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PS4 Vs Next Xbox; Does Wii U Have A Fighting Chance WITHOUT a Pricecut?

Snoober

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I'll put it clearly; Wii U is performing somewhat poorly. In the month of Feb, it only sold around 80,000 units in the US. As bad as Vita is doing, it has been topping Wii U for about 3 weeks now in Japan (remember though Vita got a price cut). My question to you guys is, will Wii U be able to boost sales significantly without a price cut? People aren't buying it as much because it is viewed as inferior to next gen offerings by Xbox and Playstation. With next gen on the horizon for their competitors, Nintendo may be running out of time to get Wii U a must buy in the public eye.
 

Cfrock

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When more big name releases come out for Wii U its sales will pick up. Pikmin 3, Mario Kart, 3D Mario, Zelda and Smash Bros are all going to sell Wii U's. If the 7th Gen taught us one thing it was that more power does not mean success. The PS3 was the most powerful home console and it came in third while the weaker Wii sold the most by far. On top of that, declaring a console to be in trouble after three months on the market is far too early to be drawing any kind of conclusions about its long-term chances. Yes the PS4 is going to be more powerful but what if the cost of developing for it gets too high and it has little to no third-party support? What if the Nextbox is once again built from shobby parts and has a high failure rate? What if competition from mobile devices and PC drains revenue from consoles?

The Wii U is selling poorly, fine I'll agree with that. Since launch there have been no major releases for it though and we already know of a wealth of first-party titles being shown at E3 as well as some pretty high profile third-party stuff like Bayonetta 2, Wonderful 101, Assassin's Creed IV and Watch Dogs. If that console is still selling poorly this time next year then maybe it's time to start saying the Wii U doesn't have a fighting chance. But right now it is far too early to even speculate.

To answer your question directly, yes, the Wii U will be able to boost sales without a price cut because you're going to see it happen when Nintendo's first-party releases arrive, like Pikmin 3, Mario Kart U and The Wind Waker HD, as well as the notable third-party games like those mentioned earlier. A price cut will of course help but the Wii U is far from over-priced. In the UK it actually retails for less than the what everyone predicted. The PS4 and Nextbox will almost certainly cost more than the Wii U when they launch since Sony are in no position to sell at a severe loss again and Microsoft have no interest in not making as much money as they can. It is not time to worry about the Wii U (or cheer its non-existant demise if you hate Nintendo). Give it a year and then take a look at how it's doing.
 

JuicieJ

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Um... of course? You are aware that the Wii U will undoubtedly be the cheapest of the three consoles, right? And you're also aware that the sales are poor due to there not being any truly definitive titles out yet, right? Key word being "yet". Give the console some time to grow, people. Geez, why does everyone always write Nintendo off at the slightest sign of potential and unlikely danger? <_<

As for a price cut, it would surely benefit from it, but there's no way it'll need it to survive against the competition.
 

DarkestLink

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I'll say...maybe? If Nintendo just sucks it up and price cuts already, they'll mop the floor with them. But right now, they're just playing a game with their customers who don't want to pay these ridiculous prices, especially for a console without its first party titles.

The reason people aren't buying isn't because of lack of first parties. We all know the Wii U is going to get them whether we buy the system now or in 4 years. The reason people aren't buying is because it's just ridiculously priced and THIS might change.
 
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Snoober

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If the 7th Gen taught us one thing it was that more power does not mean success. The PS3 was the most powerful home console and it came in third while the weaker Wii sold the most by far.
TRUE, but the market and everything about it was different in 2006 than it is now. The Gamecube, Xbox, and PS2 were all comparable in the power department, so no one knew the long term effects of Nintendo only making Wii "slightly" more powerful than it's predecessor. The Wii sold amazing, smoking the competition easily....... until around 2010. Key 3rd party developers had left it in the dust for PS3 and 360, and it technically "bogged down" if you will. PS3 and 360 kept selling steadily, and although Wii had hit 80 million, it stayed there and barely sold any after that. PS3 and 360 are doing just as good now as they have ever done. Now lets look at this now; it's 2013 and Wii U is out selling poorly, and PS4 has been announced and lives up to the expectations of being a great deal more powerful than it's predecessor. Wii U is slightly more powerful than this gen systems, meaning PS4 is leaps ahead of Wii U in the power department. Fans everywhere KNOW what happened with Wii (it's sudden slump in 2010 because it's lack of power), so now everyone is worried the same will happen with Wii U. That's why I think Wii U is in trouble. Plus, Wii was an instant success. Wii U is not garnering the same reaction, and with PS4 and Nextbox coming up, I just think Nintendo has their work cut out for them trying to get the thing a must buy.
 

DarkestLink

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TRUE, but the market and everything about it was different in 2006 than it is now. The Gamecube, Xbox, and PS2 were all comparable in the power department, so no one knew the long term effects of Nintendo only making Wii "slightly" more powerful than it's predecessor. The Wii sold amazing, smoking the competition easily....... until around 2010. Key 3rd party developers had left it in the dust for PS3 and 360, and it technically "bogged down" if you will. PS3 and 360 kept selling steadily, and although Wii had hit 80 million, it stayed there and barely sold any after that. PS3 and 360 are doing just as good now as they have ever done. Now lets look at this now; it's 2013 and Wii U is out selling poorly, and PS4 has been announced and lives up to the expectations of being a great deal more powerful than it's predecessor. Wii U is slightly more powerful than this gen systems, meaning PS4 is leaps ahead of Wii U in the power department. Fans everywhere KNOW what happened with Wii (it's sudden slump in 2010 because it's lack of power), so now everyone is worried the same will happen with Wii U. That's why I think Wii U is in trouble. Plus, Wii was an instant success. Wii U is not garnering the same reaction, and with PS4 and Nextbox coming up, I just think Nintendo has their work cut out for them trying to get the thing a must buy.

That makes no sense at all. Power between systems didn't change at all. The reason the Wii was doing more poorly is because 1) There were no games and 2) All the casuals already had one. 3) Xbox and PS has Motion Controls
 
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I personally don't think the PS4 or XBox have a chance. The PS4 hasn't shown me anything spectacular so far, not even anything that stands out the slightest. Of course the Sony fanboys will blindly buy it first day but that won't account for much. As for the next XBox, it would have to be pretty revolutionary to compete, but they do have one trump card, Halo. Also, as JuicieJ said, the Wii U's real "identity" games haven't even been revealed yet. I can only expect sales to skyrocket when those come out. The next Super Smash Bros. game alone will sell thousands if not millions of consoles. Also, I'm noticing that the "mainstream" games are flocking to the Wii U, like BLOPS 2, Assassin's Creed, etc., as well as old friends of Nintendo like Ninja Gaiden. I think this supposedly "slow and disappointing" start is more of a sign that this console will last longer and is pacing itself instead of coming out with a bang.
 
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The reason the Wii U hasn't been selling as much not because there is a lack of games (which in actuality there isn't a lack of games) , but the fact that January and February usually get low sales in general because people don't have money to spend due to spending it all for Christmas. I'd say round about April Wii U sales will increase and yeah maybe a price cut would help, I don't think Nintendo need to since it's at a reasonable price anyway. All Nintendo needs to do is get more games out there and it will be selling more. I don't see the PS4 or the next X-Box being a threat to the Wii U, the Wii managed to do really well despite not having HD Graphics and all that high hardware spec stuff that no one cares about. I'm pretty sure the Wii U will sell just as well, if not better.
 
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Ventus

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A price cut won't help it at all. The Wii U is of seventh generation quality; the price makes complete sense (actually...they should be charging MORE for the thing thanks to the Gamepad). Surely when PS4 and Nextbox release, the prices will be exponentially higher than the U's. This will ideally put Nintendo in a position of advantage—competition having high prices should mean consumers flock to the lower prices—but only time can tell on this. Besides, cutting the price further means Nintendo selling U's at even worse of a loss.

At anyrate, it's the games that matter. People love Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Kirby, and Nintendo's other first party franchises. If the big N can get up and start churning those titles out, I'm sure the U will rebound sales wise and even beat out the competition well before they touch ground themselves.
 

Ventus

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I wasn't aware that quality was determined by power and generation. Oh, wait, it isn't. You even said it yourself later in the post, it's the games that matter.

In that instance, I was referring to the console itself, not the library it contains. The generation there is determined by the power, which denotes quality of the system. The games are separate.
 

DarkestLink

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Surely when PS4 and Nextbox release, the prices will be exponentially higher than the U's. This will ideally put Nintendo in a position of advantage—competition having high prices should mean consumers flock to the lower prices—but only time can tell on this.

Not really....this is only going under the impression that consumers HAVE to have the next video game console. But they don't. If it's overpriced, then it's overpriced, no matter how much more expensive the competition is. Look at the 3DS, cheaper than the Vita for sure, but nobody bought it until the price dropped. That's because our lives don't revolve around video games and we can easily satisfy ourselves with older games. The new games the 3DS got had little affect--we all knew they were going to come and their appearance doesn't change with how many 3DS's are sold. When the 3DS dropped to a reasonable price though, consumers finally got around to getting it. I don't care if the PS4 and Nextbox cost $200 or $2000 dollars, $350 is still overpriced. And yes, I know the white one sells for $300, but you're only scamming yourself there.
 

Hanyou

didn't build that
TRUE, but the market and everything about it was different in 2006 than it is now.

This is only a small part of your post, but I'd like to point out that it's pretty much always been the case. The NES beat the master system, the SNES and Genesis beat the Jaguar, etc. Same story for the handheld market.

I'm skeptical that the WiiU is another Gamecube. I haven't bought one myself, though I'm a guaranteed customer when games come out and/or the price drops. I doubt it will have the success the Wii did, though I'd love to be proven wrong.

The problem, though, is I'm not sure its competitors are going to offer enough to win this competition. By the time the PS4 and 720 come out, it will be much cheaper and have a good library of games. Meantime, the PS4's grand announcement featured games like...Diablo III? An announcement of an announcement for the next Final Fantasy game, no doubt the next controversial entry in a floundering series?

Given the PS3's library now compared to when it was released, I'd never write a console off based on initial offerings. The fact is, however, that we have nothing to base assessments of future performance of the PS4 and 720 on. There is no reason to believe that the WiiU won't have a "fighting chance."
 

Snoober

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That makes no sense at all. Power between systems didn't change at all. The reason the Wii was doing more poorly is because 1) There were no games and 2) All the casuals already had one. 3) Xbox and PS has Motion Controls

I agree with you, but what you said agrees with what I originally put. The reason it had no games is cause 3rd parties switched to the more powerful consoles.
 

DarkestLink

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I agree with you, but what you said agrees with what I originally put. The reason it had no games is cause 3rd parties switched to the more powerful consoles.

....But the Wii had 2x the game the other two had. What are you talking about?
 

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