News - Nintendo Wii U more successful than the original Wii

[HEXUS]

This is in terms of revenue generated rather than the number of consoles sold.

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[Chadders87]

If you acccount for price rises and inflation of around 4% in the UK then the Wii was still more successfull.

[Spud1]

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!

[jnutt]

Tried it at my brothers house. I recon a week after buying it it will gather dust in a corner.

[jimbouk]

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

[Zeven]

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?

[sexyhyde]

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?

It's using much newer hardware than the 360/PS3, but the CPU is a little underpowered compared them it does have more ram and a much better graphics chip though. I had a play with one recently and have to say it's great. Worked really well with the games I played, everyone that used it seemed to think it was great. I'll be picking one up this year, waiting on Rayman Legends being released first.
One thing Nintendo benefit from is their first party titles don't drop in price. Mario Bros Wii and Mario Kart Wii could only be had for around £5 less than their RRP, years after release.

[rabbid]

..One thing Nintendo benefit from is their first party titles don't drop in price. Mario Bros Wii and Mario Kart Wii could only be had for around £5 less than their RRP, years after release.

Good for them maybe but not so good for us consumers! Its nice to pick up the blockbuster games a year on and save

[sexyhyde]

I think the same, but these games that don't drop in price are always good quality and due to their retail price rarely seeing a reduction as long as you keep it in a decent condition you can get VERY good second hand prices if you sell it on.