September 2015 NPD: Nintendo's response - Mario Maker sells 445k, Wii U hardware up 110%, more

Nintendo has sent out its response to the September 2015 report.

[FallenAngel1984]

It's so despressing that although Wii U sales dramatically increased in September because of Super Mario Maker, it still failed to sell pass 100k during the month that starts the holiday season.

[deadpoolio316]

Starts what holiday season? Halloween, I must have missed the Halloween presents then. Last I checked Christmas is on December 25th, and most people don't actually start shopping until mid-November.....

Even then Mario Maker isn't going to boost anything, not when ONE EVERYONE who isn't a Nintendo fanboy knows the NX is coming November 2016, so there go Wii U sales.

Second, IF I were a child who depended on parents for games at Christmas I'd be pretty depressed getting a game for Christmas that relied on user generated Online content or making content for 99.9% of the game functionality...Christmas isn't the best time to get ANY game on ANY console since they ALL generally go down for 2-3 days around the holidays every year

[PizzaSteve]

Most smart people actually start shopping in October to avoid the packed stores with crazy shoppers and traffic.

[donthate]

Let's face it, that is a great number for Wii U. Especially when Sony had a decline in unit sales, and it is even worse for Sony when Wii U had a 110% increase.

Good job Nintendo, and I hope your next console will put the other two competitors to shame! :D

[LAWSON72]

You see 'smart', they are few in numbers, so it does not really matter if most of them shop in Oct.

Anyways this is a NPD for Sept, and nobody shops for Christmas at that time.

[meche334]

if they released Zelda U this holiday the Wii U would get a ton of sales

[LOL_WUT]

I hate when people say this... We have seen it time and time again since the inception of the wiiu theres not one single game that'll turn the system around. People need to learn to accept it. I'd perfer and its most likely that the new zelda will be on the NX ;)

[Maybay]

Consumers hate value. Having a console that plays your pre-existing software and enabling the ability to use its older hardware devices, while having free online play, isn't something consumers want. It's a weird generation.

Imagine... I get to play nearly all my AAA console games on PC (which are cheaper), which allows me to use a controller of my choice (usually), and there's no online fee (barring a few exceptions).

Certain people don't understand what true value means.

[Spotie]

Or maybe consumers just aren't that interested, in general?

Doesn't matter what value you try to convince people the console has; if it's not worth it to them, it doesn't have value.

[kneon]

A game I don't want to play has zero value, regardless of the price.

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

@ Spotie; so you're saying that their personal opinion affects the intrinsic value of these options?
Because if so, I highly disagree.
I don't care how disinterested someone is or what they consider valuable; no amount of personal opinion makes being able to play online games for free, letting you use pre-existing controller options you already own, or access a wider amount of games, via a gamer's collection of past gen games and native BC, a negative thing for people looking for more options in their console.

All of these things are positive things.
You'd have to be spinning HARD, or be insanely against any increase in SKU price as a consequence, to be against any of these features in a video game console.
That or a hater.

[superchiller]

No, consumers don't "hate value", they just don't care for gimmicks and feature-lacking hardware, that's all. You may think that the Wii U is a great value, but the bulk of the gaming community doesn't. It really isn't that hard to understand.

[RustyShackleford]

Consumers hate value? In what world? If the biggest sell point is playing Wii games with Wii hardware on a newer system, why even upgrade at all? The truth of the matter from my point of view is there isn't enough software exclusive to the system itself (that I'm actually interested in playing) to justify the cost for me, hence lowering it's value in my eyes. I'm not alone in this train of thought, the facts are in the numbers.

[RustyShackleford]

For example, let's say I buy a ps4 and 25 games over its lifespan. Pretty realistic for me actually. At current console rates and figuring I buy each game brand new thats about $74 per game. For wii u I would probably buy 10. That's $90 per game, also assuming current console rates and brand new games. Let's also take into account used games for ps tend to be cheaper than nintendo when bought 2nd hand, then the cost per game drops even more. Yes, I may spend more in the long run, but I get way more play time due to sheer volume of software at a lower price per game. That's what I consider value, a larger game library that I actually want offsetting the cost of the console. If I was buying a car that would only run one week each month vs 2 1/2 each month for 5-7 years, even at roughly twice the end price car B is the way to go because I will get much more use out of it in the end.

[nix]

Ok.. Lemme sort out this little bit.

Consumers love value. If i was buying let's say a car, all I'm looking for is to drive from point A to B. Now what I'll look at is - which car is cheapest and which gives me more mileage. That is if I'm a normal guy. Now, if i was a car enthusiasts, i would skip the cheap ones and buy what i love. Value has no meaning if i already know what i want to drive.

Same way look at gaming. For most of us it's like a favourite hobby and we know what games comes where and on what system. So here we're driven by the games not the console. Let's say i choose PS4, if the console is better and gives value for money - great. If the said console has a good history of delivering games, even better. But will someone else buy PS4 when all he wants is Halo, GeOW or Forza? No.

Wii U might have the best features or Xbox1 might have the best holiday lineup or PS4 might be shelling out great exclusives every year, it doesn't matter to a gamer because he's already decided what to buy. He might wait for an offer or a price cut but he'll still buy that console which has his favorite games.

[Picnic]

Considering that the Gamecube including either Wind Waker or Resident Evil 4 could, for a short time, once be got brand new for the ludicrously low £40 (40 UK pounds)- the WiiU does not feel that inexpensive to me considering that it's the console that I'd have liked to have seen in about 2009, not 2012.

The WiiU's a decent system. It could use some more 3D games.

The original Wii is mostly to blame - despite huge sales of it, studios and some 'gamer' consumers stopped taking Nintendo consoles seriously as pieces of technology. The Wii bit in to the chunk of time that the WiiU could have used to establish itself.

Nintendo are , in effect, paying for the runaway success of an underpowered console, the Wii. I'm sure that, profits-wise, they wouldn't wish to do anything differently but only the NX will, hopefully, finally see them taking technology and serious gamers seriously again. Although I have to respect the tech of the WiiU controller for use on a console as controller and/or screen.

The ability to play Unreal Engine 4 well on NX please.

[Spotie]

The super simple explanation is that consumers are the ones who decide what has value in the first place.

If the market doesn't see value in a product, it doesn't sell. Even if a few people DO enjoy it. So far, despite all your love for it, the Wii U doesn't have the value Nintendo or the company's fans would like.

You ARE right that certain people don't know what true value means, but you're wrong in who you believe that group to be.

[Summons75]

Month that stars the Holiday Season...you mean November?

[PhoenixUp]

@ Deadpool

September traditionally starts the holiday buying season in the gaming industry because sales tend to spike for all platforms after the lull summer season. A lot of games that release in the fall season also release during September.

[Tapani]

I think Maybay has a good point. Edit: this is a completely off topic rant.

The value in using a PC, let's say twice the price of the launch price of a console (700-800$), will surpass consoles within 4-5 years because you do not subscribe Xbox Live or PS+ and pay a premium for games. Most of the console subscription plan's "free" games feel freeware, at least when they are finally available for free play. I'm sure I'm not the only one having free games installed, try them for a few minutes and let them be after that.

To elaborate on Maybay's point, I find it striking that people are not smart about their money. After all, isn't that the reason why people were drawn to consoles in the first place? You buy one cheap box that plays games for 5-7 years and get another cheap one in the next cycle. The cheapness, hassle-free setup, games that always work from the get-go and hundreds of exclusive games were the selling points.

At the end of the last gen I realized that the only good use for consoles after PS2 era had been their exclusive games. Some of the games are just too good to give them a pass as a gamer and a person lusting for deep interactive art. So I buy a box or two, sometimes even three for five or so games, and play rest of them on a PC with better graphics and they are backwards compatible forever.

What is cheaper then, console gaming or PC gaming, and how does purchasing a gaming PC every 5-7 years compare to buying these boxes? The answer is PC and it compares to consoles very well, as the overall amount I pay for playing games on PC during those years is much lower when comparing to one of the other boxes, not to mention when looking at console gaming as a whole (i.e. buying three boxes per generation and only five or games each).

Now I suddenly pay an annual subscription to be able to play online and get a bunch of games I never play. Plus, the quality of the games at launch is horrible, albeit this goes both ways for PC and consoles. And PC gaming has never been more hassle-free: just boot up your SSD and click a few things and pick up the controller.

To go back to the value, buying a PC truly gives you true backwards compatibility, and you do not need to buy remasters. I could go on and on. The more I think about it the more I feel cheated by all these console companies. Their principles have gone all wrong. It used to be the place where gamers make art for gamers, but now it is about making money. While I have huge respect for all game developers alike, the console gaming companies (or rather divisions, excluding Nintendo) are trying their hardest not to invest into games beyond the initial R&D hardware development phase. Just get them hooked with a subscription plan or two and let the 3rd party sell the box. Add a few in-house development teams (which are arguably the best teams in the world) and you have enough people buying the box and not to go all PC. I just find that business model very discouraging, both emotionally and in terms of my wallet.

This is truly sad to me, as my fondest memories lie with NES, SNES and PSX-era gaming. PS2 was the last true console in my mind. After that the console companies became something else. Nintendo seems to try at least, so respect for them. Unfortunately, I need something else for my adult taste than cute mascots bouncing around, but if and when I get kids, their first games will start with a Nintendo console.

While I will buy Xbox One, New 3DS and NX on top of my PS4 and Vita, my feelings have changed when doing these purchases. I used to get excited about them, now they are just mandatory to be able to experience some of those must-have games to feel excited about gaming at all.

I feel that something has been lost recently in all sense of the word value in console gaming.

[kneon]

Between laptops, desktops and servers I must have at least $12-15k worth of PCs in the house, and no one ever uses them for gaming. Not even the ones I built for video editing.

All the gaming here is on the PS3 and PS4, even the old Wii hasn't been turned on in over a year. The games are what matters, everything else is secondary.

[herbs]

Your off topic rant was well thought out and accurate, unfortunetly most console gamers will disagree with the realities you mentioned.

[KilKarazy]

I feel like Nintendo is keeping hush hush about the NX because they don't want to kill sales this holiday...but they know it's gonna be replaced in possibly a year.

[Antifan]

People keep saying that once NX is released, they'll be as popular as PS4/Xbox1. But I don't think so. I think this is just an end of a generation for Nintendo. The market just isn't that interested in Nintendo games. The kind of games they make, no one wants. Generations change, and unlike other devs/publishers, Nintendo didn't change with it.

[Gemmol]

Only thing wrong with your post is that you focus on hardware sales, which is important to gather more sales. The thing is even with low hardware sales Nintendo first party games sell more than ps4 and Xbox One first party games by double, I think the highest first party ps4 game sold 3 million while Wii U have several games that sold 3 million or more worldwide, so my point the games sell in same amount of quantity as a ps4 or Xbox one third party game, and those sales are a lot, Nintendo do not have a problem selling their games....if they had 3rd party no body would buy sony or xbox, wii numbers prove it, Mario kart wii sold 32 million before it got bundle, while it took grand theft 2 systems to reach those sales, so not only is Nintendo real good when it comes to sales, it's also why companies do not like to make games for it, too much competition from Nintendo while on ps4 and xbox one top 10 best sellers you would see a full list of 3rd party games with 1 sony or Xbox first party game, maybe 2 if they lucky....so Nintendo not that off, if they ever get a foothold again it be problems for everyone

[deafdani]

Sure, if you ignore the fact that Nintendo's games are the best selling games, always. Even now, despite the low install base of the Wii U, their games sell better than any other.

Go take a look at sales numbers for Mario Kart 8, Smash Wii U, Mario 3D World, Splatoon, etc. I'll wait.

Your comment is, simply put, not true.

[LOL_WUT]

I honestly thought the game would sell better heres hoping the holidays gives it a nice push hardware and gamewise ;)

[benji101]

500k in a month is pretty good. Mario maker is a word of mouth game. Just like Splatoon. Both are bought at a regular pace as more people catch on to how good they actually are. I was very skeptical about mario maker.. Then i got it and I was like.. this is the best game.. this is really great.