Nintendo Wii U more successful than the original Wii

by Mark Tyson on 11 January 2013, 12:24

Tags: Nintendo (TYO:7974), PC

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qabrkb

Add to My Vault: x

Figures collated by the NPD Group show that the newly launched Nintendo Wii U games console has beaten the original Wii in a key business performance metric. When looking at the revenue generation of the two consoles, at the same stage in their life cycle, the Wii U comes out on top.

According to NPD Group, in the 41 days since its launch, the Nintendo Wii U has sold 890,000 units in the USA. Nintendo compared the amount of US revenue generated by the new Wii U and the original Wii in the same time frame; the Wii U has brought in about $300 million, the original Wii brought in just over $270 million in the first 41 days after its launch.

As a report on AllThingsD rightly points out; “the only reason it was able to exceed prior sales is because it upped the price — not because it sold more units”. The original Wii console launch price in the US was $250, the new Wii U was sold in two bundles priced from $299 to $349. Making an extra $30 million during the same comparative time frame isn’t so spectacular in that respect. On the other hand, when the original Wii was launched it didn’t face the same strength and depth of competition in gaming on smartphones, tablets and online.

In a press release, heralding the Wii U’s success in America during its first six weeks, Scott Moffitt, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of Sales & Marketing said “While the Wii launch established new benchmarks in the United States, Wii U has surpassed its predecessor in perhaps the most important category: revenue generation.” He continued, triumphantly “The demand for the Deluxe SKU, which was essentially sold out at retail this holiday, and the strong attach rate of New Super Mario Bros. U, shows that we have the value and the games to drive momentum in 2013. We look forward to offering great new experiences and bringing smiles to millions of new faces throughout the year.”

The good news heralded by Nintendo has resulted in a share price boost of 5.6 per cent. Nintendo revealed other positive figures, from December 2012, that will have also helped this rise;

  • 65 per cent of Wii U buyers bought the New Super Mario Bros U game.
  • The Nintendo 3DS sold over 1.25 million units in December and is outpacing the sales rate of its predecessor, the very successful Nintendo DS (which sold 470,000 units in December).
  • The original Wii was still selling well and sold 475,000 units in December and Just Dance 3 for the Wii surpassed 5 million sales.

Can Nintendo keep up the momentum or is this simply a “dead cat bounce” helped along by Christmas?



HEXUS Forums :: 8 Comments

Login with Forum Account

Don't have an account? Register today!
If you acccount for price rises and inflation of around 4% in the UK then the Wii was still more successfull.
Stats are wonderful things ;)

This does have a positive spin on it - more revenue is only ever a good thing - but as Chadders87 says..the Wii was still much more profitable than the Wii U and it sold much much much better.

With console hardware sales it's quantity that matters these days, not revenue. This is because Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo are all losing money on the hardware sales with new consoles (it takes a year or 2 to get production cheap enough to make money on the hardware alone), so where they make their money is on games (1st party or royalties from 3rd party). So what really matters is the number of units sold - not how much they make from each.

As it happens though Nintendo have a good history of not losing much per console (or indeed actually taking a profit from the hardware) - and in this case they only need to sell 1 game (probably mario bros U) to turn a profit on the sale..which is amazing especially when you compare it to the loss MS and Sony made per Xbox/PS3 when they launched.

Jury is still out on whether the Wii U will be a big hit or not though - it's not something I hear people talking about (unlike the wii) and very few of the video game nuts out there that I know have bought one - most citing the cost as being the biggest reason…time will tell though!
Tried it at my brothers house. I recon a week after buying it it will gather dust in a corner.
jnutt
Tried it at my brothers house. I recon a week after buying it it will gather dust in a corner.
Should be a good second hand buy then :)
Good to hear for Nintendo. Still, isn't the Wii U using hardware as old as that of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3? Shouldn't be too expensive, right?