The Wii U is officially the slowest selling console from Nintendo

The Wii U has failed to gain enough interest in its first year.

[R00bot]

Yes it is.

Didn't we already know this? Like, ages ago?

And is it selling slower than the Virtual Boy was? I find that hard to believe.

[Concertoine]

The NES had less than 3 million sold in it's first year. The virtual boy had less than a million lifetime. i imagine they assumed the gamecube was the worst selling first year for a nintendo system at 4.6 in it's first year, which the wii u probably won't hit by it's first year.
Poor quality article but that doesn't make this any less concerning.

[UltimateMaster]

Yeah, but I doubt it's the slowest selling system ever. Still, the PS3 sold more on it's first year.
The PS3 by around this time of it's first launch was around 5.5M. The Wii U is 3.81M
This isn't good, considering the PS3 was also twice as expensive with a recession that was on the horizon, it's just not looking good for the Wii U.

[BullyMangler]

ha haa rite, the Virtual boy . . . but its a fact that wiiU would have sold more by simply having had a better nAME . . simple as that . . any game on sony machine or microsoft is more immersive and more comfy and just better on wiiU systems because of the game-pad . . . < fact

the truth will hurt many fanpies

[Misaka_x_Touma]

Virtual Boy was discontinue due to harming and putting kids in hospital. It was never officially a flop.

[deafdani]

Yes, it was.

Stop making things up, it's embarrassing.

[Misaka_x_Touma]

not making stuff up. It factual.

[gpturbo81]

but but but, it wouldnt be n4goat if they didnt put more pessimism on this console. 30 different titled articles all about the same story. thats how they roooolllllllllll

[CAB1802theWiiUdefend]

Poor Wii U

[ABizzel1]

The Wii U is secretly suffering from the XBO syndrome. Misguided management and marketing, Poor name choice, and cost $100 more than it's closest competitor with no proof of superiority (although in this case the Wii U is more powerful than the PS360, but the difference is between running a game 720p @ 30fps Medium settings (PS360) and running a game 720p @30fps High settings (Wii U)).

Not worth the extra $100 when you can get a PS360 with huge and established library of games. Right now the Wii U is only for the most dedicated of Nintendo fans, of which they are only 20 - 30 million.

[CAB1802theWiiUdefend]

But the PS360 is already had 7-8 years, thats why it has so many games. Wii U has more 1080p 60fps games than PS4One, Well $300 is the cheapest option in the 8th gen. Well, if the Wii U is dedicated to Nintendo fans, does this mean that the Wii U is hardcore? and do you mean the Xbox syndrome? everything else you said, I agree with

[ABizzel1]

1080p@60fps is easy to achieve when you have the games running at low graphic settings (at least compared to PC settings), meanwhile, PS4 and XBO are hitting High and Ultra settings which are extremely demanding compared to low settings.

Technologically speaking the Wii U is an insignificant upgrade from the PS360 compared to the PS4 and XBO, and at $299 is not worth the price. (Nor are the PS360 worth their asking price entering their 8th and 9th year and still selling for $179 - $299).

The Wii U feels more like it's playing catch up instead of innovating, and while having menus, maps, second screen, and options always in the palm of your hand is great, it doesn't bring the feeling of new and revolutionary ideas that the original Wii did back in 2006. Times have changed.

"Well, if the Wii U is dedicated to Nintendo fans, does this mean that the Wii U is hardcore?"

Anyone buying a "dedicated" gaming console IMO is a "hardcore gamer". That being said Nintendo's audience aren't PlayStation and XBox audience (which is considered core to most of the people here).

By XBO syndrome I mean, bad messaging to their audience, console identity crisis, overpriced for what it's worth, poor upper management, awful media attention, etc... all things plaguing the Xbox One right now are all things that are plaguing the Wii U.

I have no problem with the Wii U being a more casual-core console aimed E for everyone, but you need to price yourself as such and have the games to back it up.

2014 is the Wii U's sink or swim year. They have a great line-up of games for the first half of 2014, and the second half will hopefully be just as good, add a price drop down to $249, and a rewards program to make up any loss and that will prove if the Wii U has failed or not.

Come December 2014 if the Wii U is still selling less than 5 million consoles per year, it's over.

[esemce]

No poor WiiU owners, as Nintendo have short changed them.

[mcstorm]

Why have they? I have yet to play a poor exclusive on the wiiu and I own Mario, pikmin 3,lego city, wonderful101, sonic lost world, Nintendo Land, wiiparty U and Zelda windwaker. I also have Mario 3d world, dk, Mario kart and super smash bros on pre order. Only games on the other 2 next gen consoles that have me wanting them are Forza 5 and KI and that's why I also have a Xbox one on pre order but the rest of the games don't have me wanting them day one.

[JackieCruise69]

Here we go again.

[Bio_Mod]

Now they're finishing manufacturing Wii's, and with a price cut the Wii U could make a turnaround.

[CAB1802theWiiUdefend]

Yeah But it still isn't discontinued in America yet

[lilbroRx]

The Wii U has been getting price cuts form teh begginig of the year. That isn't the issue and never was. The PS4 and Xboxone would be DOA if that was the case.

The Wii U simply lacks proper marketing to tell people what it is and games that people really want to buy.

[R00bot]

I hope they start marketing it well as soon as Mario 3D World, Mario Kart, X, Smash Bros., Yarn Yoshi, etc. come out.

[Moncole]

From Nintendo but not of all time.

[Moncole]

Why the disagrees? Its not the slowest selling console, its the slowest selling console for Nintendo.

[Dehnus]

Doom thinking, it is the latest craze!

[hduce]

And don't forget the Zombie Apocalypse. That's also the latest craze.

[Dehnus]

So a hipster Zombie would think about Werewolf Asteroid Invasions?

[neogeo]

They never learn. All that money in the bank and they still use fisher price type TV ad's.

[Concertoine]

*use no tv ads

[Fat-Milkers]

This is such a shame but common knowledge.

[johny5]

There only option I see if things keep getting worse is to release a Wii U update or redesign marketed with a pro controller with no tablet at a price reduction of $199 ready for the next holiday season.

The tablet itself should be sold separately and or should make regular tablets work in a similar way like Smart Glass since more people are buying Tablets nowadays and could grab hold of that market and make it there own!

But doing that may actually hurt them? There's enough confusion as it is for the general public!

[shivvy24]

Yea, and with the games that require the tablet screen can have a sticker on the game case, something like "tablet required". Probably rebrand it too and call it a wii2 and on the side of the box it can say "plays wiiu games"

[etownone]

Nah... The tablet is the biggest selling point of the WiiU.

It's not like the 3D of the 3D that can be turned off.

Accept their mistakes, Price drop to $250. And bring the games.

[johny5]

The Tablet itself can be totally optional if they wanted too and they know it!

This is the only time in it's first year where they can make some drastic and serious decisions to turn this thing around!

I really like Nintendo I really do but they got to have better marketing and management because frankly this isn't the 90's anymore and if they keep banking on Mario all the time it may hurt them in the long run!

[Chrischi1988]

No it cant be optional, because then it would directly compete with PS4 and Xbox1, with nothing special to offer, other than the best first party games, of course. You people do not get what it is for, so maybe you should just stop this BS, it is there for a reason, just like Kinect on xbox1. It is there, so developers can utilize the controls in their games, if only 20% would have a gamepad or Kinect, then they wont program for it, because the masses on this console cannot play that game and wont buy it because of that. This is why the whole Vita + PS4 thing or the PS4+Eyecam will be just a mere gimmick and if a game gets good second screen support, then it is only because Wii U got the same game and they developed the second screen thing for Wii U and made the whole thing available for PS4, too, since work has already been done.

[Lucreto]

Nintendo has 2 main problems from what I am seeing.

1. The name, I see people looking for the gamepad to use on their Wii. I have to tell them it is new console. If they called it the Wii Two it would have not caused so much confusion. They tried to play off the success of the Wii but the casuals don't see it as new hardware.

2. Lack of games. Since Nintendo are basically a generation behind in terms of HD they have all the teething problems developers had 7 or 8 years ago. This is delaying software releases which it needed to see the console. Things might improve if they release Mario Kart and a big advertising campaign for it.

[Chrischi1988]

And of course the PS4 doesnt have a lack of games? The launch lineup from Wii U was almost twice as big as PS4 ones.

[Lucreto]

But unlike the Wii U Sony has lots of small titles dotted over the next few months and don't forget about drive club, infamous and Diablo etc.

Nintendo had a big launch line up then nothing for over 6 months +.

[nope111]

SHOCK

[Lykon]

You see ...i'm not so sure the wii was such a big success. yes it was in terms of sales.. but a huge amount of the instal base were temporary fad gamers...girls (wii fit) and a large amount of barely used gifts because of it's price.. and it was the console the young kids were bought (you know by middle class parents who only wanted their precious babies to play fluffy games and penguin club etc) Drunks tried to play party games on it ,too drunk to notice how bad and unresponsive the controls were. i think we have basically done the wii. So round two with wii u seems less appealing. And of course we have M$'s hardcore wii (ie the kinect bone 180). I haven't actually seen anyone playing a wii u...but would like to. It looks FAR more interesting than the wii , which I think is nintendos worst console so far. Tried it once (the wii) with a crappy kids boxing game... the controls did NOT work.. they did not in any way relate to what was happening on screen AT ALL. complete rubbish

[RiPPn]

GameCube v2.0 as far as sales go. And if it's doing worse than that machine, it's going to be lucky to hit 20 mil units. Bad times.

[R00bot]

Well, at least Nintendo knows how to make money off a badly selling console.
They made a nice profit off the GameCube.

[Nerdmaster]

"From the system's launch in late November 2012 to the end of September 2013, the Wii U moved 3.91 million consoles."

"To put things into perspective, the Wii moved around 1.7 million units in its first year"

How does this make Wii U the slowest selling console?

EDIT: Geez, the guys from this site don't even read the news before writing the titles. Another news on the same site says "Steam Holiday sale slated for November 20th". But the leaked e-mail from Valve in the news says that the Autumn Sale will begin in November 27, and the Holiday Sale will begin in December 19. The day November 20 is about catalog re-pricing, that's nothing to do with Holiday sales. Now there's a site for me to ignore from now on.

[KrisButtar]

Story quality? is WTF and I voted it down.

The NES sold 2.5 million in its 1st year. The Virtual Boy was out a year and sold less than a million in total sales. I can't seem to wrap my head around how they came to the conclusion that the WiiU is the slowest selling when they quoted it at almost 4 million in the 1st year.

[R00bot]

I think they might have meant how many it's selling per month right now.
At launch it sold well, but now it's selling around 60,000 per month.
I still find it hard to believe that the Virtual Boy wasn't selling worse than that.

[link2Dpast]

I agree with all the people that say the name is the problem and add the lack of advertising just adds more fuel to the fire. I do understand Nintendo at first using the name and wanted it to be the successor of the Wii, we may not like to admit it but the Wii should be considered a legend , it brang people to gaming that never were there. But for gamers we laugh at the idea of wii but I appreciate it when the gaming market does good be it Nintendo Sony Microsoft it better for all of us.

Trying to live up and ride the wave of something that really has nothing to do with motion bit a second screen was all its own creation. I Rember thinking of names before the Wii U came out my favorite was U-NES. May sound cheesy but it still had the U and seperated it self from the Wii which is the problem. Also gave it some nostalgia which helps alot. They could of made it a successor of the Snes. U-NES...Ultimate Nintendo Entertainment System would of been a great name

[dboyman]

I agree the name is terrible. Nintendo was trying to ride the wave of the Wii's success, but so far failing to do that. They need to try market the Wii U to be different than other last gen consoles.

Plus the name sounds just silly. My niece owns one and thinks the name is stupid. She sent me a link to this video http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[PawnSacrifice]

Personally I hope to pick one up when Mario Kart 8 comes out.

[R00bot]

I just hope that's what a lot of people plan on doing. MK 8 needs to be a system seller.

Along with 3D World, X, Smash Bros., Yarn Yoshi, etc.

[etownone]

Price cut... Like immediately.

And start advertising as a next gen successor to Wii....
Most people still think it's about the same as the Wii.

It needs to be at $250.

[r21]

Gluck Nintendo, they should really do something bout this. Next gen is coming and it'd be unfortunate if this console gets buried by next gen hype.

[cactusjack]

nothing will save the wiiu after nov 15th, you really think people are going to opt out of ps4/xbone for the inferior wiiu. haha keep dreaming.

[TheDivine]

Depends on the games. I'd buy one over both if X, SMT x Fire Emblem, or some other great games were out. That's where the term system seller came from.

Games that sold me a system

Mario 64 on N64
GTA3 on Ps2
Metroid Prime on GameCube
Kotor on Xbox
Lost Odyssey on 360
Demons Souls on Ps3
Xenoblade and The Last Story on Wii
MGS/Crisis Core on PSP
TWEWY and New SMB on DS
Fire Emblem Awakening on 3ds
Persona 4 Golden on vita

So far all three next gen consoles lack system sellers for me. That will change though. WiiU has Wind Waker bundle with X and SMT/Fire Emblem on the way. Ps4 has MGS and FF15 (also on Xbone) and the Xbone has Quantum Break. Titanfall will push systems but I'm not into mp so its a no buy for me. So far the WiiU is the only system with any must own exclusives released and announced (Games i personally would buy a system for). So yes many people will pick a WiiU over the competition. Especially when MK8, DKC Tropical Freeze, SSB, and Bayanetta 2 release.

[Concertoine]

the wii u is in a position where i honestly can't judge the interest in the system. right now there is NO original mario title, no zelda, no mario kart, no smash bros, all they have is a sequel to a niche series from the gamecube (pikmin 3) and a remake of windwaker.

[Vanna]

The wiiu seems to be missing the party spirit that wii seemed to have especially from an advertising point.

During the wii's reign it was always some kind of dance, song, sport, party game on tv that you could all play together with nunchucks etc. I guess they are appealing more towards pure console owners atm??

Will be sad to see any failure, the industry needs as many players to make it interesting and competetive for us all.

[cactusjack]

time for new management at nintendo. since gamers grow up, nintendo needs to grow up.

[joeorc]

the problem, is i think Nintendo released the WiiU too early vs. when Microsoft and Sony released, yeah they got a good jump start, but the one big problem is by Nintendo releasing so early, they will release the next living room console after both the xboxone and the Playstation 4 will already be in a 1st year to 3rd year market shelf time. that Nintendo is in i think a much worse dilemma.

because a:

even though they can make a system hardware that will be more robust, its the Price point that is going to plague Nintendo with the fanbase, How much is the majority of Nintendo fanbase willing to pay for a Nintendo living room console?

Sony and Microsoft i think are pretty even on their main fanbase willing to pay a higher price than many of the Nintendo fanbase for a Nintendo console..the Quality of the Hardware is not the problem, its the perception that Nintendo has groomed for itself that is a double edged sword.

On one hand, you see that many Nintendo fans would like nothing better than having a very powerful system, but the mere fact is every time Nintendo tries to do that , the Price point, is really what happens to Nintendo and the force of late buyer Adoption for Nintendo happens.

example 3DS is selling fantastic, but at first until that price drop had been done it was selling very slow, the same is happening with the WiiU. Nintendo has kind of forced the perception of their consoles in a middle to lower price point level of sales doctrine, that has been slowly over the years been reinforced. its not a bad thing on one part but it is on another.

Like for instance will the next Nintendo system, be more expensive than the WiiU, and can the Price point over come the perception of what the consumer base will be willing to pay for it. I think this is Nintendo's real issue, because the majority of Nintendo products is awesome, its not the Quality its the value that consumer's have a problem with on what they are willing to pay for a Nintendo living room console.

and what kind of limits that Nintendo is kinda forced into , because at a certain price point, the Nintendo fanbase "the majority" will not bite until much lower price point, while Sony and Microsoft's fanbase consumer's have less issues with these price points.

the WiiU's price for its hardware is more than fair, in my opinion, but to many i have talked to see the price point cost is to high.

[GBELKIN1]

The article is wrong & needs to be corrected that the Wii sold 1.7 million units in its first year of release globally. The # is significantly higher than that.

[refocusedman]

The wii u has a serious problem and it called brand recognition. A commercial for mario and sonic at thr olympics came on and I honestly thought it was a commercial for the wii. I saw people playing with the wiimote and automatically thought it was gor the wii. If an avid gamer gets confused abt the difference I can guarantee that a general consumer has no clue. Not to mention this is the first commervial that I've seen for the wii u in a very very long time.

[joeorc]

@refocusedman

Great post, but i do not think thats a brand recognition problem, I think its more of the concept problem of the WiiU...what i mean by that is when people see the WiiU there are many that think its something to add to the existing Wii!..that TV spot you just talked about is the perfect example: the WiiU is seen as "Oh" its something to add to my Wii, when they find out its not but a whole other system. than they look at Price point..and to many in todays market there is so many electronic products being released so fast.

that to the many parents that grew up on Nintendo game's themselves, its always "you can never go wrong with Nintendo" thats a very good thing to have if your Nintendo, but the problem is also two fold...right now many kids of these parents also want a smartphone or Tablet, Apple, Android or iPhone, or windows Surface etc.

Right now the Priority of the parents look at i just purchased a smartphone or Tablet, and most of the time the kids are playing on those, like example i have 6 nieces, 4 nephews and all of them have a smart phone or tablet, my oldest niece was wanting a Wii year before last got it, now she has a iPod touch last year and that is what she plays on right now.

the Problem for Nintendo , i think is not really Sony or Microsoft, its samsung and Apple and Google, those three companies product investments has been slowly but steady in its perception wearing away Nintendo's real strength that is not only "Must have product" but now the quick pick up and play software dynamic that the price point is very hard for Nintendo to compete against, both Microsoft and Sony are less effected because they already have a presence in that space Sony with Android, Playstation Mobile, Microsoft with surface and windows.

Nintendo does not really have such a presence in that type of environment.

[SpiralTear]

The comments section of any Wii U doom article is composed of the following:

Fix the name
More games
Advertise it more
Nonsense about Nintendo going third-party
Responses about waiting till 2014 when Smash is out

Comments closed.

[nesiguess]

I never once thought it was an add on for the wii.....I think most people are just brainless....

[refocusedman]

Your response is coming from a person that reads and posts on a gaming website........ The name is Wii U, and in the commercial you see people playing with a Wii remote control more than you see them playing with the wii u remote. They show no close ups of the Wii U remote nor do they focus on the system. You can say people are brainless all you want but, common sense will tell you if your trying to differentiate your product you don't use components of the old product in your commercial especially when the only recognizable difference between the two is a vowel in the name (not counting hardware). Thats like saying the xbox 360 u or the ps3 u rather than the xbox 1 or the ps4.

[young7yang]

i am sorry but the virtual boy takes the cake in slowest selling. get your facts straight!

[kirbyu]

Even slower than Virtual Boy?

[TheLastVoiceOFsanity]

I'll start to worry if when super Smash Bros U, Zelda U, Super Mario 3d World, Mario Kart 8, Wii Fit U, Bayonetta 2, & X release the wii u is still doing poorly. i don't think it will have trouble keeping up in the long run, because of the 3 systems i believe the Wii U will cost reduce a lot sooner than the PS4 &XBOX ONE. it wouldn't suprise me if the Wii u was in the $250-$200 price ranger in 2yrs.