and still relying on the motion tech to carry it.

Hardly comparable to what Sony accomplished and definitely not gonna deal with the same fate. The Wii U will eventually get black balled out of this gen just like Dreamcast did.

[SilentNegotiator]

The comparison to Ps3 is completely inaccurate.

-Ps3 didn't have an European market until half a year in.
-Ps3 was a high powered, expensive system, not weak compared to the competition and yet almost the same price range.
-Ps3 quickly garnered (and kept) considerable third party support, unlike every Nintendo console post-SNES.
-Ps3 has NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER sold as poorly as Wii U has in the last 6 months. EVER.
-Gamecube only had 8 games sell 2 million or more copies in it's lifetime...and you're predicting that Wii U will reach half of that with some of its nearest titles? Please. Wii was a rare case where the system sold a lot of its software by having an obscene number of hardware sold and being incredibly cheap. Wii U's launch was an explosion because there was so much pseudo-demand; it was supposed to be sold out for months and it wasn't sold out for a week.

Stop kidding yourself with comparisons to Ps3. The situations are not even close to being similar. In a month or two, the "100K difference" (if that's even accurate) will be gone and the gap will continue to grow and this Ps3 comparison that fanboys keep using will continue to look sillier and sillier.

[OmegaSlayer]

Big question to the WiiU owners...
If the WiiU fails and Nintendo releases a new hardware in 2015, will you buy it?

[sincitysir1]

Of course they will. People always buy for what they believe in

[PopRocks359]

Whether or not the Wii U is ultimately a failure is irrelevant. There is no way Nintendo is putting out another console. They stuck it out with the N64 and Gamecube. I guarantee they are sticking it out with Wii U as well. Mark my words on that.

[Movieworld]

Yes. I have owned every Nintendo console and i've enjoed every last one of them especially the Wii U why would I not buy the new one?

[Movieworld]

*

[BOWZER35]

Also I think once the new games come out and maybe sell more they will change the consoles rep online. I mean it gets bashed so hard by the media but when people actually see mine, (family and gamers) all the bashing goes away and they respect it. They either want one our say that it actually isn't that bad. The console speaks for itself.

[nosferatuzodd]

nintendo will be fine all they need is some good games thats all the system is very easy to develop for and they need to work on their network get rid of that stupid online phone number no one can remember that crap

[Reeze]

Wii U sales are bad now, but more key first party titles will pick up the pace.

[_QQ_]

yeah this report was only up to june.

[Drekken]

160k units sold last quarter. WiiU sales are in the tank and circling the drain. Mario 17 will help though, right?

Link: http://n4g.com/news/1322661...

[T2]

I am wondering if they wouldnt make more cash just making games again .. Or they could try in say 2015 to port some games to multiplatform... ? Unless their console sales take off of course

[nosferatuzodd]

dam Reeze
look at all the disagrees you're getting i bet there from Call of duty fanboys

[thomasmiller]

WHAT BAD SITUATION... http://mynintendonews.com/2... YEAH SORRY TROLLS nintendo is going to do fine, grow up and get over it!

[imXify]

They still do fine because the WiiU never had a price cut, so they still can generate the max profit from it.

[deep_fried_bum_cake]

Max profit? They've never made any profit on it. The WiiU is sold at a loss. They are profitable because of other aspects of their business.

[ABizzel1]

BS Wii U isn't selling for a loss in any capacity. Their profit comes from the few Wii u's, Wii's, and DS that are still selling, but mostly from 3DS + software.

Wii U cost no more than $260 to make, and most breakdown analysis of the hardware points closer to $230 for the console + controller. And those analysis were done back in 2012 when the leaks of the hardware were all but confirmed.

http://www.forgetthebox.net...
http://www.cinemablend.com/...

Nintendo needs major first party games, discontinue the basic model and sell it off at $199, drop the price of the Deluxe model down to $249 and add a real HDD in it (at least 120GB), and make games that use more than 1 tablet controller so they can sell another tablet controller as another source of revenue.

This will get sells up to respectable numbers, they would still make a profit off games, tablet controllers, and a slight profit on consoles.

Nintendo you don't have another Wii success story on your hands so you need to produce some great HD games and prepare for the next generation of consoles while you're at it.

With consoles it's go big or go home, and Nintendo you're on your way out of the console business if Wii U fails and you learn nothing with your Next console.

[deep_fried_bum_cake]

ABizzel1

*ahem*

http://www.eurogamer.net/ar...

Now last I checked there hasn't been an official price cut yet. So unless it's now cheaper to produce the WiiU (which it may well be, I don't know) then it is still being sold at a loss.

[T2]

Walmart Canada wii u , $199 Aug long weekend

[Concertoine]

Nintendo will be fine, its the wii u we're worried about. They need to do more to push the system.

[Death]

Nintendo is doing fine financially. WiiU sales are below expectations though. It is not a bad console and well worth the price tag. Nintendo just needs some more software to get people to buy.

[sincitysir1]

No offense but it's nothing more than an hd ds.

[deafdani]

I agree, partially. There's a bad situation for the Wii U console, but not for Nintendo as a whole.

[nosferatuzodd]

don't say that the Xbox fan boys doesn't like that they know if nintendo start doing well they'll be in last place again look at all the disagrees you're getting

[hollabox]

Looks like having an small presence at E3 did nothing for their console business.

[hollabox]

Oh the disagrees! I'm just saying Nintendo failed to create excitement/buzz by using someone who can barely speak English against a plain looking conference room. Every title Nintendo announced everybody expected. I actually expected more titles like a Metroid, Star Fox Adventures, and home console version of Kid Icarus.

Overall its just poor management by Nintendo. Some of their actions is downright laughable. How do you not know it takes more people to create HD graphics? A concepts that has been around for over an decade. Why would you create a system that sells for $350 with maybe a third more performance than current gen? Nintendo failed to keep a steady stream of quality software release after lunch creating large gaps between titles. Nintendo squandered the opportunity to showcase their products at E3, the largest video game media event.

Instead we got a very boring Nintendo Direct with expected announcements. I know the hardcore fans were excited but people on the edge didn't seem to care to much, this is reflected by the recent hardware sales.

[T2]

It appears nintendo is convinced the wii model of fun over tech would continue forever, but it doesnt appear to be quite as successful ...

[sincitysir1]

Why do people get upset over a few disagrees? Only justify ur statement when u hve like 20 disagrees. Not 4-_-

[SilentNegotiator]

"BU BUB BUT that was a brilliant decision!! They're bad at doing teh E3 conferenc, so the obvious solution is to throw it away, not get better at it! What's millions upon millions of views (as well as media attention) compared to the amount of hardcore Nintendo fans that will watch Nintendo direct? Nothing, man. Nothing.

Oh, and how could Microsoft or Sony never think to have demo-consoles with demos of unreleased games within Bestbuy? What a revolutionary thought...I've never seen a demo Ps3 or Xbox in a BestBuy with game demos on it. Never. They just don't have Playstations or Xboxs setup in BestBuys"

[hollabox]

Nintendo direct was pretty bad, I don't think having an proper E3 conference could had been much worst. If these guys are professional at what they do there should be no excuses for a bad E3 conference, very amateurish. Satoru Iwata sounded about as monotone as the Clear Eyes commercials guy. That's not good when Nintendo is trying to get people excited to buy a Wii U.

Nintendo would had been better off letting Reggie do Nintendo Direct. Reggie is good at creating excitement and highlighting Nintendo's agenda and success. But nope they had Iwata do it, and since E3 and a little bit before sales has been dismal.

Now when you compare Sony's E3 to every one else, Sony came out swinging. Unlike MS and Nintendo, Sony knew how to get their point across, they created so much buzz during their presentation gamers and journalist completed overlook the PS4 having some of the same restrictions as XB1. Heck I was so impressed, I preordered the PS4 with plans on buying the X1 in January. Now that's E3 being done right, show off your hardware, show off your software, get people immersed in your presentation and they are going to talk about positively.

I don't know where you live but I see demos at Best Buy all the time with X360s and PS3s. Rather its demoing motion controls, headphones, or Sony demoing their Bravia setup with a PS3, Home Theater System, and their top of the line LED HDTVs. Microsoft usually release E3 demos as well during the conference so there's no need to stand in line at Best Buy. Doesn't make sense to me unless I didn't own that console but thinking about it. Obviously with the sales numbers Best Buy demoes didn't work for Nintendo.

[Stroke666]

Ur obviously not a nintendo fan but you saw the direct. Lmmfao, all these people can state how boring it was and that nintendo didn't make a good decision, how only the fanboys watched it bu bub but wait, how do you know anything about it unless you watched it or read about it in the media(thats media attention by the way). And lets get this cleat sony and ms have NEVER.....EVER...#Y2J had demos of games they presented at e3 in stores the week of the same e3.

I had an epiphany, no I'm no fanboy but satcasm is not sarcastic when its stupid.

[SilentNegotiator]

@stroke

Just because I saw the Nintendo direct, doesn't mean that even remotely the same amount of people saw them as do the E3 conferences.

"And lets get this cleat sony and ms have NEVER.....EVER...#Y2J had demos of games they presented at e3 in stores the week of the same e3"

But they have on XBL and PSN. And big deal besides; they don't have to show it off the same week as E3 to get it in people's hands before release.

[Concertoine]

People who want a wii u have no conflict with that descision like how some might be deciding between ps4/xbox one. The system is unique, and the games played on it will probably feel very specific to that system. I dont admire the wii u for its power like i do the ps4, but its identity against 2 black boxes directly competing with largely multiplatform games.
When the wide variety of games start coming out, both hardcore (bayonetta 2, smash bros, X, SMTxFE) and casual (Super mario 3d world, pikmin 3, mario and sonic at the olympic games, mario kart) will start to buy the system, simple as that.

[sincitysir1]

It is not unique. At least not to Nintendo. Like I said before its an hd ds. Not a bad thing but don't say unique. Nothing is unique

[Stroke666]

Its unique in that the screens are not connected. Its unique in that it has a different game library(however minuscule it is right now lol). Every system has something unique about it, the companies just have to learn to use it to sell their brand

[LOL_WUT]

"but when the Wii U can’t even come close to keeping up with the current-gen consoles, including its 7-year-old predecessor (which sold 210k this quarter), you’ve really got to ask yourself whether it has any chance at all of holding its own against the PS4 and Xbox One later this year."

Wow it's reached it's lowest point! No one's buying the Wii U, outside of gaming related websites because know one even knows it exists. ;)

[MizTv]

It's kind of sad
But ill get one when it's like $199 or maybe $250

[RiPPn]

Yeah, $199 for the deluxe model is my price point also. If of course it's still supported and has more than 5 games I want to play by that time.

[ABizzel1]

It's actually $199 at Wal-Mart Canada. If you're feeling lucky take the digital ad (your phone works best in my experience) into a Best Buy and have them price match it for you.

However, it is the basic model not the deluxe

[Reeze]

I understand why people would want 250$, but 199 is just ridiculous. If you can afford the Xbox One at 500 dollars, why does 300 dollars suddenly become extremely expensive?

[RiPPn]

@Reeze: For me it's perceived value. I really don't want the second screen experience so I'd likely buy a pro controller and tuck the gamepad away. Add in it's low storage and weak hardware and I don't feel spending over $199 is justified.

As for the Bone at $500, I place it as a pick up at $199 also and it's perceived value is hurt for similar reasons. It to has weak specs compared to it's competition, it has a peripheral I don't want in Kinect, but at least it has notable storage.

So for both when they hit $199 and have more than 5 exclusives I'm interested in, that's when I'll pick them up. Until then it's PS4 at launch for exclusives and multiplats.

[Death]

@Rippn

Weak compared to the competition? They are almost the exact same console. The PS4 has more tflops on paper when you optimize it on paper and completely ignore eSram on the XboxOne. In reality the difference won't be noticable. They are both budget processors running mid-range GPU's. The GPU advantage from rumored specs goes to Sony, but the fact neither is running on a high res PC monitor, it's a moot point.

As for the WiiU, without using the second screen you can't form an educated opinion. It works and works well. Even the PS4 is going to try and integrate Vita into the experience. You may want to skip that system as well with your logic.

[MasterCornholio]

""but when the Wii U can’t even come close to keeping up with the current-gen consoles, including its 7-year-old predecessor (which sold 210k this quarter)"

Im pretty sure that when the PS4 and the XBOX One come out they will get outsold by their predecessors for several months.

[jcnba28]

I know right? You must feel so embarrassed to own one right now huh?

[LOL_WUT]

Why would I feel embarrassed? Is it because i'm outspoken about a company that most likely doesn't give a damn about you?

[BOWZER35]

Dude everyone digs my Wii U ha it's sick

[truechainz]

wow lol wut actually replied to a comment about him/herself. Breaking away from typical flip flipping troll tradition huh?

[jcnba28]

Cherry picking quotes from articles again are we? Troll exposed lol

[Agent_hitman]

Man!, looks like Ninty is in bad shape. I hope they will survive, we don't want another Dreamcast situation where another console will say "bye bye" again to millions of gamers around the globe... The gaming will never be the same again if that happens..

Go Ninty!

[boybato]

Nintendo in bad shape - no
Wiiu in bad shape - yes

Seriously doubt nintendo will bail out even though the wiiu gets dreamcasted.(is this even a word? Lol)

[truechainz]

Read the article. Nintendo will be fine. It's the Wii U that is to worry about.

[ABizzel1]

It'll take the Wii U failing and their next console failing for Nintendo to drop out of the console business.

Then they'll only have to focus on their handheld department which is probably for the best IMO. Maybe a Nintendo tablet with controls (like the Wii U controller) that can sync to your HDTV (or HDMI out) and let you play games in HD.

I don't think Nintendo really needs to push the graphics boundaries considering all of their games have pre-defined art-styles that don't have to call upon the gods of graphics and processing to be done. So maybe tablet gaming is the future for Nintendo. Imagine if you could take your Wii U controller with you and keep gaming on it, and download apps. That should be Nintendo's future if they're not going to make consoles that compete with the high-end gaming market (at least high-end for consoles).

Tegra 5 (2014) will close the gap between mobile and PS360, with Tegra 6 (2015) surpassing them. That leaves way for Nintendo to truly take advantage of this kind of tech during the next console generation if that's their goal.

[jjb1981]

Nintendo needs to slow down on the platform ers and get some exclusive jrpgs

[C-Thunder]

Or even better, don't slow on anything and pick up on the jrpg front.

[Bakkies]

Their share prices aren't the lowest they've been since 2000, that would be at the end of 2003. Neither are they the highest, as they were in mid 2007. It seems like they fell a lot, but stabilized.

Pretending Nintendo is the next Zynga is just sensationalist media. IGN is correct in stating: "Nintendo should be extremely worried about the Wii U, but we don’t need to worry about Nintendo."

[Williamson]

I had a Wii u and I can say its a very well designed console, and playing Mario on the screen and TV at the same time was cool. Although I ended up retuning it since IMO 32gb at 350$ doesn't seem worth it, they need more memory since I don't want to spend more money on an external HDD.

[LOL_WUT]

Yeah the memory issue really bothered me even if it was just 32GB so it being a brand new console in 2013 seemed very low. Now with this bad news no doubtedly someone will try and spin it just watch my disagrees ;)

[Stroke666]

I take it you'll buy either an xbone or ps4 then since they have more memory?

[Williamson]

I got ps4 pre ordered but I will pick up a Wii u for sure someday. A store nearby is going to be selling the 8gb for 199$ two days from now, so I'm kind of tempted to grab one again then....although the hard part is finding an external HDD at a reasonable price.

[4logpc]

THey either need to drop the price or throw a real hard drive in the thing.

I understand that they are making money on every console sold, which is why they aren't cutting the price, but when PS4 and Xbox One hit, the Wii U is going to get smashed.

[DiRtY]

The Wii U as a next gen system got outsold 6:1 in the last 3 months by the Xbox 360 in its 8th year. An no, not just NA, but globally.

Crazy.

[tiffac008]

Never underestimate the Big N. They always finds a way to bounce back. Heck! Even at their worse, they are making a profit.

[christheredhead]

There are a lot of ideas being thrown around about Nintendo's situation in regards to the WiiU, but the core problem is games. Everything else about the system is fine.

People want to play games on their video game console believe it or not. You can definitely see interest growing in favor of Nintendo as we inch toward more games. If they had a heafty line up pre release and post release, they would not be in this situation and this article would not exist.

Im extremely happy with my release day purchase of the system. Truthfully, I like the system immensely and I can say its probably one of my favorites from Nintendo. Yet, I would not recommend it to others as of now. The lack of software is an issue.

Im excited for what they will offer in the future, not what they're giving at the moment.

[CaptainYesterday]

Nintendo should go buy as many talented indie developers as they can have them work on either new ips or existing Nintendo ips give them some freedom. I know this might not help much but it could be a start.

[Death]

Sony did that and has been losing money and shutting down studions since. Probably not a good idea.

[Stoppokingme]

The problem is Nintendo is relying too much on nostalgia.

I only bought the Wii for the usual suspects-Mario and Zelda. I was hoping for other reboots like F-Zero but we never got them. I only own six Wii games, compared to the dozens I own for PS3 and 360.

I can't justify forking out hundreds of dollars for the Wii-U just to play a few games, and those games haven't even emerged yet.

[KillrateOmega]

The Wii U has very poor third-party support.

Like, seriously, you've had developers who have been complaining about the hardware limitations that they've run into on the Xbox 360 and PS3 and now that the next-gen is finally here with all it's upgraded specs, you expect them to be enthusiastic to go back to spending another console generation working on a console that's only slightly more powerful than the consoles they've been complaining about?

[Movieworld]

The Wii U has very poor third party support? Here's a list of all the 3rd party games I have bought since launch....

Batman Arkham City, Injustice Gods Among Us, FIFA 13, Resident Evil Revelations, Sniper V2, Assasins Creed 3, Need For Speed Most Wanted U, Mass Effect 3, Trine 2, Call Of Duty Black Ops 2, Darksiders 2, Sonic And Sega All Stars Racing: Transformed and Zombie U. There are others but I didnt buy them. Does that sound "very poor"?

[Kidmyst]

Nintendo had great consoles and games and still make great games. The problem for them is Sony and Microsoft have gone the route of lure gamers in and keep them there. When Sony and MSFT get a gamer to play on their platform, keep releasing exciting titles and then offer free games, a variety of games to buy for any price, movies and such. Gamers are more likely to keep firing up that same console the next day and so on. I didn't buy a WiiU because I rarely fired up the Wii when most games I really wanted was on PS3 and 360.

[modesign]

you know its time for a change when you are still milking the same IP from 30 years ago (mario, zelda).

[truechainz]

you could also say you know an IP is strong when it can survive for 30 years and still make money

[KontryBoy706]

Nintendo just needs to either press rewind and start over or press fast forward and release the games and by games I'm not talking mario or lugui, they need starfox, metriod, zelda, smash bros etc! These games should have already BEEN out! mario is milked to death. They also need to kiss and make up with these 3rd party devs and publishers. Being such an outcast ain't working. No matter what people say about, "oh people don't buy nintendo consoles to play 3rd party games".... currently people ain't buying it for 1st party neither because it's selling poorly. they keep on in this state they are in and it really will be a big problem

[AmazingBrian]

sales will skyrocket when a super smash bros or zelda game comes out. theres no games yet, no reason for anyone to buy it. I have it and enjoy it. looking forward to pikmin 3 this weekend

[modesign]

people claiming the wiiu will pick up sales in november, need to justify picking up a wiiu over a ps4, or xbox1.

go. make your pitch.

[jcnba28]

It's called...wait for it... "Nintendo games"

[rmedtx]

What they should have done, was to release a true next-gen console with power matching that of the PS4 and Xbox One. They got comfortable giving us a console with underwhelming power and the lack of innovation the Wii had when it came out.

[AD705]

Their console was too weak. Had little to no games at launch. and the motion sensing appeal isn't there anymore. Not to mention it still barely has 3rd party support and nintendos online didn't improve nearly as much as nintendo said it would. Unless nintendo relases some games soon and get support from the devs and stop making such underpowered consoles they will succeed.

Sure some will say "wait for mario kart 8, pikmin 3" etc..

that's just not going to be enough this time around. The ps4 and xbox one have more exclusive titles in it's first year than the wiiu does the rest of this year and next year. Nintendo isn't the only ones with games and it takes nintendo a very long time to release a good one.

[killacal13]

Wii u will live, just not up to wii standards, stop hating on it.

[josephayal]

omg this is terrible for nintendo and mr miyumoto

[kupomogli]

It's so bad.

[kupomogli]

Btw. Not really saying Nintendo is in a good or bad position, more just referencing the Wizard.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aacox HFYvZw

[BOWZER35]

I just got a Wii U like two weeks ago. Been a gamer all my life. But anyways i think the Wii U is way underrated. The game pad comes in handy because you can play your games while everyone else is using the tv. My wife loves it. Couldn't get her to play 360 cuz it was all "violence" but the Wii U she liked. The point is its a great family console and I think it will make a sick comeback. The media is bashing it hard, but it's not that bad as people think. Even my brothers who aren't married want one.

[CyrusLemont]

Man it would be awesome if they re-released the Wii U with specs like the Xbox One and PS4, that would be flipping awesome. Their games would look like CGI animation.

[mysteryraz11]

wii u sucks

[thomasmiller]

No matter how well the wii u does or no matter how many facts that you put up about nintendo, the BRAIN DEAD SONY AND MICROSOFT TROLLS will never believe the truth... they are so pathetic, the wii u is going to last much to their dismal dismay, they need to grow up, get a life and get over it. well what ever helps the losers sleep at night!

[Flames76]

Nintendo is done they tried to do a gimmick again and it failed.I said that the Wii U wouldnt fool people like the Wii did.Nintendo needs to go the way of sega and be a software company.You cant release a console thats the same as what we have now with the Xbox 360 and PS3.Then expect people to pay $350 for it.Plus it doesnt even have any games or support.