Original Wii still outselling Wii U

Depending on how much you love/hate Nintendo, feel free to interpret this as either great news on Wii's ongoing success--or the dire situation Nintendo finds itself in with Wii U. Or both!

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Depending on how much you love/hate Nintendo, feel free to interpret this as either great news on Wii's ongoing success--or the dire situation Nintendo finds itself in with Wii U. Or both!

In its latest earnings report (PDF), Nintendo revealed that it had shipped 160K Wii U systems worldwide in the past quarter. The original Wii, on the other hand, managed to sell through 210K systems worldwide over the past three months.

Software sales paint an even more distressing picture, with only 1.03 million units of Wii U software shipped throughout the quarter. Wii, on the other hand, managed to push 3.67 million units.

Nintendo (rightfully) blames sluggish Wii U sales on "the release of few key first-party titles this quarter to strongly drive the hardware sales," an issue they plan on rectifying with their upcoming holiday lineup, which includes Super Mario 3D World. "Moreover, Nintendo strives to improve the sales by communicating the compelling nature of our hardware and software to as many people as possible through our new network service called Miiverse," Nintendo told investors.

And while Wii U has a "negative impact" on Nintendo's profits, the company is still in the green, thanks to the profitability of 3DS. Animal Crossing sure knows how to make bells money.

Andrew Yoon was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    July 31, 2013 5:30 AM

    Andrew Yoon posted a new article, Original Wii still outselling Wii U.

    Depending on how much you love/hate Nintendo, feel free to interpret this as either great news on Wii's ongoing success--or the dire situation Nintendo finds itself in with Wii U. Or both!

    • reply
      July 31, 2013 6:15 AM

      And yet the online support is dead, with the VC soon to follow.

    • reply
      July 31, 2013 6:49 AM

      [deleted]

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      July 31, 2013 7:57 AM

      The 'Wii U' name just looks and sounds weird. And it's hard to pronounce in real life so I never talk to anyone about it.

      'Wii 2' would have been 1000 times better. You say Wii 2 in real life and it immediately registers in someone's mind that it must be the successor to the Wii.

      Wii U? What is that?

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        July 31, 2013 7:59 AM

        I know plenty of people who don't even realize the Wii U is a new system. They assume its some sort of accessory like the Mario Kart wheel or the Zapper.

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          July 31, 2013 8:12 AM

          Exactly. It looks like a tablet add-on attachment in the same vein of the balance board or guitar. It doesn't help that the Wii U console looks like the Wii.

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          July 31, 2013 11:17 AM

          I wonder how hard it would be to rename the system. Like just change it to "Wii 2" ?

          I mean I know they have some sort of big theme happening with the "U" and all but would they ride that into the ground would they change course?

          Heck this is Nintendo they could just call it the "Wii U 2" and maybe get away with it (i.e., "3DS XL")

      • reply
        July 31, 2013 8:07 AM

        It's a bad name and they should feel bad.

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      July 31, 2013 7:59 AM

      I bet this will change when Pikmin 3 is released this Sunday, shortly followed by The Wonderful 101 in September.

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        July 31, 2013 8:09 AM

        I hope they invest in some decent promotion for these games. The little bit I've seen so far for Pikmin hasn't been great.

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        July 31, 2013 9:34 AM

        [deleted]

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        July 31, 2013 10:12 AM

        you're really overestimating the value of the Pikmin franchise... it's got its followers but there's a reason Nintendo largely neglected it for years.

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        July 31, 2013 10:15 AM

        neither of those things will have any material impact - a price cut, Zelda, a headline Mario title, Mario Kart, SSB type stuff might - but those two are niche games that will not do anything (though I am excited for them personally)

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        July 31, 2013 11:23 AM

        I'd thought the same till I read the pikmin review.

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        July 31, 2013 11:51 AM

        Nope

      • reply
        July 31, 2013 12:14 PM

        i'm going to go with...no.

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        July 31, 2013 12:27 PM

        Pikmin's not on the higher-end of first-party titles and The Wonderful 101 is an unknown quantity. They're great supplements to a strong first-party library, but nothing more.

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      July 31, 2013 8:08 AM

      I just bought a wireless sensor for my wii yesterday and turned it on for the first time in years so I could introduce the boy the mario cart.

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        July 31, 2013 8:10 AM

        I hope you didn't get the same shitty wireless one I had. It took like six AAA batteries and would last maybe 8 hours without dying.

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      July 31, 2013 8:16 AM

      I read the Wii figure as 210 thousand million.

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        July 31, 2013 11:38 AM

        Actually it is a typo, fix it!

        "210K million systems"

        should be "210 thousand" or just "210K"

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      July 31, 2013 8:23 AM

      pour one out for nintendo. how many gens till they join sega?

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        July 31, 2013 8:26 AM

        They have a knack for survival and still have shit tons of money. I'm sure if they are put to it, they will come up with something brilliant which can compete. They have a tendency to come up with stuff nobody else is going and carving out a nitch. I think if they partnered with somebody like Oculus Rift to make a VR-only console with 3D and head-tracking (no TV required)... that would be amazing.

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          July 31, 2013 8:32 AM

          it's my opinion that the wii was a fluke. we're forgetting the zappers & superscope bazooka, virtualboy, the balance boards and motionplus, and of course the wii-u.

          Here's to hoping the next shit they throw at the wall sticks

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            July 31, 2013 9:30 AM

            http://venturebeat.com/2013/07/17/pokemon-rumble-u-brings-skylanders-style-toys-to-wii-u-in-august-gallery/
            They have a pokemon game coming with skylanders type toys, people will buy that shit up

          • reply
            July 31, 2013 10:08 AM

            I agree that the Wii was a fluke nobody could have predicted that. And the success of the Wii falsely informed their design for the Wii U (they thought they could actually catch lighting twice). I also agree that they've come up with some out there stuff which didn't really work. But at least they are trying. And like the Wii... sometimes it hits big.

            I'd almost like to see the Wii just bomb miserably so that in 3 or so years they just say FUCK IT and come out with a super high end, bleeding edge console which competes or blows away the PS4 and Xbox One. It would be fun to see Nintendo on the top of the power curve again. The SNES was pretty amazing for it's time (graphics and sound especially).

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              July 31, 2013 10:13 AM

              Nintendo has no idea how to do the online services necessary to be on the top end of the power curve these days.

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            July 31, 2013 10:11 AM

            I tend to agree that the Wii was a fluke, but they've been consistently strong in the portable space so I don't see them Segaing anytime soon

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            July 31, 2013 12:23 PM

            The N64 and especially the Gamecube did not do very well. So the Wii U is kinda following that downward trajectory. Nintendo has to find their market. Turns out casual players aren't that reliable.

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        July 31, 2013 9:26 AM

        3DS sales are improving and the new Pokemon games could be among the best selling games this year. Nintendo could probably withstand a few more failures on the level of WiiU and still be alright.

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          July 31, 2013 9:56 AM

          I bought the launch 3DS, was really unhappy with it, but did the ambassador and upgraded to 3DS XL and ignored it... then EO4, Animal Crossing came out, heck I haven't even bought the new Fire Emblem yet. I don't have time for crappy iOS games. Like, why bother with A, when you can have Nintendo AAA?

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            July 31, 2013 10:09 AM

            The 3DS is on fire right now. Tons of great games and more coming. I've played my 3DS more than any other console this year.

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            July 31, 2013 10:12 AM

            I recently bought a 3DSXL after reading all the Shack hype and actually looking at the games available. So far I've only been playing Zelda but I'm enjoying it. I also picked up Animal Crossing but haven't played it yet.

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          July 31, 2013 11:13 AM

          ^^^ this. BG is trolling but it's true that Nintendo's usually got enough irons in the fire that the hits pay for the misses. If anything it was almost a fluke that both the Wii and DS did well at the same time. Usually their handheld and console divisions take turns almost

      • reply
        July 31, 2013 12:28 PM

        "And while Wii U has a "negative impact" on Nintendo's profits, the company is still in the green, thanks to the profitability of 3DS."

        Not time to pour one out.

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      July 31, 2013 8:56 AM

      Its simple: Wii's are selling cus they're cheap and so are the games. Wii U's are expensive and so are the games. The wii u nueters the tablet by not supporting flash outside of youtube. VC is almost nonexistent on wii u, minus earthbound, and the wii has way bigger vc catalog. Parents dont want to fork money over for a next gen system that will be superceded in less than 3 to 4 months by ps4 and xb1. So, Parents lie to their kids saying all you get with a wii u is a tablet addon. Pikmin will be a great measure as to whether 1st party titles can save wii u so close to ps4 xb1 launch. If it doesn't, Nintendo needs to slash system price. As is, Its not worth peoples hard earned money.

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        July 31, 2013 12:11 PM

        Funny, I have way more VC games on my Wii U now than I ever did on my Wii. Dealing with flash on non youtube sites is the most minor of inconveniences, a problem I've encountered maybe one time.

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      July 31, 2013 10:34 AM

      The Wii U needs to be renamed the Wii 2, and it needs a $100 price cut, or bundle two AAA titles with it.

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      July 31, 2013 11:34 AM

      Guys, its fun to talk about Nintendo and all that. But Nintendo will still be here even after you all have grand-kids. Im not worried in the least about them. They have deep pockets and the resources to do whatever they want. The only competition they have is themselves.

      As long as their products are wanted, and I cant think of single vid game character that is more versatile than Mario. It simply does not exist.

      So no need to fuss over numbers and whatnot. At the end of the day its irrelevant.

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