Nintendo Lowers Wii U and 3DS Sales Forecasts for the FY 2014
In a move that shocks no one, Nintendo has once again lowered their sales forecast for the Wii U. Nintendo planned on selling 9 million Wii U’s in the fiscal year, but has lowered that to 2.8 million. Nintendo also lowered their 3DS sales forecast to 13.5 million units, from 18 million units. Company President and CEO Satoru Iwata issued a statement on the lowered forecast.
“Revised consolidated unit sales projections are 13.5 million units of the Nintendo 3DS hardware and 66.0 million units of the Nintendo 3DS software, 1.2 million units of the Wii hardware and 26.0 million units of the Wii software, and 2.8 million units of the Wii U hardware and 19.0 million units of the Wii U software. There are no modifications to our initial projections for the Nintendo DS hardware and software.”
PE’s Take:
Nintendo’s got a lot of work to in 2014. Hopefully better marking and more games this year can reverse Nintendo’s fortunes for the next quarter.
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75 Responses to Nintendo Lowers Wii U and 3DS Sales Forecasts for the FY 2014
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All of this is very wrong. If industry leader who has the best-selling hardware is struggling and needs to end the year in red, than one must be worried for the whole industry, not just Nintendo.
It must be very frustrating for them as it seems Nintendo is the only major company keeping development costs somewhat realistic, keeping hardware and software prices lower than competition,not relying on micro-transactions and DLCs and maintaining high quality of their software on release. 3DS and Wii U have easily some of the best games I have ever played, and there are many more to come.
Their earlier sales projections were probably too optimistic, but hardware and software sales were still pretty good. And if that wasn't enough then I can't grasp how big moneypits Xbox and PS products are.
How do you seriously go from 55 billion yen profit to 25 billion yen loss…
Either they're over promising, or suck at making predictions. Something needs to happen, 3DS has peaked in sales, and they can no longer rely on them; their console has to pull its own weight too.
I realize what I said is going to garner tons of hate and backlash…
Edit: Also, 9 million to 2.8 Wii U sales… Wow.
I don't think the 3DS has peaked. Nintendo is AWESOME at handheld market. they average 118Million units sold per competed generation. I think that they made predictions off the good 1.5month launch of the Wii U coupled with the overall strength of their 7th generation home console. I just think that prediction was a little over confidence. Sony has made the same mistake (PS2 to PS3, and PSP to PSVita).
Well, they had to lower their sales forecasts considerably despite X and Y, Animal Crossing, Luigi's Mansion and ton of other games. I doubt we're going to see a better year for 3DS in the games department. And if you look at sales in the US, they don't look like they will go past their 1st year. The DS has a feat that will never be replicated in the handheld market, tablet and mobile have shrunk this market considerably. Right now they are more than 10 million plus units sold behind the DS. I'm thinking 85 million lifetime.
The 3DS certainly won't match the DS. The market has become too intense for that. But I think it'll do better than that. I am thinking 100 million, give or take.
I think it can. It just needs a few more blockbuster hits and then sales will soar. I'm thinking the 3DS will overtake PS2 as the best selling game system of all time.
No chance, it would have to outsell the DS to achieve that. As timg said the market conditions have become far more difficult and I think that even 100 million is very, very optimistic. There are hardly any "blockbuster hits" left which could use a lot of units. The 3DS is selling well, but it is unfair to expect DS and PS2 like sales numbers (150 million +). They were the absolute commercial highlights of the video game history and will probably never be repeated.
*cough* Bravely Default *cough* Smash Bros *cough*. I can think of two.
Of course, if they start selling consoles in China, it could outsell the DS globally if it does well, but who knows.
The industry does seem to be shrinking somewhat and they have had a bad start with the Wii U. This is part of the difference when releasing a new console though. There is always a dip till it catches on, and this is where the Wii U is struggling, it’s still having a hard time catching on. This console has been selling much less than projected and selling at a loss right from launch and they have had to lower the price to get sales. It’s not that surprising to see what we are seeing.
On the other hand, what I do find surprising is how well the PS4 and X1 have sold. There isn’t much different from the last consoles, especially with the PS4, and there is a lack of games plus a lack of high quality games. Unprecedented.
It happens, most companies will always put a high sales projection just to reassure investors or attract potential investors. Nintendo was pretty overzealous about their projections, but the sales issues contributes to a large number of factors.
1. Consumers are holding off for games they want to buy for the Wii U.
2. Consumers were waiting for the PS4 and XOne info and launch to debate which of the three they should buy.
3. Consumers waiting for a larger price drop.
Regardless, it's still too early to immediately treat the Wii U as "doomed" when the other two consoles were just launched, especially since all three have their strengths and weaknesses. Nintendo just needs to do a lot better with their marketing efforts, and produce a larger line-up that'll even scare their competition. It takes time to sell new consoles to potential consumers, MS and Sony may be riding high right now with their recent launch, but it's still entirely based on hype and preorder sales. We'll have a clearer picture as time progress.
And the trolls will have a field day with this. I admittedly really like seeing sales figures and what not, but honestly as long as Nintendo is successful enough to continue to make some of the most phenomenal games in the world, I could care less about sales and the trolls. I'm sure the Wii U will be making a net profit in the end of the generation, anyway. The last few months of 2013 was great, and 2014 looks extremely promising.
Nintendo is a great handheld console maker (averaging 118M units per completed generation). But their home consoles have never traditionally been their strength. The Wii U will not be going anywhere but it will be a niche console this generation. Nintendo fell victim to what sony fell victim to last generation. They thought they could coast off their 7th generation sales into the 8th generation with little to no effort (marketing, advertising, horrible console name, etc.). Much the same way Sony messed up from PS2 to PS3 with their pricing and other mishaps. But i don't think Nintendo should ask the man who's ideas made these mistakes to come up with new ideas.
Let the down thumbing begin…
I don't exactly see much fault in the development of Wii U hardware, but I don't know if that's just me.
What Nintendo got wrong is the pacing, as well as a couple unlucky games like W101 and Lost Worlds (by no means are they bad, they're just unlucky with reception). I stll believe Nintendo can turn their train around and reverse this situation by funding a marketing campaign like "Wii would like to play", as well as releasing games on time with excellent quality. Those are the factors that will affect Wii U sales.
Nintendo has made FAR less mistakes with hardware this generation than both MS and SONY, and yet somehow THAT doesn't change anything.
A strong mistake the Wii U had was the very harsh turnaround to "hardcore" gamers, from casual gamers. The Wii was widely viewed as a more casual console in general, and yet there came suddenly the "hardcore" successor, Wii U, which, from aside the crappy ports and the not-so-scoring ZombiU, had NOTHING hardcore going for it. Nintendo should have slowly built up the turnaround and only completed the turn now, when there are many Wii U games to come soon EXPLICITLY for the hardcore.
But like I said, Nintendo and Iwata have the strength to turn this around. I won't doubt it.
The biggest mistake was lack of marketing and as the OP said, sitting back and thinking they had it in the bag.
They only started marketing around the same time that Sony did and they didn’t have the hype of saying it was new to the market, plus even though they did start marketing, their marketing was far over shadowed by Sony and MS. For their next console, you can expect the same immense marketing like the Wii had. It was everywhere. People won’t buy something if they don’t know it exists.
I agree. Marketing, I believe, has been the number one issue. They really took their launch for granted. I thought they learned from the 3DS but they made the same mistake again. But the Wii U was hurt even more by the fact the masses didn't understand it. A lot of trouble could have been avoided, IMO, if they simply called it Wii 2. I also agree that Nintendo waited a little too long to get into marketing mode. They probably should have started in September, not November.
I think Wii U still has a chance to avoid becoming Gamecube 2.0, (maybe sell as good as the SNES) but Nintendo has really got to step it up with their marketing. Having games isn't enough. You got to get the word out. 3DS had it easier because it came out at just the right time, when the DS was falling off. Wii U arrived a year too late for that benefit, so people aren't as willing to look more into it and casuals have drifted towards the competition as far as home consoles go. Nintendo has some heavy hitters but they can't let them go to waste. Nintendo really has to get this marketing thing straight and soon.
It’s true. The dreamcast had great games but few knew about it so after launch it flopped
Except WiiU isn't anywhere near DreamCast territory. And I don't see it becoming another GC. If anything it'll probably squeak to, oh, SNES numbers at worst.
Snes did good for its time
I meant that as a compliment.
People seem to forget that the Wii U had a very good launch, it was what happened after that which has been the problem.
3rd party politics also made a huge impact, especially as so many seemed to be on board at the beginning and LOVING the hardware, then deciding to do a complete 180 after the console was released.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-VqA_PupHs
how is it even possible to have such reputation score ? … what the heck have you been doing ??
i've been telling the truth to people who don't want to hear it. So, i'm unpopular here. Thats all.
that was a VERY VERY well written comment there !
i don't know what you said in the past… but yeah.. unfortunatelly, people here will downvote ANYTHING and ANYONE that says something not positive about nintendo. it doesn't matter if its true,or not. its just.. ALOT of ignorant people -.-
Now and then, i post something thats not so hyping and super nice about nintendo (they're not a model of a perfect company)…. instant downvote to oblivion
people don't take opinions lightly…they are forbidden here..
No, it's not ignorance on Nintendo supporters more than ignorance on non-Nintendo supporters, whose comments largely range from the overly repetitive and tiring vanilla comment to opinions and debating when the facts clearly do not support what they are saying to twisted interpretations or selective nitpicking of facts to support their words while deliberately ignoring other facts that easily counter them. It's one thing to say the Wii U did not have a strong or sufficient first year, that is true. But to say it's a doomed system with no chance of recovery? That's crossing a line that has been crossed way too many times, and it's getting increasingly tiresome and annoying to see over and over and over.
ok i seriously have no idea of ANY of this guy's comments. that being said, what you said is very true. but what he said :
"i've been telling the truth to people who don't want to hear it. So, i'm unpopular here. Thats all." is very in place you know ?. it doesn't matter if he's been telling the truth or not… the fact is, that most of the time you will post something bad about nintendo on, lets say this site, whether its objective criticism, a negative view or opinion on something nintendo related, that Francis doesn't AGREE on (or had written or made a video about) or just blatant empty doom BS by haters; theres a pretty nice chance you'll get nicely downvoted. People just don't wanna hear or belive bad stuff… correct me if i'm wrong, but that sure sounds like ignorance. I've been on this site from the very beginning, and lately, i've seen quite some GOOD critics…downvoted… for the sole reason, it wasn't exactly praising nintendo.
Thats why the words Nintendo fan, and nintendo fanboy exist. while fanboys are (as ninZendo likes to call them) pretty much cheerleaders for their favourite company, supporting EVERYTHING the company does 'till the end, the true nintendo fans are not blinded by all the good the company gives (or gave them in the past). the true fans want GOOD for the company, and with good, they also see whats NOT good about it. Nintendo is not a perfect company you know? … no company is. theres always room for improvement, and flaws to be dealt with. thats the camp i'm in (along with many good people on PE).
All being said, i get sad, when i see "seemingly" more and more people behaving like the former "version" of a nintendo fan.
Telling the truth? Yeah, right. You're just being pessimistic like Emily Rogers.
Am i Being too pessimistic or are you simply blindly optimistic? Tell me what i've said that has been incorrect, please.
Dude you know exactly why you're score is the way it is. Mainly because you kept calling me out on Walmart report thing, and the NPD sales for November, and other articles.
Not only that you're a controversy rod, you only comment when you have a problem with something. Never on normal articles for the most part.
its usually anything to do with sales. People don't like sales trolls.
If you were a regular commentor, on normal articles, your score would not be the way it is. But its because you only show up when sales are involved.
"Mainly because you kept calling me out on Walmart report thing" Because you claim to be running a GENERAL gaming website, not a pro-nintendo website, right? But up until that walmart article you would only talked about the Nintendo products at walmart.
See your letting your opinion bleed into your reporting, making it suspect. Case in point, as a Sony fan, i can say the Vita sales have SUCKED. Sony did a terrible job, it was overpriced and under supported. Earlier in this very thread i admitted that the PS3 was WAY TOO OVERPRICED. And i'll say it now, if Playstation Now is too OVERPRICED it will be a failure too. BUT…BUT…BUT can you admit publicly that Nintendo SUCKED with their Wii U from launch (where the wii u sold good from new console hype & Christmas '12 ALONE) through September of 2013?????? Can you admit that Nintendo royally fucked up the wii u's 1st year?????????
Francis has admitted that the Wii U's 1st year sucked multiple times, and I recall him stating that Nintendo was being stupid by relying on 3rd party devs. Now STFU and GTFO.
He has admitted that Nintendo messed up the Wii U's 1st year multiple times by saying that Nintendo was foolish to trust 3rd party devs. Now STFU & GTFO.
I can say Sony is fucking up their handhelds, but they have historically been BEASTS when it comes to their home consoles. I can also say that Nintendo historically have been BEASTS with their handhelds, but historically average (at best) with their home consoles. Nintendo is now primarily a handheld gaming company that supplements with home consoles. And the Wii sales were the unquestionable exception, not the rule.
Okay Michael Pachter.
"People don't like sales trolls" HA!!! But how many people get crazy thumbs down when negatively talking about Vita sales in the comments? Little if any, to my recollection. Why, oh why is is there such a discrepancy as to the mood of the comment section when talking about weak Vita sales versus weak Wii U sales?
Because we don't like people like you who are pessimistic about the Wii U's future, saying that it's "doomed forever" and all that other BS. Do you listen to Michael Pachter?! The dude pulls shit out of his ass!!!! He predicted that the DS would fall to the PSP, that the Wii would never be a big hit, and that 3DS would fall to smartphones. He's been proven wrong all 3 times.
Also, the reason why we aren't downvoting people who talk badly about Vita is because Sony does not care for it at all! They barely have put out any 1st party IPs for it, and they are relying on 3rd party devs and indies to fill the gaps. 1st party games sell hardware. Wii U and Vita are both no exception to that rule. Sony has been putting out new models for the Vita, the memory cards are overpriced, the system was overpriced, but since Sony cut the price tag on the Vita, they are just losing even more money on the damn thing. Also they are treating it as a hardware accessory instead of an ACTUAL HANDHELD. And besides you can't do hardware addons anymore after Sega failed with that in the 90s.
ORIGINAL QUESTION:
"how is it even possible to have such reputation score ? … what the heck have you been doing ??"-Johny-san
My ORIGINAL ANSWER:
"i've been telling the truth to people who don't want to hear it. So, i'm unpopular here. Thats all."
PROOF BELOW
"why is is there such a discrepancy as to the mood of the comment section when talking about weak Vita sales versus weak Wii U sales?"-ME-Negative thumbs
"Because we don't like people like you who are pessimistic about the Wii U's future"-Alex9234-positive thumbs
I rest my case…
I was expecting a pwnage video from Francis silencing all those ignorant commenters on ign and other news sites.
There is no need. Nintendo sold the most systems in 2013 with the 3DS and still didn't hit their forecast by a large margin.
Obviously this has Sony and MS worried.
MS and to a lesser extent Sony are not worried about Nintendo any more than Nintendo is worried about them.
MS isn't even in the handheld market so what are they worried about the 3DS for?
Sony, I don't think their worried because their lack of Vita sales are because they're so focused on the home console market which they historically do better than Nintendo in.
Look at how many 3DS devices sold, and Nintendo still didn't hit their forecast. If Nintendo isn't making enough of a profit selling that many 3DS. How are MS and Sony going to make a lot of profit selling far less Xbox One and PS4's?
That's why you see all these paid subscriptions and stuff.
Why is Sony worried about their PS4 sales? Back on Sept 19th, 2013 they projected that they would sell 5Million PS4's by March 31st, 2014. As of Dec 28th, 2013 they sold 4.2 Million units. So unless they're worried that they won't sell 800k in Jan, Feb, and March combined (67k units per week for 12 weeks globally, and thats without the Japan launch), sony's not worried.
PS4 is doing better, but hardware sales are just one part of the equation. It needs to have a strong attachment rate to dig the game division out of its hole and without the middle tier of third parties we had back in 6th gen and early 7th gen days, that is going to be tough. Third party games do comprise the bulk software sales on Playstation and Xbox consoles. They have little strong first party sellers that are stable franchises. PS Vita will also continue to hold them back and the Vita TV just bombed. We also mustn't forget that Sony as a whole is not doing well right now at all.
I agree that Nintendo's trouble probably doesn't have Sony worrying right now, nor are they worried about current PS4 sales, but it's not like the trail ahead of them is golden and lined with flowers. To put it simply, Sony ain't sweating, but they have their own challenges. I believe Francis was speaking more along the lines of profits than unit sales projections.
Yes, yes they are worried about Nintendo, especially Sony who is in serious financial trouble and at high risk of going out of business this generation: http://www.notenoughshaders.com/2012/09/08/the-te… ,http://www.destructoid.com/blogs/The+Bowels+of+Trogdor/sony-is-flirting-with-death-and-death-is-showing-interest-261402.phtml
We're Not Worried, We're Not Worried. Lol. But seriously they'll pull things around, they always do and in the least expected ways, and in a way its had some benefits, because us WiiU users have benefitted from Nintendo really trying to push the WiiU with special eshop software, virtual console, an indy library that is starting to rival even the 3DS and new exclusive big hitters this year. To be honest I don't even think Nintendo is that worried, they just know they need to push harder to show people the potential of the WiiU. THE GREATEST CONSOLE ON EARTH!!!
"Software drives hardware"… That's been Wii U's problem in a nutshell really.
and the nintendo shares just fell almost 15%
hey why the downvotes? It's just the reality http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=NTDOY
15.28 Down 2.68(14.92%) 10:47AM EST
doesn't matter. poeple here don't take negative stuff lightly. usually they just downvote them to oblivion.
Yeah….people do get a bit overzealous with the downvote button
exactly. and i wonder why my comment you replied to is downvoted (-1)… such irony… why is your reply upvoted tho (+4) ? because downvoting a comment being about people downvoting would just be too ironic ?
i just…what is with some people on this community….
Yeah…that's weird. I'm guessing that the people who downvote aren't the same people who comment.
They need to show themselves….give some reasoning behind their "logic." I rarely vote up or down…instead I just explain why I agree or disagree.
thats a good practice yeah.
Tho…sometimes you know that you just CAN'T reason with someone, and you know that explaining your point of view compared to theirs is pointless… in those cases i just downvote. you know the kinds of people im talking about….
I upvoted you.
Well, Nintendo is working with third parties a lot right now, they just aren’t getting the third party multiplats, they are getting third party exclusives. Advertising has been abysmal. As far as home consoles vs hand helds… there is more money in hand helds for Nintendo so it makes sense that they would put more resources into it.
Region locks have their pros and cons. Look at the PS4 in south America.
It should be the marketing department that needs a kick in the ass, plus customer relations. As far as Iwata, it’s up to Nintendo and the people that have been trained in business, not the general public that have very little knowledge or the internal workings of a company to make decisions like that. I certainly don’t know enough one way or the other to say if he should still have his position or not, not because I don’t understand business, but because we as general consumers don’t have enough internal knowledge of the company. There is far more to a company And business than just profit.
That was supposed to be a reply to _V_
Can't wait for the inevitable Review Tech USA take on this which will basically consist of "Nintendo need to dump the Wii U + GamePad, make a more powerful console thats based on x86 and be more like Sony and MS…"
Don't forget the obligatory "Fire Iwata" crap. Hes been sputing that bullshit aswell.
Dear god, why would they fire the man who made the DS, the Wii and the 3DS a succes, that would only cause problems….
Ask Mr. Skipadebop Flip Flop, lol
It's kind of ironic how Rich decides to upload this verbiage alongside gameplay footage of him playing a "generic FPS game of the week"..
typical Western ethnocentric ignorance; Japanese companies are actually structured so that the President has the highest authority and doesn't really answer to either the Board of Directors and especially not to shareholders. Heck, the latter example is essentially powerless
26 million wii software units ? seriously.. thats pretty bold
If anything I think this spells trouble for gaming as a whole. If they didn't reach their 3DS goals despite Pokemon then maybe the gaming industry is shakier than people like to expect. People bring up the PS4 or the XB1 sales, but even then I'm not sure of their success either.
True. This is still holiday performance. We need to see how PS4 and XB1 perform over the year to truly gauge the market.
To be fair, Nintendo probably based them estimates off the Wii and DS; and we know how ridiculously strong their launches were.
Brainwashed and depressed. Take a chill pill and relax outside instead of flooding forums with hate and negativity.
"Calling for Iwata to step down miss sight of what makes Nintendo great. You'd never get the Wii type successes if you don't allow a guy like Iwata to fail hard as well. " David Jaffe
No one wants to hear it because you are acting like just another mouthpiece repeating something you heard online. If you were to put forth original argumentation which contained even a modicum of industry understanding then people would be much more likely to hear what you have to say. If you just keep saying "fire Iwata," "fire Iwata," then no one is going to take you seriously.
The fact of the matter is, we as end-users have almost no insight into what decisions Iwata is making behind the scenes. We have even less insight than the investors, who are likely just a bunch of random jerkwads who don't know a thing about video games and treat this industry like it's farm equipment or rice cookers that Nintendo's trying to sell here.
Furthermore, as an end-user your experience shouldn't be dominated by Nintendo's instantaneous fiscal trajectory. Feel free to speculate on your company of choice's future and such, but the moment you stop speculating and start saying what should happen or what needs to be done is the moment people stop treating you amiably.
I assure you, if you leave the business to people whose livelihoods actually depend on it, then you will not only be a happier person, but a person who's opinions are met with greater respect online.
And Kaz gets a free pass with Vita doing alot worse than Wii U? 95k sold in DECEMBER. Thats beyond abysmal.
Well said. You articulated very well what I tried to say earlier.
That was for homard. Seem to be having issues directing my replys on my phone again.
Yeah, why all this calling for Iwata's resignation? If anything, such comments should be directed to Kaz since Vita is basically beyond dead. Now WiiU HAS had a rough first year, yes. But it's still nowhere near dead.
And it has been around for almost 2 full years.