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3DSWiiU

Wii U Sales Up 200 Percent After Price Drop and Wind Waker HD Release

by Zack Kaplan - October 17, 2013, 5:42 pm EDT
Total comments: 31 Source: Press Release

The 3DS remains number one.

Since the price drop of the Wii U, sales have gone up over 200 percent in the United States.

Reporting 15 days of sales data, the price drop of the Wii U Deluxe Set from $349.99 to $299.99 has improved sales of the Wii U signifigantly, over 200 percent. Nintendo also credits the sales increase to The Legend of Wind Waker HD Wii U bundle.

Sales of the 3DS have stayed strong with it remaining the number one selling system in the US for the fifth month in a row.

Nintendo 3DS Repeats at No. 1, Wii U Responds Following Price Cut

On Oct. 15, Nintendo revealed that Pokémon X and Pokémon Y, which launched globally on Oct. 12, combined to sell more than 4 million units worldwide during its first two days on the market. A full breakdown of U.S. sales for the games, as well as the new Nintendo 2DS handheld, which launched on the same day, will be included in next month’s NPD report. In addition to the latest Pokémon adventure, Nintendo 3DS fans have two exciting games on the horizon, both launching on Nov. 22The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds and Mario Party: Island Tour.

On Sept. 20, Nintendo reduced the price of the Wii U Deluxe Set by $50 to a suggested retail price of $299.99 and introduced a limited-edition bundle that features a download code for a digital copy of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HDSales of Wii U hardware in September increased by more than 200 percent over sales in August, and that is with only 15 days of data being reported at the new price. Over the next few weeks and months, Wii U fans can look forward to playing Wii Party U (Oct. 25), Wii Fit U (Nintendo eShop, Nov. 1Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games (Nov. 15) and Super Mario 3D World (Nov. 22).

*Data regarding physical sales of games in September are from the NPD Group. Data regarding digital downloads of games and combined physical/digital life-to-date numbers are from Nintendo’s internal sales figures. All numbers, unless otherwise stated, are specific to the United States only.

Talkback

pokepal148Spencer Johnson, Contributing WriterOctober 17, 2013

do you mean the sales rose by 200% or rose to over 200%

Kytim89October 17, 2013

How many units does this translate into? Hopefully the Wii U will continue to sell well into 2014 and attract more third party support. It needs all the software support it can get if it is going to be successful.

broodwarsOctober 17, 2013

Until we can get some concrete numbers, these percentages are meaningless. It's very easy to say your sales are "up 200 percent" when your numbers were extremely low to begin with.  The number I've seen bandied about on Twitter is around 90,000 Wii U sales for the month, which would make sense given Nintendo's 30K-40K average each month this year.

To be perfectly fair to Nintendo, for a month where their only semi-must-have title was digital-only (Wind Waker...and no...I didn't forget The Bomba 101) and a month where they were not host to the biggest game of the year (GTA V KIRBY'S EPIC YARN), that's actually a pretty good month.  It's been a bad year for hardware.  If I remember correctly, sales like that would have made the Wii U the highest selling console last month.  They're not GTA V KIRBY'S EPIC YARN PS3 Bundle numbers, but all things considered it's a good showing for the month.  I just don't like being B.S.ed to like this with percentages when it comes to sales numbers.

WahOctober 17, 2013

Well does that mean that it's getting popular?
P.S Broadwars what happened to that stick figure guy who said his anger was directed at you, remember him?

broodwarsOctober 17, 2013

Quote from: Lucariofan99

P.S Broadwars what happened to that stick figure guy who said his anger was directed at you, remember him?

Don't know, don't care, and it's off-topic anyway.  :P:

Luigi DudeOctober 17, 2013

If the Wii U could do 90k in September with a $300 Wind Waker bundle, then we're looking at some much bigger sales this holiday with the $300 NSMB U and Luigi bundle and Mario 3D World coming out.  Then combined with Wii Party U, Wii Fit U, Sonic Lost World and Sonic & Mario at the Olympics being around as well, the Wii U is looking to make its comeback.

broodwarsOctober 17, 2013

Quote from: Luigi

If the Wii U could do 90k in September with a $300 Wind Waker bundle, then we're looking at some much bigger sales this holiday with the $300 NSMB U and Luigi bundle and Mario 3D World coming out.  Then combined with Wii Party U, Wii Fit U, Sonic Lost World and Sonic & Mario at the Olympics being around as well, the Wii U is looking to make its comeback.

Well, we'll see. The Wii U has the advantage of no one having bought it all year, so there's plenty of stock to sell. By comparison, the PS4 and Xbone will be hardware constrained until sometime after Christmas. I have my doubts about any game moving Wii U hardware until Mario 3D World releases, though. None of those titles seem like system sellers to me right now. Yes, I know their predecessors moved some units back in the Wii days, but that was also long before the Kinect and cellphones pretty much stole that market away. I'm not sure those specific titles can be the ones to bring the casuals back.

It'll be interesting to watch, though, that's for sure, and Sonic Lost World seems like it could be the first good Sonic game.

ShyGuyOctober 18, 2013

90k would not be bad, but only if they see growth on that number in November and December.

3DS will continue its dominance through October is my guess then we will see the new consoles debut and fly high for at least a couple of months.

nickmitchOctober 18, 2013

Quote from: pokepal148

do you mean the sales rose by 200% or rose to over 200%

I interpreted it as sales having risen more than 200%.

Ian SaneOctober 18, 2013

Quote from: Luigi

If the Wii U could do 90k in September with a $300 Wind Waker bundle, then we're looking at some much bigger sales this holiday with the $300 NSMB U and Luigi bundle and Mario 3D World coming out.  Then combined with Wii Party U, Wii Fit U, Sonic Lost World and Sonic & Mario at the Olympics being around as well, the Wii U is looking to make its comeback.

"Make its comeback"?  That would imply it was actually here at some point.

It makes sense that the Wii U would sell better as games came out.  Now the whole reason any of us should care, unless you own Nintendo stock, is how it will positively affect Wii U ownership.  I'll start cheering for Wii U sales figures when it starts attracting third party support.  The Wii U has sold poorly enough that a sales rise, while an improvement, doesn't mean the system is selling well.

I'm a little annoyed that a remake caused this while something more worthwhile like Pikmin 3 did not.  It is not in anyone's best interests, besides Nintendo's, for Nintendo to feel they can squeak by with recycled content or for them to be discouraged in pushing a relatively fresh and untapped IP like Pikmin.  Wonderful 101 bombing isn't going to do much good for encouraging new IP either since companies (not just Nintendo) like to simplify failures into broad concepts like "new games don't sell" as opposed to "weird ass new games with unintuitive gameplay that not everyone will get or like don't sell".

KhushrenadaOctober 18, 2013

Well, Wii U problem solved. Good. Now we can finally start talking about other things.

CericOctober 18, 2013

*shrug* I be a little surprised if everyone on this forum wouldn't enjoy at least part of Wonderful 101.

KhushrenadaOctober 18, 2013

Oh, I fully intend to get 101 and expect it to be a great time. For some reason, I've sort of classed it in an F-Zero GX catagory in my mind as something a really challenging game that rewards you the more you put into and start mastering the controls giving you a great sense of accomplishment. Something full of hardcore challenges.

Maybe I'm wrong on that but I've tried to avoid a lot of impressions and discourse about the game since about the time it released as there seemed to be getting to be too big a flood of info and I want to explore the game myself.

CericOctober 18, 2013

Quote from: Khushrenada

Oh, I fully intend to get 101 and expect it to be a great time. For some reason, I've sort of classed it in an F-Zero GX catagory in my mind as something a really challenging game that rewards you the more you put into and start mastering the controls giving you a great sense of accomplishment. Something full of hardcore challenges.

Maybe I'm wrong on that but I've tried to avoid a lot of impressions and discourse about the game since about the time it released as there seemed to be getting to be too big a flood of info and I want to explore the game myself.

Start with Very Easy.

Anyone have pre-price drop sales numbers?  200% increase of lousy sales is better, but still not necessarily good.

Luigi DudeOctober 18, 2013

Quote from: Ian

"Make its comeback"?  That would imply it was actually here at some point.

The Wii U had a successful launch in holiday 2012.  It sold better during that time then most other system did during their opening holiday.  It was after the holiday the sales dropped like a rock, but the launch itself was good.

Quote from: lolmonade

Anyone have pre-price drop sales numbers?  200% increase of lousy sales is better, but still not necessarily good.

The month before the price cut the Wii U only sold around 30k.  So while selling 90k isn't exactly good either, it's still a lot better then the numbers it was doing before.  It also shows that if a price cut that went along with a digital only enhanced Gamecube port could do that, it's a really good sign that this holiday season Nintendo can achieve great Wii U sales since there will be a NSMB U + Luigi bundle to go a long side Mario 3D World, which will have much more appeal then the Wind Waker did.

BlackNMild2k1October 18, 2013

When it comes to the Wii U, Nintendo is between a rock and a very deep hole.
Chances are that their never getting over that rock, so at this point, hopes are to not slide too deep down that hole.

Fatty The HuttOctober 18, 2013

GTA V
Test


Hmmm...doesn't appear to be word replacement...?

KhushrenadaOctober 18, 2013

Yeah. That just seems to be a Broodwars thing. Not sure what the connection between GTA V and Kirby's Epic Yarn is but I guess it makes sense in his head.

If there was a filter on GTA V, it would replace it completely with whatever word it is getting filtered to so, if Mario Kart seven is still being filtered, it will only appear as Mario 3D Kart and you won't see the seven reference.

Mario Kart 7

KhushrenadaOctober 18, 2013

And it is still being filtered. Yay!

Mop it upOctober 18, 2013

It sounds like the Wind Waker bundle did more than the price cut did, although the effects of the cut will probably show more over the holidays. Hopefully, this is an upward trend instead of just a spike.

broodwarsOctober 18, 2013

Quote from: Khushrenada

Yeah. That just seems to be a Broodwars thing. Not sure what the connection between GTA V and Kirby's Epic Yarn is but I guess it makes sense in his head.

If there was a filter on GTA V, it would replace it completely with whatever word it is getting filtered to so, if Mario Kart seven is still being filtered, it will only appear as Mario 3D Kart and you won't see the seven reference.

It's an NFR reference, where we edited out every reference to GTA 5 (a game none of us cared about) with Kirby's Epic Yarn. Just continuing the joke. :p

ShyGuyOctober 18, 2013

Rumors by "trusted sources" put the Wii U at 95k in September.

pokepal148Spencer Johnson, Contributing WriterOctober 18, 2013

Quote from: Khushrenada

And it is still being filtered. Yay!

I wonder if Mario Kart 8 has been preemptively filtered...

pokepal148Spencer Johnson, Contributing WriterOctober 18, 2013

Quote from: pokepal148

Quote from: Khushrenada

And it is still being filtered. Yay!

I wonder if Mario Kart 8 has been preemptively filtered...

nope, TAKE THAT CRIMM

I hope Wonderful 101 does a little more in the holiday months than it does when it's out of the KIRBY'S EPIC YARN maelstrom. Then again, 20k puts you into Sin and Punishment territory...

KhushrenadaOctober 19, 2013

Quote from: broodwars

Quote from: Khushrenada

Yeah. That just seems to be a Broodwars thing. Not sure what the connection between GTA V and Kirby's Epic Yarn is but I guess it makes sense in his head.

If there was a filter on GTA V, it would replace it completely with whatever word it is getting filtered to so, if Mario Kart seven is still being filtered, it will only appear as Mario 3D Kart and you won't see the seven reference.

It's an NFR reference, where we edited out every reference to GTA 5 (a game none of us cared about) with Kirby's Epic Yarn. Just continuing the joke. :p

Ah. Not a podcast guy so I did not know.

ShyGuyOctober 19, 2013

When are you going to start posting on the Miiverse, Khush? I bet you could play Mafia on there.

KhushrenadaOctober 19, 2013

Ha. What do you want me to post? Admittedly, it would help if I wasn't so addicted to Animal Crossing as that is just sucking up all my playing time. I honestly have yet to really use my Wii U. I've just been trying to connect to other people. I've only turned it on twice. First time to go through the whole set-up process and start adding friends. And then again a couple days later to search for some more people.

As such, I really didn't have anything to post and most things I want to post about, I generally still come here. So, yay, NWR. You still get regular Khushrenada posts.

The mafia idea is interesting. I suppose it could be done on there. Might be worth an experiment. Problem is, I don't know how many people are regularly using their Wii U as there are still a lot of people from this site who have yet to respond to my friend request. Of course, they could be ignoring me too but I think it is a sign of different things taking their attention elsewhere. If you could get a large group together for a certain time period, it would probably work out ok.

Right now, I only own two Wii U games. Batman: Arkham City and Nintendoland. I plan on acquiring Earthbound and Ducktales:Remastered through the E-shop but with my focus on 3DS and older Wii games, (I've even started playing Luigi's Mansion GC for the first time), I'm not in a rush to get going on Wii U games. Since I have no multiplayer either, I just consider this a set-up period until I'm ready to dive in more.

motangNovember 11, 2013

Such great news!  8)

pokepal148Spencer Johnson, Contributing WriterNovember 13, 2013

Guys, remember that summer update we were supposed to get months ago... we were supposed to get it before Wii fit came out, we still haven't gotten it and thus the launch window continues

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