Wii U sales drop sharply in US
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Fri 15th Feb 2013 09:34 UTC
Games "We're told by someone with access to the NPD's data that sales for January were 'well under' 100,000 units. By our estimates, sales were somewhere between 45,000 and 59,000 units for the month, which is lower than any of the three previous-generation home consoles sold in their worst months, with the possible exception of a recent performance by the original Wii." This doesn't surprise me. I've always wondered: who's the Wii U for? Casual Wii buyers - which comprise most of the Wii owners, I'd guess - have little reason to upgrade, and hardcore Nintendo fans are waiting for the next re-releases of Mario and Zelda from the Nintendo Game-o-tron. Until then, who's going to buy this thing?
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0brad0
Member since:
2007-05-05

A $300 console + $60 video games is simply asking too much for many Americans these days when gas prices are up, taxes are up, health care cost are up, and job opportunities are low.

Also video games are overpriced. The retail price of video games should be $40 not $60, and handheld games should be $25 not $40.


I don't see how Sony and Microsoft are going to try and sell $600+ PS4/Xbox 720's with $80+ games in this market.

Reply Parent Score: 2

skpg Member since:
2012-09-21

I don't see how Sony and Microsoft are going to try and sell $600+ PS4/Xbox 720's with $80+ games in this market.



Even in a healthy economy, $80 video games is ridiculous. It was only a decade ago that the retail price for video games was $50. If Sony sells their games at 80 bucks, the piracy rate would soar through the roof.

The PS4 will probably cost around $350 if there is no PS3 backwards compatibility, games will still retail at $60. No one buys $60 games anyway, one of the reasons why video games sales are down is because msrp price is too high.

The US and the rest of the world can learn from China and their lack of copyright enforcement. Even though video game consoles are banned in China, you can get modded Xbox 360's and Wii's in gray markets. You know how much the games cost? $1, yes $1 Xbox 360 games.

http://www.techinasia.com/thoughts-xbox-360s-potential-china/

Despite the massive piracy in China, all three major console manufacturers (Nintendo, MS, Sony) want to sell their systems to China, but the government won't allow it. In China piracy is morally ethical but video games consoles are banned, don't you find that ironic? I've come to the conclusion that many of these video games companies don't really care about piracy that much. It's only because of the government (copyright law) that they sell their software at inflated prices.

I'm not saying copyright should be abolished, but piracy should be legal to an extent or the copyright laws need to be dramatically scaled back. That is the only way you will see a dramatic decrease in the price of video games. With the technology we have today games should be cheaper not going up in price. The problem is many of these newer technology (like blu-ray) are protected by copyright and patents, and in order to use these newer technology you have to pay a licensing fee.

Edited 2013-02-18 08:19 UTC

Reply Parent Score: 0