On the Wii U's launch window, how well did you think the console would sell?

[Lant_War]

IHS says Wii U's will fly off the shelves so quickly that there will be supply shortages over the holiday shopping season, and many consumers will have to wait until after the new year until they can find the console in stores.

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Nintendo investors shouldn't get too excited, though: IHS forecasts that after the stellar start, Wii U sales will slow, and the new console will only reach around 70% of the Wii's sales volume in the first four years after release. The Wii moved 75.9 million units during that period, while IHS forecasts Wii U sales around 53.2 million units.

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https://www.forbes.com/sites/davide...l-sell-out-sell-faster-than-wii/#d139dba7ac48

The Wii was one of the most successful game consoles of all time, so a successor had the potential to capitalize on the audience that already had a Wii, right?

... we all know how that turned out. But at the console's launch, how did you think the it would do in the following years? Did you expect it to be a success or to fail?

I have no problems admitting I thought it was going to be a smash hit. Even after the first year, I was thinking "once the generation truly starts, it will definitely take off", but in 2015, like everyone else, I had already accepted that the console was an outstanding failure.

 

[Theswweet]

Considering how the Wii U actually sold incredibly well for its first month or two, and then fell off a cliff, if you really thought it was going to be an abject failure back then you're probably misremembering things.

I mean it had a NSMB launch title ffs. Nobody would've blamed you for expecting it to do well.

 

[cecilpaladin32]

Poorly - it was the first Nintendo home console that I had zero interest in at launch, excluding Virtual Boy. I'd owned everyone Nintendo console from SNES through Wii (again, sans Virtual Boy). The Wii had some great games, but most of those games (besides first party titles) were available elsewhere, leaving me very apathetic toward its successor.

 

[Lockheartilly9799]

I expected it to fail from the start because it was running on slightly better than ps3 architecture while ps4 was coming out in a year after that. The timing for Nintendo was awful. The controller gimmick wasn't generating buzz either.

It's the only console release I've ever seen at my local GameStop where nobody was in line when it opened. It was so quiet. I never experienced anything before and since for launches.

 

[werezompire]

My wife got me one at launch with NSMB & ZombiU so I was really excited about it, but given how crazy good the Wii sold and how the non-portable tablet was a hard sale, even I didn't think it'd be as popular as the original Wii. I wasn't expecting it to bomb as hard as it did though. At least, it got some awesome games - NSMB U is arguably the best 2D Mario game, TMS#FE is one of the best RPGs of the past decade, Splatoon is a multiplayer shooter that even I (someone who doesn't like shooters or multiplayer games that much) loved, and so on.

 

[Bomblord]

The number of big (albeit late ports) third party games available at launch for that system was insane. Especially when you look at other console launches

Mass Effect 3
Call of Duty: Black Ops II
Skylanders Giants
Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two
FIFA Soccer 13
Tekken Tag Tournament 2
New Super Mario Bros. U
Ninja Gaiden: Razor's Edge
Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed
Warrios Orochi 3 Hyper
Darksiders II
Assassin's Creed III
Just Dance 4
ZombiU
Scribblenauts Unlimited
Batman: Arkham City Armored Edition

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And those are just the big games

 

[Bear and bird]

I thought the ceiling was somewhere around the N64's numbers. I never expected it to sell as bad as it did.

 

[RoboitoAM]

I thought it would do well, then reality started sinking in by the second year lol

 

[Hero of Legend]

We already had an idea of how much of a bust Wii U was just after the holidays. I remember it doing really well during it... but that was only because everyone jumped the gun thinking it was going to be another Wii-esc hit and just sell it en masse on eBay. Once the holidays ended, everyone just refunded it and sales plummeted. I knew then things were not looking good at all. I had super high hopes, but with the horrible 3rd-party support and still struggling sales, I knew deep inside it was not going to do well at all, but even my lowest would never have thought it'd only do 13-14 million when all was said and done. :(

 

[Shopolic]

Much better than this, but not as good as Wii.

 

[YolkFolk]

Considering how the Wii U actually sold incredibly well for its first month or two, and then fell off a cliff, if you really thought it was going to be an abject failure back then you're probably misremembering things.

I mean it had a NSMB launch title ffs. Nobody would've blamed you for expecting it to do well.

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There was a lot of brand confusion in the run up to launch and even a lot of forum posters were confusing the Gamepad as an accessory for the Wii. Hell, even the system itself looked very similar to the original Wii.

New Super Mario Bros U looked exactly like a Wii game to the untrained eye and didn't show off any sort of graphical leap compared to that former system.

I don't think anyone expected the abomination that we ultimately got in terms of sales but there were clear as day warning signals that's for sure.

 

[Mitch]

When I saw the blue game cases on shelves, for some reason I immediately thought it would bomb. No real reason, but I remember the exact moment while I was in Best Buy the week it launched.

 

[TheGhost]

I don't remember a time where it was never clowned, I wrote it off as another game cube. Something that was not getting my money.

 

[NinjaScooter]

From the time the Wii U was revealed to launch I remember thinking "who is this for?" and that question I think ended up spelling the system's doom. Feels like at first Nintendo really thought they were going to recapture the casual market but when they realized that those people were gone and never coming back they quickly and clumsily pivoted to their core base and in turn created a product that appealed to neither in any meaningful way.

 

[Unknownlight]

I thought it would fail. More out of egotism than logic—I like Nintendo's stuff and I defended the Wii throughout its entire lifecycle, but I disliked everything I saw about the Wii U. My very shallow thought process was "If I don't like it, then I'm sure no one else does either."

I mean, I was right, but probably not for the right reasons. I understood the product, I just didn't like it, while it seemed like a lot of customers didn't even understand it was a new system.

 

[EinBear]

I never expected it to do Wii numbers, but couldn't have dreamed of it bombing as hard as it did. I thought the sheer novelty of HD Nintendo games alone would have given it some level of success. At the time I was expecting it to be a good upgrade in power over the ageing PS3 and 360... when it launched and all the ports were running worse than on the completion, I realised my mistake,

 

[werezompire]

The number of big (albeit late ports) third party games available at launch for that system was insane. Especially when you look at other console launches

And those are just the big games

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The Vita was the same way - the launch library covered a lot of bases.

 

[rochellepaws]

I thought it'd struggle at a Gamecube level. The Wii had lost a lot of momentum in its later years and the wider audience seemed to have moved on from Nintendo, even the 3DS was having a difficult time back then. Add in the weak first party launch lineup and it didn't look good for the system.

Although I still thought they'd complete the generation, I was really surprised to see them effectively pull support for it around 2015.

 

[Procheno]

The number of big (albeit late ports) third party games available at launch for that system was insane. Especially when you look at other console launches

Mass Effect 3
Call of Duty: Black Ops II
Skylanders Giants
Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two
FIFA Soccer 13
Tekken Tag Tournament 2
New Super Mario Bros. U
Ninja Gaiden: Razor's Edge
Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed
Warrios Orochi 3 Hyper
Darksiders II
Assassin's Creed III
Just Dance 4
Rabbids Land
ZombiU
Scribblenauts Unlimited
Batman: Arkham City Armored Edition

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And those are just the big games

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Console that has that lineup: One of Nintendo's biggest failures.
VS:
Switch launch lineup

• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
• 1-2-Switch
• Shovel Knight
• Skylanders: Imaginators
• Super Bomberman R
• Just Dance 2017
• Fast RMX
• Human Resource Machine
• I Am Setsuna
• Little Inferno
• Snipperclips
• World of Goo

One of Nintendo biggest successes, flying off the shelves

 

[Jimmy Joe]

I remember going "Hmmmm" about the system when it was revealed, having doubts about it as a product if not as a sales thing

I didn't expect it to be as popular as the Wii, given that the Wii had basically died by that point, but I definitely didn't expect it to do as poorly as it did

 

[Lant_War]

The number of big (albeit late ports) third party games available at launch for that system was insane. Especially when you look at other console launches


And those are just the big games

Click to shrink...

That lineup isn't very interesting when you realize people could already play those on their PS360s at pretty much the same quality.

 

[Asbsand]

I watched the Wii U E3 unveiling with a friend. For some reason he was all "Oh my god, that's amazing. Haha, Nintendo you're the best!". I still dunno how you can see the Wii U reveal and feel like it's a genius idea.

From that moment I was like "uh-oh..." and I liked the Wii, it's not that, I just looked at it and saw that this was a product that didn't seem self-explanatory, even if you knew it was a new home console. So by the time it started failing at launch I was like "Well, you reap what you sow, Nintendo."

 

[Phil's Empty Chair]

Those old ass ports got people believing in better 3rd party support. I laughed my ass off.

 

[404LinkNotFound]

I honestly thought itd at least do n64 sales but nope

Console that has that lineup: One of Nintendo's biggest failures.
VS:
Switch launch lineup

• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
• 1-2-Switch
• Shovel Knight
• Skylanders: Imaginators
• Super Bomberman R
• Just Dance 2017
• Fast RMX
• Human Resource Machine
• I Am Setsuna
• Little Inferno
• Snipperclips
• World of Goo

One of Nintendo biggest successes, flying off the shelves

Click to shrink...

A classic example of one star teamplayer carrying the team to victory

 

[Bomblord]

Console that has that lineup: One of Nintendo's biggest failures.
VS:
Switch launch lineup

• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
• 1-2-Switch
• Shovel Knight
• Skylanders: Imaginators
• Super Bomberman R
• Just Dance 2017
• Fast RMX
• Human Resource Machine
• I Am Setsuna
• Little Inferno
• Snipperclips
• World of Goo

One of Nintendo biggest successes, flying off the shelves

Click to shrink...

BOTW had legs my man

The Vita was the same way - the launch library covered a lot of bases.

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I wasn't really paying much attention around the Vita's launch other than being impressed by the Uncharted game running on a handheld.

 

[Indelible]

I thought it would be at least as successful as the Gamecube, it didn't have the mass appeal of the Wii but it started with decent 3rd party support.

 

[danmaku]

I thought the console made no sense and it was going to be a giant failure... but I thought the same about the Wii.

 

[PucePikmin]

I was pretty aware it wouldn't do great as soon as I played Nintendoland. Not that it was a bad game, but it was clear this wasn't another Wii. That said, it did worse than I thought. I was thinking N64-like numbers.

 

[Lant_War]

I watched the Wii U E3 unveiling with a friend. For some reason he was all "Oh my god, that's amazing. Haha, Nintendo you're the best!". I still dunno how you can see the Wii U reveal and feel like it's a genius idea.

From that moment I was like "uh-oh..." and I liked the Wii, it's not that, I just looked at it and saw that this was a product that didn't seem self-explanatory, even if you knew it was a new home console. So by the time it started failing at launch I was like "Well, you reap what you sow, Nintendo."

Click to shrink...

I never owned a Wii U, but I like the idea of a second screen. Worked amazing on the DS.

 

[Deleted member 49166]

I was thirsty for a HD Wii. Loved the idea to get a DS experience on TV
What I've got was a slower, less fun system with an controller/additional screen no developer was using.

Nintendo Land had some cool ideas, but everything around the mini games was just slow and boring. Like the system. In the end I just didn't boot it, because I got bored priorthe game eventually launched.

 

[hussien-11]

I thought it had the potential to sell 50-60 million if the execution was better:

- making use of the fact that it is the only console in the market that could be used as a tablet, and bring real apps to it.
- better and cheaper internals which could've led to a much cheaper price than 350$.
- multi-touch screen.
- helping third parties to release some of their DS hits to the system like Professor Layton, Trauma Team, and Ace Attorney.

 

[n00bs7ay3r]

I was pretty sure it was not going to do well. Certainly it was not going to do as well as the Wii but there seemed to be little to no hype around the console and in the gaming community there seemed to be a harshly negative view of the thing. It is too bad because it was a cool system that had some great games and if more developers took advantage of the 2 screen system it could have led to some unique gaming experiences. I guess it is good that it failed since that led to us getting the Switch which is amazing.

 

[Akela]

They jinxed it as soon as I saw that users on an IRC gaming channel I was watching the press conference with couldn't tell whether it was a addon controller for the Wii or a new console. If gamers hardcore enough to watch E3 press conferences while chatting on an IRC server couldn't tell what it was, what hope did the general public have? Probably the worse hardware reveal I've ever seen - and I'm talking hardware in general.

Reminder that this is how they first revealed it:



They actually describe it as a "New Controller" (capitalized) in the video. Like 12 times. The first time we actually got confirmation that it was actually a games console was after the conference during some press interviews. The first images of the console were snapped by the press after the event, where people were still trying to work out whether it was actually a new console. Was the box next to the "New Controller" a new console, or was it a new revision of the Wii? Or a dev kit perhaps?

I have no idea why they were seemingly so determined to underplay the fact that it was a new console - did they hope that marketing it as a Wii addon would lead to more sales, since people already owned Wiis? Was there simply a failure in communication between different marketing departments, or an outside marketing team?

Regardless, this is legitimately how the public saw the product during those crucial first few years - and why would someone be interested in buying a new tablet-like controller for their Wii? They barely use the console any more after all. When is Nintendo going to release a actual next gen console? And so on. I wouldn't be surprised if even today, in many people's eyes the Switch is the direct successor to the Wii, and the Wii U continues to be seen as merely a addon like the PS VR.

 

[Cess007]

I clearly remember getting my hands on the WiiU table for the first time on E3 and immediately thinking this was gonna fail so hard (My first experience was Nintendoland).

 

[Asbsand]

I never owned a Wii U, but I like the idea of a second screen. Worked amazing on the DS.

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Works horribly on a TV.

 

[Ehoavash]

Console that has that lineup: One of Nintendo's biggest failures.
VS:
Switch launch lineup

• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
• 1-2-Switch
• Shovel Knight
• Skylanders: Imaginators
• Super Bomberman R
• Just Dance 2017
• Fast RMX
• Human Resource Machine
• I Am Setsuna
• Little Inferno
• Snipperclips
• World of Goo

One of Nintendo biggest successes, flying off the shelves

Click to shrink...

Lol so much 3rd party meaning jack when all Nintendo needed was a Zelda game ....they should have waited a year delayed skyward sword to make it a a cross gen title ...without motion controls on Wii U for launch :p

 

[Marmoka]

I thought it would do really well. It was a home console version of a DS with the name "Wii" on it in the end...

 

[LuigiMario]

At the first reveal, I was uncertain, but dev support seemed solid and the idea of a midgen upgrade had some promise paired with Wii's casual party focus. I had kinda figured if they could nail the price, get it at a power where it could do the best versions of then current gen games, it could be a hit that everyone was really happy with. In reality, what we got was in some ways inferior to PS3/360, it was incredibly overpriced, and the tablet controller seemed more like a confusing gimmick than a real hit idea.

 

[ReddishGUI]

I was the only one in line at my local TRU on launch day, I knew that wing would be a flop from day 1(I was a little bit surprised though).

 

[ReddishGUI]

Double post

 

[MysticGon]

I honestly had no clue. It was such a different product from Wii.

 

[Ultra]

Thought it'd do well, but expected a drop-off from Wii-numbers [due to that market largely moving on]

Perhaps 50-60M? ltd 70m being the high-end. I underestimated how much marketing actually matters.

The comeback Nintendo has made with the Switch is one of the best in gaming.

 

[Arkaign]

I remember looking at the price, the poor launch lineup, the half ass nature of the tablet, and thinking hoooo boy - Virtua Boy.

Tabletless WiiU @ $199 with a couple of 1st party heavyweights, I think it could have cleaned up pretty nicely. Or on the flip side, go ahead and make it $399, but have the tablet portion be capable of running solo with enhanced 3DS titles (patch for higher resolution).

In the end I think having the price at $349 with extremely poor marketing, no big title, no compelling sales point about the tablet.. it was just too much to overcome.

 

[C.Mongler]

I was optimistic but I knew it would be an uphill climb. Never thought it would be Wii-levels of hot, but didn't think it would be a straight bomba either. The name was just fucking bad from a marketing standpoint, the launch lineup was not enticing at all, the PS4 and Xbone were hot on the thing's heels, and there were no great demos of the off-screen functionality a la Wii Sports for the Wii.

I figured it could go with a bunk year, maybe more; hell the DS did and it turned out fine. Nintendo will make the great off-screen gamepad seller game right? Well after 2-years of waiting for a killer app or two with none in sight, I personally started to see the writing on the wall. Third parties stopped putting out the few games they were feeding the thing, the Nintendo games were there but not in a way that was going to attract non-Nintendo fans, and for basically the same price you could get a next-gen console instead. The fork was stuck in.

 

[Big G]

From the time the Wii U was revealed to launch I remember thinking "who is this for?" and that question I think ended up spelling the system's doom.

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Same. Their E3 2012 press conference was very uncomfortable to watch. I had the same thoughts running through my head the entire time - Who is this for? Who is going to buy this? - and it was especially awkward because the Wii was so successful and it was hard to believe that their follow-up console could bomb.

So going into launch, all of the evidence suggested that the Wii U might very well be a failure, but it was hard to wrap my head around that based on the position they were in coming off of the Wii. I knew it wouldn't do nearly as well, but the idea of them losing 90% of their install base from one generation to the next seemed preposterous. But that's exactly what happened.

 

[Gestault]

So weirdly, even though I was under the impression that Nintendo didn't have a clue what they were doing in terms of confusing branding (among other things around the launch), I thought maybe lightning would strike twice. I was just coming off a generation where I assumed the Wii wouldn't be the runaway success that it was, and I was so wrong there that I figured maybe Nintendo understood something I didn't.

 

[Jimnymebob]

I didn't think it would've been as bad as it was, especially since it started with a huge 3rd party push, but I figured it wouldn't do great.

It had the "is this just an accessory" thing, it launched with yet another NSMB bah bah game, and it was basically the first next gen console, and it was comparable to the previous HD gen.

It absolutely didn't deserve to do as poorly as it did though. It probably had the strongest 1st party output of any Nintendo console in my opinion, you had full Wii BC, decent indie and VC support, some early 3rd party stuff, such as the wonderful port of Deus Ex HR, and the community aspect in Miiverse.

 

[bane833]

Called it being a bomba right after the atrocious e3 2012. Never expected it to do that bad though. I think my initial guess was somewhere around Gamecube/N64 numbers.

 

[bluehat9]

I worked in retail then and no customers knew what it was, even from the beginning. They all thought the controller was just a Wii add-on and then thought you'd be able to take it with you anywhere.

I still cant believe they designed the console to look like a Wii or that they thought calling it WiiU was a good idea.

 

[lightchris]

Called it being a bomba right after the atrocious e3 2012. Never expected it to do that bad though. I think my initial guess was somewhere around Gamecube/N64 numbers.

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Same here. I was very skeptical about the tablet controller and the marketing, but I thought it would reach Gamecube sales at least.