Wii U sells 66,000 in February
Analyst calls system's sales "good," but expects non-AAA retail market to deteriorate as year progresses
The Wii U's struggles continued last month, as Nintendo's latest console moved 66,000 units in the US, according to a Macquarie Capital analyst note on yesterday's NPD numbers.
While the Wii U was far outpaced by sales of the Xbox 360 (302,000) and PlayStation 3 (263,000), Macquarie's Ben Schachter described it as a good performance, noting it was up 45 percent month-over-month on an adjusted basis. (January's NPD reporting period included an extra week.) The improvement also suggests Nintendo will be able to meet its recently reduced sales targets for the fiscal year, he added.
The Wii U Deluxe model continues to account for the bulk of interest in the system, Schachter said. He noted that more than 70 percent of consumer demand is for that edition, which comes in black, is bundled with the Nintendo Land game, and costs $350 as opposed to the standard edition's $300 tag.
While Schachter was mildly positive on the Wii U's numbers, his attitude toward the console market as a whole was a bit dimmer in the short term.
"With yet another month of double-digit declines (despite the relatively easier y/y comps in 2012), it remains clear that beyond the most important core titles, the industry as a whole continues to deteriorate," Schachter wrote. "We continue to believe that top AAA titles will remain relatively strong, but everything else in packaged goods will deteriorate ahead of the console transition. We believe gamers are questioning paying top dollar for an average experience (especially for younger demographics),when they are able to get other enjoyable experiences from a free or low-cost app."
Still horrid, but apparently so is the math :).
That said, the VIta is selling 20,000 a month in the US and there is far less doom and gloom about that platform floating around the internet. The standards people hold Nintendo to are pretty insane in comparison to their (financially much more precarious) competitor.
And no, 66,000 units sold in a month is not a good thing, even when you consider it's a month over month increase. I'm curious to see just how well Nintendo's Wii U will sell once they start getting some big name first party games but until that happens they might not be able to break 100,000 unit sold in a month. So another bad month but it's not the end for them.
The PS3 and X360 also had fairly low sales in their early months. Certainly much lower than the sales volumes they achieve today.
From wikipedia
The high demand for the Xbox 360 led to some owners almost immediately re-selling their console for vastly increased prices. eBay in particular was a popular location for such offers with thousands of consoles going up for auction, some selling for many times the original retail price. It was reported[19] that 40,000 units appeared on eBay during the initial month of release, which would mean that 10% of the total supply was resold.
xbox360 in the first 90 days sold 2.5 million units, but here is the difference, x360 continued to sell well and momentum continued to build for demand. ( 5.5 million units by 6 months) The demand for the wiiU on the other hand has fallen off the cliff. Initial sales werent that bad for WiiU, sales however now have totally died off.
Edited 3 times. Last edit by Todd Weidner on 16th March 2013 5:01am
From wikipedia
Analysts believe Microsoft did not meet the original worldwide target of 2.75–3 million units sold in the first 90 days after launch,[26] and Microsoft revised their initial 90 day estimate down to 2.5 million units,[22] though their 6 month sales estimate remained unchanged at 4.5 to 5.5 million consoles.[21]
Edited 2 times. Last edit by Todd Weidner on 16th March 2013 4:28pm
In the past we all could counter it by saying , my old system is old and outdated, and just LOOK at how awesome the new games are on the new system, and usually one look at the new games and the huge leap in graphic quality, was enough to sell and convince even non gamers, spouses and parents. After seeing the amazing jump in graphics usually they finally offered, " alright, we will see what we can do".. bingo,, you got your new toy.
Now Im not so sure the leap is so obvious, hell its not even that obvious to me and I been playing and in games since the beginning. You really think trying to sell your spouse/parent on a expensive purchase due to some new controller, or some social platform ability is going to work.
These systems need a killer software title, one so heads and shoulders above the last generation, it becomes obvious to everyone, I so far am not seeing anything close. I could be totally wrong, but in a world teetering on recession, I'm not sure any of these new systems are going to sell well unless they can make a giant leap tech wise.
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Todd Weidner on 16th March 2013 4:27pm
People need to understand that Nintendo have a plan, and they will execute on this plan. Sales at this point in its lifetime are pretty much irrelevant - what matters is the long-term trend, and whether they can build the WiiU brand into something that will last 4-6 years. Just look at the 3DS sales curve.
Microsoft had sold to consumers 5.5 million Xbox 360's by the time the PS3 and Wii launched. That's 1 calendar year.
The numbers I'm seeing show Wii U at 2.6 million compared to 2.4 million and 2.0 million for the PS3 and Xbox 360 at the same point in time respectively.
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Jim Webb on 17th March 2013 2:47am
There may be a catch to this though. If the PS4 and next Xbox find themselves breaking more sales records, showing off more interesting games and coming in with an aggressive price point, the Wii-U's sales may suddenly look a little more insignificant and there's every opportunity for those consoles to exceed their predecessor's early success too and to a greater extent.
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Adam Campbell on 19th March 2013 9:07pm