*sigh* Why do you always have to be right, Log4Girlz?
This line of thought is curious because it doesn't actually support your argument that saying "Wii U worse than Gamecube' is a deception. It's actually a series of excuses you are making to explain
why the Wii U is doing worse, in your estimation. I think you'll need to go a fair bit further to support your assertion that such a claim is a "deception."
All those things also don't matter the least bit to the analysis of Wii U, because what really matters if the type of profit Nintendo is making off the system. Of course, as was reported,
Nintendo was still losing money on every Wii U sold as of August 2013. Now, when you compound that fact with the price cut the system received, it is fair to say they are either still losing money or even losing more now on each system sold.
Similarly, the amount of software Nintendo is selling on the Wii U combined third parties and first party are catastrophic compared to their past trends. It's not even close. As we know,
Super Mario 3D World just had the worst debut for a 3D Mario title of all time.
Iwata admitted Pikmin 3 and Wonderful 101 didn't sell near as well as hoped, and of course if you saw had bad Pikmin 3 and Wonderful 101 bombed, you'd know that's a
optimistic assessment.
What this means is that the real metric by which a company like Nintendo really makes its money - software licensing costs for the platform from third parties and their own software - is at a historic low for the company. Yes, well worse than Gamecube was at this point in time. Since you touch on this point later, we'll come back to this.
I want to point out two things here.
● Once again you're actually supporting the argument that Wii U performing worse than Gamecube is not a 'deception.'
● You're simply playing a game of shifting excuses, not actually just accepting the problem at face value.
For example, you're actually perfectly showing why Nintendo's strategy is actually resulting in demonstrably lower sales all around for the system. The argument you appear to be making is "well of course Wii U is doing worse, just look at how much poorer Wii U's game output was in the first year compared to GCN!" This is actually putting you on the side with the rest of us in suggesting Nintendo is failing hard in their handling of Wii U. Which has led us to a situation where, without any deception, it is doing significantly worse than Gamecube in a comparable timeframe. It's actually fairly amusing to read your comment because it appears the only reasons it exists is because you don't want Nintendo to not be defended. The actual content suggests you should agree with us, however.
But!
!?
Anyway, moving on...
But it has actually already had a game release that is comparable in significance to both Mario Kart and Smash Bros. NSMB. It had a DLC release too in that series. They did nothing. 3D Mario games may not have the same push as Mario Kart, but this appears to simply be your version of that legendary chalkboard that shows a list of items crossed out that were supposed to "save" the system. I hate to break it to you, but Nintendo 64 had Smash Bros., it had Mario Kart. Gamecube had Smash Bros, it had Mario Kart. Yet these systems performed quite poorly compared to its competitors. As we are now seeing demonstrated again, these franchises are
not enough on their own to spur a system to mainstream success. They need to be put alongside content that is appealing to an atypical Nintendo audience.
The problem seems to be that whatever they do now may be too late. I do not see any gamechangers on the horizon that can push the appeal of Wii U beyond the ever shrinking Nintendo fan demographic. It's really a shame, but it appears to be the truth. I want Bayonetta 2 and X as much as the next guy, but do you think the fortunes will change?
You say you're not in the business of predicting numbers, but perhaps you should bow out of all predictions if you're going to be afraid to make the logical conclusion.
By performing the worst of any 3D Mario title and moving next to no Wii U units worldwide. Yes, I'm sure Nintendo is thrilled. It will certainly change the Wii U's fate. Game is amazing, but this is a clinical sales discussion and a response to why Wii U is doing well worse than Gamecube
The only way to get a sense of the tide turning is to actually see the tide start to turn. Ergo, if Pachter is even close to right for his prediction, not only isn't the tide turning, it's actually regressing. The ocean is being depleted of of all its water, in fact, if such numbers are even close to true.
From anywhere we have up to date sales, the only conclusion is that no tide has been turned, except in that if you don't care about sales at all the system finally has a fairly nice little library of games to play (I endorsed buying a Wii U over a PS4 or XB1 this season).
I will say, I don't think any price drop short of $199 will make any significant change in its fate either. It's simply that dire a performance at the moment. And even then, our only hope is that it may eventually
match Gamecube, and Nintendo certainly won't profit as much as they did even in that scenario. So how do you think they would view that event?
Again, I do not think you grasp quite the scale of how much worse Wii U is performing than even PS3 or Gamecube or any other major console release. You'd have to look at Vita or some
non-major console release to see anything remotely similar to a November month being 150k in only its second November.
This is a system which is doing so bad that third parties are already hesitant, and that issue will once again be compounded by the fact that Nintendo had to do their "thing" and make a console that will be significantly more difficult to port games to from PS4 and XBO due to the power differential.
What we have therefore is what's called a "self-propagating" cycle of 'impending doom', wherein they need critical games to start to turn things around, but the sheer atrociousness of its performance assures those games dry up once the generational shift has been complete (i.e., cross gen games start to fade out as they always do). And Nintendo has not shown so far with Wii U either a willingness to really showcase something that blows the public away to justify the existence of the GamePad (and thus, the price problem) and they've been shockingly uncreative, if I may insert my own opinion. They're really playing a 'by-the-numbers' game that simply will never work due to the current environment.
The example I use is how DKC: TF may indeed be wonderful, but it's doubling down on the problem Nintendo has - it's playing to the same audience which is already satiated with colorful platformers on Wii U, and the same audience who would have already got the system due to loving Nintendo franchises. Strategically, it makes no sense given the Wii U's current problems. Nintendo needs to expand
beyond its stifling fanbase, and it is quite obviously failing to do so by any metric.
You may be right about Nintendo sticking with it for a while, because even I do not feel that Nintendo thinks it's smart to abandon ship. They've gone too far, have shown an unwillingness to be aggressive so far, and so I think they will continue this path for a few more heartbreaking years. But it does not change that the Wii U is quite factually performing well worse than Gamecube at this time. So, again, I submit your argument that such a line is a 'deception' is a failure, by your very own words.
