Yesterday’s Nintendo financial report revealed that Super Smash Bros. for the Wii U sold 3.43 million fewer copies than the same game on the 3DS. It’s a surprising discrepancy considering that Smash 4 is the franchise’s first handheld incarnation and the game has traditionally been played on a home console.
The 3DS’s 50 per cent sales buff is hard to parse. Since the game’s 3DS release, fans have complained that Smash wrecks their circle pad, works poorly with the handheld’s ABXY button layout, can’t utilise the Circle Pad Pro, is laggy (especially for more combo-heavy characters) and, players say, is still shitty to play online against friends or strangers. The Wii U also features several game modes and stages that 3DS players can’t access.
And, frankly, Smash is meant to be played locally with friends. I’m sorry. It’s true.
There are a few potential explanations, though. Nintendo initially released Smash 4 on the 3DS. People excited about the game may have rushed to purchase it immediately and neglected the Wii U version when it came out two months later, despite its superior graphics. Why buy two versions of the same game?
Also, the 3DS hardware simply did better. Compared to the Wii U’s unimpressive 13.56 million units sold, the 3DS (which had several models) sold 65.3 million. Curiously, on the Wii, which sold 101.6 million units, Nintendo pushed 13.2 million copies of Smash Bros. Brawl — the equivalent of Smash 4 on the 3DS and Wii U combined.
Maybe the explanation is a little more whimsical. When I posed the question to Kotaku staff, weird snack correspondent Michael Fahey told me, “I preferred it on the 3DS, where my failure was small and hard to notice.”
Comments
7 responses to “Smash Bros. Sells Better On 3DS Than Wii U”
Not all suprising considering WiiU console sales VS 3DS
Which you can do with both versions…
Hard to understand how a game sold more on a platform that was in more hands than a console that was incorrectly considered an unnecessary addition to the Wii by millions of every-day people?
Boy do I wonder…
This would have been interest to ponder if the console with the smaller install base had more sales. It did not so lets move on.
This would imply that the Wii U wasn’t an overpriced piece of garbage with a lacklustre library :P.
Im going to predict that Mario Maker 3DS also outsells its WiiU counterpart when all is said and done
Seriously doubt it. The 3DS version of mario maker is a pile of crap. Missing so many features the WiiU version has.