Wii U pricing

[harv]

Wait until the likes of Lego City Undercover, Monster Hunter 3G Ultimate, Pikmin 3, The Wonderful 101, Wii Fit and Game & Wario are released within the next few months, Nintendo cut the price in November in an attempt to scupper the launches of the PS4 and 720 which will also coincide with the launches of a 3D Mario, Mario Kart 8 and Wind Waker HD.

You'll see the Wii U having an installed userbase between 10m and 15m before the end of the calendar year and the 720 and especially the PS4 having problems with sales through the launch window, the same way the Wii U is having now. If the PS4 starts as badly as the PS3 did and the Vita continues to flop then Sony could end up going under

[jman]

Harv is now akin to playing "abide with me" whilst the titanic goes down

 

States sales for the Wii U
Jan - 57k
Feb - 64k

360 sold 302k in February alone to put it in perspective.. the Wii U is also selling less in Japan than the Vita now too.. you can't deny the sales figures are pitiful harv

[Late]

Some people are still buying it?! 

[harv]

I'm not denying the sales are poor, it's down to several launch/launch window titles being delayed. Like I've said above the launches of those titles I've listed above and a price cut in November combined with the launches of 3D Mario and Mario Kart 8 will make sales explode. They've managed to shift around 3m in 4 months and the Wii U will pick up sales momentum again through the Summer. It's going to have an installed userbase between 10m and 15m before the end of the year without a problem.

As for the previous gen consoles outselling the Wii U by a considerable margin, this always happens. The previous gen consoles are cheaper and have more software available. You'll see the PS4 and 720 having the same 'problem'.

[styles]

Lol, harv is still expecting sales of the Sinclair c5 to explode any time soon

[Late]

Base model £149.99 from ShopTo (via play.com)
direct link
hukd

Was same price at Asda a few weeks ago.

[Late]

There might be some price cuts at Asda soon, for the Wii U console and for it's games. They've today announced they're no longer going to stock the console or it's software.

They've said they're not going to restock, so I'd imagine they'll run stock down at relatively low prices, and then do a clearance of anything left over after a few weeks (but that's just a guess).




(Cue Harv, to tell us how it's a suicidal move by Asda/Walmart, they're clueless, the board of directors should be sacked, and everyone should sell any shares they have, because the Wii U is doing fantastic and it's sales over the next six to twelve months will be sky-high...)

[harv]

They only sold it in-store in 100 stores anyway, MCV have contacted them and they said that they're still going to be selling them online and you can order them via the click and collect thingy and pick them up from your local store. They're out of stock online because they've sold out, not because they're dropping the Wii U altogether.

And it is a bit of a daft decision when you consider the software on the way. You'll be able to pick one up from them in-store again before Christmas due to the releases of Wii Fit U and Super Mario 3D World.

[AVFCRoss]

They only sold it in-store in 100 stores anyway, MCV have contacted them and they said that they're still going to be selling them online and you can order them via the click and collect thingy and pick them up from your local store. They're out of stock online because they've sold out, not because they're dropping the Wii U altogether.

And it is a bit of a daft decision when you consider the software on the way. You'll be able to pick one up from them in-store again before Christmas due to the releases of Wii Fit U and Super Mario 3D World.

Have you forgotten there are 2 better consoles coming out this Christmas, along with a shedload of better games?

The PS4 will absolutely fly off the shelves at £350, and the Xbox One will give it solid competition thanks to the amount of U turns they made on their policies, even though it's a much higher price-point. Anyone who opts to go for a Wii U because of Wii Fit U over the PS4 with GTA5 is absolutely mad.

[harv]

The PS4 and One won't sell a great deal for several reasons:

1) The Wii U is cheaper with a superior software library despite the launch titles each console is getting

2) The PS3 and 360 are even cheaper than the Wii U and have a far superior software library

3) GTA V hasn't been announced for them yet, has it..? And neither console has backwards compatibility

and most importantly

4) Both consoles are going to be supply constrained at launch, Sony and Microsoft won't ship more than 2m of each console if previous console launches are anything to go by.

With regards to Wii Fit you may not be interested in buying it over GTA V but it will do fine. As will Super Mario 3D World.

It's going to take years for the PS4 and One to close the gap that a 1 year head start has given the Wii U - the 360 sold 5.5m in its first year and the PS3 has only recently overtaken it. The Wii U has sold around 4m already, should do 1m between now and 31st October and do 3m+ between 1st November and 31st December. That's a 6m gap assuming that Sony and Microsoft manage to ship that many and sell them all, which is doubtful. Microsoft are rumoured to have serious ESRAM yield problems. You probably won't see either one selling much more than 1.5m before the end of the year. For comparison's sake the 360 did around 1.5m and the PS3 did around 1.7m during their launch periods.

[styles]

Hmmmm, some of your arguments ALMOST hold water but then I remember your track record and run to the toilet before I wet myself laughing at you.  Harv, you are the Titus Bramble of arguments.

[Late]

1) The Wii U is cheaper with a superior software library despite the launch titles each console is getting

More games does not equate to a superior software library.
The ps4 and xb1 will both have superior software libraries to the wiiu on launch day. Even if there's only one game available for each.

2) The PS3 and 360 are even cheaper than the Wii U and have a far superior software library

Indeed they do. Which is why I've seriously considered getting a ps3 quite a few times in the last few months. Cheap console and a fantastic back catalogue.
I've not given any real consideration to the Wii U.
The console has serious problems if all the newer consoles and all the older consoles look more appealing than it.

3) GTA V hasn't been announced for them yet, has it..?

Fingers crossed it'll come out on the new consoles, but no, it's not been announced yet. It's only been announced for the existing consoles. Well, the good ones anyway. (I'm fairly certain it will be released on the new consoles, but not straight away. Might be a year or so later.)

4) Both consoles are going to be supply constrained at launch,

That means both consoles will fly off the shelves, because demand is so much higher than supply that Sony and Microsoft can't make them fast enough. And you're saying that's a bad thing, and the Wii U is in the stronger position because they have hundreds of massive warehouses full of literally millions of consoles they can't sell.
Wow. You're right. Nintendo looks set for global domination.

With regards to Wii Fit you may not be interested in buying it over GTA V but it will do fine. As will Super Mario 3D World.

Yes, both should sell very well. To fat mums and to clueless parents of little kids, respectively.
How very hardcore.

It's going to take years for the PS4 and One to close the gap that a 1 year head start has given the Wii U

The Wii U will do okay. It'll plod along, picking up sales mainly to feckless parents, as well as being people's second machine. Sony and Microsoft make great machines that are fairly expensive and fairly divisive. Lots of people have both, but most don't. People might be able to stretch to £400 for their main gaming machine, but £400 for their second machine? Nope. £150 for a second machine is doable, and the Wii U sneaks into peoples' homes in that way, often as an impulse buy.
Doesn't change the fact it's ridiculously underpowered.

the 360 sold 5.5m in its first year and the PS3 has only recently overtaken it.

Relevance? Are you saying the ps3 took a long time to catch up with the 360 because it had a year head start? Because that's not really relevant when talking about the Wii U, is it. The 360 and the ps3 were similarly powerful and similarly popular, so were always likely to sell in similar numbers (so whoever got a head start would be ahead for a long time).
The Wii U is not similar to the ps4 and xb1 though. Those two are next gen machines.

The Wii U has sold around 4m already

No it hasn't.
source
It's much closer to 3m.


Retailers are abandoning the console. Developers are abandoning the console.
It can't handle frostbite 2 or unreal engine 4. Anyone interested in playing games will want a ps4 or xb1.
The U will survive this generation by being a machine parents not into gaming will get for their kids, but if/when those kids are over 7yo or so they'll wish they had a Sony or Microsoft instead.

[harv]

The Wii U is capable of handling any modern engine...

Just because DICE and Epic haven't provided support for it doesn't mean that the console is incapable of running them. Developers haven't requested support for those engines but that should change early next year when the Wii U has a sizable installed userbase.

[Late]

[harv]

Laugh all you want, everything I've said above is true. Latte has a DX11-equivalent feature set including compute shaders and tesselation so will be able to handle the same UE4-driven games that the PS4 and One are running but will have slight downgrades - longer loading times, less AA, baked lighting and shadows and lower resolution. Think of the difference in eye candy quality between PC Medium settings and High/Very High settings.

We haven't got another Wii/PS3/360 situation in terms of the difference in power between the consoles this gen, and even more importantly the Wii U has the advantages that the Wii didn't have with having a standard rendering pipeline thanks to Nintendo's choice of GPU and it has a very similar architecture to the PS4 and One. It's going to be a great deal easier for developers to port between the Wii U/PS4/One than it currently is to port between the Wii U/PS3/360.