Franchise favorites expected to lead Nintendo to best holiday season in years

[Shawn Knight]

Nintendo’s Wii U console arrived a full year ahead of next-gen systems from Microsoft and Sony. Launch week sales were promising but by mid-2013, sales had collapsed and remained stagnant through the first half of this year.

By all accounts, Nintendo’s Wii U was a flop.

Down but not out, the storied Japanese gaming company turned to its stable of beloved characters including Mario and Link for a second wind. The culmination of Nintendo’s Wii U comeback hit stores on Friday in the form of Super Smash Bros., the first new console game in the franchise in six years.

And just like that, Nintendo is back in the race.

Nintendo executive vice president of sales and marketing, Scott Moffitt, told Fortune that he expects this holiday season to be the company’s biggest in years. The executive added that Nintendo’s Wii U hardware business is up 47 percent compared to last year; software is up 84 percent.

Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter expects Nintendo to sell four million copies of Super Smash Bros. worldwide.

Nintendo won the previous generation console race but they’re trailing thus far in the new console battle. The company has only sold 7.29 million systems to date worldwide which puts it just behind the Xbox One at 10 million consoles shipped and far behind the PlayStation 4 at 13.5 million units moved.

It’s clear that Nintendo will need to continue to lean on its in-house franchises to remain relevant among next-gen consoles. Fortunately, there's no shortage of fan favorites.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/58921-franchise-favorites-expected-lead-nintendo-best-holiday-season.html

 

[treeski]

Poor Nintendo... so reliant on the old.

 

[amstech]

I have been on the edge of buying a Wii U and I can name 10 of my friends that feel the same way.
We DONT WANT A HANDHELD. NOT ONE GOD DAMN BIT. PERIOD.
End of discussion. Moving on.

MAKE A NEW, POWERFUL CONSOLE WITH SWEET GAMEPADS (like the N64) and/or MOTION CONTROLS LIKE THE FIRST Wii.
Bring us a new Metroid, StarFox and Zelda and watch the XB1 and PS4 fall far behind!Everyone has tablets and smartphones now capable of 3D gaming.
We want a new console with Nintendo exclusives & quality.
Their wasting time with anything else and need to release the tablet hype is just that, hype.

Moderator note: Ease up on the shouting.

 

[TomSEA]

I bought a Wii U earlier in the year and have mixed feelings about it. Haven't owned a console since the Nintendo 64 which was really a great console. Been a 100% PC gamer since.

I'm not a big fan of the handheld device. I hate looking back and forth between my TV and the handheld. Whenever possible, I use a controller only - an option available in many if not most games. The games are clearly geared toward multi-player - family type experiences. I'm a single person and a lot of the games functionality is lost on me.

After playing heavy eye-candy games using my 2560 x 1440 IPS monitor powered by a couple of GeForce cards in SLI, the Wii U graphics are frankly laughable. I wasn't expecting much when I got the console, but thought they would be better than what they are. To me they are barely a step above the Nintendo 64 in many games.

That being said, they do have some entertaining games (especially those created by Nintendo), and it's nice to sit on my comfortable sofa and play through my TV. I prefer this system over the XBone and PS4 because the majority of the games released for those are also out for the PC and I get a much better gaming experience via PC. Many of the games released for the Wii U are unique to that system and not available for PC.

So if you have someone to play along - especially a family with kids in the 6 year old to early teen range - don't need cutting edge graphics and looking for something different than what's available via PC/XB/PS4, the Wii U will definitely fill your needs.

 

[Guest]

Wii U is not a handheld. It's a console.

And, the 3DS (the current-gen Ninty handheld) is quite possibly the best gaming system, console or handheld on the market right now.

 

[thelatestmodel]

I have been on the edge of buying a Wii U and I can name 10 of my friends that feel the same way.
We DONT WANT A HANDHELD. NOT ONE GOD DAMN BIT. PERIOD.
End of discussion. Moving on.

MAKE A NEW, POWERFUL CONSOLE WITH SWEET GAMEPADS (like the N64) and/or MOTION CONTROLS LIKE THE FIRST Wii.
Bring us a new Metroid, StarFox and Zelda and watch the XB1 and PS4 fall far behind!Everyone has tablets and smartphones now capable of 3D gaming.
We want a new console with Nintendo exclusives & quality.
Their wasting time with anything else and need to release the tablet hype is just that, hype.

Moderator note: Ease up on the shouting.

Sorry bud, time for some tough love.

Your views represent a very small percentage of the audience, and you're not going to get what you're asking for. Your statement about "new Metroid, Starfox and Zelda" causing the others to "fall behind" is sheer lunacy. Motion controls are a dead gimmick.

Nintendo is in a tough spot but is doing a good job of pulling themselves up by the bootstraps. Wii U is actually worth owning now and 3DS is firing on all cylinders. They've got literally billions of dollars in cash reserves. They'll be fine.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

And to think I haven't played a Nintendo title since Donkey Kong, in fact I still have the double screen LCD handheld in perfect working condition, just need to insert a two new hearing aid type batteries and I'm off to the races.

 

[amstech]

Sorry bud, time for some tough love.
Your views represent a very small percentage of the audience, and you're not going to get what you're asking for. Your statement about "new Metroid, Starfox and Zelda" causing the others to "fall behind" is sheer lunacy. Motion controls are a dead gimmick.

My views? Lol.
If my view represents a small percentage then how come nobody bought the darn thing for over a year or so and sales were terrible? Why was the Wii U known as a flop?
How many consoles sold after the initial first wave again?

Not many.

Only since Mario Kart 8 and some other popular titles have they been selling good.

http://gamerant.com/mario-kart-2-million-sales-wii-u/

News of Nintendo’s tremendous sales numbers comes courtesy of an annual shareholder’s event (via Nstyles) where the company also revealed that Wii U sales are “picking up.” So, with Mario Kart 8 doing big business and the Wii U seemingly bouncing back, this could be a sign of good things ahead for Nintendo.

People are clamoring for new versions of some popular franchises. Your comment about motion control is completely silly, it was great for the Wii and playing games like Twilight Princess was actually better with the stick for most.

-

 

[Guest]

N64 gamepad was horrible lol.

 

[risc32]

I have been on the edge of buying a Wii U and I can name 10 of my friends that feel the same way.
We DONT WANT A HANDHELD. NOT ONE GOD DAMN BIT. PERIOD.
End of discussion. Moving on.

MAKE A NEW, POWERFUL CONSOLE WITH SWEET GAMEPADS (like the N64) and/or MOTION CONTROLS LIKE THE FIRST Wii.
Bring us a new Metroid, StarFox and Zelda and watch the XB1 and PS4 fall far behind!Everyone has tablets and smartphones now capable of 3D gaming.
We want a new console with Nintendo exclusives & quality.
Their wasting time with anything else and need to release the tablet hype is just that, hype.

Moderator note: Ease up on the shouting.

I doubt they would be able to put any sort of hurting on the other systems now, but otherwise I agree.

I remember when the wii came out. I was in a video game store and they had a playable demo running and nobody cared. they were fighting to play the ps3. I figured they were dead in the water, and figured they would just go the software route like sega. well, they pulled it out. I later got a wii and like things from nintendo, it's a well thought out piece of work. Actually, I just bought a ps4 for my kids as their wii is being abandoned. Honestly, I wish they would have just updated the wii hardware and tweaked the software and called it a day. the wii is very fun and those crazy controllers really work pretty well. a sword fight in skyward sword really feels like a sword fight. it's great. it's just let down by graphics that look worse than what I remember the n64 to look like. I'm sure it's better, my memory is probably wrong on that front, but I doubt it's much better.

 

[SNGX1275]

I bought one earlier this year, exclusively for Mario Kart 8 and New Super Mario Bros U.

 

[Kibaruk]

I bought one earlier this year, exclusively for Mario Kart 8 and New Super Mario Bros U.

This ^

After buying the Wii I played Mario Wii for so long, my girlfriend is still playing it, they should improve on those titles, haven't found so far any game comparable to the clasic Mario, some have tried doing a similar kind of game but no one has ever been able to nail it like Nintendo has.

Mario Kart is tons of fun with friends, Smash bros, the Rayman Rabbid Rabbits are awesome too, Mario Party can ruin more friendships than Monopoly ever thought possible

Just with those games and the dirt cheap pricetag the Wii has now is enough.