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Sony Overtakes Rival Nintendo In Console Sales
An anonymous reader writes "For the first time in eight years, Sony has overtaken Nintendo on the total number of game consoles sold. Sony sold 18.7 million consoles in the last financial year, compared to Nintendo sales of 16.3 million. Sony's PlayStation 4 has emerged as the bestselling 'new-gen' console. But demand for Nintendo's Wii U — with its touchscreen controller — has lagged far behind the original Wii, which was the most popular hardware of the last generation."
It's worth noting that Nintendo's highest selling console is still the 3DS, with more units sold in 2013 than Wiis and Wii Us combined.
That's possibly why in Nintendo's Frankfrut am Main office, about 20% of employees were laid off.
Oh the flip side of financial news.
All hope abandon ye who enter here.
Except the Wii U has been out for far longer than the PS4 has, so it's had a head start.
Scorta futuere amo!
I purchased almost every Nintendo console up until the Wii. I grew up on the original Nintendo and Super Nintendo. Stopped at the Wii.
Nintendo's marketing after the Wii was not effective. They should fire whoever named the console, and especially since they named the follow up console "Wii U". I didn't even know that the Wii U was so much different & better than the Wii.
Nintendo needs to wake up and smell the coffee. They should title their next console with "Nintendo" in it, to get all the nostalgic people back on. Or at least come up with a less silly name.
I think that it is worth noting that the sales comparison is not lifetime sales, but sales for 2013 only. So, Nintendo's 2012 sales would not have been included.
The fact that the Wii U has been available for longer makes the PS4 2013 sales look even more lacklustre. All the consoles have their best sales immediately after launch (which is why having a good launch catalogue is critical). The Wii U was launched in late 2012, and it is unlikely that 2013 saw the kind of sales that it had in the first few months after launch. However, the PS4 was launched in 2013. So, when you compare sales data for 2013, you are comparing sales data of the latest and greatest that Sony has to offer with the sales performance of a console that most had already panned as being not worth the purchase.
Even if Mario Kart sells well and gets some machines off the shelf, it's not like 3rd party developers will experience a moment of epiphany and line up up to produce exclusive triple A titles for the system. Where did this 'wunderwaffe' type of thinking come from?
I can't imagine some soulless CEO of EA slamming his desk, denouncing Sony/MS and rushing over to Japan to give Iwata a teary-eyed congratulatory blowjob because MK8 sold so well.
The fact that the Wii U has been available for longer makes the PS4 2013 sales look even more lacklustre. All the consoles have their best sales immediately after launch (which is why having a good launch catalogue is critical).
I don't think that's true, certainly not from this data:
http://www.economist.com/blogs...
By now you would expect Wii U to be into its stride, with a good catalogue and selling many consoles whereas PS4 is earlier in its cycle. (It's also higher priced, so you wouldn't expect it to sell as many units). Wii U is struggling when it should be doing well.
That makes absolutely no sense. The PS4 has had the best console launch of all time. It only took it 3 or 4 months (with major supply issues) to sell what the WiiU did in 1 and a half year, and is now comfortably in the lead.
Mada mada dane.
...and it might still have time to beat PlayStation 4 if the next Mario Kart makes people actually buy it...
This is what's wrong with Nintendo. Oh we'll put out another Maro Kart, then it'll be Super Smash Bros, then Zelda or Maria, then the other one, then back to start. They might throw a Metroid in there to spice things up now and again. They need a whole load more third party games not more of the same first party.
Wanna buy a shirt?
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"Failure" is past-tense. No one considers it to be a failure, many people think that it will be a failure. Though the bulk of these are internet fanboys...
It's too bad since it's easily the best of the current generation, in my opinion. No ads, no upselling, no spy camera, etc. Just a good, small, quiet, game console that I can play without a TV.
with a good catalogue
You mention something that isn't true. The Wii U different from other consoles - Nintendo relies almost entirely on first party development to sell consoles. Their biggest franchises, like Smash Bros. and Mario Kart, haven't even released yet. Their first year was almost entirely devoid of new releases from their franchises barring Mario. The Wii U obviously hasn't hit its' stride - but the reason is the wait for those killer games to provide the momentum for the console, not the other way around as what typically happens with Microsoft and Sony.
They need a whole load more third party games not more of the same first party.
No, that is what YOU want.
Clearly Nintendo just needs to release a new Mario game and they magically beat everyone else.
Nintendo have a slightly different target audience than the other consoles. They are a bit more like the Disney of gaming. It doesn't really matter that every title is pretty much the same as the last. They still have the large group of casual gamers together with a large bunch of the dedicated fans.
Yeah, well I used a Wii U console and then I got laid; my dick definitely didn't fall off. I guess that means the Wii U solves the major issue you encountered with the Wii. Did you manage to get your dick reattached? If you did, I can assure you the Wii U is safe to use. And if you didn't, then I guess it really doesn't matter which console you use.
As long as Nintendo doesn't lose money on the hardware, I don't see a problem with them selling the console so that people can play 4 or 5 different games. I only had about 8 games for my original Nintendo because they were expensive. In reality I probably played about 4 of them 80% of the time. I have a Wii now and have got countless hours of entertainment out of around 4 games. I've heard a lot of good stuff about Mario Kart 8 and I will probably buy a Wii U.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
But both are gimmick based. The Wii's gimmick was the motion controller. That interested a lot of people, they thought it looked really neat and wanted to try it. Of course you discovered that it wasn't quite as cool as it first seemed, and many games really didn't play that well with it, but it drove console sales pretty well. People liked the gimmick and wanted in, so that sold a lot of consoles at least initially.
However gimmicks are fickle things, and there's no guarantee of what people will be interested in. The Wii U's gimmick is a tablet. That just isn't working out. People aren't that interested. Makes sense, since most people who wish to have a tablet already have one in another form and a game console with a tablet isn't all that interesting.
It also made the price less attractive. That tablet isn't trivial cost wise, so Nintendo couldn't be quite as low priced. That was something else that helped the Wii. It was low cost enough compared to the other two to be interesting to people who didn't want to spend as much, as well as people to get it as an "and a" console in addition to whatever other one they liked. The Wii U wasn't quite as price competitive and so didn't see as much of that.
Basically Nintendo got lucky with the Wii. It was the right gimmick at the right time to catch on and sell a ton. This time around, they missed big time.
I've got a Wii U, and one of the most fun games for playing in a group is an EA title: FIFA 13. Up to five players, cooperative or competitive, all the leagues and players, recognisable faces. What's not to like? Seriously it's great, and the retailer threw it in as a freebie with the console, along with the pack-in Mario/Luigi platformers.
I've got Mario Kart 8 already. It's a lot simpler and more approachable than some of the previous titles (e.g. Mario Kart DS had a far steeper learning curve) - it feels more like the arcade Mario Kart games than previous console titles. It also defaults to more traditional controls than the Wii incarnation. It's very approachable for casual gamers. My wife and my mum absolutely love it.
Will it be enough to sell consoles? It'll probably sell a few, but on its own it won't make or break the platform - Nintendo needs to follow it up. They need a great Super Smash Bros, a Metroid, a Zelda, and maybe an F-Zero or Star Fox. It's either going to be a great time to have a Wii U as the hit parade arrives, or a disappointing time as ti fails to materialise.
Although they do have more 3rd party developers, Sony and Microsoft also depend upon the same rehashed thing over and over. The major games are one FPS after another with the only thing changing being the theater where the battle or special ops is being carried out, or yet another EA-like sports game with (except for updated rosters) minor changes between versions (do you really think FIFA 14 is so much different than 13, or 12, or ...?).
The difference with Nintendo is, like the other guy made a good point about, is that they are more like the Disney of game consoles, and that is not necessarily a bad thing. People who deride Nintendo because they aren't "hardcore" are fooling themselves. In my opinion, the main purpose for a game system is to be fun for the person playing, and Nintendo figured that out a long time ago. Gameplay trumps everything. The "hardcore" gamers can ramble on all they want about GPU clock speeds and refresh rates, but they come off sounding like the Monster cable audiophiles, and if all they care about is the next incremental update to Call Of Duty or whatever, then fine, but I don't see how all that extra art work and story line (though usually well done) makes it more hardcore when the basic gameplay is the same as the previous three generations.
The Wii U has good games. The problem is there are few of them because 3rd parties are ignoring the platform. It hasn't sold enough to make games profitable, lacks much storage for DLC or other revenue generators and there is little love lost between them and Nintendo to begin with. I doubt Mario Kart 8 will turn things around either though it might allow them to clear some of their stock and stabilise things a bit.
The Wii U is a year older and targets a different audience.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Doesn't that make it even worse then? That Nintendo are responsible for making their console attractive... and they haven't yet, 18 months into its life. All the while they're losing ground to the more technically advanced competitors.
The Wii U landed with a thud which wasn't helped by requiring a day-0 5GB patch. It had about 6 months to turn things around before the next-gen hype train started and it couldn't do it. At this point nothing short of a massive price drop, heavy promotion and money hats to 3rd parties could reinvigorate the platform in the West. Perhaps they should focus their attentions elsewhere.
Even if Mario Kart 8 sold bucket loads, it would take 6-12 months for 3rd party games to turn up (what with all the porting, qa, marketing etc.) and sales could slump as fast in the meantime. Besides which I'm sure 3rd parties know as well as anyone that good sales of Mario Kart does not mean good sales of FIFA 15, AC V or whatever. After all the Wii had very impressive hardware sales and 3rd parties were still reduced to selling shovelware because the money wasn't in it to aim any higher.
Wii may have few interesting games, but there are almost no titles for the PS4 either. The sweet spot to buy a PS4 will be next year, or when you'll hopefully have something to play on it.
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Tell me about it, The Wii sold gangbusters and still no serious developer wanted to touch it. It practically had only first party games and tons of shovelware. Guess what, nobody bought the shovelware. On any other console, publishers would have said, "we are putting out crappy games that no one is buying" but because it is a Nintendo console, they just say, "See, no one buys games on a Nintendo console!" I am convinced that Nintendo could have a 99% market penetration and still no publisher would want to make anything other than the cheapest, crappiest, as-little-effort-as-possible game and then bitch that nobody wants their crap.
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Phones and tablets play different games. Console games rely on directional input, with a joystick and discrete action buttons. "Mobile" games, on the other hand, use a completely flat sheet of glass as the primary means of input, which is fine for single-button or point-and-click games but not so good for, say, a fighting game or a platformer with any sort of exploration element without a clip-on Bluetooth gamepad that I've never actually seen in use.
In terms of user freedom and flexibility, Android is like a PC and iOS is somewhere in the middle.
Yes, a real failure - 16.3 million, vs. 18.7 million. Definitely a complete flop. Write them off now.
Like you, I think that the Wii U is easily the best of the current generation. Easily. Why? When I get home, my wife and three daughters will be playing Mario Kart, Wii U Party, Nintendo Land, or Just Dance on any other day. Only one of those can be played on another console. On any given day, my youngest daughter will win some of these games (without anyone letting her). There is no first-person shooter, real sports game, or real racing game, that any of them are interested in. And if one of my daughters is playing Wind Waker, and my wife wants to watch TV, then my daughter just switches to the pad, and puts on the headphones. And we bought it because we KNOW there is going to be a Pikmin, a Smash Bros, a Mario, a Mario Kart, a Wario Ware, and hopefully a Zelda and Metroid in the pipeline. And in HD, they will look sensational (as Pikmin, Wind Waker, MK8, 3D World already do).
Every now and then, I would prefer to play some mega-shootin', zombie-killin', big boss fightin' titles. However I'm the only one in the house that would enjoy them. But if I wanted, I can go pick up COD, or Batman. Even Watch Dogs and Bayonetta are on the way. That's options for me too - if I don't feel like playing MK8 or Pikmin (which is rare). That's a bonus.
There are millions of households like this. The other console makers haven't QUITE caught on yet. Bless 'em, I'm sure they will one day! :)
The other consoles are great. Second Son on the PS4, Titanfall on the 'Bone, looking and playing brilliantly. The Wii U is better, in my opinion, and also cheaper.
The 3DS is outselling both of these ...
Smartphones out sell all of these and make more money and sell more games
The console market is now for gamers only, the Wii was the last console bought by non-gamer
Puteulanus fenestra mortis
Actually, Mario Kart 8 for the WiiU was just released at the end of May. (It obviously wouldn't factor into those WiiU sales figures, though.)
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
like [...] Mario Kart, haven't even released
That one has. It's not even a particularly amazing entry in the series, though it has its moments. Nintendo's main source of innovation has been "same series, same plot, new mechanics", and cart racers, at least, seem to be very low on ideas for new mechanics.
No, I think the market is speaking to that and that's why Nintendo is stumbling over itself right now.
At this point nothing short of a massive price drop, heavy promotion and money hats to 3rd parties could reinvigorate the platform in the West. Perhaps they should focus their attentions elsewhere.
I have read that Nintendo wants to cut the price but can't. The touchscreen pad apparently costs them just as much to produce now as it did at launch.
When the Wii was $250 and the PS3 was $500, that was a real price difference. Now the Wii U is $300 and the PS4 is $400. People are overwhelmingly choosing to spend the hundred bucks to get a much more powerful console with immensely better 3rd party support.
I think that it is worth noting that the sales comparison is not lifetime sales, but sales for 2013 only. So, Nintendo's 2012 sales would not have been included.
The fact that the Wii U has been available for longer makes the PS4 2013 sales look even more lacklustre. All the consoles have their best sales immediately after launch (which is why having a good launch catalogue is critical). The Wii U was launched in late 2012, and it is unlikely that 2013 saw the kind of sales that it had in the first few months after launch. However, the PS4 was launched in 2013. So, when you compare sales data for 2013, you are comparing sales data of the latest and greatest that Sony has to offer with the sales performance of a console that most had already panned as being not worth the purchase.
You realize that the PS4 was only out for the last 6 weeks of 2013 in North America and last 5 weeks in Europe? And wasn't out in Japan until February 2014?
GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
If I can buy a 7" tablet for $30 (and I can) then I'm not sure what Nintendo's excuse for their controller costing so much. I wouldn't put the bill of materials of their entire system to be more than $120. There should be at least some latitude to cut the price more than they have, particularly if the supply chain is filled with surplus stock.
the wii part of the previous generation of consoles? as in ps3 and xbox360?
no way. i'd put it in the ps2/original xbox league, with a useless gimmick controller. and probably even that's a stretch.
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Kids who started out on the Wii, say 5 to 10 year olds, are now in their teens (Wii was released in 2006). They have moved on to the Xbox One and the PS4.
The Nintendo and Sony aren't really in the same console market.
Is the real story here, that Microsoft bungled the Xbox One console launch so horribly that it drove users to the PS4, giving them enhanced sales?
Some articles from 2012 list of the bill of materials cost for the Wii U at $180. Add assembly, packaging, and shipping, and you're around $200.
The other manufacturers make a lot of money from third party game licensing, so they can sell consoles at cost. Nintendo doesn't so they can't.
You make it sound like there aren't any more kids growing into that 5-10 year range.
My God! What have You done to all the children?
$180 at launch. One assumes that it would be cheaper than that now for a variety of reasons.
[touch input] is fine for single-button or point-and-click games
Bard's Tale, [...] Final Fantasy IV/V/VI, Pocket RPG and numerous ScummVM supported adventure games
RPGs and ScummVM adventure games are turn-based and easier to redesign as "point-and-click games", which I already mentioned work well on a touch-only device.
But you are correct that I fail to imagine how the control scheme for Mega Man or Castlevania would be usefully redesigned for a touch screen. Would you please help explain how these games work? Among these games, which have a freeware subset that I could evaluate before replying further to you? I looked for Riptide GP, Another World, Double Dragon, R-Type, and NBA Jam on Google Play Store, but I failed to find a "lite" or "free" version of any of these five. Are Slashdot users typically expected to have to pay $14.95 to reply to a comment? But I do plan to try "AirAttack HD Lite" tonight after work.
I have read that their problem is that the price is *not* getting cheaper. The global demand for that kind of touchscreen is very high.
I tried the freeware version of AirAttack HD. It treats the touch screen as a trackpad, which ends up very effective for a scrolling shmup that auto-fires. I imagine that other shooters originally designed for a trackball, such as Centipede, would translate similarly well. I'm just curious about games originally made for a joystick. Do any of the other games you mention have a freeware subset, so I can see how developers have handled those genres?
For old school resistive touchscreens? I don't think so...
Scorta futuere amo!