“I always thought Nintendo’s Wii U software forecast made no sense. They initially guided 24 million, are taking that down to 16 million, which is a 4:1 software attach rate. That’s reasonable, especially given that the installed base is 3 million hardware units now and the guidance implies they need to ship only 4.31 million more software units.
The hardware guidance is disappointing, and there isn’t really anything that will get hardware moving other than a price cut. I think they got it wrong with this console, it just doesn’t capture the imagination the way that the Wii did. The Wii U is not going to be very competitive if Sony and Microsoft launch comparable consoles at comparable prices. The early weakness will cause many third party publishers to re-think support for the Wii U, and we might not see much support at holiday 2013.” - Michael Pachter
Nintendo has returned to profitability, but they did say that the Wii U had a negative impact on that. I'm thinking Nintendo has high hopes for the big guns they announced in their Nintendo Direct. If that doesn't get sales going bigger, that price cut option might happen.
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The hardware guidance is disappointing, and there isn’t really anything that will get hardware moving other than a price cut. I think they got it wrong with this console, it just doesn’t capture the imagination the way that the Wii did. The Wii U is not going to be very competitive if Sony and Microsoft launch comparable consoles at comparable prices. The early weakness will cause many third party publishers to re-think support for the Wii U, and we might not see much support at holiday 2013.” - Michael Pachter
Nintendo has returned to profitability, but they did say that the Wii U had a negative impact on that. I'm thinking Nintendo has high hopes for the big guns they announced in their Nintendo Direct. If that doesn't get sales going bigger, that price cut option might happen.
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Nintendo makes profit and the Wii U is selling on pace with our forecast. What do you think about this Pachter? Nindendoom!!!!
come on patchy , where is the rage , the outrageous comment ! i thought the ration was one system for half a game , come on be aggressive . Why no comment on the year of the 360 and the year of the dreadful third parties sales ?
That's a nice jobs those guys have , really nice jobs .
Do people still think "more powerful consoles will win" these days? It's almost NEVER happened in the entire history of gaming. I think the only exception is the Super NES, and even that's up for debate.
Just give it time. Software will sell this console, and before a price cut happens they'll start to bundle more software. As the exclusives roll out the sales will increase steadilly, and by the time the other two release Nintendo will have a nice stable of quality content that you can only find there and that will get it sales
I am sick of patcher and nintendo
He never mentions how all his 3ds predictions never came to pass
I'm not sure it's quite that bad for Nintendo but this time he's at least a little more close to the mark than he's been in the past in my opinion.
"The Wii U is not going to be very competitive if Sony and Microsoft launch comparable consoles at comparable prices. T"
replace wii u with 3ds, and ps4 with vita and he said that already
There is no way this console wont get a price cut this year. Im betting they will announce one a couple of months after E3
Its because his predictions are garbage, and no matter how wrong he is people still throw money at him. He's basically a weatherman, the kind that says it'll be tee-shirt weather and it ends up raining...
And how likely is that based on what we saw last generation, especially from Sony? I dropped 600+ bones on my PS3 6 months after launch.
i've heard him mention it at least twice actually.
Agreed.
RMC: " I'm thinking Nintendo has high hopes for the big guns they announced in their Nintendo Direct."
What you're failing to see here is that this is just the same story, different system approach here with Nintendo. Bank on 1st party titles and 3rd party support be damned! Nintendo doesn't have the ability to crank out their 1st party efforts in a timely enough fashion when there's no 3rd party support to fill voids. Wii U seems to be on a fast track to the same town that GC and Wii before it headed in this regard. Here's hoping PS4 and Durango are evenly powered enough with Wii U that 3rd party ports make it to ALL THREE systems.
I just can't wait for the PS4 and XBOX3 to bomb harder that the WiiU does (not -considering it's 2013), especially in Euroland.
Wii U sold this good, albeit the software wasn't somewhat awesome at launch!
Pachter is talking about Wii U, as it is 5 years on the market. The system launched 2 months ago!!!
Let's talk about how well Nintendo does, after the Wii U is 1 year out at the market. The 3DS had much bigger problems at launch but still sold better than NDS and the 3DS has it's great titles. If 3rd parties don't want to make fun games, they have to wait until PS420, to re-launch every single PS360 game once again in HD.
McDaniel-77
P.S.: Wii U needs some time to be understood by the devs and the users as well, I think the users get it faster.
Two key words -- "comparable price."
Others have picked up on this too. But by the time the new Sony and Microsoft consoles release, there might by $100 difference between Nintendo and the others.
What no one seems to explain is why the Xbox 360 and PS3 are still selling so well? Are new people getting into gaming? Are Wii owners buying something else? Are people replacing bad units?
Mike from Morgantown
Look if anyone expects the PS4 or Xbox Durango to be priced anywhere under $600, you're out of your mind. Consoles to not get cheaper as the generations go on, they get more expensive.
Pachter can make all the claims he wants, but the bottom line is Wii U is probably going to cost somewhere around 50% less than it's generation competitors when they come out at Christmas.
And what will parents do when faced with $350 Chrismtas present vs two $600 Christmas presents? More of them will buy the $350 one.
And if you think Sony is going to learn their lesson and price the PS4 correctly, look at Vita. It STILL has no price drop, and it actually is DOA in terms of sales and software support outside of digital PSN stuff.
Exactly. Especially with Sony...they wouldn't drop the price on the PSP Go when it was failing horribly, nor the PS3 early on when they were selling at a ridiculous loss.
Not really a fair comparison. Meteorologists have a really complex job in front of them. It's really not their fault that they aren't always right. Pachter's just full of crap, and he knows it.
Although this is far from the worst thing he has said. I actually find myself disagreeing more with his praise of the Wii for having the ability to "capture (our) imagination". Lol. Yeah, right.
BTW, I have to ask once again: Is there a reason we're still posting articles from this guy? He gets free attention when it's posted here.
The Nintendo Direct was great for those of us who love Nintendo but those announcements will do nothing for those who don't. For Wii U to be a big hit, it needs to appeal to non-gamers and/or the "hardcore" gamers who buy Xbox and Playstation. If Wii U stays on this course, Pachter will be right. It's up to Nintendo to correct the course. They can still do this.
Vita had the same price as pre-panic 3DS (except for the extra mem cards). Why wouldnt this happen again? Wii U is only this expensive because of the gamepad's R&D costs.
Future Nintendo Directs; E3 2013. Enough said.
Indeed, I don't get why people act like the NextBox or PS4 will be some magical device that will send us to Nirvana. Furthermore, Sony is run by clowns at the moment considering how badly they've botched THREE hardware launched in a row.
It has the magic of the Wii, it's just being marketed as a Wii Add On.
I think you misunderstood my point. I'm saying the Wii U will compete just fine since these new consoles will not be cheap - especially Sony's offerings.
why do people complain when this guy is telling the truth? his analysis was spot on... and people still get mad at him...
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