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NPD Sales Results for May 2013 [Up2: 360, 3DS Est, Software lowest since May 2000]

I agree that Vita is on a level of disaster thats amazing, but i also consider the Wii u on the same level. Flagship system from nintendo, has a sequel to a multi million selling franchise and selling ~35k a month in the US, even worse in japan and likely doing 100x worse in europe. Its insanely bad, the software isnt selling and I dont see much that will turn things around personally. Keep in mind, i am a day 1 wii u basic owner.

NSMBU and Nintendoland both have some absurd 60-70% attach rate.

The games are selling. There's just not many of them right now. And because of that, there's no reason for people to buy the hardware.
 
To specify:

June: Game & Wario, Luigi U (DLC)
July: Jack shit
August: Pikmin 3, Luigi U (retail) / Multiplats: Disney Infinity, Planes, Splinter Cell
September: Wonderful 101 / Multiplats: Rayman Legends
October: Wind Waker, Wii Party U / Multiplats: AC4, Batman, Just Dance, Skylanders
November: Donkey Kong Country, Mario & Sonic Olympics / Multiplats: Watch_Dogs
December: Super Mario 3D World, Wii Fit U


Sonic, Scribblenauts DC Wii U, and Deus Ex don't have release dates.

Very decent, actually I will not be able to keep up, will keep me very busy.
 

Biker19

Banned
3DS is not going to dominate like the DS, that's clear. Smartphones will continue to slice off huge portions of the portable gaming market and there's not much of anything Nintendo can do about it.

Meanwhile the Wii U is a disaster. Between a shrinking portable market that no longer prints money, and a failing console...I don't see Nintendo's future as being bright.

IMO, they need to do something like a console/handheld hybrid for next generation. That could wind up being big for them.
 
As for indies, it's a longshot to find the next Minecraft.

The notion of "finding the next Minecraft" is itself founded on a questionable assumption, namely that Minecraft is a genuine system-seller in itself. I don't believe it could have become anything remotely close to the phenomenon it is today had it launched on Wii U, Vita, or any other platform with a tiny installed base, rather than on PC.
 

flippedb

Banned
What's sad about the PSV and WiiU is that they are not bad devices. They are not like the Jaguar, 32X, Game Gear or Virtual Boy. But their pace of sales are going to put them on that lowest rung of failures.

Nintendo is trying to fix Wii U's situation, and seeing the game line-up, it seems like they're on the right track. Sony, on the other hand, is showing absolutely no interest on Vita; not even one big announcement on E3, for a console that's selling horribly all around the globe!

Vita was sent to die, and Sony is making sure it doesn't even try to get up.
 

rjc571

Banned
What's sad about the PSV and WiiU is that they are not bad devices. They are not like the Jaguar, 32X, Game Gear or Virtual Boy. But their pace of sales are going to put them on that lowest rung of failures.

Vita and Wii U are already way past the Jaguar, 32X and Virtual Boy in lifetime sales, so they're not THAT big of a failure. Saturn would probably be a better comparison.
 

AniHawk

Member
Oh, I was thinking of the Nomad. That system that had like a 1 hour battery life.

oh yeah. that thing.

sega nomad: 1 million units
atari jaguar: 250k
nintendo virtual boy: 770k
32x: 665k

it's surprising that these things that are kinda rare in the world of video games, just because there are so few made, are still relatively inexpensive. i guess it speaks to how poorly they still are received.

the vita will probably end up north of the 10m range if the plug gets pulled sometime in 2015. enough to be remembered as a failure, but fondly as well, like the dreamcast, or the saturn eventually. the wii u might do twice as well, but i don't see it doing much better than that unless mario kart and mario 3d world are the system sellers some people are expecting them to be.
 
oh yeah. that thing.

sega nomad: 1 million units
atari jaguar: 250k
nintendo virtual boy: 770k
32x: 665k

it's surprising that these things that are kinda rare in the world of video games, just because there are so few made, are still relatively inexpensive. i guess it speaks to how poorly they still are received.

the vita will probably end up north of the 10m range if the plug gets pulled sometime in 2015. enough to be remembered as a failure, but fondly as well, like the dreamcast, or the saturn eventually. the wii u might do twice as well, but i don't see it doing much better than that unless mario kart and mario 3d world are the system sellers some people are expecting them to be.

I can see 10 million for Vita and 20 million for Wii U---at this point, these seem like quite realistic final totals.
 

allan-bh

Member
Vita have ~5m now I think, so I can see doing at least 15m LTD.

Wii U I believe will recover and sold at least more than N64.
 

flippedb

Banned
I can see 10 million for Vita and 20 million for Wii U---at this point, these seem like quite realistic final totals.

Wii U will be well above 20M by the end of its lifetime. It's already over 5M, if I recall correctly. There's no way the console will sell barely 15 M in 5 years.
 

Speevy

Banned
Latest from the "How Badly is the Wii U Doing?" series:

npd_vita_wiiu_7mofquvy.png

Why do birds suddenly appear, every time you are near?
 

GulAtiCa

Member
oh yeah. that thing.

sega nomad: 1 million units
atari jaguar: 250k
nintendo virtual boy: 770k
32x: 665k

it's surprising that these things that are kinda rare in the world of video games, just because there are so few made, are still relatively inexpensive. i guess it speaks to how poorly they still are received.
Not sure about those being inexpensive. From my personal experience, getting a fully working 32X with all the right cables (the cables you need depends on the Genesis model you have, so this makes it harder) is rather an annoying process. Though only something like $50 if you do it right the first time. Else... Virtual Boy also cost me something like $100 to $150, though that came with a few games.

PSone and GBA original? Now those are cheap! You can literally buy those on eBay for $10. I kid you not. :lol
 
it's hard to tell in these threads sometimes, but for both i'm looking at final sales worldwide.

I know. Vita worldwide sellthrough was around ~4M as of the end of March (per math done by Road and shinra-bansho), with ~2.5M of that having been sold in the last fiscal year. It'd only reach 10M if it were able to maintain that rate for over two years.

Shipped numbers were probably a million or so higher, so 10M LTD shipped is a tad more plausible, but it still requires Sony to maintain FY2012 shipment rates to an improbably high degree given current sellthrough.
 
Wii U will be well above 20M by the end of its lifetime. It's already over 5M, if I recall correctly. There's no way the console will sell barely 15 M in 5 years.

Wii U is at 1.15 million in the USA as of June 1st --- 6.5 months of sales.
Wii U is at 940K in Japan as of June 9th --- 6 months of sales.

That's ~2 million sell-through in the first six months for the Wii U's top two territories, including good launch sales.


Supposing the average six-month Wii U performance for all three major regions throughout its lifetime is roughly equivalent to the first-six months in USA / Japan, 20 million isn't in anyway an unreasonable figure.

However, it DOES suppose a persistent for the Wii U to properly connect with consumers, and it also supposes continued, barren retail third-party support.
 

flippedb

Banned
Damn! I didn't remember Wii U's sales being so bad. I'm still confident the console will find a way into the market once the big games start releasing.
 
First time was april 2006 (38k)

April 2006 NPD---4 years, 5 months, and 11 days after the console released in North America.

So after the 360 was on the market


Folks, I think theres some substance to the "video games might be in for a rocky road" talk.

These sales are beyond terrible.

It reminds me of todays hit TV shows pulling in 5 million viewers.....which would have put them deep into cancellation territory a decade ago.

Ie, in 1999, Freaks and Geeks (bomba bomba) got a 4.7/7.8 (rating, share) in its fail season.

Meanwhile, Revolution, one of the few breakout hits last season?

2.0/5

Times be a changing.
 

John Harker

Definitely doesn't make things up as he goes along.
You guys concentrate too much on hardware sales like it's the only figure that matters. You can do well and make money on a small install base if you cultivate the right audience. Sony is trying to do that with the Vita. What's a better indicator is software momentum and attach rate. People who say NSMBU was a failure at driving hardware sales arent looking st the full picture. Its numbers are hugely successful in my opinion. It's clear that nearly everyone who bought the system, like 80%, bought it for that game. It's doing its job. However, the system has bigger issues - no one else seems to want it. There's no intrinsic demand for what its value proposition. I mean, when all your new games in a month barely (if at all?) hit 10k combined, you really need to mix it up and take some risks with partners to keep the ecosystem attractive.
 

rjc571

Banned
You guys concentrate too much on hardware sales like it's the only figure that matters. You can do well and make money on a small install base if you cultivate the right audience. Sony is trying to do that with the Vita. What's a better indicator is software momentum and attach rate. People who say NSMBU was a failure at driving hardware sales arent looking st the full picture. Its numbers are hugely successful in my opinion. It's clear that nearly everyone who bought the system, like 80%, bought it for that game. It's doing its job. However, the system has bigger issues - no one else seems to want it. There's no intrinsic demand for what its value proposition. I mean, when all your new games in a month barely (if at all?) hit 10k combined, you really need to mix it up and take some risks with partners to keep the ecosystem attractive.

So Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes, Fast & Furious: Showdown, and Sniper Elite V2 combined to sell ~4000 copies?
 

Petrae

Member
You guys concentrate too much on hardware sales like it's the only figure that matters. You can do well and make money on a small install base if you cultivate the right audience. Sony is trying to do that with the Vita. What's a better indicator is software momentum and attach rate. People who say NSMBU was a failure at driving hardware sales arent looking st the full picture. Its numbers are hugely successful in my opinion. It's clear that nearly everyone who bought the system, like 80%, bought it for that game. Its doing its job. However, the system has bigger issues - no one else seems to want it. There's no intrinsic demand for what it offers now. I mean, when all your new games in a month barely (if st all?) hit 10k combined, you really need to mix it up and take some risks with partners to keep the ecosystem attractive.

Interesting perspective, John.

I would counter, though, that when the potential ceiling for unit sales is limited by a very weak install base, it deserves to be scrutinized. It's great that a majority of platform owners will buy in, but that number is held back. Publishers then have to consider whether that ceiling is enough to make development worthwhile. Sony may be making money, but are its third-party partners? That is, to me, an important question to consider.

We're 15 months in on the Vita lifespan here in the US, and there's been no sign of momentum for the hardware. Sony has done little-- if anything-- to promote it or make it attractive to consumers on a wide scale. Sony refuses to be flexible with hardware pricing in this territory despite seeing success elsewhere using price cuts as a motivator.

I cede to your point about hardware sales maybe being a bit too much of a focus, but I do believe that there's room for criticism here in terms of inaction and leaving retailers out to dry with unwanted hardware and accessories.
 

John Harker

Definitely doesn't make things up as he goes along.
Interesting perspective, John.

I would counter, though, that when the potential ceiling for unit sales is limited by a very weak install base, it deserves to be scrutinized. It's great that a majority of platform owners will buy in, but that number is held back. Publishers then have to consider whether that ceiling is enough to make development worthwhile. Sony may be making money, but are its third-party partners? That is, to me, an important question to consider.

We're 15 months in on the Vita lifespan here in the US, and there's been no sign of momentum for the hardware. Sony has done little-- if anything-- to promote it or make it attractive to consumers on a wide scale. Sony refuses to be flexible with hardware pricing in this territory despite seeing success elsewhere using price cuts as a motivator.

I cede to your point about hardware sales maybe being a bit too much of a focus, but I do believe that there's room for criticism here in terms of inaction and leaving retailers out to dry with unwanted hardware and accessories.

Oh for sure, but it's a bigger debate than just that factor. A lot of people make or lose money in this business. What about retail? If I have 5mm Wii u out there and 2mm vita, but I can monetize 40% of that vita audience (that takes up way less shelf space) and less than 10% of Wii u bar the uncommon major Nintendo property, all while Sony is willing to spend retail marketing dollars... What do I stock? I'm super simplfying this, but I just like to add perspective.
 
You guys concentrate too much on hardware sales like it's the only figure that matters. You can do well and make money on a small install base if you cultivate the right audience. Sony is trying to do that with the Vita. What's a better indicator is software momentum and attach rate. People who say NSMBU was a failure at driving hardware sales arent looking st the full picture. Its numbers are hugely successful in my opinion. It's clear that nearly everyone who bought the system, like 80%, bought it for that game. It's doing its job. However, the system has bigger issues - no one else seems to want it. There's no intrinsic demand for what its value proposition. I mean, when all your new games in a month barely (if at all?) hit 10k combined, you really need to mix it up and take some risks with partners to keep the ecosystem attractive.

There is no software momentum with the vita. It's dead in the west. Attach rates and such are fine but at some point absolute volume is king. It is a volume business after all.

Since volume tends to be a percentage of total hardware sales, you end up suffering even more if the install base is low and sales are poor.

3ds will not be like previous handhelds due to the iPhone and iPad. The portables market has shrunk and will,continue to do so.

Perhaps someone can come out with a Wii like proposition that creates consumer frenzy for handhelds again but outside that anomaly that ship has sailed.
 
Big "maybe". I went with 35k, but all we really know is it is lower than 36k. I have Vita at 33k, which itself is already an estimation, so it could actually be a couple thousand higher (or lower).
It's probably also worth noting that the comparison made favors the Wii U in that the months for it are Jan-May rather than Apr-Aug i.e. the Wii U has yet to reach the depths that the US summer can bring.
Oh for sure, but it's a bigger debate than just that factor. A lot of people make or lose money in this business. What about retail? If I have 5mm Wii u out there and 2mm vita, but I can monetize 40% of that vita audience (that takes up way less shelf space) and less than 10% of Wii u bar the uncommon major Nintendo property, all while Sony is willing to spend retail marketing dollars... What do I stock? I'm super simplfying this, but I just like to add perspective.
The part in parentheses is worthwhile to note; the more pertinent metric for a retailer is probably revenue per time per unit area - for both floor space and warehouse space. Does the PSV despite selling worse than the Wii U make up for it in a per sq. ft basis? Do the game sales make up for it on a per area basis?
 
man, i dont mind hardware sales, but when software sales for the vita is that damn depressing, not even reaching 10k, sony needs to do something really big otherwise no publisher or devs in their right mind would want to make games for the vita ever. come on sony, DO SOMETHING!!!
 

Yoshi

Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
it's hard to tell in these threads sometimes, but for both i'm looking at final sales worldwide.

Still, GameCube did 20m, and Wii U is performing way worse - admittedly without any big releases since launch. So it really comes down to two questions:
1. Did the popularity of Nintendo franchises increase during the Wii-era?
2. Will PS4/Xbone catch up early?

A yes to the first question would give the Wii U an advantage over GCN, a no to the second question could save Nintendo's ass.
 

Daingurse

Member
it hurts. tearaway... no ;____;

It'll be okay friend.
No it won't.

As much as I love my Vita, I have no problem with Sony kicking it to the curb to focus on PS4 projects. PS4 is infinitely more important.

I would have liked to see at least one of the shuttered studios (SOCOM devs, Studio Liverpool, Superbot, etc.) churn out Vita games though. :(

I agree with you. I don't fucking like it one bit, but it is what it is.
 

chubigans

y'all should be ashamed
As much as I love my Vita, I have no problem with Sony kicking it to the curb to focus on PS4 projects. PS4 is infinitely more important.

I would have liked to see at least one of the shuttered studios (SOCOM devs, Studio Liverpool, Superbot, etc.) churn out Vita games though. :(
 
As much as I love my Vita, I have no problem with Sony kicking it to the curb to focus on PS4 projects. PS4 is infinitely more important.

I would have liked to see at least one of the shuttered studios (SOCOM devs, Studio Liverpool, Superbot, etc.) churn out Vita games though. :(

This so much. Sony is supporting 3 systems at the moment so I'm cutting them some slack.
 

allan-bh

Member
Xbox 360 had a good attach rate in Japan in early years. In fact in low installed bases this usually happens.

Without volume, good attach rate brings only modest gains.
 
I think Sony needs to start the Vita revival from Japan. I get that Vita is a Sony Europe product but SCEI needs to be the one who push that system in Japan as Japan is the only region in the world where developers are still making handheld games.
 
You guys concentrate too much on hardware sales like it's the only figure that matters. You can do well and make money on a small install base if you cultivate the right audience. Sony is trying to do that with the Vita. What's a better indicator is software momentum and attach rate. People who say NSMBU was a failure at driving hardware sales arent looking st the full picture. Its numbers are hugely successful in my opinion. It's clear that nearly everyone who bought the system, like 80%, bought it for that game. It's doing its job. However, the system has bigger issues - no one else seems to want it. There's no intrinsic demand for what its value proposition. I mean, when all your new games in a month barely (if at all?) hit 10k combined, you really need to mix it up and take some risks with partners to keep the ecosystem attractive.


What doesnt seem to be obvious on this forum that indie titles are by default far more profitable for Sony with the vita. Pumping out cheap gaming snacks that people buy digitally every couple weeks is much cheaper than one huge exclusive every few months. Not only that but Sony is making a killing on these fucking memory cards and with plus and indies, giving us every excuse to fill them up.

Funnily enough at times the vita feels like the PSPgo done right. The idea of buying a handheld game for 50 60 dollars a month is crazy. But 4 15 dollar games? yes please.
 

liger05

Member
Wii u sales abysmal. Vita sales are somehow even beyond that.

The 3DS still isnt shifting enough with killer apps. The market has changed so much hat handhelds really are up against it.

I think Sony needs to start the Vita revival from Japan. I get that Vita is a Sony Europe product but SCEI needs to be the one who push that system in Japan as Japan is the only region in the world where developers are still making handheld games.

Already tried.
 
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