While the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One have soared in the UK on their launch days, scoring more than 250K and 170K consoles within 48 hours and 2 weeks respectively, the Nintendo Wii U has seemingly floundered. Nothing could indicate that more than the lifetime sales of both surpassing that of the Wii U, which has sold 150K units in ONE YEAR.
Former BigBig Studios, which was part of Sony UK, dev Kenny Linder commented on NeoGAF about the sales numbers of Super Mario 3D World, which was bested by Knack in the latest UKIE Game Charts. “Yep. Releasing it the same day as PS4 in UK/EU wasn’t wise. The frustrating thing was this game was probably ready to go in October.”
As for where Nintendo goes from here, Linder stated that, “I think retail and the market will push Nintendo in a direction whether they like it or not. They MUST be in danger of losing shelf space at this point. Retail will have four major consoles (PS3/4, 360/One) plus 3DS/2DS to push which will all move units, and it looks like Mario can’t help even poor Wii U out.
“If it goes from shelves, it will be finished. I am still confident in my crazy mind that Wii U will not see another Christmas after this one. But that’s just me. The future games will just get moved/axed.”
“Releasing Mario on Friday was a really stupid thing to do, it could of come out weeks before that. I wonder if the same gamers who buy Nintendo home systems (150k of them in UK) are the same gamers that buy PS4/Xbox? That might explain lack of sales this week. Otherwise, nobody gives a shit. Also, I haven’t seen a single Mario 3D World advert on UK TV, whereas the other two (PS4 more so, especially last night, holy shit) are on all the time.”
And how did Linder summarize Nintendo’s reason for failure, besides the lack of third party games, dismal marketing, understated indie push and seemingly missing first party titles? “They have failed to see what the market wants,” he remarked.
Do you agree or does Nintendo still have a chance to turn things around? Will the Wii U become like its predecessor and best its competitors or will it become another Gamecube and fall by the wayside? Let us know what you think in the comments below.