After the announcement of Nintendo’s latest financial results, Satoru Iwata held a briefing in which he discussed the future of the Wii U and Nintendo’s plans to push more units off the shelves. The data in the briefing showed that there was an initial burst of purchases for the system after release, but sales slowed afterward quite rapidly—and Nintendo now projects just one million sales worldwide between January and March of this year.
However, this has raised questions about a possible price cut for the system. The 3DS saw a large price cut only a few months after release, but it seems Nintendo is further hesitant to do so with the new system. Iwata suggested that the Wii U needs enhancements in terms of its perceived value from customers, which is coming in the form of games and system updates. Instead of cutting the price, they simply want to convince more people to buy the system.
“While it was pointed out that, unlike in the case of Wii, it was difficult to instantly understand the appeal of Wii U, those who purchased it, although there are issues to be addressed, have shown a certain degree of satisfaction with our product value, but since its value by nature is something that takes time to appreciate and hence cannot be spread amongst society instantly, we have yet to communicate its value to the wider public. To put it another way, we delivered Wii U to those consumers who we thought would be the first to buy it, but information has not successfully been passed on to those consumers who we think will be the next people to buy it. This must be one big factor with which Wii U could not maintain its momentum.
People always try to compare the sales of Wii U with that of Wii, but the current situation is requiring us to focus upon how to reenergize Wii U sales irrespective of any comparisons with the previous platforms.
With Wii U, we have taken a rather resolute stance in pricing it below its manufacturing cost, so we are not planning to perform a markdown. I would like to make this point absolutely clear. We are putting our lessons from Nintendo 3DS to good use, as I have already publicly stated. However, given that it has now become clear that we have not yet fully communicated the value of our product, we will try to do so before the software lineup is enhanced and at the same time work to enrich the software lineup which could make consumers understand the appeal of Wii U.”
It has been pointed out in various places online that the upcoming lineup of Wii U games right now is much stronger than the games lineup for the 3DS at the time of its price cut, and we’re also still waiting to see what third-party releases (or possible exclusives) will be hitting the Wii U for the second half of this year. Nintendo and its fans are hopeful that the powerhouse lineup of games coming in the new few months will boost those sluggish sales and put some momentum back in the system.
