Hey, good news! Wii U sales are up many countries. Bad news, they’re down in Japan.
In the financial year starting in April 2013 and ending in March 2014, Nintendo sold 1.29 million Wii Us in the Americas. As Nintendo revealed today, that number increased to 1.85 million during the financial year ending March 2015. During those same periods, in the regions Nintendo dubs “other” (read: Europe and Australasia), Wii U sales went from 550,000 to one million.
Things in Japan, however, are different. During the financial year starting in April 2013 and ending in March 2014, there were 890,000 Wii U consoles sold in Japan. In the following financial year, which ended in March 2015, Wii U sales in Japan dropped to 530,000.
The drop isn’t only in hardware. There was a slight one in game sales. So, while the Americas saw Wii U sales go from 970,000 units to 1.46 million units year-on-year and while the other regions saw sales go from 527,000 units to 646,000 units, Wii U software sales in Japan dropped from 389,000 units to 333,000. But, actually, this should also be reassuring, because there was not a huge decline in game sales.
What makes this drop in hardware sales so interesting is that the number of new titles in Japan has stayed constant: in the 2013 financial year, there were 30 new games released in Japan and in the 2014 financial year, there were also 30 new games released. In the Americas and elsewhere, the number of new Wii U titles dropped significantly (in the Americas, they went from fifty games to 25, and elsewhere, they dropped from 47 to 26 titles).
You’d think that with Nintendo being the home team, the domestic market with be an easy win. You’d think. But then, you’d be forgetting the shift from home consoles to smartphones. It’s a massive market in Japan — so big that Nintendo is teaming up with mobile game company DeNA. These numbers might show why.
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7 responses to “An Unexpected Place Where The Wii U Struggles: Japan”
It struggles everywhere.
Criminally under appreciated console. Have no fear, recently released XCX and staples like Zelda will save the day (as always in the case of Nintendo’s 1st party titles)!
I prefer it over my ps4 that’s for sure
As a console it has a very finite appeal. There will always be a core group of fans that will love every Nintendo console but it’s hard to reach the wider audience (the Wii was an anomaly). The Wii U does nothing for me and most people that don’t already own one. We’ll stick with Sony/Microsoft/PC platforms that offer a much more diverse gaming experience.
FUN FACT: The WiiU is now three months older than the Dreamcast was when it was discontinued and they’ve sold a million less.
That’s an unbelievably epic failure when you consider that Sega launched the Dreamcast off the back of the Saturn and Nintendo off the back of the Wii.
No Nintendo console is ever going to be a complete waste because they’ll always release a handful of good/great games, but my god Nintendo have shit the bed this generation.
I had cash saved to buy one on launch day and I still haven’t. The launch was a debacle and since then they’ve release absolutely nothing that I consider to be a must own (and plenty of people agree with my according to those sales figures).
Given Nintendo’s idiocy when it comes to dropping the prices of their games I think there’s a chance this will be the first Nintendo console since the NES that I haven’t owned. Zelda will have to be something special to get me to spend $300+ on an open world game running on 3 year old hardware that was past it’s best before date before the system even hit shelves.
We play the Wii U a fair bit in our house, but that is only because I have young kids and they love Nintendo games. Nintendo Land, Mario 3D World and Mario Kart get a fair amount of use. To an adolescent or adult gamer, you get a far better catalog of games from an Xbox or Playstation.
Yoshis Wolly World will bring them all back!!